Malcolm Moore, “Mafia boss reads Dante Alighieri in prison” (2008)

“Bernardo Provenzano, the former Godfather of the Sicilian Mafia who is serving life in prison, is spending his time reading Dante and writing to a pen pal. . . ‘I have read the Inferno,’ he wrote. ‘And especially where it says that on life’s journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost.’ The former boss of all the bosses–who ordered the assassination of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, a pair of anti-Mafia investigators–told Bonavota that ‘when reason and force collide, force wins and reason is lacking.’” [. . .]    —The Telegraph (January 28, 2008)

Contributed by Aisha Woodward (Bowdoin, ’08)