Blood Brotherhoods (130 page)

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Authors: John Dickie

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G. Garofalo,
La seconda guerra napoletana
, Naples, 1984.
G. Machetti, ‘La lobby di piazza Municipio: gli impiegati comunali nella Napoli di fine Ottocento’,
Meridiana
, 38–39, 2000.
M. Marmo, ‘“Processi indiziari non se ne dovrebbero mai fare.” Le manipolazioni del processo Cuocolo (1906–1930)’, in M. Marmo and L. Musella (eds),
La costruzione della verità giudiziaria
, Naples, 2003.
M. Marmo, ‘Il reato associativo tra costruzione normativa e prassi giudiziaria’, in G. Civile and G. Machetti (eds),
La città e il tribunale. Diritto, pratica giudiziaria e società napoletana tra Ottocento e Novecento
, Naples, 2004.
M. Marmo, ‘L’opinione pubblica nel processo penale: Giano bifronte, ovvero la verità giudiziaria contesa’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
F. Russo and E. Serao,
La camorra. Origini, usi, costumi e riti dell’ ‘annorata soggietà’
, Naples, 1907. The source of the quote on absinthe and debt.
R. Salomone,
Il processo Cuocolo
, Arpino, 1930. Contains Abbatemaggio’s recantation and information on his life; also Erricone’s speech at the verdict, p. 102.
F. Snowden,
The fascist revolution in Tuscany, 1919–1922
, Cambridge, 1989. On Abbatemaggio’s life under Fascism.
F.M. Snowden,
Naples in the time of cholera, 1884–1911
, Cambridge, 1995.
A. Train,
Courts, Criminals and the Camorra
, London, 1912. The ‘bear garden’ quote is from p. 184. The ‘best dressed’
camorristi
from p. 211. The ‘excitability’ of Italians, p. 202.

The press on the Cuocolo trial:

The Advertiser
(Australia). Abbatemaggio as ‘a rascal of almost inconceivably deep dye’ 13/7/1912.
Bulawayo Chronicle
. For the damning verdict on the Cuocolo trial, 8/9/1912.
Il Mattino
. Unless otherwise stated, I have quoted from
Il Mattino
’s copious coverage. For example: Abbatemaggio’s initial testimony begins on 25–26/3/1911; Abbatemaggio questioned on his theatregoing, 3–4/5/1911; Abbatemaggio’s ‘mnemonic and intuitive capacities’, testimony of Prof Polidori 14–15/3/1911; Erricone on ‘the gramophone’, 29–30/3/1911; Erricone on the ‘sons of Vesuvius’, 1–2/4/1911; on the pederast / spitting episode, 3–4/5/1911; Fabroni’s testimony, with its accusations against Abbatemaggio, begins on 13–14/7/1911; Simonetti testimony, 9–10/6/1911; Catalano testimony, 22–23/6/1911; Ametta testimony and Erricone’s outburst, 23–24/6/1911; on the
camorrista
’s printed defence and ‘rustic chivalry’, 20–21/3/1911.
New York Times
. ‘The greatest criminal trial of the age’, 11/9/1910; ‘Camorrist told all to win his bride’, 6/3/1911; ‘the black vitals of the criminal hydra’, 11/9/1910; ‘one of the most remarkable feats of detection’, 15/1/1912.
Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle
(New Zealand). One of many papers across the world to use the Sherlock Holmes parallel.
La Stampa
. Curiously, Gennaro Abbatemaggio kept himself in the headlines by claiming to know important inside details of the Matteotti murder; he gave evidence at the trial. See ‘Le rivelazioni di Abbatemaggio sulla premeditazione dell’assassinio Matteotti’,
La Stampa
, 7/9/1924. After the war, Abbatemaggio tried and failed to get a film of the Cuocolo trial made, and was also prosecuted in 1954 for falsely claiming to have crucial information on the notorious Montesi murder case. See ‘Gennaro Abbatemaggio arrestato per le sue false dichiarazioni’,
La Stampa
, 24/8/1954.
Washington Times
, 12/9/1910.

PART VI: MUSSOLINI’S SCALPEL

25. Sicily: The last struggle with the mafia / 31. Sicily: The slimy octopus
ASPA, Questura, Affari generali, 1935, b. 2196. Questura di Palermo. Archivio Generale b. 2196 Anno 1935. R. Ispettorato generale di PS per la Sicilia—Nucleo centrale Carabinieri reali, Processo verbale di denunzia di 175 individui responsabili di associazione per delinquere (16 luglio 1938).
Manchester Guardian
. Ascension Day speech, 27/5/1927.
New York Times
. 27/5/1927; ‘signs of increasing megalomania’, 29/5/1927.
M. Allegra, ‘Come io, medico, diventai un mafioso’,
Giornale di Sicilia
, 22–23/1/1962.
M. Allegra, ‘La mafia mi ordinò di entrare in politica’,
Giornale di Sicilia
, 23–24/1/1962.
M. Allegra, ‘Tutti gli uomini della “cosca”’,
Giornale di Sicilia
, 24–25/1/1962. Intriguingly, Allegra mentions Ernesto Marasà, says he has more to say about him, and then does not return to the subject.
M. Andretta, ‘I corleonesi e la storia della mafia. Successo, radicamento e continuità’,
Meridiana
, 54, 2005.
A. Blando, ‘L’avvocato del diavolo’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
A. Calderone,
Gli uomini del disonore
, (ed. P. Arlacchi), Milan, 1992.
V. Coco, ‘Dal passato al futuro: uno sguardo dagli anni trenta’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
V. Coco and M. Patti, ‘Appendice’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008. A breakdown of trials following the Mori operation.
V. Coco, ‘La mafia dell’agro palermitano nei processi del periodo fascista’, in G. Gribaudi (ed.),
Traffici criminali. Camorra, mafie e reti internazionali dell’illegalità
, Turin, 2009.
F. Di Bartolo, ‘Imbrigliare il conflitto sociale. Mafiosi, contadini, latifondisti’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
M. Di Figlia, ‘Mafia e nuova politica fascista’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
C. Duggan,
Fascism and the Mafia
, New Haven, 1989. Duggan’s study remains important for the context to the Mori Operation. But the book is best known for the thesis that the mafia-as-organisation was invented by Fascism as a pretext to exert political control over Sicily. That thesis was controversial at the time of publication, and it is now contradicted by a crushing weight of evidence.
S. Lupo,
Storia della mafia
, Rome, 1996. Mori ‘on heat’ for the nobility, quoted p. 182.
C. Mori,
The Last Struggle with the Mafia
, London, 1933.
C. Mori,
Con la mafia ai ferri corti
, Naples, 1993 (1932).
B. Mussolini, ‘Discorso dell’Ascensione’, 26/5/1927, in
idem
,
Opera Omnia
, ed. E. Susmel and D. Susmel, 44 vols, Florence, 1951–80, vol. 22.
M. Patti, ‘Sotto processo. Le cosche palermitane’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
V. Scalia, ‘Identità sociali e conflitti politici nell’area dell’interno’,
Meridiana
, 63, 2008.
A. Spanò,
Faccia a faccia con la mafia
, Milan, 1978. For Mori’s lifestyle in Palermo, p. 38.

I have estimated the extent of Marasà’s wealth using
www.measuringworth.com
(the unskilled wage index) 1938–2009.

26. Campania: Buffalo soldiers / 30. Campania: The Fascist Vito Genovese
Comando Generale dell’Arma dei Carabinieri. Ufficio Storico, various reports from the career of Vincenzo Anceschi, including
Bollettino Ufficiale dei Carabinieri Reali
1919 (p. 214), 1927 (p. 109), 1929 (pp. 330, 461, 585, 871), 1930 (p. 882).
E. Anceschi,
I Carabinieri reali contro la camorra
, Rome, 2003. Includes the article from
Il Mezzogiorno
, 2–3/6/1927 on which I base my description of the Mazzoni.
L. Avella,
Cronaca nolana. Dalla Monarchia alla Repubblica
, vol. 7,
1926–1943
, Naples, 2002. For the quote on Vito Genovese’s donation.
F. Barbagallo,
Storia della camorra
, Rome-Bari, 2010. On ‘Little Joey’, pp. 86–88.
O. Bordiga,
Inchiesta parlamentare sulle condizioni dei contadini nelle provincie meridionali e nella Sicilia
, vol. IV,
Campania
, tomo I,
Relazione
, Rome 1909. On the ‘tribes’ of the Mazzoni.
P. Frascani, ‘Mercato e commercio a Napoli dopo l’Unità’, in P. Macry, and P. Villani, (eds.),
Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’Unità a oggi
.
La Campania
, Turin, 1990.
G. Gribaudi, ‘Guappi, camorristi, killer. Interpretazioni letterarie, immagini sociali, e storie giudiziarie’, in
Donne, uomini, famiglie
, Naples, 1999. On the
guappo
.
M. Marmo, ‘Tra le carceri e il mercato. Spazi e modelli storici del fenomeno camorrista’, in P. Macry and P. Villani (eds),
La Campania
, part of
Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’Unità a oggi
, Turin, 1990. The best starting point for the history of the camorra outside Naples itself.
P. Monzini,
Gruppi criminali a Napoli e a Marsiglia. La delinquenza organizzata nella storia di due città (1820–1990)
, Rome, 1999. On the obscure fate of the camorra after the Honoured Society, pp. 53ff.
H.S. Nelli,
The Business of Crime. Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States
, New York, 1976. On Genovese and Fascism.
C. Petraccone,
Le “due Italie.” La questione meridionale tra realtà e rappresentazione
, Rome-Bari, 2005. On Fascism’s ban on ‘Mezzogiorno’, p. 190.
Il Mattino
. The articles triggered by the Nola murders run through August and September, 1911. See esp., 9–10/8/1911 ‘Il brigantaggio nell’Agro nolano’; and on the ‘crass ignorance’ and ‘bloodthirsty instincts’ in the Mazzoni, ‘Brigantaggio nei Mazzoni di Capua’, 18–19/9/1911. I have followed Anceschi’s operation in
Il Mattino
(November 1926 to May 1927).
Roma
. Also contains extensive coverage of Anceschi’s operation (November 1926 to June 1927). On the funeral interrupted by Anceschi’s men, 1/1/1927, ‘I maggiori maladrini avversani tratti in arresto mentre accompagnano in camposanto la salma del loro “capintesta”’.
27. Calabria: The flying boss of Antonimina / 28. Calabria: What does not kill me makes me stronger / 29. Calabria: A clever, forceful and wary woman / 32. Master Joe dances a
tarantella

Overview of archival sources on the ’ndrangheta under Fascism:

ASRC:

Tribunale di Reggio Calabria, Sentenze, 6/6/1923 n. 15, Battaglia Giuseppe + 46, vol. 206.
Ditto
, 1/12/1924, Callea Giovanni + 8, vol. 210.
Ditto
, 18/2/1924, Calù Clemente + 25, vol. 208.
Ditto
, 23/9/1924, Palamara Francesco + 6, vol. 210. A Casalnuovo-based group that decide to punish anyone who voted Fascist in the local elections. They are acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

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