Italian Mafia

The Italian Mafia enters the novel’s manhunt not as an actor in the conspiracy against Charles de Gaulle, but as a possible source of assassins whose known criminal work must be distinguished from political murder. In response to Claude Lebel’s international enquiries, Italian police describe contract killers associated with the organization and relay a qualified assurance that it would not subscribe to an assassination of a foreign statesman.

Appearance in the Investigation

As Lebel searches foreign police files for a professional political assassin, Italy supplies a lead of a different kind: several known contract killers are employed by the Italian Mafia. The information reaches the French investigation through discreet enquiries between the Italian Carabinieri and the Capo of Rome. The exchange makes the organization relevant to the search, but only as a possible source of expertise and information; the evidence does not connect it to the plot.

Criminal Contract Work and Political Killing

The report distinguishes ordinary contract killing from political assassination. According to the assurance conveyed by the Italian police, a Mafia killer would undertake a political killing only on orders, while the organization itself would not subscribe to the killing of a foreign statesman. That distinction does not mean its members are incapable of violence; it limits what the investigators believe the organization would authorize in this particular category of crime.

The Police Assessment

Lebel tells the assembled officials that he is personally inclined to believe the Italian account is probably true. His response is cautious rather than absolute: the information helps narrow the search, but remains an assessment based on a report passed through police channels. The Mafia is therefore treated as a lead that can be provisionally discounted, not as a proven impossibility or a confirmed source of the intended assassin.

Narrative Significance

The episode shows the investigation testing the boundary between criminal notoriety and political capability. The Italian Mafia’s reputation makes it an obvious place to ask about contract killers, yet the answer separates a criminal market from a specific political objective. In the manhunt, that distinction matters: the investigators are not looking merely for a hired gun, but for someone with a record of political killings and a willingness to target a foreign head of state.