The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

When you think about crime bosses, whose name rises to the top? Perhaps your first impulse is to go with Vito Corleone. However, the character in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather is mostly a composite figure based on real Mafia kingpins Frank Costello, Don Joe Profaci, and Carlo Gambino. Besides, Vito Corleone fades into the shadows of his ascending son Michael, who eclipses his father at the top of the Corleone family and runs it with calculating brutality. 

Well then, let’s consider Vito Genovese, a real mobster who distinguished himself during Prohibition. Another good choice: Lucky Luciano, the father of modern organized crime. Or, take your pick of Al Capone, better known as “Scarface” and leader of the Valentine’s Day Massacre; Bugsy Siegel, the Jewish-American mobster who helped put Las Vegas on the map; Carlo Gambino, who took over the Mangano family and renamed it after himself; John Gotti, also known as “The Teflon Don” until throat cancer took his life; or Vincent Louis Gigante, a heavyweight boxer who became a brutal mob enforcer. Any of these colorful characters might lay claim to being the most feared crime boss in the underworld.

But they all take a back seat to Salvatore Toto Riina, perhaps the most notorious mobster of all time. Born in Corleone, Sicily, Riina became boss of the Sicilian Mafia. During his criminal career, Riina personally murdered at least forty people and ordered hits on hundreds of others, including several anti-Mafia prosecutors. Long after his death in Parma Prison, just a day after his eighty-seventh birthday, Riina is considered the most dangerous mob boss ever.