Full-time labor is provided by underlings directly dependent on the head of the firm. It is here, among the rank and file, where the possibility of career advancement, up to and including ownership of the firm, begins (see Chapter 5). Recruitment depends on spying skills, on knowing how to mind one's own business, and on the ability to become an executioner on demand. In 1973 Leonardo Vitale made a wide-ranging confession to the police following a "mystical crisis." The act which had won Vitale admission to the mafia was the murder of a man guilty of acquiring leaseholds on land in the area controlled by Vitale's uncle without asking permission (OSPA Stajano: chap. 1).

XREF: Connects to broader organized crime structure literature and to the Vitale confession referenced across chapters.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 177