Everyone could use some good music to get psyched up for work.
If you're a low-level mafioso in Sicily, music from "The Godfather" is just the thing.
Before heading out to threaten local businesses for protection money, Giovanni Alduino, 45, and Giuseppe Speciale, 32, prepared by listening to the soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola's mobster epic in Alduino's butcher shop. (They weren't the only ones to love this particular mob hit, police found a "Godfather" cassette in recently arrested mega-boss Bernardo Provenzano's hideout.)
Conscious of the theatrical nature of their business, the two would also rehearse menacing lines in the car, a humble Fiat Panda, on the way to work.
"If you don't pay, I'll kill your daughter," was a favorite. This Alduino repeated again and again, changing emphasis on the words, to get the right effect.
Carabinieri, who had a few laughs trailing and filming these completely clueless roughs, managed to stop the dynamic duo a few days ago before they killed a business owner who refused to pay. (Here's a semi-obscene auto translation of the story from Italian).
This isn't the first case of life imitating art when it comes to cosa nostra. Sometimes it works the other way around. Mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti was condemned to life in 2002 for killing Peppino Impastato, subject of award-winning film “The hundred steps.” The case, which dates back to 1978, was reopened after the film debuted in 2000.