Every now and then [my boss] used to send me to see someone in need of some kind of settlement [sistemazione], mostly matters of little importance. They concerned conflicts between shop keepers or farmers, people who wanted to take revenge for a theft or a wrong they had suffered. Things of this kind. The price was open, and the profit all came to me. I was good at getting a high price. Without having to say it in so many words, I let [my customers] know that the matter had been a difficult one and that somebody had pulled a gun on me. ([Russo] 1988: 105)

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 180