The Sixth Legion

Chapter 3 - Origins

Don's father went by the name of Vincent Cuillo. Born in 1917 in Alia, a hilltop village on the island of Sicily.  His family had roots there going back practically to the Neolithic era. The Cuillo tribe was related in one way or another to nearly everyone in and around the village, and Donny's Grandfather, Genaro Cuillo, was at the top of the food chain in Alia. A true "Man of Honor", pretty much nothing happened in or around Alia without his say so. During the 1920's he built a relatively opulent estate in the Sardono Mountains east of the village that had a working farm and a few other small enterprises. He appropriately named it "Villa Cuillo." The idea was that it would be near enough too Alia to conduct his business, but isolated enough for him to carry on the family's darker enterprises away from the public eye...

So that was where Donny's dad spent his childhood. Donny, on the other hand, was born years later in America, and if you looked at him compared to his father or grandfather, or for that matter, anyone on that side of the family, you would never have known there was a blood relation... This was due to the genetic influence of his mother, Cynthia, who hailed from the Diotrephes clan on the eastern end of the island. They were descendants of an ancient strain of Greeks who settled in the city of Syracuse long before the Roman era. His mother's people had a much lighter Anglo gene, and though her people were very photogenic, Donny grew up feeling he had been cursed with Anglo features. While he had brown hair, light skin, and blue eyes, his father and most his beautiful cousins, aunts, and uncles had classic Sicilian features: olive skin, raven black hair, and those dark soulful eyes that only one of ancient Latin linage bears. Like most Sicilians, Donny's father Vincent had a stone cold poker face and if he chose not to reveal his mood - you wouldn't know if he was planning to kiss your cheek or slit your throat. That said, the hallmark of Vincent Cuillo's appearance was a deceptive twinkle in the eye accompanied by a mirthful smirk that served to conceal all goings on within.

Most of the Cuillo clan was forced to flee Sicily in late 1937 in the wake of Mussolini's rampaging army. The dictator had sent a large force to crush the Mafia and Donny's people were caught up in the maelstrom. A popular myth still abounds that on a tour of the island, Mussolini (affectionately known as "il Duce") had been offended by some local mafia chieftain, but as always, the truth was far more complex. Mussolini was infuriated alright, but it was over intelligence reports that a secret Sicilian society known as the "Knights of Sicily" was operating directly under the nose of Italian officials on the island but admittedly, the provincial government installed at the time by Rome, hadn't a clue how things actually worked on the island.

The Sicilian people inherently distrusted outsiders, and their society was basically a closed loop. If you weren't family or didn't know anyone, nothing got done. Most of the administrators on the island had no blood connection to the people; so they were very ineffective. Additionally, as Rome had always leveled heavy taxes on Sicilians, nearly every segment of the island's economy had long since gone underground. Sicilians paid taxes alright, but they paid most of them under the table to the Men of Honor in their particular regions. And this left little for the coffers of Rome further angering Mussolini. Needless to say, Sicilian society was a very complex and layered system. There was the administrative class at the top who answered to Rome and were mostly off-islanders. Then there were the Men of Honor, who ran the different regions that divided the island. The Men of Honor were also members of a number of secret societies... Some of these secret groups were actually sanctioned by the Catholic Church, such as the "Knights of Sicily" and the "Knights of Columbus..." However, there were other groups of a slightly darker nature, such as the White Mafia, which was really a lighter version of the far more evil La Cosa Nostra... The White Mafia was made up mostly of Lawyers, Doctors and other professionals who merely operated in the underground economy, but at the dark bottom were the actual Mafia clans who were ruthless killers and would destroy anyone who garnered their ire...