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139-703: The Nuova Famiglia was created on 8 December 1978, to oppose to the rising power of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata created by Raffaele Cutolo . The confederation included: The war that ensued between the Nuova Camorra Organizzata and the Nuova Famiglia caused a huge number of victims. This caused in turn a greater attention from the Italian police organizations, pushing Cosa Nostra to accommodate an agreement between

278-488: A "sect of thieves" that operated throughout Sicily. This "sect" was mostly rural, composed of cattle thieves, smugglers, wealthy farmers, and their guards. The sect made "affiliates every day of the brightest young people coming from the rural class, of the guardians of the fields in the Palermitan countryside, and of the large number of smugglers; a sect which gives and receives protection to and from certain men who make

417-508: A century later, Diego Gambetta concurred with Franchetti's analysis, arguing that the Mafia exists because the government does not provide adequate protection to merchants from property crime, fraud, and breaches of contract. Gambetta wrote that Sicily (in the early 1990s) had "no clear property rights legislation or administrative or financial codes of practice", and that its court system was "appalling" in its inefficiency. Gambetta recommended that

556-560: A certain line of conduct such as maintaining one's pride or even bullying in a given situation. On the other hand, the same word in Sicily can also indicate, not a special organization, but the combination of many small organizations, that pursue various goals, in the course of which its members almost always do things that are basically illegal and sometimes even criminal. Like Pitrè, some scholars viewed mafiosi as individuals behaving according to specific subcultural codes, but did not consider

695-457: A class of violent criminals ready and waiting for a name to define them, and, given their special character and importance in Sicilian society, they had the right to a different name from that defining vulgar criminals in other countries. Franchetti argued that the Mafia would never disappear unless the very structure of the island's social institutions were to undergo a fundamental change. Over

834-464: A copy. Its possession alone would later be considered incriminating evidence. Cutolo openly supported the young inmates, who were confronted with abuse, brutality, physical aggression and rape. He provided them with advice and protection from the brutalities of other inmates. At the same time they learned how to behave as a good picciotto , the lowest entry level into the Camorra. Cutolo challenged

973-512: A criminal organization." According to the Justice department, this book was viewed by NCO members as the " Bible of the NCO" and was particularly popular in prison, due to Cutolo's own distribution by mail. Even though his book was impounded by magistrates within days of its publication, many prisoners, alienated from society both inside and outside jail, wrote to Cutolo and other NCO leaders asking for

1112-734: A cut from his illegal gambling centres and lottery system in his base of Portici. A provisional death squad was set up, which contributed to the dozens of gangland deaths that year. The breaking point was reached when the NCO tried to move into the Giuliano's stronghold of Forcella, Piazza Mercato and Via Duomo, in the centre of Naples. A few days before Christmas , 1980, two NCO members presented themselves at an unloading of contraband cigarettes at Santa Lucia and demanded immediate payment of $ 400,000 to their organization, as well as insisting on future payment of $ 25 for every crate of cigarettes brought ashore. They then proceeded to shoot and injure one of

1251-486: A fragile production system that made them quite vulnerable to sabotage. Likewise, cattle are very easy to steal. The Mafia was often more effective than the police at recovering stolen cattle; in the 1920s, it was noted that the Mafia's success rate at recovering stolen cattle was 95%, whereas the police managed only 10%. In 1864, Niccolò Turrisi Colonna , leader of the Palermo National Guard, wrote of

1390-442: A juridical ordering that is parallel to that of the state – a kind of anti-state. The Mafia is all of these but none of these exclusively. Diego Gambetta characterizes mafiosi as "guarantors of trust". He says that Sicilian society has a general lack of trust among its people. This is true for other parts of southern Italy, which never experienced the same post-war economic growth that northern and central Italy enjoyed due in part to

1529-444: A lack of cooperation and healthy competition among the locals. The Mafia may provide a sense of security to those who pay it for protection, but the Mafia actually increases the general amount of distrust in Sicilian society. Those who are under mafia protection have an incentive to cheat those who are not under protection. The Mafia fosters crime by making it safer for criminals to engage in illegal dealings with each other (criminals are

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1668-412: A large share of public and church land to private citizens. The result was a huge increase in the number of landowners – from 2,000 in 1812 to 20,000 by 1861. With this increase in property owners and commerce came more disputes that needed settling, contracts that needed enforcing, transactions that needed oversight, and properties that needed protecting. The barons released their private armies to let

1807-402: A living on traffic and internal commerce. It is a sect with little or no fear of public bodies, because its members believe that they can easily elude this." It had special signals for members to recognize each other, offered protection services, scorned the law, and had a code of loyalty and non-interaction with the police known as umirtà ("code of silence"). Colonna warned in his report that

1946-574: A mafioso rather than employing full-time guards. A mafioso in these regions could protect multiple small estates at once, which gave him great independence and leverage to charge high prices. The landowners in this region were also frequently absent and could not watch over their properties should the protector withdraw, further increasing his bargaining power. The early Mafia was deeply involved with citrus growers and cattle ranchers, as these industries were particularly vulnerable to thieves and vandals and thus badly needed protection. Citrus plantations had

2085-820: A mafioso." The Sicilian Mafia has used other names to describe itself throughout its history, such as "The Honored Society". Mafiosi are known among themselves as "men of honor" or "men of respect". Cosa Nostra should not be confused with other mafia-type organizations in Southern Italy, such as the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria , the Camorra in Campania , or the Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana in Apulia . In 1876, Leopoldo Franchetti described

2224-552: A major impact on the criminal underworld. A lot of people lost their businesses and were left unemployed and destitute. Without any place to work at, these displaced persons particularly the young men, turned to the NF and NCO for work. During this time, the NCO was getting richer by infiltrating the network of earthquake relief agencies. It hoarded enormous quantities of relief funds and goods, and charged fees for protecting all businesses involved in earthquake re-construction. In addition to

2363-474: A man of great quality." Three months later, Lucarelli was killed during a clash with a rival gang. The NCO spread like wildfire in the crisis-ridden Campanian towns of the late 1970s, offering alienated youths an alternative to a lifetime of unemployment or poorly paid jobs. Hundreds of young men were employed as enforcers. Initially, the main specialisation of NCO gangs was extorting money through protection rackets from local businesses. The police calculated that

2502-402: A monopoly of violence within a number of prisons, thus increasing his power. By the early 1970s, Cutolo had become so powerful that he was able to decide which of his followers would be moved to which jails, use a prison governor's telephone to make calls anywhere in the world, and allegedly even slap the prison governor on one occasion for daring to search his cell. Another key bond Cutolo created

2641-443: A national television reporter in a televised interview from Cutolo's family courtyard that he was ready to give his life for Cutolo. Cutolo thanked him by having one of his men, Marco Medda, write him a letter which was later seized by the police: "My dear Giarrone, your interview greatly flattered the professor; he is honored, in case of need, to accept the blood that from your noble vein will flow into his own. My dear Giarrone, you are

2780-525: A pun on Cutolo's name)" and "Fight back". The savage war caused great inconveniences on the lives of the Neaploitan citizens, such that even a normal stroll through downtown Naples could be a potentially hazardous and life-threatening situation. This savage war caused in turn a greater attention from the Italian police organizations, pushing the Sicilian Mafia to accommodate an agreement between

2919-451: A ringleader, when Antonio Spavone aka "'o Malommo" (The Badman), was transferred to Poggioreale prison. He challenged Spavone to a knife fight in the courtyard (a practise called ' o dichiaramento , the declaration), but Spavone refused. The challenged boss allegedly limited himself to a reply: "Today's young men want to die young by whatever means." Spavone was released from prison shortly after this event. From his prison cell, Cutolo ordered

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3058-436: A sense of identity and worth, so much so that when they were released they would send Cutolo "flowers" (i.e. money), which enabled him to increase his network. He helped poorer prisoners by buying food for them from the jail store, or arranging for food to be sent in from outside. In such ways, Cutolo created many "debts" or "rain cheques" which he would cash at the opportune moment. As his following grew, he also began to exercise

3197-635: A series of meeting with the purpose of "legalizing" new bosses for Apulia. This process was called capi-zona a cielo scoperto (local outside bosses). To this end, Cutolo founded a separate branch of the NCO in Apulia called the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese (NGCP) in 1981, a formal organization particularly active in the area around Foggia , modeled after its parent organization in Campania, but with its own command hierarchy. It

3336-447: A series of reports between 1898 and 1900, Ermanno Sangiorgi, the police chief of Palermo, identified 670 mafiosi belonging to eight Mafia clans, which went through alternating phases of cooperation and conflict. The report mentioned initiation rituals and codes of conduct, as well as criminal activities that included counterfeiting, kidnappings for ransom, murder, robbery, and witness intimidation. The Mafia also maintained funds to support

3475-421: A small fraction of the Sicilian population could vote, so a single mafia boss could control a sizable chunk of the electorate and thus wield considerable political leverage. Mafiosi used their allies in government to avoid prosecution as well as persecute less well-connected rivals. Given the highly fragmented and shaky Italian political system, cliques of Mafia-friendly politicians exerted a strong influence. In

3614-414: A smaller number of large estates so that there were fewer landowners, and their large estates often required its guardians to patrol it full-time. The owners of such estates needed to hire full-time guardians. By contrast, in the west, the estates tended to be smaller and thus did not require the total, round-the-clock attention of a guardian. It was cheaper for these estates to contract their protection to

3753-434: A state that if they try to step on us, we will kill. We are the living dead. I have already half a foot stepping on my head. If you step on me with the other half, I'll kill you." In a letter found by the local police, a young picciotto named Turisio Agrippino wrote to Salvatore Federico: "The true god is our beloved Raffaele Cutolo." Another young member of the NCO named Antonio Lucarelli aka "'o Giarrone" (The rascal) told

3892-471: A successful campaign would strengthen him as the new leader, legitimizing and empowering his rule. He believed that such suppression would be a great propaganda coup for fascism , and it would also provide an excuse to suppress his political opponents on the island since many Sicilian politicians had Mafia links. As prime minister, Mussolini visited Sicily in May 1924 and passed through Piana dei Greci , where he

4031-520: A transient circus. The NCO later branched out to cocaine trafficking, partly because it was less subject to police investigation than heroin , but also because the Sicilian Mafia was less involved in the cocaine trade. He also embarked on a ruthless campaign against the Sicilian Mafiosi operating in Campania. The years of the NCO's domination (1979–1983) saw the highest number of homicides, of which there were 900 in Campania alone. At

4170-539: A working relationship with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, whose leaders did not demand a share of the illicit profits. On 1 May 1983, with the sponsorship of the 'Ndrangheta capobastone, Giuseppe Rogoli founded the Sacra Corona Unita in Bari prison, a new Mafia invoking the regional Pugliese identity against the intrusion of the foreign Neapolitans. The Sacra Corona Unita received its legitimacy from Rogoli's induction into

4309-433: Is a criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. It is an association of gangs which sell their protection and arbitration services under a common brand. The Mafia's core activities are protection racketeering , the arbitration of disputes between criminals, and the organizing and oversight of illegal agreements and transactions. The basic group

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4448-600: Is a good front for illegitimate operations. The First Mafia War was the first high-profile conflict between Mafia clans in post-war Italy (the Sicilian Mafia has a long history of violent rivalries). In 1962, mafia boss Cesare Manzella organized a drug shipment to the United States with the help of two Sicilian clans, the Grecos and the La Barberas. Manzella entrusted another boss, Calcedonio Di Pisa , to handle

4587-401: Is hard to trace because mafiosi are very secretive and do not keep historical records of their own. They have been known to spread deliberate lies about their past and sometimes come to believe in their own myths. The Mafia's genesis began in the 19th century as the product of Sicily's transition from feudalism to capitalism as well as its unification with mainland Italy . Under feudalism,

4726-477: Is known as a " family ", "clan", or cosca . Each family claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town, village or neighborhood ( borgata ) of a larger city, in which it operates its rackets . Its members call themselves " men of honour ", although the public often refers to them as mafiosi . By the 20th century, wide-scale emigration from Sicily led to the formation of mafiosi style gangs in Australia,

4865-415: Is not a centralized organization. It is more of a federation of independent gangs who sell their services under a common brand. This cartel claims the exclusive right to sell extralegal protection services within their territories, and by their labels ( man of honor , mafioso , etc.), they distinguish themselves from common criminals whom they exclude from the protection market. Hence the term mafia found

5004-430: Is simple. I don't care if I die or live. Actually in a way I'm looking for my death." A second picciotto said, "We are running towards our death. There is no purpose to living here. This is a bad life. Life here counts zero. What I have seen in these 23 years is enough and I'm already dead. Now I'm living on borrowed time. If they want to kill me, fine, what I have seen is enough." Similarly, a third one said, "We are in such

5143-462: Is weak or absent creates a demand for private protection (which mafia-type organizations can supply) and opportunities for extortion (also by mafia-type organizations). A 2017 study in the Journal of Economic History links the emergence of the Sicilian Mafia also to the surging demand for oranges and lemons following the late 18th-century discovery that citrus fruits cured scurvy . A 2019 study in

5282-681: The Nuvoletta clan from Marano , Antonio Bardellino from San Cipriano d'Aversa and Casal di Principe , the Alfieri clan of Saviano led by Carmine Alfieri , the Galasso clan of Poggiomarino (led by Pasquale Galasso), the Giuliano clan from Naples ' quarter Forcella (led by Luigi Giuliano ) and the Vollaro clan from Portici (led by Luigi Vollaro ). It was considered extinct in

5421-531: The Review of Economic Studies linked Mafia activity to "the rise of socialist Peasant Fasci organizations. In an environment with weak state presence, this socialist threat triggered landowners, estate managers, and local politicians to turn to the Mafia to resist and combat peasant demands." In 1925, Benito Mussolini initiated a campaign to destroy the Mafia and assert Fascist control over Sicilian life. The Mafia threatened and undermined his power in Sicily, and

5560-405: The nobility owned most of the land and enforced the law through their private armies and manorial courts . After 1812, the feudal barons steadily sold off or rented their lands to private citizens. Primogeniture was abolished, land could no longer be seized to settle debts, and one fifth of the land became private property of the peasants. After Italy annexed Sicily in 1860, it redistributed

5699-415: The prison, harassing other prisoners (specifically with requests for money) as well as offering membership in their organization, a process called legalizzazione (legislation). After consulting with his nephew Stephen Cutolo, Raffaele decided to adopt a strategy of assimilation of the local criminals. He opened availability for membership in the NCO to the locals, and decided to intervene directly, promoting

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5838-490: The 'Ndrangheta by the Calabrian 'Ndranghetisti, Carmine Alvaro and Umberto Bellocco, who were incarcerated with him in Porto Azzurro. During the NCO's highest point of expansion, Camorra boss, Michele Zaza had to pay Cutolo's organisation US$ 400,000 for the right to carry on operating in contraband cigarettes. However, no hierarchy between Camorra gangs or stable spheres of influence had been created, and no gang leader

5977-416: The 1950s, a crackdown in the United States on drug trafficking led to the imprisonment of many American mafiosi. Cuba , a major hub for drug smuggling, was taken over by Fidel Castro and associated communists. In 1957 American mafia boss Joseph Bonanno returned to Sicily to franchise his heroin operations to the Sicilian clans. Anticipating rivalries for the lucrative American drug market, he negotiated

6116-492: The 1980 earthquake. The founder of this organization, Raffaele Cutolo, also known as "'o Professore" (The Professor), was born on 20 December 1941 in Ottaviano , a village in the hinterland of Naples . At the age of 18, on 24 February 1963, he committed his first homicide and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, reduced to 24 years after appeal. He was sent to Poggioreale , Naples’ prison. Entering

6255-495: The 1980s, leading social scientists like Henner Hess  [ de ] and Anton Blok that conducted the first field studies on the phenomenon between the 1960s and the early 1980s, saw the Mafia as merely a form of behaviour and power, downplaying its organisational aspects. Their thinking was shaped by sicilianismo , a late 19th-century movement opposed to the indiscriminate criminalization of all Sicilians by Italian law enforcement and public opinion, promoted in particular by

6394-422: The 19th century Camorra and reconstructed the old Camorristic ritual of initiation. He took great care in making the ritual a binding social practise. In his cell, he created a ceremony in which the initiate received the award of the primo regalo (first gift) also called abbraccio (embrace) or fiore (flower). He infused the old Camorristic traditions with Catholicism and reconstituted the ritual of initiation of

6533-549: The Giuliano clan had been in good terms with the NCO until the first half of 1979. The clan was also under such bad terms with Michele Zaza that it launched an attack against his nephew Pasquale in December 1979. Another Camorra clan leader named Luigi Vollaro aka "'o Califfo" (the Caliph) had first raised the idea of an anti-Cutolo alliance with the Giuliano clan boss, Luigi Giuliano in 1979, following Cutolo's demand to receive

6672-526: The Giuliano gang members unloading the cigarettes. On Christmas Eve, the gang's leader, Luigi Giuliano, was also wounded in an attack. The clash, which had occurred in a period of growing tension, led to the formation of the Nuova Famiglia (NF) to contrast Cutolo's predominant NCO, consisting of Zaza, the Nuvoletta's and Antonio Bardellino from Casal Di Principe (the so-called "Casalesi"). It

6811-464: The Italian government's brutal and clumsy attempts to crush crime only made the problem worse by alienating the populace. An 1865 dispatch from the prefect of Palermo to Rome first officially described the phenomenon as a "Mafia". An 1876 police report provides the earliest known description of the familiar initiation ritual . Mafiosi meddled in politics early on, bullying voters into voting for candidates they favored. At this period in history, only

6950-401: The Mafia a formal organisation. Judicial investigations by Falcone and scientific research in the 1980s provided solid proof of the existence of well-structured Mafia groups with entrepreneurial characteristics. Pino Arlacchi , in his seminal 1983 study La mafia imprenditrice (Mafia Business), summarised the dominant way of looking at the mafia up to that point by writing, “Social research into

7089-487: The Mafia as the Fascist press proclaimed, but his campaign was very successful at suppressing it. There was nearly no mafia left after the war. The Sicilian families had been shut down by the prefect Mori. Sicily's murder rate sharply declined. Landowners were able to raise the legal rents on their lands, sometimes as much as ten-thousandfold. In 1943, nearly half a million Allied troops invaded Sicily. Crime soared in

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7228-495: The Mafia business, but neglected the cultural symbols and codes by which the Mafia legitimized its existence and by which it rooted itself into Sicilian society. According to Lupo, there are several lines of interpretation, often blended to some extent, to define the Mafia: it has been viewed as a mirror of traditional Sicilian society; as an enterprise or type of criminal industry; as a more or less centralized secret society; and as

7367-475: The Mafia in 1992, had objected to the conflation of the term "Mafia" with organized crime in general: While there was a time when people were reluctant to pronounce the word "Mafia" ... nowadays people have gone so far in the opposite direction that it has become an overused term ... I am no longer willing to accept the habit of speaking of the Mafia in descriptive and all-inclusive terms that make it possible to stack up phenomena that are indeed related to

7506-467: The Mafia is often erroneously seen as similar to other non-Sicilian organized criminal associations. These two paradigms missed essential aspects of the Mafia that became clear when investigators were confronted with the testimonies of Mafia turncoats, like those of Buscetta to Judge Falcone at the Maxi Trial . The economic approach to explain the Mafia did illustrate the development and operations of

7645-404: The Mafia were forced to pay protection money . Many buildings were illegally constructed before the city's planning was finalized. Mafiosi scared off anyone who dared to question the illegal building. The result of this unregulated building was the demolition of many historic buildings and the erection of apartment blocks, many of which were not up to standard. Mafia organizations entirely control

7784-498: The Mafia's most important clients because they can't get protection from the legal system). And since mafiosi charge fees for their services, they increase transaction costs, which in turn leads to a higher cost of living for average Sicilians. Introduced in 1982 by Pio La Torre , article 416-bis of the Italian Penal Code defines a Mafia-type association ( associazione di tipo mafioso ) as one where "those belonging to

7923-532: The Mafia. The individual gangs of the NF alliance had the added advantage of being less notorious than Cutolo's NCO. The NF were initially less affected by police crackdowns and investigations and were therefore able to carry the attack to the NCO, although the NF had suffered its own massive crackdown in 1984. Sicilian Mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra ( Italian: [ˈkɔːza ˈnɔstra, ˈkɔːsa -] , Sicilian: [ˈkɔːsa ˈnɔʂː(ɽ)a] ; "our thing" ), also referred to as simply Mafia ,

8062-606: The NCO bombed houses in Portici owned by men working in the contraband cigarette trade for the Zaza brothers. This was soon followed by retaliatory acts from the rival Nuova Famiglia. The two men who had tried to encroach on the Zaza's patch were shot and a car bomb was planted outside Cutolo's family home in Ottaviano. From 1980 to 1983, a bloody war raged in and around Naples, which left several hundred dead and severely weakened

8201-467: The NCO had some 7000 armed associates in 1980. While the traditional Camorristic families held territorial powers and the consequent responsibility over their controlled areas, the NCO had no qualms over breaking the established social fabric by extorting shopkeepers, small factories and businesses, and building contractors. In its quest for cash, it even targeted individuals such as landlords, lawyers and professionals. The NCO's protection racket even included

8340-652: The NCO on the model of the 'Ndrangheta, its internal codes and rituals. The NCO also established strong ties with the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita and the Roman Banda della Magliana , two other criminal organizations that did not directly operate in Campania. The organisation was unique in the history of the Camorra in that it was highly centralised and possessed a rudimentary form of ideology. For example, he publicly declared that children were not to be kidnapped or mistreated and allegedly arranged

8479-546: The NCO openly hostile to the Sicilian Mafia and other Camorra clans, and Cutolo consequently developed a long-standing alliance with the 'Ndrangheta, who had no intentions or designs in either Naples or Campania. Cutolo had strong ties with the 'Ndrangheta. According to some pentiti, Cutolo's career started with his affiliation with the 'Ndrangheta, supported by important bosses such as Giuseppe Piromalli , Paolo De Stefano , and Mammoliti. Cutolo based his organisation of

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8618-413: The NCO protection on all their activities, including a percentage for each carton of cigarettes smuggled into Naples. This practice came to be known as ICA (Imposta Camorra Aggiunta – or Camorristic Sale Tax), mimicking the state VAT sale tax IVA (Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto). For instance, Michele Zaza , the biggest Neapolitan cigarette smuggler, was reported to have paid the NCO more than 4 billion lire in

8757-500: The NCO surpassed the family structure of the urban Camorra. The NCO was an open structure with new members incorporated at a rate of 1,000 per year. Membership was open to everyone, the primary requisites being swearing loyalty to Cutolo and contributing to the common criminal activities. However, as soon as the organization's business expanded and there was a need for more manpower, recruitment became more aggressive and later, even mandatory. In prison, people were forced to become members of

8896-415: The NCO. Failure to do so would often result in the murder of the unwilling prisoner. The organization was a federation of different gangs, with their own territorial areas of action, but hierarchically ordered and tightly controlled by Raffaele Cutolo. A document found on pentito, Pasquale D'Amico, described the organization as a "Door-to-door sales business, specializing in underwear and lingerie". Cutolo

9035-486: The NCO. It had its root causes in two main events: the rapid growth of two distinct types of Camorra gangs and the profound political and financial instability created by the November 1980 earthquake . The war soon became a straightforward battle for power which was fueled by the billions pouring in from Rome for earthquake reconstruction. For instance, the highest number of deaths occurred in the 1981–82 period, when most of

9174-420: The NF began using the NCO's own tactics against them, i.e., high visibility, speed and brutal violence. In an act reminiscent of both Italian neo-fascist and left-wing terrorist groups, they sent messages to the press signed, "Nuclei Armati Anti-Cutoliani" (Armed Nucleus Anti-Cutolo) or "Giustizieri Campani" (Avengers from Campania) complete with their new slogans "Let's slay the coto-lette (literally porkchops,

9313-487: The NF who, by now, virtually unopposed, replaced them as the main contact of the politicians and businessmen in Campania as well as other criminal organizations. These chain of killings, including that of Cutolo's son, Roberto Cutolo who was shot dead by members of the Fabbrocino clan on 24 December 1990, aged 28, coupled with the incarceration of many of its members brought an end to the Nuova Camorra Organizzata. After

9452-435: The Sicilian Mafia as an "industry of violence". In 1993, the Italian sociologist Diego Gambetta described it as a cartel of private protection firms. He further characterized mafiosi as "guarantors of trust", and that Sicilian people tend to be distrustful of each other and therefore routinely seek mafia protection in their business dealings. The central activity of the Mafia is the arbitration of disputes between criminals and

9591-429: The Sicilian ethnographer Giuseppe Pitrè . According to the sicilianisti , the term 'mafia' simply embodied an attitude, a mentality deeply rooted in the island's popular culture; an expression of the local traditional society's fundamental rejection of the foreign invaders who had ruled Sicily for centuries. "Mafia" was a "way of being", according to a definition by Pitrè: Mafia is the consciousness of one's own worth,

9730-543: The United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and South America. These diaspora-based outfits replicated the traditions and methods of their Sicilian ancestors to varying extents. The word mafia originated in Sicily. The Sicilian noun mafiusu (in Italian: mafioso ) roughly translates to mean " swagger ", but can also be translated as "boldness, bravado ". In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th-century Sicily

9869-425: The assassination of at least one kidnapper. Perhaps the most potent ideological weapon was the cult of violence, which sometimes bordered on a kind of death wish, as Cutolo once wrote: "the value of a life doesn’t consist of its length but in the use made of it; often people live a long time without living very much. Consider this, my friends, as long as you are on this earth everything depends on your will-power, not on

10008-449: The association exploit the potential for intimidation which their membership gives them, and the compliance and omertà which membership entails and which lead to the committing of crimes, the direct or indirect assumption of management or control of financial activities, concessions, permissions, enterprises and public services for the purpose of deriving profit or wrongful advantages for themselves or others". The genesis of Cosa Nostra

10147-413: The boss's sister, could easily communicate with him in prison. Cutolo had an ideology, another factor that appealed to rootless and badly educated youths. He founded the NCO in his home town Ottaviano on 24 October 1970, the day of Cutolo's patron saint, San Raffaele, and the organization used a statute of rules and regulations that were deliberately meant to have a striking resemblance to the Camorra of

10286-456: The building sector in Palermo – the quarries where aggregates are mined, site clearance firms, cement plants, metal depots for the construction industry, wholesalers for sanitary fixtures, and so on. During the 1950s, the Mafia continued its deep penetration of the construction and cement industries. The cement business was appealing because it allows high levels of local economic involvement and

10425-793: The catalyst for Mussolini's war on the Mafia. Mussolini firmly established his power in January 1925; he appointed Cesare Mori as the Prefect of Palermo in October 1925 and granted him special powers to fight the Mafia. Mori formed a small army of policemen, carabinieri and militiamen, which went from town to town rounding up suspects. To force suspects to surrender, they would take their families hostage, sell off their property, or publicly slaughter their livestock. By 1928, more than 11,000 suspects were arrested. Confessions were sometimes extracted through beatings and torture. Some mafiosi who had been on

10564-403: The community, claimed the role of protector of the community and assumed a strong regional identity based on criminal values. He accused the Sicilian Mafia of wanting to colonize Naples and the Campania. Cutolo appealed to a Campanian rather than Neapolitan sense of identity, perhaps as a result of his poor peasant background. For instance, Cutolo is once reported as having said: "The day when

10703-573: The courtesy of obliging clerks from various municipalities in the area, especially Cutolo's municipality in Ottaviano. As the Justice Department discovered in 1983, Cutolo was visited daily from July 1977 to December 1978 by Giuseppe Puca who had a document from Ottaviano's municipality certifying him to be Cutolo's first cousin. He had also received three visits from another NCO member, Giuseppe Romano, one as Cutolo's brother-in-law, one as compare and finally as first cousin. The NCO became

10842-520: The defeat of Cutolo, war broke out among the anti-NCO coalition, in particular between the Nuvoletta clan from Marano and Antonio Bardellino at the end of 1983. With Carmine Alfieri siding with Bardellino’s Casalesi clan . The war culminated in the Torre Annunziata 's massacre of August 1984, which left eight people killed and 24 wounded among the Gionta clan allied with Nuvoletta. After

10981-408: The emergence of the Sicilian Mafia to the resource curse . Early Mafia activity was strongly linked to Sicilian municipalities abundant in sulfur , Sicily's most valuable export commodity. The combination of a weak state and a lootable natural resource made the sulfur-rich parts of Sicily vulnerable to the emergence of mafia-type organizations. A valuable natural resource in areas where law enforcement

11120-611: The end of the 1970s, two types of Camorra gangs began to take shape: the NCO type gangs led by Cutolo, which dealt mainly in Cocaine and protection rackets, preserving a strong regional sense of identity, and the business oriented clans allied with the Mafia which were led by the likes of Michele Zaza, Carmine Alfieri, Lorenzo Nuvoletta, etc., who dealt in cigarettes and heroin, but soon moved on to invest in real estate and construction firms. Cutolo's NCO became more powerful by encroaching and taking over other group's territories. The NCO

11259-766: The establishment of a Sicilian Mafia Commission to mediate disputes. The post-war period saw a huge building boom in Palermo. Allied bombing in World War II had left more than 14,000 people homeless, and migrants were pouring in from the countryside, so there was a huge demand for new homes. Much of this construction was subsidized by public money. In 1956, two Mafia-connected officials, Vito Ciancimino and Salvatore Lima , took control of Palermo's Office of Public Works. Between 1959 and 1963, about 80 percent of building permits were given to just five people, none of whom represented major construction firms; they were likely Mafia frontmen. Construction companies unconnected with

11398-472: The exaggerated concept of individual force as the sole arbiter of every conflict, of every clash of interests or ideas. Other scholars such as Gaetano Mosca say: ...with the word Mafia, the Sicilians intend to express two things, two social phenomena, that can be analyzed in separate ways even though they are closely related. The Mafia, or rather the essence of the Mafia, is a way of thinking that requires

11537-558: The families of imprisoned members and pay defense lawyers. In an attempt to annihilate the Mafia, Italian troops arrested 64 people of Palermo in February 1898. The trial began in May 1901, but after one month, only 32 defendants were found guilty of starting a criminal association and, taking into account the time already spent in prison, many were released the next day. A 2015 study in The Economic Journal attributed

11676-606: The field of organised crime but that have little or nothing in common with the Mafia. According to Mafia turncoats ( pentiti ), the real name of the Mafia is "Cosa Nostra" ("Our Thing"). Italian American mafioso Joseph Valachi testified before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations in 1963 (at what are known as the Valachi hearings ). He revealed that American mafiosi referred to their organization by

11815-402: The final outcome was not what he had planned and this arrangement proved to be an unstable one. Soon the local criminals tried to free themselves from the masters. Cutolo's relentless defeats in the wars against the Nuova Famiglia in Campania weakened the hegemony and prestige of the NCO which eventually collapsed in its entirety. Soon, this affiliation with the NCO was dissolved and replaced by

11954-444: The first Mafia clans. In countryside towns that lacked formal constabulary, local elites responded to banditry by recruiting young men into "companies-at-arms" to hunt down thieves and negotiate the return of stolen property, in exchange for a pardon for the thieves and a fee from the victims. These companies-at-arms were often made up of former bandits and criminals, usually the most skilled and violent of them. This saved communities

12093-625: The first criminal activities on the outside which would be directly controlled by Cutolo from within the penitentiary system. The NCO developed two parallel structures, one inside the penitentiary system called "cielo coperto" (covered sky), and the other outside the penitentiary system called "cielo scoperto" (clear sky). Since Cutolo and many NCO members were serving life sentences, communication between these two structures were of utmost importance. To retain his leadership, Cutolo needed to relay his orders to NCO members outside in an effective and reliable way, while simultaneously insuring that some of

12232-409: The first three months after the imposition of the racket. Raffaele Cutolo decided to expand the NCO to the neighboring region of Apulia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was precipitated by a number of factors. Firstly, a number of Camorristi had been incarcerated or forced to resettle in Apulia. In the 1970s, a large number of NCO members had been relocated from their prisons in Campania to

12371-429: The government liberalize the drug market and abolish price-fixing of cigarettes so as to move these commodities out of the black market; to increase transparency in public contracting so that there can be no rigging, which mafiosi usually arbitrate; and redesign the voting process to make it harder to buy votes. Fixing these problems would reduce the demand for mafioso intervention in political and economic affairs. Until

12510-548: The heroin. When the shipment arrived in the United States, however, the American buyers claimed that some heroin was missing, and paid Di Pisa a commensurately lower sum. Di Pisa accused the Americans of defrauding him, while the La Barberas accused Di Pisa of embezzling the missing heroin. The Sicilian Mafia Commission sided with Di Pisa, and the La Barberas were outraged. The La Barberas murdered Di Pisa and Manzella, triggering

12649-471: The illegal trades while the NCO lent financial resources and support demanding 40% of all profits derived from illegal activities. The local criminals were involved only during particularly difficult operations, and then contacts were established directly with single individuals or small groups active for some time in smuggling which for strategic reasons was concentrated mainly in the Brindisi area. However,

12788-410: The interim. Compounding these problems was banditry. Rising food prices, the loss of public and church lands, and the loss of feudal commons pushed many desperate peasants to steal. In the face of rising crime, booming commerce, and unreliable law enforcement, property owners and merchants turned to extralegal arbitrators and protectors. These extralegal protectors eventually organized themselves into

12927-470: The last century. In such a way, Cutolo created the most powerful organization ever to exist in the Neapolitan hinterland. Using his personal appeal and almost magic charisma, he was able to achieve this single-handedly. The NCO strongholds were the towns to the east of Naples, such as Ottaviano . From its start, the NCO advocated using illegal resources available in the territory for the betterment of

13066-443: The late 1980s, when many of its bosses and members were killed or imprisoned. Cutolo's Camorra is described as the "mass Camorra" of unemployed youth specializing in protection rackets, while Carmine Alfieri's Camorra was seen as the "political Camorra" because of its ability to obtain public sector contracts through political contacts, and Lorenzo Nuvoletta 's as the "business Camorra" reinvesting drug money into construction following

13205-417: The local Pugliese prisons resulting in massive prison overcrowding . Furthermore, by the early 1980s a new smuggling route from Yugoslavia had been opened, and Apulia became a crucial juncture of this trade. Apulia's geographical features were of great interest for possible exploitation of its strategic potential, since it had a particularly extensive coastal area, a territory which was conveniently linked to

13344-575: The losing end of Mafia feuds voluntarily cooperated with prosecutors, perhaps as a way of obtaining protection and revenge. Charges of Mafia association were typically leveled at poor peasants and gabellotti (farm leaseholders), but were avoided when dealing with major landowners. Many were tried en masse . More than 1,200 were convicted and imprisoned, and many others were internally exiled without trial. Mori's campaign ended in June 1929 when Mussolini recalled him to Rome. He did not permanently crush

13483-407: The main motorways of Central-Northern Italy, and several mid sized airports. The absence of any local criminal association made Apulia a natural place for border crossings by Camorra clans who had the opportunity to exploit a particularly lucrative market there, free from any threatening local competition. The NCO members soon attempted to install themselves at the highest levels of power inside

13622-660: The marauding bandits into their ranks. The changing economic landscape of Sicily shifted the Mafia's power base from rural to urban areas. The Minister of Agriculture – a communist – pushed for reforms in which peasants were to get larger shares of produce, be allowed to form cooperatives and take over badly used land, and remove the system by which leaseholders (known as " gabellotti ") could rent land from landowners for their own short-term use. Owners of especially large estates were to be forced to sell off some of their land. The Mafia had connections to many landowners and murdered many socialist reformers. The most notorious attack

13761-569: The massacre and the murder of Ciro Nuvoletta two months earlier, the balance of power shifted in favour of Alfieri and Bardellino. On May 26, 1988, Antonio Bardellino was murdered by his right-hand man, Mario Iovine in his Brazilian home at Búzios , a beach side resort for the rich and famous in the State of Rio de Janeiro , as part of an internal feud within the Casalesi clan . In 1992, Pasquale Galasso decided to turn state's evidence, becoming

13900-557: The massive hoarding, the NF was also greatly benefited by deterritorialization of the Camorra underworld in Naples. The earthquake had totally destroyed all social control, due to the displacement of people, cafes, small businesses and the cordoning of social blocks. The anti-Cutolo clans began to restructure themselves on the model of the NCO. Lacking any territory, they came to depend on open space, swapping their fortified positions for fast cars, motorcycles and mobile firepower. In this way,

14039-547: The most important pentito inside the Camorra organization. After him, Carmine Alfieri was arrested and following Galasso, also decided to cooperate with the state. Lorenzo Nuvoletta , because of a serious illness, after a time in jail, was granted house arrest. He died on April 7, 1994, from liver cancer. Marking the end of the Nuova Famiglia. Nuova Camorra Organizzata The Nuova Camorra Organizzata (in English: New Organized Camorra )

14178-498: The most violent gang members from its various criminal gangs, who were ready to do the NCO's bidding by wreaking destruction and violence when required. It was a ten-man team, capable of quick response to any emergency. It had some extremely powerful cars at its disposal which could cover the entire area of Naples in less than an hour. Its firing power was in the order of 10,000 bullets per minute. Cutolo insisted that if other criminal groups wanted to keep their business, they had to pay

14317-473: The murder of Spavone. A hitman, allegedly Cutolo's friend, shot him in the face from short range with a shotgun. Spavone survived the ambush, but the shotgun blast left considerable damage to his facial structure, which required plastic surgery . Spavone immediately resigned from his highly visible role as a Camorra boss. It was from within Naples' Poggioreale prison that Cutolo built the NCO. He began by befriending young inmates unfamiliar with jail, giving them

14456-404: The number of years you have lived." Through his book of thoughts and poems, Poesie e pensieri and his many interviews with journalists, Cutolo was able to create a strong sense of identity amongst his members. The book was published in Naples in 1980, but never distributed to the public. The book, containing 235 pages of poems and pictures, was seized by the police and censored as an "apology of

14595-416: The old Camorra bosses and gave the youngsters a structure to belong to: "The new Camorra must have a statute, a structure, an oath, a complete ceremony, a ritual that must excite people to the point that they would risk their lives for this organization." Cutolo was revered by his soldiers. They called him Prince and kissed his left hand as if he were a bishop. Cutolo spent a great amount of time researching

14734-497: The organization and the enforcement of illicit agreements through the use of violence. The Mafia does not serve the general public as the police do, but only specific clients who pay them for protection. The mafia's principal activities are settling disputes among other criminals, protecting them against each other's cheating, and organizing and overseeing illicit agreements, often involving many agents, such as illicit cartel agreements in otherwise legal industries. The Sicilian Mafia

14873-505: The organizing principle of a new kinship system based on Comparaggio , first cousins and allied kin, which was formally written into the municipal registry by obliging local bureaucrats. Once the first NCO group became operative and started generating profits, Cutolo established the soccorso verde (green cross) to help the NCO recruit new members from the prison population, providing them with clothes, lawyers, legal advice, money for themselves and their families, and even luxury items. There

15012-426: The people of Campania understand that it is better to eat a slice of bread as a free man than to eat a steak as a slave is the day when Campania will win." He talked about the need to re-establish respect for the people of this region: "We have to renew the ancient splendors of Naples and the Campania. We have to give back its destiny to our region, represented by the symbol of Vesuvio." It was this approach that made

15151-426: The prison world on a murder conviction made Cutolo a "tough guy". In prison Cutolo learned the rules of the criminal world: he became a man of honour, paid respect to more powerful inmates, and started gathering personal prestige because of his striking personality. He never lost sight of his ambition and his desire to become one of the biggest bosses of the Neapolitan underworld. Cutolo had established himself as

15290-761: The profits generated by the expansion be delivered to prisons so that he could expand his recruitment drive. The peculiar conditions at Poggioreale prison which included its strategic location in the centre of Naples Western District and continuous flow of people such as parole violators and relatives of prisoners, to and from the prison made it possible for the NCO to successfully coordinate criminal activities from their centralized location. The NCO used this continuous flow to bring money and goods to prison and to send directives to their associates for outside operations. The relatives who could visit daily were being used as primary couriers, but when they were unavailable, some of these associates would be certified on paper as kin through

15429-446: The question of the mafia has probably now reached the point where we can say that the mafia, as the term is commonly understood, does not exist”. Arlacchi contested that view, and stressed the economical aspects of the Mafia as a criminal organization. The Mafia was seen as an enterprise, and its economic activities became the focus of academic analyses. However, by ignoring the cultural aspects, according to historian Salvatore Lupo ,

15568-411: The reconstruction contracts were being assigned. The number of gangland murders soon grew to epic proportions. During this period, some Neapolitans would place illegal and macabre bets, in a system controlled by the Camorra itself, on whether there would be more gangland murders than days over the coming year. Between 16 and 19 June 1983, police arrested a thousand members of the NCO. The earthquake had

15707-447: The state take over the job of enforcing the law, but the new authorities were not up to the task, largely due to clashes between official law and local customs. Lack of manpower was also a problem; there were often fewer than 350 active policemen for the entire island. Some towns did not have any permanent police force, and were only visited every few months by some troops to collect malcontents, leaving criminals to operate with impunity in

15846-571: The term cosa nostra ("our thing" or "this thing of ours" or simply "our cause" / "our interest"). At the time, Cosa Nostra was understood as a proper name, fostered by the FBI and disseminated by the media. The FBI added the article la to the term, calling it La Cosa Nostra (in Italy, the article la is not used when referring to Cosa Nostra ). In 1984, Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta revealed to anti-mafia Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone that

15985-404: The term was used by the Sicilian Mafia, as well. Buscetta dismissed the word "mafia" as a mere literary creation. Other defectors, such as Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno , confirmed the use of Cosa Nostra by members. Mafiosi introduce known members to each other as belonging to cosa nostra ("our thing") or la stessa cosa ("the same thing"), meaning "he is the same thing as you –

16124-502: The traditional Camorra clans which are usually fragmented. The members of the NCO were often referred to by rival Camorristi and Italian law enforcement as "Cutoliani" . According to the Italian Justice Department, by 1981 the NCO had become the strongest Camorra clan and one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the nation, providing a living for at least 200,000 people in the Neapolitan area alone. It

16263-496: The traditional Camorra clans which used slow and static methods of conducting their business, the gangs grouped inside the NCO displayed an open-ended dynamic force that depended on speed and movement. They usually came into the city from elsewhere, from the undifferentiated territories of the countryside; their men spread out across open space, relying on fast cars, motorcycles and mobile firepower instead of fortified positions. The NCO even had an extraterritorial hit team composed of

16402-598: The traditional Camorra. The NCO has often been described as the "expression of a kind of collective mass movement of the violent and disbanded youth of Campania". However, an historian once declared the NCO to be just another "gangsters association" which had usurped the old and to some extent, respectful name of the Camorra. When the journalist Giorgio Rossi interviewed some of the young NCO members from Ottaviano, he recorded several testimonies of how willing were they to die for their boss and organization. One young picciotto said: "You ask me why I do what I do. The answer

16541-409: The trouble of training their own policemen, but it may have made the companies-at-arms more inclined to collude with their former brethren rather than destroy them. Scholars such as Salvatore Lupo have identified these groups as "proto-Mafia". The Mafia was (and still is) a largely western Sicilian phenomenon. There was little Mafia activity in the eastern half of Sicily. This did not mean that there

16680-487: The two warring clans, favouring the Nuova Famiglia, which included a lot of former allies. Many high-ranking Sicilian mafiosi such as Leoluca Bagarella , Bernardo Provenzano and Totò Riina repeatedly tried to eliminate Cutolo. The war left Cutolo more exposed in terms of notoriety. He had not expected such a strong backlash from his adversaries, and his strong hostility to the Sicilian Mafia gave them another tactical advantage, in that they were able to obtain assistance from

16819-452: The two warring clans, hopefully favouring the Nuova Famiglia, which included a lot of former allies. In 1982, Alfieri and his ally, Pasquale Galasso decided to eliminate the senior NCO leaders, in revenge for the murder of his brothers during the war. In November 1982, the NCO's financier, Alfonso Ferrara Rosanova, was murdered. When his deputy and main 'military' chief, Vincenzo Casillo was killed via car bomb in January 1983 by Galasso, it

16958-829: The upheaval and chaos. Many inmates escaped from prisons, banditry returned, and the black market thrived. During the first six months of Allied occupation, party politics were banned in Sicily. Most institutions were destroyed, with the exception of the police and carabinieri, and the American occupiers had to build a new order from scratch. As Fascist mayors were deposed, the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) simply appointed replacements. Many turned out to be mafiosi, such as Calogero Vizzini and Giuseppe Genco Russo . They could easily present themselves as political dissidents, and their anti-communist position gave them additional credibility. Mafia bosses reformed their clans, absorbing some of

17097-407: The use of the term "mafia" began appearing in the Italian state's early reports on the group. The word was first documented in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Filippo Antonio Gualterio  [ it ] . The term mafia has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests. But Giovanni Falcone , the anti-Mafia judge who was murdered by

17236-635: The word include: The public's association of the word with the criminal secret society was perhaps inspired by the 1863 play " I mafiusi di la Vicaria  [ it ] " ("The Mafiosi of the Vicaria") by Giuseppe Rizzotto and Gaspare Mosca. The words mafia and mafiusi are never mentioned in the play. The drama is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the Mafia: a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of umirtà ( omertà or code of silence) and " pizzu " (a codeword for extortion money). The play had great success throughout Italy. Soon after,

17375-407: Was a regular procedure for this financial allocation to prisoners. From the very beginning, Cutolo had his men set aside 500,000 lire from each successful operation in a fund for the prison population. This fund was distributed to inmates belonging to the NCO all over Italy through wire service by Raffaele's sister Rosetta Cutolo and some NCO lieutenants. In an attempt to control the entire region,

17514-452: Was able to break the circle of traditional power held by the families. Cutolo's organization was just too aggressive and violent to be resisted by any individual families. Other Camorra families initially were too weakened, too divided, and simply too intimidated by the NCO. Their territories were indefensible against an organization like the NCO, which raided and rules large areas, not by constant control, but by violence and quick action. Unlike

17653-484: Was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising and proud, according to scholar Diego Gambetta . In reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form, "mafiusa" , means a beautiful or attractive female. The Sicilian word mafie refers to the caves near Trapani and Marsala , which were often used as hiding places for refugees and criminals. Sicily was once an Islamic emirate , therefore mafia might have Arabic roots. Possible Arabic roots of

17792-462: Was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo , in the region of Campania . It was also known by the initials NCO . The organization was established with the purpose of renewing the old rural Camorra, which dealt in contraband cigarettes and extortion schemes in the Neapolitan fruit market. To this end, Cutolo created a structured and hierarchical organization, in stark contrast to

17931-415: Was attended by the NF leaders and the NCO was represented by Rosetta Cutolo and Vincenzo Casillo. Representatives from the Sicilian Mafia were also present in the meeting. A shaky peace was established, only to be broken on 14 February when, during the confusion provoked by a strong earth tremor, NCO members in Naples' Poggioreale prison killed three adversaries. A more serious incident occurred in May, when

18070-423: Was clear that Raffaele Cutolo had lost the war. His power declined considerably. Not only Cutolo but many other Camorra gangs understood the shift in the balance of power caused by the death of Casillo. They abandoned the NCO and allied themselves with Alfieri. The elimination of the key NCO figures not only marked the end of the NCO's defeat as a political and criminal force, but also the rise of Carmine Alfieri and

18209-521: Was distinctly hostile to the Sicilian Mafia , but had an alliance with numerous Calabrian 'Ndrangheta clans, in addition to the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese, which was the precursor to the Sacra Corona Unita in Apulia . It was eventually supplanted by the Nuova Famiglia , a confederation of clans consisting of Michele Zaza (a Camorra boss with strong ties with Cosa Nostra ), the Gionta clan (from Torre Annunziata ),

18348-416: Was formed as a federation of Anti-Cutolo Camorra clans, and copied the organizational structure of the NCO. In stark contrast to the NCO's Campania-based model, the NF sought to impose a more traditional conduct based on the Sicilian code of conduct. The attacks continued through January 1981, until a summit meeting was called at the end of the month in a Roman hotel, under the mediation of Antonio Spavone. It

18487-445: Was headed by the brothers, Specidato and Gurrieri. The NGCP was created with the sole objective to unite all the groups in the region and constitute an autonomous, parallel organization with respect to the NCO, though still subject to it economically. Initially, there were no problems between the native criminals and the NCO. Their working relationship continued for years with no undue interference. At first local criminals were managing

18626-542: Was likely to agree to taking a back seat without making a fight of it. In 1978, Zaza formed a ‘honourable brotherhood’ (Onorata fratellanza) in an attempt to get the Mafia-aligned Camorra gangs to oppose Cutolo and his NCO, although without much success. In mid 1979, the NCO took on the Giuliano clan, which had traditionally controlled the Forcella, or "Casbah" area in the centre of Naples. Prior to this,

18765-405: Was little violence; the most violent conflicts over land took place in the east, but they did not involve mafiosi. In the east, the ruling elites were more cohesive and active during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. They maintained their large stables of enforcers and were able to absorb or suppress any emerging violent groups. Furthermore, the land in the east was generally divided into

18904-502: Was received by mayor/Mafia boss Francesco Cuccia . At some point, Cuccia expressed surprise at Mussolini's police escort and whispered in his ear: "You are with me, you are under my protection. What do you need all these cops for?". After Mussolini rejected Cuccia's offer of protection, the sindaco felt that he had been slighted and instructed the townsfolk not to attend the duce ' s speech. Mussolini felt humiliated and outraged. Cuccia's careless remark has passed into history as

19043-607: Was regular payments to the families of NCO members sent to prison, thereby guaranteeing the allegiance of both prisoners and their families. Cutolo was soon able to gather under him a small group of prisoners, the nucleus of which would later become the leadership of the NCO. They were Antonino Cuomo aka "'o Maranghiello" (The Cudgel), Pasquale Barra aka "'o Nimale" (The Animal), Giuseppe Puca aka "'o Giappone" (The Japanese), Pasquale D'Amico aka "'o Cartunaro" (The Cardboard picker) and Vincenzo Casillo aka "'o Nirone" (The Big Black). After being released, they would set up

19182-515: Was the CEO . There was a vice-chief executive at large (Vincenzo Casillo replacing Cutolo for emergency decisions, since Cutolo's reaction time was delayed by his imprisonment), an executive board (on which sat the members of the original group), then area managers, branch managers, and finally, salesmen in charge of collecting the weekly money from their rackets. Outside of prison, there was an executive meeting every fifteen days, where Rosetta Cutolo, who as

19321-462: Was the Portella della Ginestra massacre , when 11 people were killed and 33 wounded during May Day celebrations on May 1, 1947. The bloodbath was perpetrated by bandit Salvatore Giuliano , who was possibly backed by local Mafia bosses. In the end, though, they were unable to stop the process, and many landowners chose to sell their land to mafiosi, who offered more money than the government. In

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