"Who is to say we should obey the laws they make for their own interest and to our hurt? And who are they then to meddle when we look after our own interests? Sonna cosa nostra, these are our own affairs. We will manage our world for ourselves because this is our world, cosa nostra."
Hard-nosed, gun-toting, take-no-prisoner Italians (and the ethno-linguistically separate Sicilians, but it's rare for gangster-centric media to make such a distinction). Part tight-knit community (sometimes tight-knit family), part protection racket, these paesani live by a code — which just happens to include vendetta (killing anyone who wrongs La Famiglia) and omertà (going to your Don, rather than the cops, when you have trouble with a fellow Italian or Sicilian). Classically known as Cosa Nostra ("our thing") for the Sicilians, and also called "wiseguys". Although the power of the Mafia (at least, the American Mafia) has diminished sharply since such heights as the Prohibition Era, thanks to most of its bigger players either getting stuffed into prison or simply becoming too old to participate in the game, the mystique surrounding these organizations is so strong that they have almost replaced other established historical figures, such as knights or cowboys, as carriers of a romantic ideal.
While the Italian Mafia has an obvious basis in fact, it was a staple of entertainment for much of the 20th century. Note that this trope can also include similar Italian criminal organizations such as the Neapolitan Camorra or the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta which are also fairly prominent at home and overseas just like the mafia.
In recent years, particularly throughout The New '10s and New '20s, this trope has experienced a considerable decline in popularity, especially in crime dramas set in the 21st century. In a world where the classic Italian-American mafia is on the verge of extinction due to the ethnic assimilation of the Italian-American community, the legalization of gambling, and the rise of global terrorism, The Cartel, and White-Collar Crime, there are very few reasons left to justify its existence based on tradition, hierarchy, and codes. It certainly doesn’t help that works which once redefined the mythology of this trope, such as The Godfather, GoodFellas and The Sopranos, now fall under the Seinfeld Is Unfunny trope, with memes, quotes, and references that are instantly recognizable to any young and modern viewer (even to those unfamiliar with the mafia genre). This makes the organization feel less like a threat in contemporary collective memory and more like a trope that feels old, outdated, meme-able, and to some extent caricature-like, as time passes, tastes change, and the trope is viewed with more than 20 years of hindsight. It’s no surprise why the mafia is a Vestigial Crime Syndicate in any work set in the 21st century. Keep in mind that the vast majority, if not all, iterations of the mafia are historical dramas set in the Prohibition era or, at most, The '60s, '70s and '80s. So in a modern crime-focused work, expect to see The Mafiya, The Cartel, a white-collar criminal, or a Corrupt Corporate Executive as the main Big Bad—not the mafia.
For the laughably inept, PG-rated version, see The Family for the Whole Family. If present as a global player, the Mafia may evolve into The Syndicate. See also Mafia Princess and The Don. It is Totally Not a Criminal Front at all, as it is just a fine Italian restaurant that has two 300 pound bouncers in front. Compare The Mafiya, The Cartel, The Triads and the Tongs, Yakuza, The Irish Mob, London Gangster, the Kosher Nostra (which the Mafia sometimes employs), Gangbangers (who often fill the same role, but fit into a different archetype), White Gangbangers, The Yardies, and Generic Ethnic Crime Gang. For more information about the real organizations, see the Useful Notes page, The Mafia.
Compare and contrast Criminal Found Family. For stereotypes related to Italian-American characters that are not in the Mafia, please refer to Italian-American Caricature.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- 91 Days takes place in The Roaring '20s Middle America and focuses on three mafia families: the Vanettis, the Orcos, and the Galassias, and protagonist Avilio Bruno's quest for vengeance against the Vanettis.
- The Mafia is all over the place in Acid Town. Roughly half of them appear to be decent as far as mafia go (we're not talking Reborn here) while the other half are creep scumbags.
- Baccano! takes place during the American Prohibition era. It prominently featured a Camorra organization known as the Martillo Family. In Real Life, by that time all the Camorra groups in the United States had merged with the Mafia. Of course, real life Camorra groups didn't have an immortal working for them. Or an Eldritch Abomination. And later on, a whole bunch of immortals, including the head of the Martillo family and all three (official) Gandor brothers.
- Verrocchio's gang in Black Lagoon; in a reversal of the common portrayals, they come off as more brutal and overall worse people than Balalaika's or Chang's gangs.
- In one of the Bleach ending songs for the anime series, there are about a dozen maskless arrancar dressed up in black-colored suits, reminiscent of the Mafia, maybe even a Shout-Out or parody, with three of the only female Arrancar introduced (Menoly, Loly and Cirucci Sanderwicci) are wearing Chinese-style or Western-inspired dresses, leaning seductively on the old, wrinkled and fat "Godfather", Baraggan Luisenbarn. The "mobsters" surrounding Baraggan are Gantenbainne Mosqueda, Ggio Vega, Avirama Redder, Choe Neng Poww, Nirgge Parduoc, Charlotte Cuuhlhourne, Findor Carias, and three unnamed background stand-ins.
- In Death Note, Mello joined the mafia after leaving Wammy's House.
- The Golgo 13 story "Wiseguys" has Duke Togo called in by a Mafia don over a matter of a blood feud. It opens with an FBI presentation that attempts to strip away most of the romantic myths surrounding the Mafia, and does a decent job at presenting organized crime as just prettied-up hooliganism. In fact, organized crime members are probably the most common mooks Golgo takes out, and any member whose loyalty to their boss extends to trying to take out Golgo is universally depicted as an idiot.
- Interestingly, given that it's set in Italy, Gunslinger Girl has never shown any genuine Mafiosi. Mostly, this is because almost all of the stories happen on the boot. The Camorra do show up quite often and are either called by their proper name or The Naples/Napoli Mafia depending on whether exact accuracy or quick description is called for.
- Goldie Musou, the nemesis of Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats, and her people. She's from Sicily.
- In Hetalia: Axis Powers, when S. Italy was rushing to save Spain, he ran into the mafia, who demanded that he give them Spain's imports. S. Italy just beat them up and continued on his way. He also blames his cold (which is an in universe representation of a recession) on the Mafia.
- Appears in Japan, Inc. when the Japanese have to do business in Italy.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind injects the series's signature Agent Peacock design scheme into this trope, resulting in a ruthless Italian mafia whose super-powered assassins wear absurdly flamboyant outfits ripped straight out of a fashion magazine.
- The initial premise of Nisekoi is that Yakuza heir Raku and Mafia Princess Chitoge are forced to date, despite their dislike of each other, to prevent a Mob War from breaking out between their families' gangs.
- In Noir, the Sicilian Mafia is the enemy of the eponymous assassin duo in the "Intoccabile" arc. Also, one of the protagonists, Mireille, is the sole survivor of a massacred Corsican Mafia family. In Real Life the Corsican Mafia does exist and is actually quite powerful and influential in France and even in other countries (though it is divided into several gangs and families). "Bouquet" isn't a Corsican name though.
- One Piece:
- Capone Bege, who dresses, looks, and (even in the Italian dub) sounds like a typical Sicilian gangster, even though the rest of the setting is a sort of pseudo-Japanese/Age of Piracy hodgepodge. It's confirmed that the West Blue, where he comes from, is ruled almost entirely by five Mafia families.
- Donquixote Doflamingo used to dress the part when he started his criminal career (with the unique addition of the nifty pink feather mantle). Even though he doesn't anymore, he still acts it.
- Pokémon the Series: Although not obvious at first glance, Team Rocket, especially in the games (see below), may be based on the Mafia with Yakuza elements. It's masked by the fact that the three you see in the anime so often are the bottom rung of the team and none of the higher-ups really give a damn about them (in fact, in one episode another member tells them their memberships have all expired), though this is not applicable in the Best Wishes series. In the games, you break into their bases and disrupt or (more commonly) shut down several major operations, among them two hostage situations and a (quite popular) casino, scenarios that are more or less recreated in the manga at a grander scale. Even in the anime, the protagonists occasionally stumble across a full-scale operation. Also, you know, Giovanni (although this name was deliberately given to him in the English version).
- Reborn! (2004). A series about a mafia boss who gets shot in the head. A lot. Him and his Harem of Bishōnen. Although they're the Girlscout Mafia. The good guys, at least (I'm looking at you, Yamamoto Takeshi!). The antagonists have plans like possessing the body of the thirteen year old wimp and using him to cause World War III.
- We later meet the Millefiore Family, which is possibly even worse than any instance of the mafia around today, mainly because they control the world, and their leader seems wacky enough, but he's quite unpleasant… Or used to be…
Card Games
- In Illuminati!, the Mafia is one of the most powerful groups in the game.
- Mafia. Where the mafia are the informed minority versus an uninformed majority.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse has Graham Pike, also known as The Chairman. He is the undisputed kingpin of the Rook City crime circles. Gameplay wise, his deck features many Underboss and Thug minions to attack and disrupt the heroes while he and his right hand assassin The Operative penalize the heroes for fighting back.
Comic Books
- In Astro City, the main crime syndicate is run by The Deacon.
- During The '70s, a gang war raged between The Deuce, "Tommy" Gunn, Brian "Braintrust" Rusk, Kuo "Bamboo" Tseh-Shi, and Josef "The Platypus" Platapopulous.
- Another seventies gang boss was Dominic "Junior" Forgione.
- And before their time, there was The Scarlet Snake, Mister Drama, and the Underlord.
- Many of Batman's non-Cape villains are mafiosi; Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, Salvatore "Boss" Maroni, Henry Aquista, Rupert Thorne and Carl Grissom qualify. Also, the Huntress' main target when she was reintroduced Post-Crisis is the Mafia. She was a Mafia Princess growing up, until the Mafia had her family killed in front of her eyes.
- One of the ongoing subplots in Chassis is Chassis' attempts to break the control of the Mob over the sport of Aero-run. The comic is set an Alternate History 1940s, and the mobsters are portrayed as stereotypical 1930s gangsters.
- In Diabolik many one-shot organized crime groups have one or more elements of the trope, as expected by an Italian comic all too familiar with the real thing, but two stand out:
- Natasha Morgan's organization, featured in the prequel issue "I Am Diabolik", is very close to the trope, with Natasha being a female take on The Don and effectively ruling Clerville's organized crime. The issue depicts Natasha using Diabolik's help to retire, hinting that the mafia aspects of Clerville's organized crime derives from her controlling it for years.
- The actual Mafia shows up in the issue "Mafia", where Diabolik enters in conflict with them during a vacation abroad and both he and Ginko (who arrived due the Mafia killing a judge friend of his) end up foiling their plans with the help of a deputy minister of the central government who is a member of another Mafia family and used Diabolik and Ginko to defeat his rivals.
- In both the original comics and game of The Darkness, the main character begins as a mafia hitman. And in the comics has had a time as both an informant gone straight, and the Don. A good portion of the supporting cast and villains are connected as well.
- Family (2000 AD): The Odysseus Family are a Sicilian crime family with superpowers because of their bloodline.
- In Marvel Comics, organized crime has traditionally been represented by a Captain Ersatz syndicate called "The Maggia." Also, the Kingpin, head of New York City's criminal empire, functions as a Mafia-style figure, complete with the sharp suits, though he's not Italian.
- Mafiosi are The Punisher's first of many victims. The original version has his family being gunned down by gangsters for stumbling onto a gangland execution, while the version told in the one-shot MAX comic The Cell has an attempted coup go bad with a hitman and the target's bodyguards killing the Castle family in the crossfire.
- Frank actually was part of a Mafia family for a while under the alias Johnny Tower, where he put his experience of killing mafiosi to good use (fortunately for him, they only used him against rival mobs) and even sleeping with a don's daughter (she was not happy when she found out).
- Road to Perdition deals with the Looney mob, the Capone mob, and one soldier who seeks revenge against his former bosses for betraying him and murdering his family.
- Almost every bad guy in Sin City is a part of one Mafia organization or another.
- The Cortizone family, run by Vito Cortizone is a recurring antagonist to Spirou & Fantasio, most prominently in Spirou in New York where the Chaste Hero Spirou is Voluntold to aid the Cosa Nostra in their Mob War against The triad who have been using a Love Potion to turn the Mafia's goons against eachother.
- Superlópez: Al Trapone's gang, and others.
- Superman: Intergang is this combined with sci-fi elements, being a syndicate who get advanced alien weapons and technology supplied to them by Darkseid.
Eastern Animation
- Julico Banditto and De La Voro Gangsteritto from Adventures of Captain Vrungel are the two most direct threats against the protagonists as they constantly chase them around the world to take the Venus de Milo statue (which one of the main characters had stolen under duress), and the two serve under their boss who's only known as "Chief", a Soft-Spoken Sadist who has enough influence to organize a global sea regatta so that the Venus could be smuggled around any national borders that were tightened upon its theft.
Fan Works
- In the Aftermath of the Games universe, this is what the human version of the Changelings are. They specialize in creating fake identities and profit off of them so they can pull off crimes. Sunset admits she paid them off with gems she brought from Equestria when she ran away so she could get documents to register at Canterlot High and so nobody would question her origins. The group is the Big Bad of the sequel Integration, as they're interested in the growing Equestrian Magic because they can harvest it to dominate the criminal underworld. It's heavily implied that they've been spying on the Rainbooms for a quite a while, and they're not above committing kidnapping, forced experimentation, and murder (even with their own people) to get what they want.
- Gym Leader Wiki: A rumor is that Giovanni was born into a mafia family, but it's been disputed.
- The Headhunt features the (fictional) Famiglia Motta, a member of La Cosa Nostra that branched out into space after humanity went FTL. They've reportedly formed alliances with alien organized crime such as the Orion Syndicate, and seemed to have dropped the male domination used in present day settings (Dul'krah interrogates a female, half-Orion capo). They're powerful enough that they can stand up to Starfleet directly on a limited basis, including stealing the decommissioned USS Enterprise-A from the breaker yards over a century ago, and orchestrating the break-in at Facility 4028 that sets off the plot.
- In The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas
, the Italian mafia is led by Bruno Sammartino and represented in Vegas by underbosses Tommy Dreamer and Chuck Palumbo, as well as The Consigliere, Joy Giovanni.
- In Whose Line Is It Anyway? fanfic I Prooped My Pants, a major plot arc involves the Mafia kidnapping Tiffany Zharjek. Her ransom is eventually paid off by a Go Fund Me campaign.
- Mega Man Recut has the Steel Crescent Syndicate.
- An Offer Luthor Can't Refuse has Lex Luthor meeting Blackfire while she dresses and acts like a mobster.
- In the Making Fiends oneshot, Paint It Green, Blue, Black, Charlotte's parents were brutally murdered by the mafia when they couldn't pay back a debt. Charlotte accidentally saw it but repressed it all for years, instead preferring to believe her parents were astronauts in space.
- A mafia group called the Firearms of Furness, led by Reginald Marklin and allied with a group of villainous engines and humans called the Barrow Union of Diesels, is among the villainous factions in the Thomas & Friends Darker and Edgier fanfic Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure Bad Ending.
Films — Animation
- Gatto: The movie is about organized crime in Venice... but with CATS!
- Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths casts the Crime Syndicate as a supervillain Mafia. The core members refer to themselves as 'family heads', and their most trusted lieutenants are given superpowers to become 'made men.' Ultraman is the most blatant example, as he's basically a Tony Soprano knockoff in a cape.
Ultraman: You think you can come to my place of business, an' call me out?
- Spoofed in The Triplets of Belleville — the otherwise entirely stereotypical mobsters are actually French, and obsessed with cycling.
Films — Live-Action
- Alto: Nicolette's father Caesar is a mobster, and takes over the local family on the old boss's death. It turns out Frankie's father is a bookie working for him, and she's very upset to learn this.
- Analyze This: Paul Vitti is a high-ranking member of a mafia family, that starts having panic attacks, and enlists the help of beleaguered psychiatrist Ben Sobel. Notably, the film came out the same year as The Sopranos, a show with a similar premise, started airing.
- The Black Hand is about the first Italian gangs in America during The Gay '90s.
- The Yakavetta family in The Boondock Saints.
- Bullitt has the eponymous cop going after Mafia hitmen.
- The main antagonists of The Candy Tangerine Man are a group of Mafiosi trying to ruin the protagonist's pimping business.
- Mafia boss Tony T and his henchmen act as the main antagonists of Carlito's Way, opposite Puerto Rican Charlie Brigante.
- Casino concerns the mob's relationship with Las Vegas.
- Code of Silence: A Mafia wiseguy steals drugs and drug money from The Cartel, starting a Mob War.
- Corky Romano: The Romanos are Italian-American gangsters (save Corky) involved with illegal gambling, prostitution and racketeering.
- They don't get a lot of screen-time but, along with The Mafiya, they're a major driving force in the plot of The Dark Knight. Mostly because they were unwise enough to attempt to collaborate against Batman with The Joker. That turned out about how you'd expect.
- Donnie Brasco. Based on a True Story of a very deep undercover FBI agent in the 1970's NYC Mafia.
- Drive (2011): The titular driver gets roped into heist of a pawn shop in the middle of nowhere that an outfit of the East Coast mob was using to store cash for their new operation, under the instructions of a local Jewish gangster who is an associate of the Mafia, but wants to keep them off his turf.
- These are the main antagonists in The Equalizer 3. While living in Italy, McCall ends up facing them when he finds out his new friends are under their control.
- In Eraser, Arnold Schwarzenegger talks to a Mafia boss when he needs allies to stop a weapons deal. The Mafia boss initially thinks that it's somebody else's problem, but changes his tune when he finds out that the deal is going down on his dock.
- A Fine Mess. Tony Pazzo is The Don who orchestrated the horse-doping that launched the whole story into motion in the first place. This being a comedy film, The Family for the Whole Family are, to quote Tony, "those two numbskulls, Binky and Turnip."
- The Godfather trilogy is the Trope Codifier. The genesis of the modern media portrayal, though the actual word 'mafia' was notably absent from the first film. (Ironically, it would go on to influence real-life Mafia culture, particularly the glamorous self-image that would be aspired to, and the word "godfather" itself.) The producers of The Godfather worked with the Italian-American Civil Rights League (which was known to have Mafia connections) to ensure that the movie was acceptable to the Mafia; they gave their blessing, with some conditions, notably that the script not use the terms "Mafia" (only used twice in the original script) or "La Cosa Nostra" (not used in the original script, although the novel credits the fictional Don Corleone with coining the term). The Godfather franchise made the Mafia an Unbuilt Trope, as it depicts the inherent weakness of the Mafia, leading up to its downfall. It also unbuilds some mafia-related tropes, such as Nothing Personal and Shame If Something Happened. And the first two films also feature the place of origin of the historical Mafia, Sicily.
- Deconstructed in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Ray Vargo has bankrupted his outfit by putting all the money in a trust fund for his daughter. The entire organization is made out of old men way past their prime and they are so low on both manpower and resources they can't even pay off a landlord asking for past due rent payment.
- Gomorrah takes a rather more realistic view of the Camorra clans in Naples and Caserta, showing how they create a climate of fear, murder and corruption that infects all levels of society.
- GoodFellas, a drama inspired by the real-life tale of Henry Hill, an associate of the Lucchese crime family. Unlike The Godfather, it concerns itself more with the "working-class" mob, rather than the bosses, with several of the protagonists aspiring to get "made" as full members. As expected, the film became the Trope Codifier for contemporary iterations of the mafia in fiction, directly influencing The Sopranos.
- Hoodlum, a semi-biography of "Bumpy" Johnson and his African-American associates' attempt to take over the drug and numbers business in NYC, specifically Harlem, during The Great Depression, uses Lucky Luciano and his associates as something of a buffer between Bumpy and Dutch Schultz's Kosher Nostra.
- Innocent Blood: Vampires meet the Mafia.
- The Irishman: Although Frank Sheeran is a mobster of Irish descent, he is an associate of the Mafia and many of his colleagues in crime such as Russell Buffalino are Italian.
- In the John Wick universe, various Mafia factions such as the Ndrangheta form a large power bloc within the "High Table", a loose underworld governing organization. John Wick: Chapter 2's plot is launched because John owes a blood debt to Santino D'Antonio, a high-ranking member of the Camorra and he is forced to intervene in an internal power struggle.
- Kick-Ass (2010): Frank D'Amico is an Italian-American mob boss in New York City. However, while most of his men are Italian-American, he's also got many non-Italians working for him too.
- Kill the Irishman: The mafia in Cleveland, Ohio, was run by Capo Jack Licavoli. Some New York City Italian mobsters are brought in later.
- Killing Them Softly presents the Italian-American mafia as a thoroughly degraded system, reduced to a network of small-time criminals operating in filthy environments and dusty offices. The “soldiers” and associates we see are, for the most part, profoundly pathetic figures: drug addicts, alcoholics, incompetent and desperate men incapable of carrying out even the simplest operations with a minimum of professionalism. Their bosses and higher-ranking members, meanwhile, function more like administrators than charismatic leaders. All of this is reinforced by the film’s strong political and economic backdrop—the 2008 financial crisis—which underscores the idea that this underworld no longer has a place or purpose in the 21st century. Unlike GoodFellas or even The Sopranos, which still managed to find a certain dramatic vitality in the mafia myth even as they deconstructed it, Killing Them Softly drains it entirely: there is no glamour, no code of honor, no tragic grandeur—only a dying structure. It is hardly surprising that many viewers see the film as an aftermath, or even a kind of spiritual Grand Finale, to the mafia myths of American cinema. Justified, though, since it's Truth in Television. And yet the film makes up for it by adding a bit of action, an element that's practically extinct in the real-life mafia itself in the 21st century.
- King of New York: The Mafia is one of the organizations Frank White must take on to achieve his dream of becoming the "royalty" of the title.
- Last Action Hero: Vivaldi, the Big Bad of Jack Slater IV, is a Sicilian mobster who's seeking control over drug trafficking on the US West Coast. To that end, he's made peace with his rivals the Turelli Mob (another example) while actually plotting their murders.
- The Mafia Kills Only in the Summer. It's in the title! The film is a dramedy about the life of a Sicilian guy whose entire life, from birth to adulthood, is influenced both by the mafia and the men who bravely fought (and often lost) against it.
- Mafia Mamma: The humorous story of an average suburban American woman who inherits the leadership of an Italian crime family from her late grandfather.
- Man On Fire 1980 and Man on Fire (1987) had the Mafia being behind the kidnapping that Creasy seeks vengeance for, but the 2004 film with Denzel Washington removed them from the picture.
- Malavita (aka The Family): The Manzonis were in a Mafia family. Giovanni/Frank turning state's evidence on his boss got him into the witness protection program and sent to France along with his family under new identities. However, while they aren't formally Mafiosi anymore, they're still in the same mindset throughout the film. The group they left also are hunting for all of them in revenge.
- In Married to the Mob, a mafia wife tries to escape the life after her husband is bumped off.
- Mickey Blue Eyes: The titular Mickey is Michael, a straight-laced art auctioneer whose Fiance is unbeknownst to him the daughter of a high ranking mobster. Johnny gets dragged into some Mafia drama, and when meeting with associates of his future father-in-law, is given the fake identity of "Little Big Mickey Blue-Eyes form Kansas City".
- Mobsters follows Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel from childhood to their rise to power and famous reforms of the Mafia structure into the organization known today.
- The Prizzi family of Prizzi's Honor, although they sometimes hire a non-Italian for hits they don't want traced back to them.
- While they are not the main focus of the story, the Mafia is very much present in The Professional with two of its main characters Leon and Tony as members of the organization
- A Prophet: El Djebena becomes involved with the Corsican mob when he's in prison.
- The Patrovita crime family from Raw Deal (1986) is Mark's target, and the Mob War between Patrovita and Lamanski gives him the necessary opening for his infiltration.
- The Rocketeer: The rocketpack got stolen by Eddie Valentine's mob, who are working for Neville Sinclair, a notable Hollywood star who's really a Nazi spy intending to take it to Germany.
- The original Scarface (1932) was about Tony Camonte, an Italian, and to a certain extent based off the life of Al Capone.
- In Staten Island, Parmie Tarzo is a mid-level Mafia boss who hatches a scheme to eliminate the competition and become the sole crime boss on Staten Island.
- The Untouchables (1987) deals with the Capone organization in Chicago from the point of view of Eliot Ness, the Treasury agent who battles him. Even more Very Loosely Based on a True Story than the above-mentioned original Scarface.
- The Valachi Papers was created from interviews and testimony of Joe Valachi, the first major mob informant.
- A Wedding (1978): Luigi, the father of the groom, is rumored to be a mobster, which is part of why almost no guests attend the reception. Actually, Luigi is a former busboy who met his wife while waiting on her. His wealthy mother-in-law allowed them to get married, but forbids him from seeing any of his Italian relatives or from telling people about his real former occupation, with his secrecy making people assume he's a gangster.
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: While they're never actually described as such, the Montague and Capulet families operate like mafia clans, to fit the setting update to 1990s California.
Literature
- Black Tide Rising:
- In The Valley of Shadows, a New Jersey-based Sicilian mob calling itself "The New Thing" is among the factions that Tom Smith negotiates into an Enemy Mine designed to both keep order in New York City amidst the unfolding Zombie Apocalypse and allow the groups involved to harvest the Human Resources needed for a vaccine without stepping on each other's toes. The mob's boss, Frank Matricardi, seeks to use the chaos and control of vaccine production to gain influence on whatever rump governments will be left in both New York and New Jersey in the aftermath. However, just as society hits its breaking point, one of his rivals frames him with a False Flag Operation against the facility housing the families of what’s left of the NYPD; this causes law enforcement on both sides of the Hudson to turn on Matricardi and wipe out most of his organization. Matricardi and his inner circle are forced to flee to Smith for help in escaping the collapsing city, but he gets shot by his own remaining men seeking to take the escape route and safe haven for themselves, who are in turn killed by Smith's group.
- Silviano Cipriano, the protagonist of the short stories "Descent into the Underworld" and "Isle of Masks and Blood" and the novel Perdition's Storm, is a former contract killer for the Italian Mafia, who quit the lifestyle shortly before the apocalypse after his wife was killed in retaliation for one of his hits. At the climax of Perdition's Storm, he calls on aid from his former employers to help fight off the Janus Federation's invasion of Italy.
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon: The Five Families are referred to several times in the Lady Sally books and in Callahan's Con.
- Lady Sally's House is considered neutral territory by the Five Families; a normal whorehouse would be charged protection money by the Mafia don in whose territory it's located, but the heads of the other four families persuaded him otherwise because they have a better time at Lady Sally's than in any brothel in their own territories.
- The main bad guy in Callahan's Lady, Anthony Donnazzio alias Tony Donuts (don't ask), is established as a major threat with one fact: he is so stupid and so uncontrollably violent that the Mafia leaves him alone.
- In Callahan's Con, Tony's son appears with the goal of getting into the Mafia despite who his father was.
- In Dorothy Gilman's The Clairvoyant Countess, Madame Karitska finds some things that lead Lt. Prudens and the police to realize that the Syndicate is moving in, which nearly causes them to miss that there is a significant change in tactics.
- In John Grisham's book The Client, mafia members play a large part.
- In Stephen King's novel The Drawing of the Three, the gunslinger Roland has a shoot out with drug smuggling mafia.
- The Dresden Files has 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone, Kingpin of Chicago, especially after Dresden incinerates Bianca and her fellow vampires. A cold, calm, savvy, and ruthless Badass Normal, he rises to become (with Dresden's help) the Accorded Baron of Chicago under the Unseelie Accords, the first pure mortal Freeholding Lord, meaning that he's effectively its acknowledged ruler under supernatural law. He arguably rules the mundane side of things as well. He doesn't fall into any of the clichés, save for presenting a front as a legitimate businessman - and it's suggested that he does own significant legitimate business holdings as well - and a cold sense of honour, manifesting as a strict adherence to his given word, a protectiveness of children which was sparked by a little girl getting caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting in which a young Marcone was involved - the consequences of which, incidentally, are directly responsible for the events of the first, fifth and tenth books, and indirectly responsible for part of the ninth. He responded by swiftly ascending to the top of the Chicago underworld (disposing of the shooter, the son of the previous Kingpin, in the process), "putting the 'civil' back in 'civil offender'", and personally executing any drug dealer or pimp who tries to exploit children in Chicago. This determination, ruthlessness, as well as a willingness to accept the supernatural and employ people to counter it (he tries to buy Dresden several times in the first two books, before moving on), makes him by far one of the most dangerous characters in the series, despite being entirely human (probably). Dresden can't pigeonhole him as 'scum, criminal' (to his immense irritation) and they frequently pull an Enemy Mine, with the constant awareness that they are eventually going to go head to head and only one of them will walk away. As of the end of Skin Game, it seems that all bets are off.
- The Mafia was the major villain in the early stories of The Executioner (1969) starring Mack Bolan. The first novel was specifically entitled War Against the Mafia. Bolan would be a major inspiration for The Punisher above.
- The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight by Jimmy Breslin is a satirical depiction of the turf wars within the Profaci/Colombo crime family. It was made into a 1971 feature film with Jerry Orbach playing "Kid Sally" Palumbo as a spoof character based on the real life mobster Joe "Crazy Joey" Gallo, who himself modeled his over-the-top persona after Tommy Udo, the Big Bad of Kiss of Death (1947). Since then, the term "gang that couldn't shoot straight" has come to define any organization that ends up dysfunctional due to general incompetence.
- James Bond
- In Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever the mafia was the bad guy and Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are ruthless mob assassins, not at all like the camp fools in the movie.
- Bond comes across the Tempestas in COLD, an old Mafia family that has ties to the eponymous Nebulous Evil Organization and which plans to usurp the organized crime in the United States with its help.
- The Senza Età in Longsummer Nights are a vampire Mafia. Much of the action in "Anniversary" involves the fallout from an incident in which Don Greone of the Senza Età contracted Hercule to assassinate a politician who was campaigning to clean up the waterfront of Longsummer, which would have hurt the organization's blood trade.
- There are three books called Malavita — Italian both for "underworld" and "pest/annoyance". The first, by Tonino Benacquista, was made into film Malavita which stars Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer, and how the family deals with everyday annoyances. The second, by Wendy Newman, follows Sarah who moves to Florida to escape her Mafia ex. The third is a prequel to the Blood and Honor series, showing how Enrico's family was killed by Mafia associates and his rise to being the next Don.
- Several of the antagonists in Masquerade of the Red Death are vampire members of the Mafia.
- As in Real Life, The Mafia has a major presence in Mick Oberon's 1930s Chicago. The series also has an Unseelie equivalent operating in the Elphame version of Chicago.
- Nick Velvet: Nick (who is Italian-American) gets involved with the Mafia in "The Theft of the Mafia Cat". He notes that a number of guys from his old neighborhood ended up joining the Mafia.
- The North Avenue Irregulars: Numbers runners whose cash is followed to Yonkers, where it's presumably mixed with cash from other operations in the vicinity and headed south.
- Mario Puzo is essentially synonymous with the Mafia novel, including The Last Don, The Sicilian, and of course the one that started it all. It is perhaps a sad irony that most of his novels were not about the Syndicate, but none of them (including his personal favorite, The Fortunate Pilgrim) are nearly as successful as his Mob works.
- Rage of Angels has the mafia as the primary antagonists. Antonio Granelli is the capo of the most powerful mafia family on the east coast, with his son-in-law Michael Moretti as his heir and his lawyer Thomas Colfax as his consigliere. Moretti’s three underlings, Nick Vito, Joseph “Big Joe” Colella, and Salvatore Fiore, are the main soldati (soldiers). The internal workings of the family are a plot point, due to Moretti and Colfax’s rivalry and hatred for each other that is present from the start and only increases when Jennifer gets involved with the family. When Moretti takes over the family after Granelli’s passing and orders for Colfax to be killed, Colfax defects to Adam Warner, the senator going after the mafia's operations, and agrees to testify against Moretti in court in exchange for witness protection.
- The Saint takes on the Sicilian Mafia on its own turf in Vendetta for the Saint, written by Charteris and an uncredited Harry Harrison.
- Older Than Television, as the Mafia are the bad guys in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Six Napoleons". Arthur Conan Doyle describes the Mafia as "a secret political society, enforcing its decrees by murder".
- In Snow Crash, the Mafia has become a public company and is one of many organizations competing in the marketplace of a corporate-run America. One of their most successful enterprises is Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizza, which uses The Don as their mascot. The company guarantees delivery in 30 minutes, or you get your pizza free. Uncle Enzo flies down to your house, apologizes, and gives you a free trip to Italy. It's implied that the failed deliveryman suffers fatal consequences.
- Key figures in the Stephanie Plum books, along with possibly all of the other organized crime outfits mentioned above.
- The Mafia forms a part of the setting of Time Scout. They never explicitly show up, but their control of the construction industry is how they became so powerful after The Accident and helped make the present a Crapsack World.
- Jackson's Whole in Vorkosigan Saga is the Mafia Recycled In Space.
- The Witch of Knightcharm: One of the rookie witches at an evil Wizarding School is noted to have a prominent mafioso as a father.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: In the episode "Rising Star" the Mars Mafia is revealed to be a major player in the Martian underworld.
- Boardwalk Empire has the D'Alessio Brothers, an Italian gang (and a literal crime family composed of brothers and cousins) trying to move in on the rackets in Atlantic City. Important Mafia figures like 'Lucky' Luciano, Johnny Torrio, Al Capone and Joe Masseria also feature prominently. The main Gang boss, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson and many of his allies are Irish-American whilst the often forgotten but very powerful Jewish Mafia are represented by New York Boss Arnold Rothstein and his protegé, Meyer Lansky.
- The intimidating, social club-dwelling recipients of a huge roulette wheel cake on Cake Boss (filmed in New Jersey) are heavily implied to be the Mafia.
- On Caprica, the Tauron Ha'la'tha is an example of this, with elements of The Cartel. Oh, and they speak Ancient Greek.
- Community: In the episode "Contemporary American Poultry" the study group becomes the community-college-chicken-finger-running equivalent thereof.
- Crime Story focused on both the mobsters and the police trying to put them away in 1960s Chicago and then moved to Las Vegas.
- Crossing Lines has Niccolo Conti and his brutal gun thug, Gian Carlo, the latter of whom leaves a trail of human wreckage — including 42 dead — behind him in an afternoon's rampage through Italy and Slovenia.
- The Mafia makes several appearances in CSI, unsurprisingly considering the location. Early on, any Mafia episode usually contains a "...but the Mafia haven't been active in Las Vegas since the 80s" line. Don't want to scare away the tourists, after all.
- CSI: NY has a couple of episodes dealing with a New York branch called The Tanglewood Boys, a gang of Mafioso youth.
- Daredevil (2015): The Italian Mafia used to run the organized crime rackets in Hell's Kitchen, but their power has been declining for years. Wilson Fisk has created an alliance between the Russian gangs, the Chinese Triads and the Japanese Yakuza, and they are forcing the Italians out. Most of the old mafiosos have chosen to retire and skip town, while Fisk kills off the few remaining holdouts.
- The Mafia battles the Yakuza on the fifth episode of Deadliest Warrior. Al Capone's gang battles the James-Younger gang in the third episode of the second season.
- The Deuce is focused on the sleaze and corruption around Times Square in the 1970s, so the mob plays a big part. Rudy, the area's local capo, oversees the mob's interests in bars, porn and sex clubs. Several other characters get taken under his wing to run the mob's various businesses.
- Ellery Queen: "The Adventure of the Wary Witness" concerns the murder of the son in a prominent crime family. Mobsters also figure prominently in the plots of "The Adventure of the Sunday Punch" and "The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep". In both cases, it's a red herring, as said mobsters have no involvement in the deaths of either victim.
- Played for laughs in the Everybody Hates Chris episode "Everybody Hates Gambling", in which young Chris Rock decides to participate in gambling and proves to be very good at predicting probabilities. Unfortunately, he draws some unwanted attention and implied threats from an Italian-American bookkeeper who calls himself "Paulie the Bookie" (played by Steve Schirripa, better known as the gangster Bobby Bacala from The Sopranos).
- In Everybody Loves Raymond there is an episode (Mia Famiglia) where a relative from Italy visits New York, the extended Barone family are speaking Italian around the dinner table. Debra Barone is excluded as she speaks no Italian at all. But she understands the word Mafia when it is spokennote and jumps to exactly the wrong conclusion.
Why am I not surprised?
- The exact status of Stefania's father is left ambiguous in the show, but he is portrayed as an unsmiling impeccably dressed guy who is treated with great respect in New York's Italian community. He is certainly able to make Nemo an offer he cannot refuse, and take over his pizzeria. He's also portrayed by David Proval, who played Richie Aprile in The Sopranos.
- When Gotham began, as with Batman's comics above, Don Falcone basically ruled the city, including the cops. After that, one Mob War after another between (and within) the Falcone Family, the Maroni Family, the Mooney mob and (especially) the Cobblepot conglomerate (on top of all the other Gotham insanity) did their part to make Jim Gordon's life miserable.
- Iron Reign: The cocaine that the Manchado operation in Barcelona imported has been going to one of Italy's criminal organizations, the 'Ndrangheta.
- The Sonozaki Family from Kamen Rider Double act as this. Just replace drugs with Gaia Memories.
- A British comedy show (KYTV) ran a parody of the cross-European general knowledge quiz Going for Gold,note where the premis was that English-speaking Europeans competed against each other, nominally for national pride, but mainly for points and prizes. The chauvinistic British compere (Angus Deayton) subjects contestants of various nationalities to patronising abuse and jokes based on ethnic stereotyping. Until he asks the Italian contestant questions about the Mafia. She obligingly reveals she knows a lot about the Mafia, largely gleaned from her uncle, who loves her very much and is sitting in the audience remembering what your face looks like. Unsurprisingly, she ends up winning the show.
- The Law & Order universe includes the Masucci and Dosso crime families, and the police and prosecutors cross swords with other, unnamed Mafia crooks a few times too.
- In the two-part episode "The Torrents of Greed", Ben Stone seizes on a low-level Mafia hit to try and bring down Karl Masucci, The Don of the Masucci crime family. Before it's over, Stone's original target is dead, along with several others including Masucci himself, and a new gang war has started over who gets to replace Masucci.
- In "House Counsel," the police start with a seemingly random murder and follow the clues back to Vincent Dosso, leader of the Dosso crime family. DA Jack McCoy's desire to bring down Dosso proves very costly on a personal level, as it pits him against a very old friend who has become Dosso's defense attorney.
- Law & Order: Organized Crime:
- The fictional Sinatra crime family is set up as a recurring antagonist to the Organized Crime Control Bureau, which isn't surprising in New York City.
- In Season 5, the new threat becomes the Camorra, a similar Italian criminal organization from Naples that is rival to or sometimes an ally of the Mafia. They are much more ruthless however, even targeting cops, and their soldiers are so scared of them they're willing to die rather than give up. Stabler previously had investigated them in Naples along with Italian police, and he has a connection to a woman who'd given up her Camorra boss brother.
- Married... with Children: Bud Bundy borrows money from a man named Capone (who operates a bank from his car) to produce a workout video.
- Memory of a Killer: Angelo works for a New York City Mafia family as a hitman.
- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: The Series 3 episode "Murder and Mozzarella" involves a family feud between Southern Italian families in c.1929 Melbourne with connections to organised crime. This being Australia, where Sicilians were relatively thin on the ground, the relevant Italian gang is the Neapolitan Camorra rather than the Mafia, but all the classic Mafia tropes (family connections, blood feuds, smuggling, sharp suits, Catholicism, great food and wine) are played to the hilt.
- Monk:
- The episode "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather" revolves around the Italian Mafia, just like the title would suggest. The titular godfather has requested Adrian Monk's help investigating a barbershop shooting where several mobsters were killed. The FBI in turn asks Monk to investigate the Mafia family itself while he is working for them, pointing out that it will be safer for Monk than other undercover officers because the family already knows that he's a former cop who still works with the police. It ultimately turns out that none of the rival gangs or mafia members were behind the shooting, it was a completely unconnected criminal who just happened to pick the wrong barbershop to try to stash some stolen goods. It should be noted that in real life, there was indeed a branch of the Mafia in San Francisco, but they had already become powerless and defunct by the time this episode aired.
- In "Mr. Monk is Someone Else", Monk goes on yet another undercover operation, in which he's disguised as a recently-deceased Mafia assassin named Frank DePalma (who is coincidentally an exact lookalike of him). Monk has to find out who DePalma's intended target was, and save him from getting killed by the same crime family that hired the hitman in the first place.
- The episode "Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather" revolves around the Italian Mafia, just like the title would suggest. The titular godfather has requested Adrian Monk's help investigating a barbershop shooting where several mobsters were killed. The FBI in turn asks Monk to investigate the Mafia family itself while he is working for them, pointing out that it will be safer for Monk than other undercover officers because the family already knows that he's a former cop who still works with the police. It ultimately turns out that none of the rival gangs or mafia members were behind the shooting, it was a completely unconnected criminal who just happened to pick the wrong barbershop to try to stash some stolen goods. It should be noted that in real life, there was indeed a branch of the Mafia in San Francisco
- Parodied in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch where the Vercotti brothers visit an Army base and try to intimidate the colonel by threatening to set fire to his troops. Luigi Vercotti made a few subsequent appearances.
- Murdoch Mysteries: Several seasons focus on the Black Hand, an Italian crime-syndicate that served as a precursor to the Mafia.
- You wouldn't expect Navy cops to get involved with the Mafia very often, but the NCIS episode "The Bone Yard" puts Team Gibbs up against the local don, who was using a Navy practice-bombing range as a dumping ground for bodies.
- The Offer: This series, which chronicles the making of The Godfather, portrays the real mafia's objections to the film and the producer's successful attempt to win them over.
- Only Murders in the Building: In season 5, Nicky Caccimelio and his family are introduced as steteotypical Mafia family, but Sofia soon reveals that while they have true connections, the Mafia basically died out in the 70s and the family basically invokes the image (such as buying and living in the Staten Island house used for shots of Don Corleone's house in The Godfather) to run a legitimate cleaning service. However, it turns out Nicky actually ran an Illegal Gambling Den in the Arconia, which had been in Sofia's family for generations and frequented by the New York elite for the better part of a century. The season also makes a point by having the Corrupt Corporate Executives who are repeatedly called "the new Mafia" by the series main trio.
- Oz featured the Italian Mafia as one of several prison gangs fighting for control of the Oswald State Penitentiary.
- Peaky Blinders features two Italian criminal organisations, the Birmingham-based Changretta family (which apparently has connections in New York) and the Sabini organisation based in London. Both fight the Irish-Romany Shelby organisation and lose badly, though not without inflicting serious damage on the way.
- Penny Dreadful: City of Angels: It's mentioned that the Italians were run out of LA by Jewish gangsters working for Meyer Lansky.
- On Person of Interest Elias is the illegitimate son of a Mafia Don and plans to unite the New York City Mafia families under his leadership so he can defeat the competing Russian mob and and make the Italian Mafia as influential and powerful as in the 'old days'. His adherence to old school Mafia values gets him a loyal following among both old traditional mobsters and new up-and-comers who detest the current Mafia leadership, and the heroes consider him something of a Noble Demon: he's a bad man, but there's actually been less violence in the city since he took over. In season 4 he gets into a bloody gang war with the Brotherhood, a multiracial alliance of rival organized crime and run-of-the-mill gangbangers, and some of his subordinates defect.
- The long-running Italian drama La Piovra (The Octopus) deals with organized crime in Italy. The title is a metaphor, comparing the Mafia to an octopus whose tentacles are in everything. Interestingly, the show gives equal time to the heroes affected by its dealings, including Detective Carrado Cattani who is killed in a hail of gunfire at the end of Series Four.
- While they certainly feature, Italian novel-based crime drama Romanzo Criminale ("Crime Novel") is about a group of non-Mafia criminals.
- Rome: Erastes Fulmen and later Lucius Vorenus lead the collegia, gangs who are the ancient predecessors of the Italian Mafia.
- SAS: Rogue Heroes: The SAS encounter them in Augusta in season two. Paddy refuses their offer of assistance and earns the ire of their local representative by desecrating his church, which causes problems for the British in maintaining control of the town.
- Mary's first husband in Soap was a mobster and, after his death, his son, Danny, joins. The boss, Lefkowitz, is Italian and so are a number of the other higher-ups and Danny starts believing he is too. After Danny refuses to kill his father's murderer (his step-father, Burt), Danny goes into hiding (aka. remaining where he is but changing into a series of ridiculous outfits) and Lefkowitz eventually lets him live and leave the Mafia if he agrees to marry his daughter, Elaine.
- The Sopranos revolves around the lives and affairs of the fictional DiMeo crime family in New Jersey, led by Tony Soprano. Due to being set in the 2000s, the show finally put an end to the popular cliche of mobsters acting like 1940s era gangsters from The Godfather, and took much more influence from GoodFellas. The DiMeo crime family are junior partners of the much larger Lupertazzis, a fictionalized version of one of the five New York families. The DiMeos have ties to another of the New York families, but they are rarely featured since their businesses aren't nearly as intertwined. Additionally, one episode features a Camorra clan led by Annalisa Zucca, a rare female example of The Don.
- Star Cops: In "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years", the Mafia frame Nathan Spring for drug trafficking.
- Tracker (2001) had 'A Made Guy', where the alien Zin uses the Earth Mafia to reach some of his goals, and Cole goes undercover as a mobster.
- Tulsa King: Dwight Manfredi is a mafia capo of the (fictional) Invernizzi Family, a New York based Mafia syndicate. However, after having spend 25 years in prison for them, he quickly discovers the glorious days of the Mafia (if there ever were any) are over. They ban him to Tulsa where he soon is founding his own Mafia-like syndicate.
- The Twilight Zone:
- The Twilight Zone (1959):
- In "The Four of Us Are Dying", Arch Hammer imitates Virgil Sterig, a gangster who was murdered on the orders of the mob boss Penell.
- In "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room", Jackie Rhoades is a gangster who typically performs comparatively minor jobs such as breaking and entering and the occasional mugging for his boss George. As the police are well aware that Jackie does not do the big jobs, George tells him to kill the old bartender in order to throw them off the scent.
- In "Dead Man's Shoes", Dane and Bernie Dagget were gangsters who were partners in the running of a nightclub. When Dagget offered to buy him out, Dane refused. Dagget was unwilling to accept this and had him murdered so that he could take over the club.
- In "In Praise of Pip", Max Phillips has been working as a bookie for the gangster Moran for 20 years.
- The Twilight Zone (1985):
- In "Healer", Jackie Thompson worked for a mob boss named Joseph Rubello in the 1970s. After he botched a delivery, two of Rubello's thugs beat Jackie so severely that he ended up in hospital.
- In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", Arky Lochner owes $165,000 (at a daily interest of 750%) to Nino Lancaster, a mob boss who runs all of the criminal enterprises in the city and has many cops in his pocket.
- The Twilight Zone (1959):
- Underbelly
- In the original series the Carlton Crew, a primarily Italian gang with a non-Italian leader, are one of the factions making up the old guard faction in the Melbourne Gangland War. The death of a major figure in the actual Melbourne Mafia (Frank Benvenuto) is an offscreen plot point.
- In the second series, A Tale of Two Cities, the Calabrian Mafia of Griffith (AKA The Honored Society) is heavily featured, building a sophisticated drug smuggling ring alongside Terry Clark's branch of the New Zealand based Mr. Asia Syndicate. The Mafia's alleged involvement in the assassination of political candidate Donald Bruce Mackay is also depicted.
- The Honored Society also feature in the Underbelly Files telemovie Infliltration.
- The Untouchables, once they took down Capone, encountered individuals of Sicilian extraction engaged in systematic illicit activities on a regular basis; so regular, in fact, that a pressure group called "The Federation of Italian-American Democratic Organizations" picketed the ABC network's headquarters. When sponsors stared abandoning the show, ABC and Desilu Studios worked with the "Italian-American League to Combat Defamation" and issued a formal manifesto that scrubbed this aspect of the show. It is, of course, just a coincidence that the "Federation" was led by Anthony Anastasio, mobster/union racketeer and brother to Albert Anastasia of Murder, Inc. fame, and the "League" was founded by Joseph Columbo Senior, The Don of the family that bears his name. Completely a colossal coincidence. Move Along, Nothing to See Here, folks...
- A few have appeared in episodes of White Collar.
- In "Book of Hours," a mob boss asks for the FBI's aid in recovering a stolen bible.
- In "Copycat Caffrey," Peter poses as an enforcer for the Detroit mob.
- Wiseguy began as an Italian American FBI agent going undercover in the Mafia. It explored other forms of organized crime later, but several subsequent arcs also dealt with the Mafia.
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues" features Indy and his friends acting as amateur detectives, trying to investigate a murder that was apparently conspired by the Chicago Outfit gangsters Al Capone and Johnny Torrio.
- Zero Zero Zero: The miniseries charts the purchase of a massive shipment of cocaine from The Cartel of Mexico by the 'Ndrangheta of Calabria, which is technically a different Italian criminal organization than the more-famous Mafia of Sicily, though the differences are not large.
Music
- There exists a variation of Gangsta Rap known as Mafioso Rap. Like how gangbangers fill the same role as the Mafia under a different archetype, mafioso rap is gangsta rap romanticizing a different type of gangster.
- Bob Dylan's "Joey" Is a romanticized telling of the life and death of Joey "Crazy Joe" Gallo who was a member of the Profaci/Columbo mafia family.
- "Bust Your Kneecaps" by Pomplamoose is about a bride-to-be who has family in the mafia. After her fiancé Johnny runs off, she asks him to come back before her angry family maims or kills him.
- Although never explicitly stated, Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City" (off Nebraska) clearly involves someone mixed up in Mafia business. The opening line about how "they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night" is a clear reference to the assassination of Boss Philip Testa of the Philadelphia crime family; most interpretations hold that the perspective character is either going to AC for a hit or to distract himself before taking employment as a hitman. (Testa's assassination set off a mob war in Philadelphia; also note well that AC is roughly where the Philadelphia and New York Mob spheres of influence converge, although AC is much closer to Philly, and that Testa was backed by New York—long story.)
Podcasts
- Hero Club: It Never Sleeps and Paid Back In Spades have the Italian mob feature as a faction in their plots, which suits the 1940's-50's New York setting of the stories. A fictional Mafia Don named Alphonse "Lazy Al" Moretti is a notable villain, and has an insulting nickname of "Marblemouth".
Pro Wrestling
- This was the original gimmick of Captain Lou Albano's Tag Team the Sicilians with Tony Altimore, until the real thing got word of it and told them not to do it.
- In December 1999, WCW introduced the tag team the Mamalukes, Big Vito and Johnny the Bull, with their manager Tony Marinara. They had a Mafia gimmick and claimed to have come there because Disco Inferno had owed them money. Vito and Johnny would often say that they were "Paisans", not "Mamalukes."
- Johnny, renamed Johnny Stamboli, would recycle this gimmick in WWE as a member of the WWE SmackDown! version of the Full-Blooded Italians, with Nunzio and Chuck Palumbo.
- Also, WCW jobber Little Jeanne had a mafia gimmick.
- At WrestleMania 22, which was held in Chicago, John Cena had a dramatic Al Capone-themed entrance, with one of the gangsters being played by an uncredited CM Punk, who is from Chicago.
Roleplay
- In The Gamer's Alliance, the Matheson Crime Family is the oldest and most powerful crime syndicate in Maar Sul and is run by the House of Matheson who double as legitimate businessmen and nobles by day.
- The Mafia shows up from time to time in Survival of the Fittest, along with other organized crime groups such as the gangs in Denton, usually in the background but occasionally directly involved. For example, Antonio Franchini is the son of a Mafia Don, abducted to prove a point after the Don reneged on his part of a deal between him and Danya. In v2, Seth Mattlock's father is an enforcer for a Mafia family based in Denton, and Seth himself is not only friends with some of the mobsters but is considered an honorary member, and the mob family helps his gang when they need it (for example, when an all out gang war starts). In the former's file, Danya notes that the Mafia will probably go after him and they're welcome to try, because they won't be able to find him, let alone do anything to him.
Tabletop Games
- Mafia, the parlor game, which was later adapted for Western audiences as Werewolf (1997). According to its creator Dmitry Davydov, its original mafioso theme was inspired by the Italian Crime Drama La piovra (see above), which began airing in the USSR in 1986 — the same year that the game was first played in public.
- Old World of Darkness:
- Mage: The Ascension: The Syndicate controls all the Technocracy's economic aspects, and is tasked with overseeing the global economy. Their Enforcers branch get involved where commerce and violence flow into one another, which includes organized crime. (The Syndicate in general, however, tends more towards Corrupt Corporate Executive.)
- Vampire: The Masquerade: A few branches of the Giovanni, a vampire mob with necromantic power. As Gary puts it in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: "Spaghetti and corpses, boss." That said, the supplement for "Vampire" that dealt with organized crime pointed out that while the Giovanni (quite obviously, given who and what they are) have extensive underworld connections, their link to Italian organized crime specifically are exaggerated. The Giovanni home base has always been Venice, in northern Italy, and the big criminal networks like the Mafia, the Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta are all based in the southern parts of the country, which are by and large claimed by clans Ventrue and Lasombra.
- Werewolf: The Apocalypse includes the urbane Glass Walkers, who developed strong footholds in Italy (there really is a breed of Italian wolf). And since Werewolf absolutely loves its cultural stereotypes, it played these connections up heavily. Later material (3rd edition and onwards) reversed course on the idea, however, because the idea of Mafia werewolves was, to quote the developer, a bit of a one-note joke.
- Wraith: The Oblivion: The telekinetic Spooks' Guild are based on the Mafia, particularly in how they were organized.
- Pathfinder has the Aspis Consortium, which is basically a combination of a fantasy Mafia and evil adventure archeologist group.
- Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Organization, under the control of the Chairman. They combine a mixture of street thugs, hitmen, Dirty Cops, informants, thieves, and other lowlifes to make your life hell.
- Shadowrun: The Mafia is an important group in organized crime. The 4th Edition supplement book Vice covered them in depth and has rules for a 'Runner who was a Made Man.
- The Strange: The Beak Mafia sees to it that the theft and larceny common in Crow Hollow is 'organised', all in exchange for a bit of protection money. The current head of the largest Beak Mafia family is one Wyclef Drood, or Don Wyclef, who employs a flock of muscle kro to collect protection money, patrol against the common thievery and prevent inroads by rival kro crime families.
Theatre
- The Chandler family has loose ties with a stereotypically Italian mob boss in The Fix.
Toys
- A Wacky Packages sticker from the 11th series features a Monster High parody called "Mobster High", which depicts a doll dubbed "Frankie Dollface" who's decked out in a purple suit, glaring at the viewer and holding a metal pipe. The box has brass knuckles next to the logo, along with chains and bullet holes, with the tagline reading "The Family Just Got Freaky".
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: Ann can occasionally run into mafiosi soldiers throughout the Noctis City docks that act as NPCs.
- Arknights: In the side story Il Siracusano, it depicts a mafia-run city Siracusa (Il Siracusano is Italian for Syracuse, a city on Sicily, Italy), along with different competing families and a Godmother, Signora Sicilia, who rules with an iron fist.
- City of Heroes has the Family, who are Italian mobsters in nice suits and bowler hats. City of Villains also has the Mooks, who are just the same, except less well-dressed. Both are hilariously anachronistic as well, even the Mooks wear 20s-style fashion outfits in a 20 Minutes into the Future world, and wield tommy guns equally as effective as modern assault rifles and lasers. Rule of Cool, folks.
- In Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, Hyde claims to know some dwarves whose grandkids are currently running the mafia like "some sort of start-up". He wishes to go back to being chased by them once he permanently moves back to Seattle because he remembers stealing Gala's car with them.
- Contract Rush: All the contract targets used to be members or at least connected to an outfit called the "Mob Empire" along with Renzo. It's never described in great detail, but James Jimmy makes it sound like a typical organized crime outfit where the bosses held real power and sway over everyone and everything. The fact that this outfit apparently included an honest-to-god Kaiju amongst its leadership and regularly summoned a parasitic demon lord to do their dirty work only raises more questions about their operations.
- The Darkness and its sequel, based on the comic series of the same name, stars Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who inherits an ancient evil and uses it to help him fend off his crazy Uncle Paulie… who happens to be the Don. In an interesting reversal of the usual generation gap, Jackie represents the old-school version of the mob, emphasizing respect, community, and honor, while Paulie is the upstart who deals in drugs and ruthlessly eliminates even his oldest friends.
- Dead Connection is an arcade game where your player character, a tough-as-nails private investigator, cleans the city of the Mafia, gunning down mooks in suits for the entirety of the gameplay.
- Double Switch: Mobsters serve as one of the main antagonists of the game. A group consisting of four gangsters are trespassing into the apartment complex to find and kill Brutus, a former associate who failed to pay back his loan from them. You must use traps to keep them from killing Brutus and keep them out so they don't hurt the other tennants.
- The "Gotham Memoirs" book of Dress Up! Time Princess involves an Intrepid Reporter taking on crime and corruption in New York City in the early '30s. No matter what direction her investigation takes, the Mafia turn out to be deeply involved - in one branch of the story she teams up with Vittorio Puzo, a particularly principled mob boss, to take down a rival mafioso who's responsible for human trafficking and quite a bit of other nastiness.
- In Endless Space 2, the Lumeris faction is what happens when you combine the Mafia with Fish People and Proud Merchant Race. The Lumeris evolved on a tropical ocean planet and have long organised their society into families, clans and dynasties; they have long since grown past aristocracies, but still the real power brokers behind their civilisation are the so-called Four Families who control the agricultural, construction, shipbuilding and politics sectors. Though unfortunate infighting and backstabbing still happen from time to time, the Lumeris recognise the galaxy as both a grave threat and a great prize, so they have all sworn off stealing the fish from each other's plates, if only for the time being.
- Fallout:
- Fallout 1: Gizmo is the owner of the Junktown casino and boxing ring, operating several illicit side businesses while controlling the local gang calling themselves the Skulz and using them as muscle in assassination attempts against the town's mayor Killian Darkwater.
- Fallout 2 has four different criminal families vying for control over New Reno, with 2 based in family-owned casinos, one in a bar, and the last in an out-of-ways mansion overlooking the old railway station. You can do quests for more than one at a time, so long as they don't involve killing members of the other crime families you work for. Pledging your full allegiance with one by accepting a final quest to test your loyalty will have the others permanently gunning for you. Given that this last quest tends to involve eliminating a rival family wholesale, it's not too big of a deal unless you're aiming for 100% Completion.
- Fallout: New Vegas: When Mr. House established New Vegas and recruited local tribes to form the Three Families, he turned the Slither Kin into the Omertas, who run the Gomorrah casino and all dress and talk like early 20th century gangsters. House states that he set up the Omertas to be this way due to his nostalgia for how Las Vegas was before the Great War, claiming that having a shady criminal element makes New Vegas feel more authentic. Aside from being the chief supplier of vices in the Strip, they are collaborating with Caesar's Legion to bring down Vegas from within.
- Fallout 4: The Triggermen are a loosely-connected faction of independent organized crime syndicates that all style themselves after Prohibition-era gangsters, wearing suits or suspenders and fedoras while using tommy guns almost exclusively in combat.
- For the first time in... ever, the main cast of Final Fantasy XV are all citizens of the Lucis kingdom ruled and defended by the Caelum Mafia family. The main character, Noctis Lucis Caelum, is effectively (and literally) a Mafia Prince.
- In Gangland, player character comes after his three brothers, all leaders of their own families. While doing so, the player establishes his own gang.
- Gangsters Organized Crime, Player leads his own gang that isn't any way Mafia in Prohibition Era.
- Grand Theft Auto:
- Grand Theft Auto III revolves around one Mafia family, the Leones, for the first portion of the game, and the group also shows up in important roles in the other parts of the series. In fact, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories has you play as Toni Cipriani, a mobster who's of some importance in 3.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Tommy Vercetti himself is a former capo for one of the other Liberty City families, the Forellis. They ultimately become the main antagonists and final enemies of the game.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has the Leones, as well as the Sindaccos, as antagonists during the Las Venturas missions, and are the arch-rivals and competitors of The Triads and the Tongs Carl is working with.
- In Grand Theft Auto IV, by contrast, the families don't really show up until the latter parts of the game and are comparatively weak and racked by infighting, ultimately being played for fools by Dimitri.
- In The Ballad of Gay Tony, they are secondary antagonists who effectively fade into the background when Luis offs the main antagonist in spectacular fashion.
- They're surprisingly absent in Grand Theft Auto V—the closest you get to encountering them is Enzo Bonelli, a mobster-turned-real estate tycoon who serves as the target of the final assassination mission. Rocco Pelosi returns from The Ballad of Gay Tony, but he's left the mob and now works in show business.
- A Hat in Time has the Mafia of Cooks, a rather goofy example. They still rob people and punch seagulls who eat their fish, though.
- Kingdom of Loathing has the Penguin Mafia. The reason they're penguins is probably partly the resemblance between penguins and men in fine black suits, and partly that penguins are inherently funny.
- The Mafia series, unsurprisingly, focuses on the Mafia in various places: Tommy Angelo joins up with Don Salieri in Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (and its remake Mafia: Definitive Edition), Vito Scaletta joins the Empire Bay Mafia in Mafia II, and Enzo Favara becomes Don Torrisi's made man in Sicily in Mafia: The Old Country. While Mafia III breaks from this with Lincoln fighting against the New Bordeaux mafia, the Marcano family does get a significant amount of focus.
- Mafia Wars lets you play a Mafia don and do all sorts of illicit stuff for cash and prizes.
- The Punchinellos are similar to the Mafia and play a somewhat major role in the first two Max Payne games as Mooks. There's also the De Marcos, a New Jersey-based mob who appear as enemies in a few chapters in Max Payne 3 and end up going to war with the Punchinellos sometime after Max leaves for Brazil.
- Omerta: City of Gangsters places the player in a role of a mob boss in Prohibition era.
- They're one of your questgivers in OmniBus (2016), see? They ask you to demolish the town bank so they can get the loot, see? And when the heat from that heist gets too bad on Earth, they help you escape to the moon, see? It's a weird kinda' game... see?
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has the Pianta Syndicate, who rule over the western side of Rogueport and engage in frequent turf wars with the Robbo Gang in the east.
- Pokémon:
- Pokémon Red and Blue has Team Rocket. They're more based on the Yakuza in the Japanese version, but were adapted to be more like the Mafia in the international releases, as best evidenced by the name of their boss, Giovanni.
- There's also the Mon Honchkrow, a crow that looks like it's dressed like a Mafia Don. Appropriately enough, Giovanni of Team Rocket uses one in his appearance in Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
- Parodied in Sam & Max: Freelance Police with the Toy Mafia, who all wear colorful grinning teddy bear heads and use a Suck E. Cheese's-style restaurant as a thinly-disguised front for their operations.
- Skullgirls features the Medici family, who are a particularly nasty bunch. Cerebella is the only playable character who is a part of the Mafia, but several characters have histories tied to them. Ms. Fortune and the band of thieves she was in were murdered by Medici assassins, but she survived. Peacock and Marie were captured by slavers funded by the Medici, and Squigly was killed by the Medici when they attacked her family due to her mother obtaining the Skull Heart. Finally, there is Filia Medici, granddaughter of the current head of the family and the default protagonist of the game.
- One of the bonus levels in Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain has you playing as Gary Stoneman to assassinate a Mafia boss in Pescara, Italy with a one-bullet sniper rifle.
- Town of Salem, a flash based web browser game, has Mafia as one of the random alignments to play as. There are three members in Classic Mode (the Godfather, the Mafioso, and the Framer), Custom, Rapid and All Any mode can have up to five members (role selection being the previous three, Blackmailer, Janitor, Consigliere, Consort, Disguiser, and Forger) and Rainbow Mode can have a max of three (the Godfather, the Mafioso, and possibly a third random role if it's the 'Any' role). Amnesiacs can also remember that they were in the mafia and join in.
- In one chapter of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Nate and Sam infiltrate the Rossi Estate, a mansion in Italy that hosts an annual black market auction where stolen artifacts are traded. The place seems to be owned by a local crime family, as the premises are patrolled by mob enforcers serving as armed security.
- Urban Rivals has their own Mafia group known as the Montana, who make money by terrorizing the citizens of Clint City.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, TV series director Dee Vasquez is known to have connections with the Mafia (Yakuza in the original Japanese version). She uses these connections to make an attempt on Phoenix's and Maya's lives after they confront her with some crucial evidence, and it's only thanks to a Big Damn Heroes moment from Detective Gumshoe that she doesn't get away with it.
- In the third case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, fear of the Cadaverini crime family is what drives the case's true culprit, Furio Tigre, to murder the victim.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has the son of the Don of the Kitaki family as Apollo's second client. Despite being even more obviously based on the Yakuza than the previous examples in the series, the English version still treats them as the Mafia.
- In The House in Fata Morgana, Jacopo Bearzatti is an italian man who grew up in a mafia background; he's not shown actively committing crimes or taking part in the organization proper, but he is still tied to it, as one of his old associates comes by asking him for money.
- In Lucky Dog 1 the main characters are part of a mafia group called CR-5. The main character, Gian, starts out as a man who is very good at breaking in and out of prison and his first job of the game is to break out himself and the four captains who all got locked away at the same time. He soon learns if he succeeds in breaking them out he gets to become the new boss.
Web Comics
- La Cosa Nostra, unsurprisingly given the title.
- Many of the characters in Fishbones are in the mafia, and the protagonist's father is a sort of business partner/associate of theirs.
- The Mafia Nanny:
- The Angelini crime family is a powerful force in Venice, and Gabriel has been sent to make inroads in Lyon — where he faces pushback from the established players like the Russian Bratva, the French mob, the triad...
- Davina's own parents were in organised crime. At her young age they tried to keep her safe from it, but she later finds evidence that they were involved in gem smuggling and money laundering.
- The Morgia family in Miss Morgue runs everything in Fortune Waters for gambling/racketeering, and its members are constantly eyeing other crime syndicates for possible opportunities to eliminate competition or make partnerships.
- In Rusty and Co., run by illithid (mind flayer) — who else did you expect in illithid activities?
- In Sonic the Comic – Online!, there is The Family a group of bugs from the Special Zone lead by a spider called Don Long-Legs that control the Casino Night Zone and employ Max Gamble a gangster and an old enemy of the Freedom Fighters as a "legitimate" front man.
Web Original
- They play a significant role in 1983: Doomsday, the families effectively turning post-apocalyptic Sicily and Southern Italy in general into their defacto empire.
- An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government: The Republic of Greater New Jersey is run by the Five Families, who migrated to the region after New York City was nuked by the Confederacy at the end of the Second Great War. Since the pre-war Union government had fled to Canada, the Families took over efforts to maintain order, eventually striking a deal with the Confederates to become the government of their new Puppet State. As a result, the country is an oligarchy headed by the mob dons, who decree all legislation and appoint all government officials to handle day-to-day matters.
- A somewhat magical variant of this occurs in Six Chances. The families and crime organizations run an underground trafficking ring of magical Weapons of Mass Destruction. One of the main characters is a swindler who often takes jobs for one of the families at the behest of the five she shares a sudden Psychic Link with. The dialogue is straight out of The Sopranos.
- In Sonic for Hire, Mario is in charge of the video game mafia, taking out any who jeopardizes the business or anyone who becomes more popular than him.
Web Videos
- American High Digital: A set of videos has Eli playing a stereotypical mafia don in the setting of a high school.
- Michael Franzese, is a former Caporegime of the Colombo Crime family who had a Turn to Religion in prison, and now runs his own YouTube channel where he discusses what he has can say about the inner workings of the American Mafia.
- The Mothers And Fathers Italian Association appeared in Stupid Mario Brothers.
- They're the food of choice for The VelociPastor.
Western Animation
- Archer has the titular character and ISIS save the Pope from an assassination plot by Camorra goons.
- Arlo the Alligator Boy: Tony's family are a long line of, as Tony describes, "con artists, thieves, crooks, scammers, cheaters, tricksters, hustlers, swindlers, grifters, charlatans, conterfeiters, absconders, and flimflammers".
- In The Boondocks episode "The Fundraiser", while Riley confronts the head of a candy fundraising organization (who acts more like a British crime boss than anything) who's attempting a hostile takeover of Riley's chocolate trafficking business, a bunch of Italian-American mobsters randomly show up and they get into a deadly shootout with the British gangsters and the FBI. There's also this Shout-Out:
British mob boss: What is this, a casting call for The Sopranos reunion?!
- Futurama has the Robot Mafia, which is composed of only three members, though Bender has served as their occasional associate. Passing mention is also made of "Sicily 8, the Mob Planet."
- A gangster planet is destroyed by "love radiation" in the episode where Bender dates the delivery ship.
- The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation: The narrator's father was a low-level hoodlum who sometimes worked for the Mafia. Back in Italy he trafficked in stolen goods and was briefly imprisoned. In America, he sold bootleg Prohibition gin for the mob until he was caught and briefly imprisoned. Later he takes money from Mafia loan sharks to buy a hotel bar, only to conspire with the mob to burn the hotel down for the insurance when he can't repay the loan.
- Samurai Jack: In "Jack and The Gangsters", Jack joins a group of gangsters after overhearing they are planning to steal the Neptune Jewel, a gem capable of controlling water and give it to Aku.
- The Springfield Mafia from The Simpsons is an Italian-American mob family based in Springfield, and run by Fat Tony and Vittorio DiMaggio.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) has a group of 'normal' gangsters and crooks called the Mob who differentiate from the Foot ninja clan and the punkish Purple Dragon gang. They serve as the antagonists in "Lone Raph and Cub", and act as one of the factions in the Enemy Civil War created from the Evil Power Vacuum in the 3-part "City At War" arc.
That's a real nice trope page you got here. Lots of work building this thing up. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it...