Dampyr #172 (2014)pages 37-38: Intruder alert

Time to rejoin the gangsters of Mario Leone, who suffered a defeat at the hands of the Lady’s Gang in the opening pages of this issue. They pay an unwelcome visit to an unnamed but prominent resident of “Casal Palocco, a residential area on the outskirts of Rome”:

“Here is our fine politician!”

“Mario Leone! You! What are you thinking of, coming to my house?”

“Keep your voice down. You don't want your neighbors to know that you hang out with people like us.”

“If someone saw you, it would be a problem for both of us. Haven't you thought of that?”

“Siddown!”

“I’m not worried. I think I could easily find someone else in your place who'd like to supplement their salary. Maybe even more effectively than you.”

“So... what's the problem?”

“You tell me. You worried me enough to make me run here in person. What is this restrictive ordinance that the council wants to approve?”

I wonder whether this politician (who is conspicuously not given a name) is based on Francesco Rocca. As a teenager in the 1980s, he spent time in prison for dealing heroin for a gang based in Casal Palocco. He then became a lawyer. By the time this story was published, he was head of the Italian Red Cross. He more recently became president of Lazio, the region in which Rome lies, making him the equivalent of an American governor. One of the gangsters in this story is named "Rocco," and another has a son named "Francesco." Coincidence? Maybe, or maybe not.