To become a full member of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra (both the original Sicilian Mafia or the Italian-American offshoot often known as the "American Mafia") – to become a "man of honor" or a "made man" – an aspiring member must take part in an initiation ritual or initiation ceremony. The ceremony involves significant ritual, oaths, blood, and an agreement is made to follow the rules of the Mafia as presented to the inductee. The first known account of the ceremony dates back to 1877 in Sicily.
The typical sequence of the ceremony according to several distinct descriptions has common features. First, the new recruit is led into the presence of other members and presented by a member. The association is explained, including its basic rules, then his finger is pricked with a needle by the officiating member. A few drops of blood are spilled on a card bearing the likeness of a saint, the card is set on fire, and finally, while the card is passed rapidly from hand to hand to avoid burns, the novice takes an oath of loyalty to the Mafia family. This may have been inspired by the oral legends of initiation rituals of the Sicilian sect Beati Paoli, popularized in 1909 by the William Galt serialized novel I Beati Paoli.
In Sicily
The first known account of the ceremony dates back to 1877 in Monreale in an article in the Giornale di Sicilia in an account about the Stuppagghiari, an early Mafia-type organisation. Other early accounts were during a trial against the Fratellanza (Brotherhood) in Agrigento (1884) and the Fratuzzi (Little Brothers) in Bagheria (1889).
One of the first life accounts of an initiation ceremony was given by Bernardino Verro, a leader of the Fasci Siciliani, a popular social movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the early 1890s. To give the movement teeth and protect himself from harm, Verro joined the Fratuzzi in Corleone. In a memoir written many years later, he describes the initiation ritual he underwent in the spring of 1893:
Soon after Verro broke with the Mafia and, according to police reports, became their most bitter enemy. He was killed by the Mafia in 1915 when he was the mayor of Corleone.
In the United States
As a result of the Apalachin meeting, the membership books to become a made man in the mob were closed in 1957 and were not reopened until 1976. The first known account of the ritual in the United States was provided in 1963 by Joe Valachi, who was initiated in 1930, in his testimony at the McClellan hearings. Valachi's was a high-profile case, and helped convince the country of the existence of the organization in the United States called the Cosa Nostra, also known as the Mafia. He provided the FBI with firsthand information about the inside of the Mafia, including one of the first ever descriptions of the induction ceremony.
Ceremony
Choosing new members
The Mafia solicits specific people for membership—one cannot just choose to join up. In Tommaso Buscetta's testimony for the Pizza Connection Trial, he was asked what he did to get into the Cosa Nostra. He answered, "I didn't make out any application to become a member—I was called, I was invited." Joe Valachi had an extended courtship before he finally consented to join. He was eventually swayed by the argument of Mafioso Bobby Doyle, who said that a solo career of crime was much more dangerous. Doyle said to Valachi, "Join us and you will be made. You will earn money and you are not to steal anymore." Things had been getting difficult for Valachi in terms of frequent arrests and other consequences of his lifestyle, and he acknowledged the logic of Doyle's argument.
Descriptions
The ceremony is a dinner or a meeting. Several people may be inducted at once. When inducted, "... they are 'made' or 'baptized' or 'get their badges.'" Other terms used are wiseguys, a friend of ours, good fellow, one of us, and straightened out.
Valachi gave the most well-known description of the ceremony:
I sit down at the table. There is wine. Someone put a gun and a knife in front of me. The gun was a .38 and the knife was what we call a dagger. Maranzano [the boss] motions us up and we say some words in Italian. Then Joe Bonanno pricks my finger with a pin and squeezes until the blood comes out. What then happens, Mr. Maranzano says, 'This blood means that we are now one Family. You live by the gun and the knife and you die by the gun and the knife.'
Valachi was inducted with three others. There were about 40 members present, so the new initiates could "meet the family."