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Local landowners, unable to fend off bandits on their own, resorted to hiring them for protection—establishing what would become the early Mafia. These ‘companies-at-arms’ formed allegiances with different landowners yet ultimately conspired with bandits, morphing into ruthless protection rackets. By 1885, the term "mafia" emerged, symbolizing a group that thrived on swagger and intimidation while establishing parallel societal structures governed by a code of silence known as "Omertà."