A severed horse’s head has been found on the property of a Sicilian businessman, in what native authorities consider could also be a mafia intimidation tactic harking back to a scene from The Godfather.
The animal’s head was left on the seat of a digger owned by the person, a building contractor in Altofonte, close to the Sicilian capital, Palermo. The stays of a pregnant cow and its calf had been additionally discovered on the web site.
The businessman, who’s well-known within the city, reported the incident to police and advised them he had beforehand obtained threats and warnings. Police assume he might have been focused for allegedly refusing to pay safety cash or adjust to different mafia calls for.
The scene echoes the second in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 movie when a producer wakes to seek out the severed head of his thoroughbred horse in his mattress.
Angela De Luca, the mayor of Altofonte, mentioned her group had been deeply disturbed. “I used to be petrified, I can’t comprehend such barbarity,” she mentioned. “This act appears to take us again to the center ages, with its unacceptable strategies.”
The information sparked a row on the island, the place greater than 20 mafia bosses have been launched from jail in latest months after serving their sentences.
Delivering severed animal heads or dismembered animal our bodies is among the many commonest intimidation techniques employed by the mafia in Sicily, predating the Godfather.
In accordance with investigators, the tactic serves the twin function of terrorising its victims and putting at their most cherished bonds: animals to which they’re typically deeply connected.
Final Might, the pinnacle of a goat was present in entrance of the house of a building entrepreneur in Palermo and in 2023, a pig’s head was hung on the gate of a police station within the province of Messina.
after publication promotion
In 2017, a decapitated fowl was found in entrance of the college in Palermo devoted to the legendary anti-mafia choose Giovanni Falcone, who was murdered by Cosa Nostra in 1992.
Supply hyperlink