The Induction

Lucchese Family henchman Joseph "Joe Cargo" Valachi made headlines in 1963 after becoming the first member of the Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly. Even more importantly, Valachi told the U.S. Senate about the Costa Nostra's most secret of ceremonies: the Induction. The informant claimed that a man becomes a soldier after having his finger pricked, with the blood spilling onto a picture of a saint, which was then burned. The inductees were told that if they disobeyed "the family" their flesh would burn like the picture of the saint.