The history of organized crime

HISTORY OF CAMORRA
What is the Camorra.
It seems that the word Camorra comes from "the head of the morra"
the individual which regulated the conduct of the typical road game
not to degenerate into rissa1.
Paul Ricci in "The Origins of the Camorra" (ed. Synthesis, 1989), however,
states that this term is often mentioned in the ancient
comedies in Neapolitan dialect, indicating a kind of dress or
jacket short.
In a communication dated September 27, 1573 reads: "To our
news was received that in the prisons of the Great Court is the vicarious
make a lot of extortion by prisoners, creating one another in such a priori
prison, charging the oil for the lamps and making others give
illicit payments, making them the masters in these prisons. "
According to Luke Torre, author of "Customs and Traditions of the Camorra.
History of yesterday and today, "the organization born from the Camorra
Brotherhood of Guardugna (Brotherhood of the robbery) existing in
Spain already from 1417, "a sort of secret society composed of
brigands of all kinds, arranged to all sorts of cruelty, provided
rewarding. "One of the most characteristic figures of the period will be the
chiazziere: an agent that sent the town hall around the squares in
ambulantato collect the fee and license to sell in a
given location. These, affirm the De Bourcard, "ran from one
end to the other in the streets, it was over to the vendors, restrained donkeys and donkey drivers and
threatening, often beating, was receiving a penny from each
peasant, plebeian or hawker, at times, denying those who
had paid and using ways always rude and barbarous. "
However, it will only since 1820, under Bourbon rule, the Camorra
will be organized in an efficient manner, militarizzandosi. This will be done
when you realize that government institutions are in
absolute inability to deal with the phenomenon.
It will be at this point that the rules give a true and
ritual for those wishing to join the association, perhaps borrowed from the
and Masonic secret societies Mazzini. There will be a hierarchy from
all respect and a path to a career in
organization. From giuvinnotto annorato to picciuotto a racketeer.
The penalties are severe for those who have strayed, that is for all those who
breaking the frieno, ie the twenty-six articles of the company dell'umirtà,
ratified September 12, 1842 by capintesta and popular leader.
This is, in a particular shape within the Camorra: the choleric,
which is derived from guapo, which in Spanish means coraggioso6. It was these
an isolated man, acting individually and was respected by all
inhabitants of the ward or district in which he lived and most of the time was
considered as a reference point by the inhabitants themselves.
The weapon of choice of protocamorra will be the knife and the gun.
So says L. Tower, "a sort of Robin Hood was a Neapolitan
this ancient specimen of guappo, who presides over an image of
facade, to make well accepted that part of the organization
not at all romantic who is interested in extortion, exploitation
prostitution, wear, batch illegal, and so on. "
The combination of mafia-politics is very old, dating back more than a century ago.
Under the Bourbons, for example, it will be charged by police
exercise control of the prisons, markets, banks,
gambling dens, brothels and all of disreputable places of the city. This will be
witnessed by a racketeer repentant, who drives to Italian
occurred, it will make some sensational revelations, even though, according to Paul
Ricci, rather fanciful, "He, however, stated that the sect was
mail even under the supervision of the Minister of Police, and that
following the election of each new affiliate of the Camorra, this
submitted to the Commissioner of his district to hand over part of the
jar (tangent) he is entitled. The prefect, in turn, in addition to
collect their own jar, proportions and of an appropriate size to
his high office, presided over - according to historians liberaliall'organamento
of the secret society and appointed himself the chief of the
twelve o'clock city districts, each of which had a commission
Monthly twelve ducats »8. The agreement between the Camorra and the Bourbon government,
therefore, would have been perfect
That these claims are true or not, the fact remains that the Bourbons
believed the Camorra an inescapable element, a catalyst of the
instances of urban sottoploretariato. But May 15, 1848 the agreement
will fail. Ferdinand II, in fact, they forgot the unwritten agreement,
grant the constitution and immediately suppress, betraying
part of that mob, consisting of the Camorra, who had seen the
constitution itself a kind of freedom, a removal of the brake
police, an incipit that would have made them out of quell'irregolarità of
always.
Hounded by the Minister of Police, Ajossa, they will have the opportunity
to get in touch with the great names of Italian patriotism unit,
Settembrini as Luigi, Luigi and Silvio Scare Poerio, which
openly solicit the help of the mafia in uniform motion.
In fact, how about a century after Cosa Nostra facilitate the landing
allies in Sicily, with the help of the boss Lucky Luciano, so the Camorra
in 1860 will prepare the entry of Garibaldi, without excessive shedding
blood and no onerous social unrest.
This will be done through the work of the new Prefect of Police, Liborio
Romano, Don Liborio said that after the proclamation of the state
siege (27-28 June 1860), will have an idea nothing short of brilliant, even
if dangerous, "I thought to prevent the sad deeds of '" Camorra "
offering 'the most influential leaders a means to rehabilitate them; and so it seemed to me
take them to the party of disorder, or at least paralyze the sad trends
at that moment mancavami any strength, not to repress it, to
contain them. Wherefore, made ​​me in my home the most famous among them,
(perhaps Tore 'and Crescienzo, ed) under the guise of the commettergli
processing of my private affair, I greeted him and told him the good
He came to it and pe 'his friends time to rehabilitate itself from false
location where aveagli driven, not their good natured commoner,
but the lack of foresight of the government, which had closed all the roads
the industriousness without capital.
That was my intention to draw a veil over their past, and call
the best among them and be part of the novella police force, which does not
would have been more composed sad minions, and vile spies, but people
honest, that, well remunerated for his important services, he briefly gained the esteem of 'proprii citizens.
The man, from first doubtful and uncertain, he showed himself moved by the
my words, he stopped every suspicion, he wished to kiss my hand; promised
even more than what I asked, he added that it would be in an hour
I returned to the prefecture. And before the hour had passed, it was
with his companion assured me that he had given the necessary
preventions to their friends, and that I could ever have in their lives. It
keep their promises, so as to convince me that, if the
Men are not wholly good, no, not entirely perverse,
if they do not force them to be. "
It will be from this point that men like Michael or 'chiazziere, the
Slave-girl, and Tore 'Crescienzo will become "the enthusiastic and noisy
foremen of this strange new guard without uniform and
unarmed, carrying only a small stick in his hand and a
tricolor cockade hat. "
Naples in recent years become a city tidy, livable under their
travel check. The unrest caused by filoborbonici will be sedated on
born and in an almost always bloodless.
Tore and his wife 'Crescienzo,' to Sangiuvannara, will become a figure
legendary in the districts of Montecalvario and Advocate and will be among those
who will fight more against women Pallonetto of Saint Lucia and
Caves of Chiatamone, Bourbon sympathizers.
After the drive, however, the services rendered by the Camorra-cops will not be
recognized, in fact, will only be recognized this danger of
Liborio Romano. The increased power of men are honored, the failure to
creation of jobs, will restore the status quo of the underworld
organized.
So, break the covenant Liberal Camorra, Silvio Scare, the new minister of
Police in the government of the regency, in October of 1862 will stop
about three hundred head Camorra, believing he had decapitated with a single
without the dangerous organization. But it will not.
In fact, the Camorra, for about a hundred years after its maximum
organization, that is, since 1820, with the entry in the unofficial company
Bourbon, will live according to the strict rules of frieno.
Men of honor will be: Salvatore De Crescenzo, said Tore 'and
Crescienzo, Theophilus Sperino, said Don Way, Hood and Don Ciccio.
According to Luke Torre: "I was in these men a sort of honesty to
timer, but always honest. And 'the desire for prestige
contrast to that of the lords and nobles. Violence was violence
pure, direct, not subtle. "Of a Camorra you already knew the
behavior. The bad mistake on the part of the woman he had loved for
Consequently scarring of the same face, the tip-off was a
sentenced to certain death, while the betrayal was unacceptable and the
final judgment. A single court, presided over by capintesta
organization issued the sentence, almost always final.
After the death of Tore 'and Crescienzo, the element most prominent
will Ciccio Hood, said 'or gentleman. He wrote letters to this
like this: "Dear Sir, We will leave you entertained at peace with your
dancer if you agree to shell out a small monthly sum of
money that will help the son of a poor worker to educate themselves. "
"In the big occasions in the days of the solemn feast, he seemed so
saved in the streets as a sovereign aboard a horse-drawn carriage covered
satin, decorated with carvings, gold and pulled by three horses magnificent, transparencies,
smoking and pawing, adorned with precious vestments of leather and silver
massif. In place of the lanterns of the gig had Ciccio Hood
two bunches of oranges of silver. He was driving the same
precious crew, waving to the crowd that his scappellava
transition, with the dignity of a true prince. When he went to
Montevergine all cars gave way to the road carriage of Ciccio
Hood and his authority was such that on his return from Montevergine
when tour groups stop to Nola for feasting, singing and
shoot foci of joy, it was enough that one of his retinue to it overlooked
a balcony and say, "'or signurino vo' Durmì" because immediately
cease any noise. "
According to Paul Ricci, with Ciccio Hood "will disappear the last
representative of the Camorra heroic and popular "14.
Another example of how government forces are, from time to
time and depending on the need, serve and then defeat the Camorra, is
given to what will happen to the process Cuocolo, during the government
Giolitti, in the early years of the twentieth century. In those years the affairs of the true
summit of the Camorra was booming, "a shop Bran
St. Ferdinand, right in the shop belonged to Ciccio Hood,
then the large number of money put aside by exploiting the brilliant idea
to send, with the help of his influential friends, mules in Transwall
during the Boer War and in Cairo in the shipment of Sudan. but the
real guarantee of revenue remained safe buying and selling of scrap
cavalry at auctions in the province of Caserta and Naples. All earnings
he could then drive up with its main industry: the loan
to wear. "
The Neapolitan underworld, in the early years of the twentieth century, will become a
real problem to be solved for the Giolitti government, especially
for the continuous crimes committed in the city. Pressures also come from
part of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta, cousin of the king
Vittorio Emanuele III, who lived in Naples. The constant demands
by the king of decisive action to stamp out the crime that
made little livable an urban area and the various pressures to
police to crush the Neapolitan Camorra, will lead to
decisive action on the part of the police, especially after the
double murder, of particular brutality, Mary Cutinelli and Gennaro
Cuocolo. On the morning of June 6, 1906, will be found the
Cutinelli bodies of Mary, a former prostitute, and the inside guy Gennaro
Cuocolo, the latter found near Tower of the Greek, riddled with
over thirty daggers and razor. Represent a real opportunity
for the government; will follow immediately the track Camorra, as in a
restaurant, Mimi 'at sea, not far from the discovery of the corpse
Cuocolo, had lunch Enrico Alfano (Erricone said, considered the
head of the Neapolitan underworld) and some of his companions, like his brother
Cyrus (aka Ciretiello), Ibello Gennaro, Giovanni Rapi ('or professor) and the
coachman Iacovitti. The police, therefore, considers that there was a link between
this room and the corpse found nearby, stopping all
attending the banquet.
15
Protagonist Cuocolo investigation will also be a certain
Abbatemaggio, a twenty-three, what today would be called
associate justice, who with his statements will lead to more
hundred arrests. Then you set up a process, even a maxiprocesso
which will begin March 12, 1911 in Viterbo and will last sixteen
months, with 41 original defendants. The Morning publish in all those years
the digits "197 hearings (171 in 1911 and 20 in 1912), four years
investigating, contained in 41 volumes filled with pleadings transported
from Naples to Viterbo in a cash railway "16. The sentences will be:
thirty years, and John Henry Alfano Rapi five years Abbatemaggio
and Louis Fucci, for other penis from thirty to four years. of the 41
initial defendants, the condemned will be 27. They will come from journalists
many countries ethers. The New York Herald commented: "The biggest struggle
which recalls the history between organized crime and civil society is over
with a victory of law and order. "
Only twenty years later, Gennaro Abbatemaggio admit that all
charges were artfully assembled. Luca Torre, the process Cuocolo
"Served to give the government Giolitti an image of efficiency, order,
cleaning. "
After this event, you could say that the Camorra goes as in
hibernate, then wake up at the same time the second war
world. In fact, among the eve and the day after the conflict, Naples will be
subject to profound changes: it will be among the Italian cities most affected by
air raids, with significant damage to heritage and housing
(232 420 housing will be destroyed). The critical condition
economic city will create a huge black market,
according to some of the largest smuggling market in Europe.
Write Giuseppe Galasso, contemporary historian of Naples: "What
distinguishes the problems of Milan or Turin (not even sure that they
lack of problems; far from it!) is first and foremost the fact that
Milan and Turin are faced with problems that are essentially
those of the last eighty or ninety years of their history, the problems
determined by the advent of the industrial revolution in Italy.
Naples is, however, faced with problems that are the legacy of a
much less recent past, which are derived from a collection
four or five centuries of negative elements of unresolved difficulties,
of missed starts to develop more adequate to the needs of the world
modern. "
After the great war, the allies will leave the 'Italy, but only in Naples
smuggling activities survive, especially in the districts of
Fork and Duchesca, some of the many tenements in the historic center
the city, which until then had not distinguished themselves in
illegal trade and, after the arrival of the Americans will become a
the symbols of the Neapolitan Camorra; Fork in fact for decades will be the
reign of one of the most influential families and dangerous: the Julian.
The products that are smerceranno within the black market will be
any kind, such as cigarettes, drugs, liquor, canned foods etc.. and then,
after the war, it will only illicit trafficking of cigarettes, the main
specialization, a traffic in which the Neapolitans have a beginning
role of laborers, as we shall see in the following years,
during the rule of the clan of Marseilles, first, and of the Sicilian Mafia,
and then. Smuggling decree the end of thugs, that delinquents
individual, giving rise to an understanding of the wider business,
characterized by a collaboration of more people and more
organized. The initial characteristic of contraband products
Staples will turn into a real business: the business
the so-called "Blondes" (cigarettes), which will ensure that you become a Naples
nerve center in the national and international relations. It will be
this characteristic to give life to one of the criminal organizations,
a thousand faces, more ruthless and organized in the world.
18
From 1950 to 1958 will be 14 ships seized and smuggler in
Following the traditional fishing boats or rowboats, who went to
off load the boxes of cigarettes from mother ships, will be
replaced by powerful speedboats, painted black to blend in at night:
the famous blue hulls.
At the same time it should be emphasized, in recent years, even the boom
construction activity, with which the administrator Lauro wrote a
of the darkest pages of our land. In the construction of the new
Naples Camorra avvisterà big business, in the form of bribes,
abuse, employment and management of public housing in the city
and, in the province, in the form of entrepreneurial activity (construction,
supply of material). It is a new type of crime to which
speak no more Ciccio Hood or the characters of the process Cuocolo
but real criminals, ruthless and careerists.
The building activity with its various urban interventions, which
happen from the restoration, if on the one hand solve the problem of
overcrowding of the old town, on the other hand will be the result of a division
classes in the Neapolitan people. During the twenty years 1950-1970 is
build new neighborhoods for the more affluent classes (Fuorigrotta
Posillipo, Vomero), while the proletariat and the lumpenproletariat
or continue to live in the city center or be relegated to the
boundaries thereof. This distinction lifestyles will lead to a
19
resentment strong, that most of the times transcend in real
violence. From 1950 to 1961, the government controlled by Achilles
Lauro well 11,500 grant planning permission for the construction of
approximately three hundred rooms and the city plan, approved in
1939 will be continually falsified, remaining in force until 200021.
But the reality underworld of the 50s is even more complex, the
many facets. If on the one hand assist the rise of a kind
citizen of the Camorra, dedicated to the trafficking of cigarettes, disorganized and
ready to sniff out any kind of deal, as long as profitable, on the other
we will see the emergence of a crime of the province (rural Camorra)
that will come to fruition and begin to also check out profitable trades in
fruit and vegetable markets. In the relationship between dealers and wholesalers, including those
controlled warehouses in the market and those who purchase and resell the
fruit and vegetable crops in the countryside of the Nocera-Sarno,
Giugliano, of Nola, will fit the figures of the mediators. figures
violent, able to strike fear and, above all, to decide the prices
which had to submit dealers and wholesalers. The center of
this activity will be Naples, with over Novara, in the area of the Station
near the central vegetable market, where most of the legality
sometimes met with illegality.