In previous articles, we talked about the history of the Campanian Camorra, the modern clans of this criminal community, casually mentioning the women of these "families". Now let's talk about some of them in more detail.
Camorristers
About the women of the Camorra, Roberto Saviano writes in the book "Gomorrah":
“Often women see a Camorrist husband as a capital won from fate.
If it pleases heaven and allows ability, capital will bring income, and women will become entrepreneurs, leaders, generals with unlimited power …
Camorra women use their bodies to influence the formation of alliances.
By their appearance and behavior, you can find out how influential their family is, they stand out from the crowd with black veils at funerals, wild screams during arrests, blowing kisses sent from behind a barrier at court hearings."
The niece of the head of the Portici clan, 29-year-old Anna Vollaro, became famous all over Italy when she doused herself with gasoline and burned herself alive in a pizzeria, where the police came.
A skirmish of women of the Kava and Graziano clans thundered all over the country.
In May 2002, four women of the Cava family (the youngest of them, Biagio, the daughter of the head of the clan, was 16 years old) fired at an Alfa Romeo car, where Stefania and Chiara Graziano, who were 20 and 21 years old, were located, respectively. They returned to their villa, took an escort car with four militants and went to deal with the offenders. They caught up with them near the village of Lauro, 20 km from Naples. Having blocked the opponents with two of their Audi-80 vehicles, they opened fire from machine guns, killing three of them and wounding the fourth.
In Italy, this incident is called the "Murder of Women." The shocked journalist of the Corriere della Sera newspaper then stated:
"Never before have women pointed guns at each other or played a major role in shootouts."
One of the men accompanying the girls of the Graziani family - Adriano later became the head of the clan. He fled from justice for many years and was arrested on July 27, 2008.
Let's continue to quote Saviano:
"In recent years, a lot has changed in the world of Camorra, including the role of women: from a continuer of the family and support in difficult times, she has gone all the way to a real manager, mainly engaged in entrepreneurial and financial activities."
Italian historian Antonio Nicasso agrees with Roberto Saviano:
“Historically, women … raised children, ran a household, cooked food, sometimes packed drugs.
Arranged marriage united clans, so women have always been used as an excuse to create new alliances."
But now, he argues, “The role of women is changing.
They become more important.
They used to be respected for being the mother, daughter, or wife of a mobster.
Now they gain the respect themselves through the skillful leadership of the gang."
Sociologist Anna Maria Zacharia (Federico II University of Naples) says the same:
“Over the past twenty years, the female role (in crime families) has become more evident.
Especially in the Camorra, where women are often at the center of crime and leading gangs."
So, in Camorra, it is now considered quite acceptable that a murdered or arrested husband is replaced by his wife or sister in the place of the head of the clan.
A little later we will talk about some of the "business woman" of the Campanian Camorra. But first, let's talk about Assunta Marinetti, who throughout Italy became famous for her revenge and went down in history under the nicknames "Pupetta", "Criminal Diva" and "Madame Camorra".
Roberto Saviano in his famous book "Gomorrah" called her "a beautiful avenger and killer."
"Little doll" Assunta Marinetti
Assunta Marinetti was the only daughter in a family of hereditary Camorrists.
The men of this family were famous for throwing knives and for this they received the nickname Lampetielli. Assunta herself in 1954 became the winner of the beauty contest in Rovellano - at that time she was 19 years old. Because of her fragile graceful physique, she was called "Pupetta" - "little doll", "chrysalis".
By the way, hardly any of you will say that he knows the Italian singer Enzo Ginazzi and has heard many of his songs. But Pupo is a completely different matter, isn't it? This is Ginazzi's nickname: also a "doll", only masculine. At the peak of his popularity in the USSR, he was called "Buratino" - because of the song "Burattino telecomandato", the greatest hit of all discos of the 80s of the twentieth century.
But back to Assuntea. In 1955, she married the leader of a local gang of smugglers and racketeers Pascual Simonetti, who was also called "Big Pasquale". When her husband was killed on the orders of "business partner" - Antonio Esposito, Assunta was six months pregnant. This did not stop her from shooting the offender herself (August 4, 1955). She did this in the market square of Naples, traditionally controlled by the Esposito family. The crime was solved. Appearing before the court, Assunta stated:
"If I had to do it again, I would do it again."
Those present in the hall reacted to her words with a standing ovation.
In Italy, the song La legge d'onore, dedicated to Assunta, became popular, journalists called her Madame Camorra and Crime Prima Donna, hundreds of men sent letters with an offer of marriage, a police van, where she was taken to court, thrown with flowers.
In 1958, the film La sfida, which won the jury prize of the Venice Film Festival, was directed by Francesco Rosi in Italy.
Both the film itself and the leading actor Rosanna Schiaffino Assante really liked (but the film "Il caso Pupetta Maresca", filmed in 1982, at the request of Assunta "lay on the shelf" for 12 years).
In April 1959, the avenger was sentenced to imprisonment for 18 years (the court of appeal reduced it to 13 years 4 months). Having received a pardon in 1965, Assunta was released from prison and became the mistress of Umberto Ammaturo, one of the leaders of the Nuova Famiglia (the new structure of the Camorra, created by Michele Zaza, was described in the last article).
In 1974, Assunta's 18-year-old son was kidnapped and killed. And in 1982, she was sentenced to four years in prison for complicity in the murder of forensic expert Aldo Semerari. Later, Umberto Ammaturo confessed to this murder.
In 2013, the miniseries Pupetta: Courage and Passion was filmed in Italy about the life of Assunta Marinetti, in which Manuela Marcuri played the main role.
"Right hand" by Raffaelo Cutolo
The article New Structures of the Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita described the Nuova Camorra Organizzata created by Raffaelo Cutolo. Since this boss was in the prison of Pogge Reale, his sister Rosetta, who took the position of Santisti, became his deputy in the wild.
At first, its headquarters was located in the Mediseo castle of the 16th century (which had 365 rooms for various purposes), surrounded by a park with a tennis court and a swimming pool.
Here she negotiated with representatives of the Colombian drug lords and hosted the Sicilian mafia's Dons. But since 1983, Rosetta Cutolo was forced to hide from the authorities.
It was under her leadership that Nuova Camorra Organizzata waged a war against Michele Zaza's "New Family" while at the same time being attacked by the authorities. For 10 years, Rosetta continued to command the remnants of her organization until she surrendered in 1993, claiming she was "tired of running." At this time she was 56 years old.
"Black Widow Camorra" and "Uma Thurman"
Anna Mazza (Moccia) became the leader of her clan after the murder of her husband, Gennaro Moccia. And she led it for 20 years (80-90s of the twentieth century).
Like Assunta Marinetti (Pupetta), she began her career in Camorra with revenge for her husband, but sent her 13-year-old son to kill the offender.
As a minor, he escaped punishment for murder, and it was not possible to prove Anna's complicity. She became an ally of Michele Zaza's "New Family" and therefore an adversary to Raffaelo Cutolo.
When the incredible happened - the head of the Pogjomarino clan Pasquale Galasso agreed to cooperate with the investigation, it was the Moccio clan who tried to eliminate the apostate: the Camorrists used a grenade launcher, but never achieved their goal. The killers were then led by Giorgio Salierno, Anna's son-in-law.
And the godmother of her daughter Teresa was Immacolata (translated into Russian, this name means "Immaculate") Capone. We mentioned her in the last article - this is the same petite blonde who “dressed exactly like Uma Thurman”.
In 1993, Anna Moccia was exiled to the north of Italy - to Treviso. She died at the age of 80 in 2017.
As Anna's successor, Immacolata (Imma) Capone founded a construction company and a ceramic factory in Afragola, and also became the head of Motrer, a land buying and selling firm in southern Italy. On the land that belonged to the Moccia clan, the largest Ikea store in Italy was built. Immacolata's huge success was the purchase of a piece of land, which was then “unexpectedly” chosen for the construction of a hospital: the resale profit was 600%.
In the book "Gomorrah" Roberto Saviano writes about her:
“If Anna Mazza, with her old-fashioned styling and chubby cheeks, looked like a real matron, then Immacolata was an elegant petite blonde with a neat hairdo …
She was not looking for men who were ready to transfer part of their power to her, on the contrary, men were looking for her protection."
Here's how Saviano describes his meeting with Imma Capone:
“I saw her once.
She went to a supermarket in Afragol.
She was followed by two girls - bodyguards. They accompanied her in the Smart, a small two-seater car owned by every mafioso woman, whose doors, judging by the thickness, were armored.
The bodyguard girl is probably represented by many as a masculine bodybuilder with pumped up muscles. Powerful hips, hypertrophied pectoral muscles instead of a bust, hefty biceps, a bull's neck.
The ones that caught my eye did not at all correspond to this stereotype.
One is short, with wide heavy hips and dyed blue-black hair, the other is thin, fragile, angular.
I was amazed at how carefully their clothes were chosen, some detail necessarily repeated the color of "smart" - intense yellow … the color was not chosen by chance.
Jumpsuit of the same color was worn by Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill.
Immacolata Capone was shot dead in the center of Sant'Antimo in March 2004, violating the Camorra's ancient principle that women should not be killed.
"Little Girl" Maria Licciardi
Maria Licciardi, known by the nickname "little girl" or "shorty" (La Piccerella), after the arrest of two brothers and her husband from 1993 to 2001 headed the Alleanza di Secondigliano.
Secondigliano is one of the suburbs of Naples, the main center for counterfeit production of "branded" brands of clothing and footwear - this was described in the article New structures of Camorra and Sacra Corona Unita.
The Secondigliano Alliance, which controlled five quarters of the northern part of "Greater Naples," consisted of six families.
In 2004, the Di Lauro clan came out of it, since that time it has been called the "Schismatics". After the death of Rafael Di Lauro, the leader of the "Raskolniki" was 25-year-old Marco, who was on the list of the most dangerous criminals in Italy.
It was then that he was considered the most authoritative "boss" of the Camorra. Over the years, he managed to hide from the police. But he was still arrested in 2013. It was under the leadership of Maria Licardi that Alleanza di Secondigliano waged a "war" with the "schismatics" of the Di Lauro family, during which nearly 120 people were killed in Naples and its environs.
Previously, Alleanza di Secondigliano was mainly involved in racketeering and drug trafficking. But on the initiative of Maria Licciardi, he also began to actively "buy" underage girls from Albanians for brothels in Italy and other European countries. At the same time, Maria was very popular in Secondigliano, as she periodically provided material assistance to needy fellow countrymen.
This woman was arrested in 2001 and was held in prison until 2009. Judge Luigi Bobbio gave the following assessment of her activities:
“It's amazing that a woman, taking responsibility for running an organization, was able to lower her emotional level and improve the results of the group's actions.”
Maria Licciardi is still alive, claiming that she “retired”. However, some criminologists and journalists who specialize in publishing materials about the Camorra have a different opinion.
"Big kitten" Rafaella D'Alterio
This lady was married to Nicola Pianese, the boss of the Camorra, whose "possession" was the commune of Castello di Cisterna.
After his assassination in 2006, Rafaella led and successfully ruled the clan for 6 years, surviving an assassination attempt in 2009. In 2012, she was charged with extortion, robbery, illegal possession of weapons and drugs.
At the time of her arrest, $ 10 million was seized from her. Among other property of her family, a Ferrari car with a solid gold license plate was confiscated. It was one of the gifts from the groom to Rafaella's daughter.
"Business woman" drug trafficking
Nunzia D'Amico became the head of her clan after the death of her three brothers and succeeded in drug trafficking (significantly surpassing all her predecessors). She said to her subordinates:
"Outwardly I am a woman, but on the inside I am more a man than you."
She was killed in her home (the children who were there at that time were not injured).
After her death, the D'Amico clan fell into decay. And then it completely ceased to exist.
To conclude the story about female camorristers, I will cite, perhaps, an interesting quote from an interview with Mario Puzo (author of the novel "The Godfather", an American of Italian descent), in which he literally stated the following:
“Whenever Don Vito Corleone opened his mouth, in my head I began to hear my mother’s voice.
I heard her wisdom, ruthlessness and great love for her family and for life in general …
Don's courage and loyalty came from her."
