Sicilian man hawks Mafia souvenir shirts

PALERMO, Italy, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A formerly unemployed man in Sicily is making a living hawking T-shirts sporting Mafia-inspired designs outside the theater seen in “The Godfather: Part III.”

Salvatore Trippodo of Palermo says tourists -- perhaps influenced by the popularity of HBO’s “The Sopranos” -- are loading up on the items, Italy's ANSA news service reported Friday.

One design features Marlon Brando as Don Corleone in "The Godfather." Others bear the omerta code of the Mafia -- often summed up as "don’t see; don’t hear; don’t speak."

"The idea came to me when I was really depressed about my chances of ever finding a job," Trippodo told ANSA. "It's really hard to find work in Sicily and it's so easy to slip into doing something wrong; but with a bit of imagination, you can create your own job."