It would take a perfect storm in time to create the need, the money, and the politics that would create in the 1860s the birth of the Sicilian Mafia.

It will take a perfect plan by Don Leonardo La Barbra to save his ancient family's estate and business from his weak son and his twin uncles who now control it all. A bred male for a near-impossible job was trained from birth to be a solder, analytical thinker, and to be a fearless leader in any situation.

The newborn baby showed up bare to the bone in a pickers basket at the front of the gates of Del-La Rosa in Enna province of Sicily on August 18, 1843. He was immediately adopted by the estate and given the name Tommasa, but forever to be known as Masso. His adopted mother was Mella a herbalist and the area's midwife. Married to Augusta, the estate's manager. Training from birth included plants, as he joined Mella as she hunted for plants, and Augusta as he oversaw the estate's cash crop, the lemon orchards. From an early age, the boy becomes deadly with his three-piece of leather that makes up his slingshot.

A surprise find of the hidden door in the estate's garden wall by young Masso was to change everything. Following the hidden passageway between the walls, he found another door at the end of the tunnel. It opened into Don Leonardo's private library and office. There he found ancient weapons, including a metal suit of iron and another one made of small wooden dowels, and a fierce carved headpiece mask.

A chance encounter late one night in the library with his Parton Don Leonardo would set his course for his life.

The story follows the training, and adventures of Masso as he developed his combat and leadership skills. How he takes adversity and turned them to his advantage and how the plan the Don set in motion would save the La Barbra family and would create the Alliance.

Steve Kravetz

Books