A suffrage mass was held in
memory of Roman crime boss Vittorio Casamonica under
extraordinarily tight security Wednesday just a week after the
notorious mobster's grandiose funeral outraged Italians and the
political establishment.
The mass was celebrated simply in the church of San
Girolamo Emiliani at the suburb of Casal Moreno with a heavy
presence of plainclothes police on hand.
Female mourners attending the mass covered their faces to
avoid being filmed by television cameras.
Many friends of the boss attending wore black suits or
tee-shirts or sported beards in sign of mourning.
Egidia Casamonica, a niece of the boss said "if there are
journalists here they make us more important. We are famous,
more important than VIPs."
At the end of the mass there were moments of tension as
relatives of Casamonica pushed reporters jostling to interview
them.
"Don't provoke us, have some respect," relatives said
before plainclothes cops intervened to restore order.
"This is not mafia," Egidia claimed, "We don't make war. We
are pacifists. We throw flowers, not bombs like ISIS".
Rose petals were dropped from a helicopter onto Vittorio
Casamonica's horse-drawn hearse last week as the strains of The
Godfather theme were played.
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