"When Gaspare Galati took over the management of the Riella Fund in 1872, he knew he was going to have a headache. The ten-acre lemon and mandarin farm outside Palermo should have been a prime property, giving its owner a slice of the burgeoning citrus market that had northwest Sicily awash with wealth. Instead, he seemed to be cursed. Galati's late brother-in-law, who had left him in charge of the estate, had died of a heart attack after receiving a series of mysterious and threatening letters. And everyone knew that the farm's warden, Benedetto Carollo, had been stealing more than his fair share of profits for years.
Galati was a surgeon and a family man, highly respected by everyone in the city, so he followed the book. First, he tried to lease the property, but Carollo made it impossible, harassing potential tenants and ruining the farm's reputation by stealing pre-sold lemons from the trees. Finally, Galati thought he could nip the problem in the bud: he fired Carollo.
He must have thought that would be the end. Instead, in July 1874, his new warden, Carollo's replacement, was found lying between two rows of lemon trees, with multiple bullets in his back. After Galati hired another warden, more threatening letters began to arrive, accusing him of firing a "man of honor" in favor of a "base spy." If Galati did not rehire Carollo, one letter said, he too would suffer the fate of his late warden, but "more barbaric." In other words, someone was making him an offer he couldn't refuse…."
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