Sicily’s ruling commissione may have originated from American mafia institutional advice

Evidence

Two anecdotal accounts exist of the origins of the commissione. A 1963 police report claims that it was prompted by the formation of the antimafia parliamentary commission early in that decade. The testimony of mafiosi denies such causation, countering that the commissione predates the parliamentary commission (TB: II, 27). The mafiosi maintain that the idea of a commissione came from their smarter American cousins, who had long made successful use of such a scheme. Charles (“Lucky”) Luciano and Joe Bonanno are both said to have been responsible for making the suggestion during a visit to Sicily in 1957, and in particular at a meeting at the Hotel delle Palme in Palermo (CPM: 4-xiv, 1087ff.). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 909

Categorization

• XREF: Institutional borrowing across the Atlantic parallels how the American cousins exported organizational schemes; echoes the note that ideas travel when formal political channels fail.
• QUESTION: Gambetta flags the mafiosi’s claim as self-serving — does the Sicilian commissione’s structure mirror the American Commission specifically, or generic committee logic?