Romanzo Criminale ends

The question of the power of state and the behaviour of the powerful and the linking between the state and criminal organisations and other organisations is one aspect of the engaging 22 episode Romanzo Criminale which came to an end in a double episode this week.

The series has been shown on the Arts Channel this year and is loosely based on the actual gang of young men who came to power through the trafficking of Drugs in Rome after they had kidnapped a senior man who was killed by those paid to look after him and after the ransom had been paid and collected. The kidnap saw the coming together of the two gangs who then used the ransom money to invest in drugs which they distributed through networks on the basis of equal shares and being consulted although the effective Leader became the Libanese the previous head of one gang, with Freddo the head of the other is closest associate and Dandi the third always on his own and looking out for himself before the others.

The gang members had grown up together and in both series there are flashbacks to their past relationship. The series begins with the only surviving members of the gangs with the nickname Bufalo, now an old man being abused by the new generation of gangsters showing him no respect and the series ends with his opening fire on his abusers and the dying in a shoot out with the police.

The series is designed to show that the gang destroyed itself over time but were helped by outside criminal forces that were in league with the Italian Secret Services, politicians and even Papacy through the bank it used and the Secret Society in Italy known as P2, a Masonic type of body. Just as in World War 2 when the USA government and military had done deals with Mafia bosses for help in retaking of Italy from the Fascists, elements in the Catholic Church joined forces with all those opposed to Communism.

The first series ended with the death of Libanese shot by two individuals on a motorbike and much of the second series is concerned with who shot the leader and why, as well as the succession between Freddo, who had until that point decided to leave the gang and crime and go elsewhere with his live in girl friend of two years Roberta who had been the girl friend of his younger brother, both of whom had no idea about his criminal activities before they were disclosed. Freddo is torn with guilt that his decision was a factor leading to the assassination of il Libanese

With the death of Libanese Freddo decides not only to stay but his relationship with Roberta ends because he could only see imprisonment and or a violent fate for himself. In the first series Dandi had grown apart from the rest of the gang because of his attempted cultured lifestyle and his relationship with Patricia, a high class whore who he wants for himself and opens a brothel for her to manage so she is able to keep up the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed without needing clients.

Dandi is also approached by the Mafia who see him as a better front man than Libanese and with their aim of managing the drug trade and other organised crime in Rome at arm’s length. They are instrumental in advising on the need for legitimate businesses which individual members of the gang take up as well as in investing their surplus income through an agent. The gang operate a casino at which they squander a proportion of their huge profits. On character under pressure from his wife and father in law over stretches with the purchasing of a supermarket and other enterprises and ends up losing almost everything after a failed insurance fraud after burning down the store and having to borrow from Dandi to pay off bank loans.,

The group are supplied drugs by the Comorra, the Mafia like organisation based on Naples and the surrounding area. They also had to deal with a group, The Sardinians, led by Sardo(!) who had distributed drugs to a sector of Rome and wanted to take over the rest of Rome controlled by the gang. There was bad blood from the outset and during the first series the gang confronted Sardo, humiliated him and drove him into exile. . The group also had their own Mr Fixit lawyer and a special secure place for the their armoury of weapons which was in the basement of a government building controlled by a security guard who they paid.

Separately in relation to the Montalbano books and TV series I have attempted to understand the complex multi layered police system in Italy where one particular feature is the ability to hold people for long periods in custody without bring them to trial. Individually and collectively the gang are arrested, held in prison but then released as the authorities fail to make charges stick, or because of the corruption and high level political influences

In this series there is one Inspector of similar standing to Montalbano, Commissario Sculoja, and a faithful assistant rather like Fazio. who early on connect the new gang to the kidnapping and to the development of the distribution of drugs throughout Rome without being able to gain the evidence or when the evidence is gained able to make it stick.

The Inspector has two weaknesses in terms of carrying out his job effectively, he has a revolutionary communist inclined sister who he protects and eventually get her out of the country and new life to save her from long term imprisonment. He is therefore branded a Communist lover by his colleagues and viewed with suspicion by those prepared to do anything to prevent a communist led government in Italy.

He also becomes sexually passionate about Patrizia and she sensing his desires uses it for her protection without giving him the kind of information which would destroy Dandi and the rest of the gang.

At one point the Inspector decides to put pressure on Il Freddo by arresting his brother who has turned to hard drugs and eventually persuades the young man to wear a wire to trap his brother rather than return to jail where there has been evidence that his life is under threat. When Freddo discovers this treachery he refuses to have any further contact with his younger brother.

The secret authorities decided that it would be helpful to put the blame for the death of Libanese on two brothers (Gemito) and Freddo knifes one to death but the other initially escapes in a shoot out which also involves the police. Dandi who is responsible for the getaway car funks it and drives away on his own create a bitter enemy from one of the two others who manages to escape. Eventually he confronts Dandi after Freddo refused to intervene but Dandi gains the upper hand and the man is also captured and put on trial. One of the criminals avoided long sentences was to plead insanity which gets them to a hospital from which they are cured and released after a couple of years. Freddo buys a helpful psychiatrist for his man but he is murdered on the orders of the Mafia before he can give the necessary testimony so both members of the gang are sentenced to a score of years for the attempted murder and wounding of police officers. The surviving brother is also assassinated when the authorities do not want the truth of the killings to come to the attention of the gang.

Commissario Sculoja decides that progress can be made through a raid and the arrests of Patrizia for her brothel. The raid uncovers the secret service filming a politician for blackmail. Unfortunately the politician is able to get the girl involved to change her story and say that she arranged the film at the request of the client which meant it remains his property and cannot used in evidence. This leaves Patrizia in the frame and when the Mafia advise Dandi to drop her and get an appropriate women he does not visit her in jail.

The death of il Libanese and the decision of il Freddo to leave the gang creates a situation of uncertainty among the remaining members who begin to look to their own interests as well as others as well as provoking take over interest from others. Sardo the leader of the Sardinians returns determined to settle his score with Dandi and il Freddo and take control of the whole of Rome and not just their sector. He creates a situation where Dandi is captured and persuaded that the solution is to kill Freddo who he persuades to attend a meeting. He devises a plan with the help of the rest of the gang that results in the death of Sardo and his men and Freddo is indebted to him.

Freddo is then captured by the Comorra who supplied Sardo and the Roman group with Cocaine, doubling their take. They want to know who killed Sardo and give Dandi a timed ultimatum. He again save Il Freddo by offering instead the man who actually killed Libanese, arranged by the Mafia as part of their helping Dandi to become the King of Rome. They say they will leave to him how he deals with Freddo. Dandi does not disclose to the rest of the gang that the knows the Gemito brothers did not kill Libanese. However the information comes to the Inspector after Patrizia is incensed at being abandoned in prison by Dandi and faces charges of brothels keeping. The Inspector decides this will serves no useful purpose and frees her. She rewards him by taking him to her bed and revealing the gun store.

Unfortunately the security guard who initially identifies the gang members is leaned on and withdraws his evidence. The gang appear to escape again however one of the weapons is identified as being that used in an assassination elsewhere and in the death of Libanese, The police therefore know that the weapon could not have been put back by the brothers blamed for the death and was the responsibility of someone else with access to the store. This is the man who is sacrificed by Dandi to free Il Freddo.

Freddo then finds that his rejected brother had been sold a bad doze of drugs and is in hospital in a coma so he wants to know who is responsible and then finds out the drugs were not those sold by the gang which reveals that someone is selling additional drugs from another source. He makes the mistake of going for someone who is the weakest of a trio led by one of the Buffoni brothers who he kills which is accepted by Dandy but not by the other brother.

The man who was beaten gives up the gang to the authorities and there is a great trial with much behind the scene fixing by Dandi with his Mafia connections and buying of judges

Freddo who is defended by his former girl friend in relation to the murder of the first Gemito brother is nevertheless convicted but arranges to be given a serious illness which gets him to hospital and from which he is able to escape when he recovers and goes abroad but without the girl friend who elects to stay. He has discovered that Dandi knew that the Gemito brothers had not killed Libanese and appreciates that the man has become the new king of Rome.

Dandi also walks free via the Mafia and bribing of judges and those working within the prison. He announces he can bring one of the others out with him and leaves this for them to settle, However although one wins a lottery it is another who is found not guilty and released. Dandi also does a deal with the already convicted gang member in relation to the Gemito attempted killing and wounding of police officers and who threatened to kill him for abandoning them at the scene of the crime. Dandi fixes for this man to move to a psychiatric hospital from which he is discharged a couple of years later.

The third man of the trio double crossing the rest of the gang turns out to be their investment manager but he survives promising to make Dandi even richer and returning all the additional profit which he had obtained

Dandi was upset that Patrizia had left Rome and tracks her down via her gay friend and assistant to running a small flower shop. At first is looks as she resists a return but then decides she wants the life that he and provide and returns. They get married without inviting the gang although Dandi invites the police inspector and then presents him with a piece of their wedding cake. The Inspector is shattered by the development and attempts to kill Dandi who decides the man will live but had him beaten up to the extent that he is disabled for life. He loses his position and is moved to job in customs immigration.

There is a passage of time of at least a decade and Dandi has become a very wealthy man to an extent he is paying for the restoration of a church but when the priest refuses to allow him to build a tomb within the church he arranges for the priest to be moved to Africa as a missionary. When he married Patrizia he insisted that her gay friend gets out of her life and it is the inspector who lets her know that the man is dying in hospital, not stated but appears to be from Aids. Patrizia arrives too late to say goodbye and in retaliation she destroys Dandi’s new purchase of collection of Ming vases worth more than the cost of his large well furnished home. He hits her and then orders the maid to pack up the pieces and return them to the seller claiming they were broken in transit and demanding the money back.

The Buffoni brother is released from prison and assisted by one of him others they go for Dandi and seek revenge on Freddo by killing his young brother. They are killed in turn.

Freddo determines to return to Rome but before he does so he is visited by the Police Inspector who has been alerted and tries to strike a deal in which Freddo can return without having to serve the remainder of his sentence on the basis he gives up Dandi. He declines set on revenge on his own terms.

This is the point to introduce someone I think with the name of Donetella orso something similar although I have been unable to find a record of her as a charcater despite the fact that she appears throughout the second series. She starts as a minor drug dealer within gang but for services rendered she is rewarded and made up to controlling the district previously operated by Libanese alienating the rest of the gang, in part because she is a woman and not of part of the original group but mainly because under the original agreement they feel they should all share in from Lebanese’s former territory. The price of using the gang to take out Sardo and gain his territory is that Freddo has to drop the girl and although he offers her the management of his territory she departs in a huff

When the gun store is discovered and the gang are all arrested on the witness statement of the security guard Dandi uses Donnetella to put the frightners on him through his young son so that the man withdraws his evidence. She is now recognised by Dandi and reinstated within the gang and is given as a present to Freddo when he is rescued from the Comorra. It is Donnetella who arranges for Freddo to be given the illness which gets him into hospital and out of the country and it is the young woman who advises him of the death of his younger brother and for his return to Rome. They have had a torrid sexual relationship and there is also the possibility she had is also used by Dandi who appears to control what she does.

It is now that she and Patrizia join forces with the help of the dwindling group’s financial man. They have all their grievances against Dandi. First Dand is assassinated during a visit to antique and fine art shops in the capital. Freddo had discovered that his former girl friend is happy with a child, presumably also happily married and he does not make contact after observing her in the park with her child. He makes contact with the Inspector after dealing with the killer of his brother. However he is also assassinated before he can meet with the former Inspector. It is Donnetella and Patrizia who are part of the new order of power and with everyone else killed in one situation or another it leaves only Bufalo, and as stated he dies in a shoot out with the police.

There is one other twist. The conclusion occurs at the time of the coming down of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism in the former Iron Curtain countries in Europe. The consequence us that those in the Secret Services, the Justice system and in politics need to shift their focus. The man who thwarted the inspector at every turn now approaches him with the offer of preparing him as his successor, someone with principles and in tune with the times. At first the Inspector is horrified but with the deaths of Dandi and Freddo and the elimination of the gang with the exception at that point of Bufalo he accept the invitation. We the audience are left to speculate about the possible relationship with the widow Patrizia and what that will mean for his ethical and principled approaching to policing.