A (literally 'head of ten',Schneider, Reversible Destiny, p. 83 also called caporegime in the American Mafia) is the head of a , a branch within a Sicilian Mafia family. In the larger families, a is selected by the head of the family and coordinates units of about ten people.Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods, p. 41
Mafia members are organized under the supervision of a who reports his activities to his superiors, who may be the consigliere or even the boss of the Mafia family himself. The term derives from ('ten'), suggesting that each would be in charge of ten men.Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, p. 111 The term was mentioned as early as the 1880s in Sicily to describe the organisation of the Fratellanza, a Mafia-type organisation in Agrigento, in the south of Sicily.Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia, p. 294
The Mafioso Melchiorre Allegra spoke of a in his 1937 testimony. He said a family would split into groups of ten men each when it became unmanageably large.
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