Mafia 'godmother' turns collaborator to give her children a future

Giuseppina Vitale was a hard woman of the Mafia, one of the new breed of "bosses in skirts" to which the Sicilian mob has grudgingly grown accustomed.

So many bosses are in jail that often the only person available to keep the funds flowing and the mobsters in line is little sister.

Giusy (pronounced "Juicy") Vitale played her part with conviction. The Mafia was her family's life. Her brothers, Leonardo and Vito, were rising stars of the Palermo underworld, spoken of in hushed tones as the likely heirs to capo di capi Bernardo "The Tractor" Provenzano, who has been on the run for more than 40 years.

But Vitale, 33, is now a collaborator with justice and has been telling a Rome court what it is like to grow up in such a family.