Mafiosi who rob protected property are killed regardless of rank

Evidence

Stealing may be punished even when the culprit is himself a man of honor. Damiano Caruso took part in the so-called “slaughter of Viale Lazio” in 1969, says Calderone, and this action “had gone to his head and he did not want to obey anyone any longer.” He was subsequently banished to the United States, where he became the cause of complaints from Charles Gambino himself, then the “boss of bosses.” When he returned to Palermo, according to Calderone, he robbed a store belonging to a man of honor, as well as a jewelry shop owned by a protégé of Toto Riina. Caruso was punished for his audacity, murdered in Milan together with his mistress and her fourteen-year-old daughter. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 444

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Shows the protection contract binds even insiders — the enforcement regime is not identity-based but contract-based, reinforcing Gambetta’s economic model over any honor-tribe reading.

Related

• The mafia punishes theft by its own members to enforce internal property rights (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules #exemplifies (0.82) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 61
• Murdering a trespasser on mafia turf is the qualifying act for rank-and-file membership #complicates (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 177