GHOSTS OF SICILY

The mob versus the Nazis.

Harmon, an actor, and Carroll, a former special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigation Service—co-authors of Ghosts of Honolulu (2023) and Ghosts of Panama (2024)—tell another odd but true story of derring-do. They remind readers that the first six months of World War II were disastrous for American ships, with U-boats torpedoing hundreds as soon as they left port. U.S. naval intelligence believed that clever Nazi agents were sending information and even supplies from the East Coast to their submarines. Dockworkers, members of unions controlled by the Italian mob, knew everything but never spoke to investigators. A solution, according to higher-ups, was to approach mob bosses, including many in prison, and ask their help as a patriotic duty. Surprisingly, they agreed and sent word to members to cooperate and keep their eyes out for spies. Nazi agents sent to America were comic-opera incompetent, and there was never evidence that U-boats received help from the coast. Admitting this, the authors move on to actions that may have been useful. Cosa Nostra members mostly came from Sicily, an area hostile to Mussolini. They had family throughout Italy. During the 1943 Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, naval intelligence sent Italian-speaking agents with advancing troops to quiz mobsters’ relatives and the occasional deportee about local Nazi sympathizers, antifascists, and reliable officials; and to identify enemy units, defenses, and minefields. The authors recount many hair-raising and perhaps productive adventures. By 1945, naval leaders were destroying all evidence of dealing with organized crime, and, when the media came calling, denied its existence. This was awkward for officers involved, and careers suffered. This story is rarely absent from popular histories, but the authors have done good work.

Absorbing history of an unlikely alliance.