Lupara

The word achieved wider recognition through Mario Puzo's bestselling novel The Godfather in which the lupara is used extensively by the mafia in Sicily, including Michael Corleone's bodyguards in Sicily, Calo and Fabrizio.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, in his novel The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), writes: "... they found him dead ... with twelve bullets in his back" (... lo hanno trovato morto ... con dodici lupare nella schiena).

[3] An early example of criminal use of the weapon in the United States was the assassination of the New Orleans chief of police, David Hennessy, in October 1890.

[4] After Chief Hennessy was shot in an ambush, four luparas were found at the murder scene.

[5] The murder punctuated a rivalry between gangs of Sicilian fruit company stevedores whose contracts did not fall under the auspices of the local longshoreman's union.