the following day in my town graffiti started to appear on the walls with the abbreviation NCO and beneath it a skull because Cutolo had named his group the Nuova Camorra Organizzata the New Organized Camorra and these graffiti were blossoming everywhere on the metal security blinds and on the wall across from the church and of course no one talked about anything else in the town at my house for instance my mother and her neighbor who talk incessantly about everything that happens in town discussed this new episode with horror over the bloodshed the massacre but with great excitement and emphasis especially the neighbor woman because my mother is the classic God fearing woman who never leaves the house they talked about what had happened with something verging on admiration because if nothing else those were people from our town who had the courage to take it to the limit to go and commit this incredible slaughter

the neighbor woman already knew all the details that same day even though she too is a housewife her husband is a retired mail carrier two children to support studying at the university in other words a woman who lives to keep house and attend church but she too like for that matter everyone else in town knows who did it knows why they did it knows when they did it knows how the attack unfolded and then without a doubt she embroidered a bit like everyone else and you can tell by listening to three or four different people the story is the same but the details vary for instance you talk with one person and they tell you that Sandokan had a pistol in each hand and a knife between his teeth then when he was out of bullets he tossed the pistols aside he grabbed the knife and went on killing but you talk to someone else and they tell you that Mario Iovine stepped out of the bus with a huge submachine gun like an American Marine leaping out of a helicopter and it was basically a one man massacre so the details change but the story is basically the same

a few hours after the massacre everyone in town already knew who was responsible who made up the hit squad nobody needed to wait for the crime reports on the television news or the morning newspaper to know who it was because as always there is telecapèra capèra was the word in dialect for a hairdresser who did women’s hair at their homes and who was the main source of news before there was radio and television as long as anyone can remember there has been telecapèra it’s the jungle telegraph the continuous patter of rumors that arrive from your neighbors rumors that circulate throughout town rumors that tell you everything about everyone and anything that anyone’s done and on this occasion the doctor I mentioned earlier is a good example of the attitudes of the allegedly respectable townspeople concerning the clan that is to say while at first they might have looked down on them for their humble origins by the second phase of their campaign they began to fear them for their intelligence and skill in making their way up from under without scruples and for their considerable firepower then in a third phase they began to realize that it might be very useful to establish contacts with those people because it might mean a lot of money the way it did for that doctor