in this period there was a continual series of intimidations of those few individuals who decided to stand up and oppose this state of affairs there was a group of young people a few years older than me who during this period founded an association called Collettivo Zero which was a left wing cultural association that in a short period of time attracted dozens of young men and women which was something nearly inconceivable for an underdeveloped and slightly backward town like ours and among the founders of the group was a friend of mine a little older than me named Angelo at the time he was very active this cultural association started doing things that irritated the clan for instance it wanted to establish a women’s counseling service for an array of problems facing women it was planning to set up a research center on organized crime in the territory it wanted to try to help young people involved with the underworld or who were at risk for criminal involvment what this association wanted to do was try to rescue what could be rescued and limit what could be limited

in this case on this occasion the clan reacted without performing any violent acts against individuals it simply intervened with intimidation doing nothing more than to fire shots into the steel roll down shutters on the association’s storefront making it clear that they were causing some irritation and then by sending people over to talk to people who were well known to be behind the association like this friend of mine Angelo who lived on the street where the Bardellino brothers were born where they lived when they were still nobody and one evening Angelo was at the Bar Nazionale which is on the Corso Umberto and two neighbors of his two clan made men took him by the arm and took him for a little ride in their car and conveyed by saying and at the same not saying that someone might get hurt that maybe one of these evenings there might be trouble maybe someone might complain about losing sleep because of the noise they make during their association meetings someone might say something offensive there might even be some violence as if to say you’d better not get too uppity better not cause trouble

and they also told him that since he was jobless fatherless penniless and a recent high school graduate and all the rest that it would be a good idea if he found a job and they even offered him a little work here’s a job they said it’s a job involving trust that is he would have to go around and collect money they tried to convince him that he would be like an accountant he’d have to stop by a number of stores to pick up the payments for a sort of insurance policy Angelo didn’t want to accept that job because he was opposed and because he realized what it meant but he couldn’t refuse because refusing a favor from these people can be a dangerous thing to do that is if you go and ask them for a favor then you’re tied to them forever an unbreakable bond but if they come to you and offer you something it’s even worse you can’t refuse if you do it’s like telling them you’re not on their side so automatically if you’re not on their side you’re against them luckily for Angelo a couple of days later that job was given to another young man who had shown that he was more compliant more flexible