Letizia Battaglia S Stark Grisly Sicilian Mafia Photos

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1 of 22A Sicilian woman, beaten by her husband, cries out in despair, 1983.Letizia Battaglia 2 of 22Kids at a Day of the Dead festival. Palermo, 1986.Letizia Battaglia 3 of 22A child plays in Palermo, 1982.Letizia Battaglia 4 of 22A prostitute and two of her friends killed by the Mafia, 1983.Letizia Battaglia 5 of 22Michele Reina, Secretary of the Sicilian Christian Democratic Party, killed by the Mafia, 1979.Letizia Battaglia 6 of 22Dead man lying on a garage ramp, 1977.Letizia Battaglia 7 of 22A member of the Mafia with a Christ tattoo, murdered by his colleagues, 1984.Letizia Battaglia 8 of 22Mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella arrested in Palermo, Italy, 1980.Letizia Battaglia 9 of 22Watching the funeral procession of the Deputy of the Italian Parliament, Pie La Torre, killed by the Mafia, 1982.Letizia Battaglia 10 of 22A mother with the portrait of her missing son, 1984.Letizia Battaglia 11 of 22Brother and Sister of an aristocratic family, 1983.Letizia Battaglia 12 of 22Joyless dance, New Year’s Day, 1984.Letizia Battaglia 13 of 22Palermo aristocrat, 1987.Letizia Battaglia 14 of 22Men count money, 1992.Letizia Battaglia 15 of 22Old Town Palermo, after police kill a fugitive, 1986. Letizia Battaglia 16 of 22Traditional rituals used during the trials of the Beati Paoli, like wearing a hood over one’s head so as not to be recognized, inspired the secret and mysterious rituals of the mafia. 1984.Letizia Battaglia 17 of 22A teenager with no hope for the future, 1986.Letizia Battaglia 18 of 22A mother and her children who stay in bed all day long out of desperation, 1977.Letizia Battaglia 19 of 22A young girl, 1986.Letizia Battaglia 20 of 22Trial of Mafiosi, 1980.Letizia Battaglia 21 of 22Seaside table, 1986.Letizia Battaglia 22 of 22Like this gallery?Share it:

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Letizia Battaglia’s Photos Take You To The Bloody Heart Of The Sicilian Mafia View Gallery

If Letizia Battaglia could tell Americans one thing, it’s to stop watching “The Sopranos.”

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Giovanni Falcone: The Judge Who Took On The Sicilian Mafia And Paid With His Life

The Bloody Story Of Giuseppe Greco, The Most Vicious Mafia Hitman Of All Time

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1 of 22A Sicilian woman, beaten by her husband, cries out in despair, 1983.Letizia Battaglia

2 of 22Kids at a Day of the Dead festival. Palermo, 1986.Letizia Battaglia

3 of 22A child plays in Palermo, 1982.Letizia Battaglia

4 of 22A prostitute and two of her friends killed by the Mafia, 1983.Letizia Battaglia

5 of 22Michele Reina, Secretary of the Sicilian Christian Democratic Party, killed by the Mafia, 1979.Letizia Battaglia

6 of 22Dead man lying on a garage ramp, 1977.Letizia Battaglia

7 of 22A member of the Mafia with a Christ tattoo, murdered by his colleagues, 1984.Letizia Battaglia

8 of 22Mafia boss Leoluca Bagarella arrested in Palermo, Italy, 1980.Letizia Battaglia

9 of 22Watching the funeral procession of the Deputy of the Italian Parliament, Pie La Torre, killed by the Mafia, 1982.Letizia Battaglia

10 of 22A mother with the portrait of her missing son, 1984.Letizia Battaglia

11 of 22Brother and Sister of an aristocratic family, 1983.Letizia Battaglia

12 of 22Joyless dance, New Year’s Day, 1984.Letizia Battaglia

13 of 22Palermo aristocrat, 1987.Letizia Battaglia

14 of 22Men count money, 1992.Letizia Battaglia

15 of 22Old Town Palermo, after police kill a fugitive, 1986. Letizia Battaglia

16 of 22Traditional rituals used during the trials of the Beati Paoli, like wearing a hood over one’s head so as not to be recognized, inspired the secret and mysterious rituals of the mafia. 1984.Letizia Battaglia

17 of 22A teenager with no hope for the future, 1986.Letizia Battaglia

18 of 22A mother and her children who stay in bed all day long out of desperation, 1977.Letizia Battaglia

19 of 22A young girl, 1986.Letizia Battaglia

20 of 22Trial of Mafiosi, 1980.Letizia Battaglia

21 of 22Seaside table, 1986.Letizia Battaglia

22 of 22Like this gallery?Share it:

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Letizia Battaglia’s Photos Take You To The Bloody Heart Of The Sicilian Mafia View Gallery

Letizia Battaglia’s Photos Take You To The Bloody Heart Of The Sicilian Mafia

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“Americans love ‘The Sopranos,’” the Sicilian photographer told CNN. “They don’t believe the Mafia is like (they see on TV), but the Mafia is dangerous like ISIS.”

Battaglia would know. The 81-year-old has spent the majority of her life documenting the devastating effects of organized crime and corruption in Sicily, and says she finds the similarities between ISIS and the Mafia striking.

“When I see ISIS soldiers, I feel like they are a little bit like Mafiosi,” Battaglia said. “They don’t give a damn about life. The Mafia doesn’t give a damn about anything but their interests and money and don’t care who they hurt along the way.”

Battaglia started her career later in life, waiting until her children had grown before she truly pursued her goal of becoming a writer. For Battaglia, this meant leaving her husband in 1971 and moving to Milan, where she started working in the newspaper business.

Somewhat counterintuitively, it was her work with the written word that would catapult Battaglia into photography. “I proposed articles and they said, ‘and the pictures?’ … So I bought a camera,” she told CNN.

A few years later, an anti-Mafia, anti-Fascist newspaper offered her a job as a photographer in Palermo, Sicily. Battaglia accepted the offer and returned to her hometown, where she would spend the next several decades documenting the beauty and brutality that defined Sicilian life.

Battaglia couldn’t have chosen a better time to get into photojournalism. Around the time that she began her career in earnest, the Sicilian Mafia began its transition from organized crime to the heroin trade, and a blood bath ensued.

“There was an exponential increase in Mafia violence around the time when Letizia Battaglia started,” John Dickie, professor of Italian Studies at University College in London, told CNN.

Indeed, by the 1980s the Sicilian Mafia controlled approximately 80 percent of the heroin trade in the northeastern United States, which its members would often distribute through Mafia-owned pizzerias.

As these illicit economies expanded, mafia clans would converge and combat one another in order to control the narcotics trade and thus capture its wealth. From 1981 and 1983, what became known as the Second Mafia War would claim thousands of lives, including those of journalists, police, and elected officials.

The war only ended when the Corleonesi clan killed enough of its opponents to win control of the Mafia. To those who survived the war, however, framing the conflict in terms of victory and defeat misses the mark.

“The winning and losing clans don’t exist, because the losers don’t exist,” former Sicilian Mafia member Salvatore Contorno said. “They, the Corleonesi, killed them all.”

Before such carnage and corruption, it would be easy for Battaglia to trade exclusively in gore. But she doesn’t, and that’s what experts say makes her work so impactful.

“Sicily was really becoming a narco-state, and she had the kind of humanity not just to photograph the politicians and the dead bodies, but to register the impact of all that daily familiarity with death, especially on the children,” Dickie said.

Battaglia doesn’t take photos as much these days, but that’s not for lack of crime and corruption. As Battaglia recounted to CNN, “The Mafia is now more powerful than before. Before it was savage, they killed. Now they are in politics and financial life. This is not only blood … it is corruption.”

Fascinated by these Letizia Battaglia photos? Next, check out 27 grisly photos of the American mafia in the 1980s. Then, have a look at the most brutal gangs around the world.