Sicily's murder rate sharply declined.[18] Landowners were able to raise the legal rents on their lands; sometimes as much as ten-thousandfold.[7] The Fascist Party propaganda machine proudly announced that the Mafia had been defeated.[19]
Many Mafia members fled to the United States. Among these were Carlo Gambino and Joseph Bonanno, who became powerful Mafia bosses in New York City. In 1943, nearly half a million Allied troops invaded Sicily. Crime soared in the upheaval and chaos. Many inmates escaped from their prisons, banditry returned and the black market thrived. During the first six months of Allied occupation, party politics in Sicily were banned.[20] Most institutions, with the exception of the police and carabinieri were destroyed, and the American occupiers had to build a new order from scratch.[21] As Fascist mayors were deposed, the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) simply appointed replacements. Many turned out to be former Mafia members, such as Calogero Vizzini and Giuseppe Genco Russo.[22][23] They easily presented themselves as fascist dissidents[24] and their anti-communist positions strengthened their bids for political offices. Mafia bosses reformed their clans, absorbing some of the marauding bandits into their ranks.[25]
