US television studio wiip has hired The Traitor co-screenwriter Ludovica Rampoldi to adapt a mixed-language series set against the early days of the Mafia in New York.

The series will be based on the late author Arrigo Petacco’s non-fiction book Mano Nera (Black Hand), which chronicles the work of Joe Petrosino, an Italian-born New York police officer who led a squad of detectives that fought the Mafia.