by John Dickie
Ditto, 4/12/1928, Bumbaca Vincenzo + 45, vol. 505. One of several cases where the prosecution case fails to stand up.
Ditto, 8/6/1928, De Santis Giuseppe + 21, vol. 503.
Ditto, 9/7/1928, Lucà Luigi + 38, vol. 504. In Gioiosa Jonica the picciotteria calls itself the ‘Montalbano family’.
Ditto, 12/11/1928, Speranza Stefano + 26, vol. 505.
Ditto, 17/12/1928, Cristiano Giuseppe + 13, vol. 505. The Carabinieri fail to produce enough evidence against this group from Staiti.
Ditto, 18/8/1928, Saccomanno Antonio + 11, vol. 504. The defendants are acquitted because, in the judge’s view, the prosecution has not proved that this society was a criminal association, despite several confessions.
Ditto, 2/5/1929, Palermo Rinaldo + 48, vol. 507. Interesting case from Gerace in which the picciotteria extort bribes on marriages. Two wealthy members were acquitted on the flimsy grounds that ‘it was implausible that they would have shady dealings with what was essentially a bunch of beggars’.
Ditto, 17/5/1929, Napoli Pasquale + 7, vol. 507. A spike in thefts follows the return of a picciotto from the United States.
Ditto, 25/11/1929, Gareri Domenico + 13, vol. 509.
Ditto, 26/9/1929, Romeo Stefano + 75, vol. 508. Important trial of the picciotteria in San Luca. Giuseppe Delfino uses the evidence of an informer (subsequently murdered) to dismantle the local cattle-rustling operation.
Ditto, 1/4/1930, Gullace Domenico + 20, vol. 512.
Ditto, 6/12/1930, Spanò Vincenzo + 33, vol. 517.
Ditto, 11/7/1930, Vallone Giuseppe + 6, vol. 514.
Ditto, 13/6/1930, Carioti Francesco, vol. 513.
Ditto, 15/11/1930, Corio Santo + 144, vol. 516. Several women are involved in this clan from Palmi, Gioia Tauro and Rosarno.
Ditto, 20/10/1930, Sorace Salvatore + 9, vol. 515.
Ditto, 25/11/1930, Annacorato Vincenzo + 93, vol. 516. A ‘Montalbano family’ in Nicotera, Polistena and Gioia Tauro. One boy is initiated at age eleven. The judge is unsurprised that most of the evidence comes from turncoats inside the picciotteria: ‘It is natural that underworld trials grow from the revelations of gangsters who betray the secrets of the sect that they were affiliated to’.
Ditto, 29/11/1930, Mollica Vincenzo + 41, vol. 516.
Ditto, 29/8/1931, Ponzano Gaetano+ 10, vol. 521.
Ditto, 1/3/1932, Lupino Giovanni + 16, vol. 525.
Ditto, 25/11/1932, Argentano Menotti + 12, vol. 529.
Ditto, 12/5/1933, Piccione Francesco + 10, vol. 531.
Ditto, 21/9/1934, Pollifrone Rocco + 22, vol. 536. The picciotteria in the Locride smuggles its stolen animals to market in the Plain of Gioia Tauro.
ASC:
Corte di Assise di Catanzaro, Sentenze, 2/11/1931, Pugliese Francesco + 4, vol. 62.
Ditto, 21/5/1932, Rosello Francesco + 2, vol. 63. A Carabiniere is murdered for trying to prevent an underworld marriage alliance. He may have got too close to one of the factions involved.
ASC:
Corte di Assise di Locri, Sentenze, 2/2/1933, Andrianò Vincenzo + 8, b. 1.
Ditto, 19/7/1937, Commisso Francescantonio + 56, b. 3. The boss rules that a man spreading rumours about his wife must die, and orders a sixteen-year-old boy to perform the deed.
Ditto, 8/2/1938, Oppedisano Francesco + 5, b. 3.
Ditto, 6/9/1939, Macrì Francesco + 141, b. 4. The case involving Maria Marvelli.
Ditto, 9/2/1939, Canario Vincenzo + 26, b. 4.
ASC:
Corte di Assise di Palmi, Sentenze, 11/6/1937, Vicari Francesco, b. 3.
Ditto, 18/3/1937, Romeo Procopio + 2, b. 3. A butcher in a frazione of Oppido Mamertina is hit by shotgun pellets in the thighs, genitals, scrotum, penis and left hand while excreting in an olive grove. There follows a chain of attacks that the judge puts down to family rivalries.
Ditto, 6/12/1938, Vinci Alfonso + 10, b. 3. Acquittals despite an outbreak of razor slashes to the face in Cittanova.
Ditto, 8/4/1938, Corso Rocco + 1, b. 3.
Ditto, 7/3/1940, Barone Michele + 37, b. 4. The gang, under the leadership of Michele Barone convicted of smothering an old lady in her bed and throwing a prostitute off a bridge, seems not to have been part of the picciotteria, despite operating in the classic ’ndrangheta territories of Polistena and Taurianova.
ASC:
Gabinetto di prefettura, Affari gen. e disposizioni riguardanti la P.S.—b. 14. On the picciotteria that has ‘almost been crushed’, see letter from chief of police to the Prefect, 21/11/1931.
Gabinetto di prefettura, Ordine Pubblico—b. 609.
Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Aeronautica (USSMA), Fondo aviatori Grande Guerra, b. 132, fasc. 14. Noto Domenico. The flying boss’s war record.
Comando Generale dell’Arma dei Carabinieri. Ufficio Storico, various documents on the career of Giuseppe Delfino including: Bollettino Ufficiale dei Carabinieri Reali 1911 (p. 289), 1919 (p. 285), 1927 (p. 104); Comune di San Luca, ‘Deliberazione del consiglio comunale’, 4/12/1915 and another dated 14/7/1921; Partito Nazionale Fascista, Sezione de Platì, ‘Deliberazione’, 20/12/1926; letter from the Procuratore del Re, Gerace Marina, 3/6/1929.
Cronaca di Calabria. Has low-key coverage of the picciotteria during the early Fascist years, 1922–28. On the actions of Giuseppe Delfino, see ‘Vasta associazione a delinquere’, 8/12/1927.
Gazzetta di Messina e delle Calabrie, 1924–27. On Giuseppe Delfino’s tireless work, see, ‘Da Platì. Un maresciallo dei carabinieri che si fa onore’, 3/4/1927.
G. Buccini, ‘I due Delfino, carabinieri, e i boss Nirta: un’epopea a Platì’, Corriere della Sera, 16/10/1993. Delfino family lore.
L. Malafarina, ‘La leggenda di Massaro Peppe’, Gazzetta del Sud, 9/9/1986. An interview with Delfino’s son.
P. Bevilacqua, Le campagne del Mezzogiorno tra Fascismo e dopoguerra. Il caso della Calabria, Turin, 1980.
V. Cappelli, Il fascismo in periferia. La Calabria durante il Ventennio, Lungro di Cosenza, 1998.
F. Cordova, Il fascismo nel Mezzogiorno: le Calabrie, Soveria Mannelli, 2003.
L. Izzo, Agricoltura e classi rurali in Calabria dall’Unità al Fascismo, Geneva, 1974.
E. Miséfari, L’avvento del fascismo in Calabria, Cosenza, 1980. On ‘acute factionitis’, p. 116.
A. Placanica, Storia della Calabria, Rome, 1999 (1993).
J. Steinberg, ‘Fascism in the Italian South: the case of Calabria’, in D. Forgacs (ed.), Rethinking Italian Fascism. Capitalism, Populism and Culture, London, 1986.
33. Liberation
ASRC, Tribunale di Locri, Sentenza 20/3/1937, Macrì Antonio + 12, vol. 286. Don ’Ntoni has one of his early brushes with the law.
La mafia a Montalto. Sentenza 2 ottobre 1970 del Tribunale di Locri, Reggio Calabria, 1971. Includes a detailed criminal profile of don ’Ntoni Macrì.
National Archive, London
Italy. Zone Handbook Sicily. WO 220/277.
Italy. Zone Handbook no. 3. Calabria. WO 220/278.
Italy. Zone Handbook no. 6. Campania. WO 252/804.
WO 204/9719, Sicily and southern Italy: reports on social, economic and political aspects of provincial living conditions. 1943 Oct–1944 Jan. Includes Lord Rennell’s report from Calabria.
WO 204/11462, Psychological Warfare Branch. PWB and OSS activities reports. 1944 Dec–1945 May. Includes accounts of food riots in traditional picciotteria areas but no mention of gang activity.
WO 204/12625, Italy. Political situation. Naples and Campania. For figures on prostitution in Naples see the report reviewing the situation since Liberation, dated 19/4/1945. On the food supply from the hinterland see report dated 2/5/1945.
WO 204/12627, Italy. Political situation. Naples and Campania. On the ‘fantastic gangland situation’ in the hinterland north of the city see report of 21/2/1946.
WO 204/6313, Psychological Warfare Branch. Naples: weekly reports on economic and political conditions. 1944 Apr.–Aug. Report dated 3/5/1944 on the police cut on goods coming out of the port, and on the
main black market sales points in the city. Report of 23/6/1944 on the problems of those on fixed incomes. Report of 30/6/1944 on class distinctions disappearing.
WO 204/6314, Psychological Warfare Branch. Naples: weekly reports on economic and political conditions. 1944 Aug.–Oct. Report of 16/8/1944 on two kinds of spaghetti. Report of 28/9/1944 on the inactivity of the Military Police. Report of 5/10/1944 on the old crone tipping a bank clerk for counting her money. Report of 26/10/1944 (interview with woman) for the role of street-corner bosses.
WO 204/6315, Psychological Warfare Branch. Naples: weekly reports on economic and political conditions. 1944 Nov.–1945 Jan. Report of 23/11/1944 on a Casoria gang that stages train robberies between Rome and Naples.
WO 204/6277, Psychological Warfare Branch. Italy: reports on conditions in liberated areas. 1944 Jan.–Mar. Report of 28/3/1944 on the Caputos sentenced to seven years.
C. Alvaro, ‘Il canto di Cosima’, in idem, L’amata alla finestra, Milan, 1994.
F. Barbagallo, Storia della camorra, Rome-Bari, 2010. On the Giuliano boys in Forcella, p. 103.
E. Ciconte, ’Ndrangheta dall’Unità a oggi, Rome-Bari, 1992. On mafia mayors and what little we know about this under-researched period of ’ndrangheta history, pp. 239–44.
E. Ciconte, Storia criminale. La resistibile ascesa di mafia, ’ndrangheta e camorra dall’Ottocento ai giorni nostri, Soveria Mannelli, 2008. On Delfino pp. 283–4.
D. Ellwood, Italy 1943–1945, Leicester, 1985. Also quotes Lord Rennell on mayors from an ‘American gangster environment’, p. 59.
N. Gentile, Vita di capomafia, Rome, 1993.
A. Gramsci, Lettere dal carcere, Turin, 1947. For an example of the prison gangs as viewed by a political prisoner under Fascism. When Antonio Gramsci, the founding member and leader of the Italian Communist Party, was jailed by Mussolini, he witnessed a camorra initiation in a Naples prison. He also saw a ‘fencing academy’ and a friendly duelling tournament conducted according to the rules of what he termed the ‘four realms of the southern Italian underworld (the Sicilian realm, the Calabrian realm, the Puglian realm, and the Neapolitan realm)’. The weapons, in this case, were harmless: spoons rubbed against the wall so that whitewash marked hits on the duellers’ clothing. But even so, the rivalry between Sicilians and Calabrians was so intense that they did not even fight with spoons in case the battle escalated. See particularly the letter dated 11/4/1927.
J. Huston, An Open Book, London, 1988 (1980).
N. Lewis, Naples ‘44, London, 2002 (1978). I have used Lewis’s classic work of reportage here, but sparingly. After reading the manuscript notes upon which the text is based, I felt that the references to the ‘zona di camorra’ in Naples ‘44 were not sufficiently reliable to be used as historical evidence, and that they may well have been a product of literary licence based on Lewis’s later visits to Naples and his encounters with films such as La sfida.
C. Malaparte, La pelle, Rome-Milan, 1950. ‘Two dollars the boys, three dollars the girls!’ p. 19.
T. Newark, The Mafia at War: Allied collusion with the mob, London, 2007. Quotes the OSS report (‘theirs for the asking’, dated 13/8/1943), pp. 209–10. On 45 per cent of Allied military cargo stolen, Newark quotes the report from Allied Civil Affairs to the War Cabinet in London 19/4/1944 (National Archive, MAF 83/1338), p. 217.
V. Paliotti, Forcella. La Casbah di Napoli, Naples, 2005.
E. Reid, Mafia, revised edn, New York, 1964. Reproduces Dickey’s testimony, pp. 163–89.
C. Stajano, Africo, 1979. On Delfino’s dancing.
‘Lord Rennell’, obituary in The Geographical Journal, vol. 144, No. 2 (July 1978).
PART VII: FUGGEDABOUTIT
34. Sicily: Banditry, land and politics
V. Coco and M. Patti, Relazioni mafiose. La mafia ai tempi del fascismo, Rome, 2010.
S. Di Matteo, Anni roventi. La Sicilia dal 1943 al 1947, Palermo, 1967.
D. Ellwood, Italy 1943–1945, Leicester, 1985.
N. Gentile, Vita di capomafia, Rome, 1993.
F.M. Guercio, Sicily. The Garden of the Mediterranean. The Country and its People, London, 1938. See pp. 64, 88 for the proclamations of the Sicilian canker’s demise.
R. Mangiameli, ‘La regione in guerra’, in M. Aymard and G. Giarrizzo (eds), La Sicilia, Storia d’Italia. Le regioni dall’Unità a oggi, Turin, 1987.
P. Pezzino, Mafia: Industria della violenza, Florence, 1995. The October 1946 report on the ‘occult organisation’ is by Carabinieri General Amedeo Branca to the Comando Generale dell’Arma, and is reproduced on pp. 190–91.
U. Santino, Storia del movimento antimafia. Dalla lotta di classe all’impegno civile, Rome, 2009 (updated edn). On the Santangelo brothers and other aspects of the mafia’s political atrocities in this period.
A. Spanò, Faccia a faccia con la mafia, Milan, 1978. ‘The mafia has never been as powerful and organised as it is today’, p. 130.
The Scotten report on the mafia is in the National Archives, FO 371/37327.
Meridiana, 63, 2008. Monographic issue on Mafia e fascismo.
New York Times, ‘Mafia chiefs caught by Allies in Sicily’, 10/9/1943; ‘Mafia in Sicily’, 11/9/1943.
35. Sicily: In the Name of the Law
O. Barrese, I complici. Gli anni dell’antimafia, Milan, 1978. The quotation from Scelba is on p. 7.
A. Blando, ‘L’avvocato del diavolo’, Meridiana, 63, 2008.
Dizionario biografico dei meridionali, vol. 2, Naples, 1974, ‘Lo Schiavo Giuseppe Guido’.
D. Forgacs, Rome, Open City, London, 2000. André Bazin’s famous 1946 quotation about the ‘skin of History peels off as film’ is discussed on p. 23.
E. Giacovelli, Pietro Germi, Rome, 1991.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, ‘La redenzione sociale nelle opere del Regime’, Politica Sociale, X, August, 1937.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, Piccola pretura, Rome, 1948. The quote comparing the mafia boss to Buddha is on p. 114. The novel would go on to form part of a trilogy of novels with equally questionable visions of the mafia. The trilogy was published together as Terra amara (Rome, 1956). The other two episodes in it are Condotta di paese (1952) and Gli inesorabili (1950). This latter novel was turned into an alarmingly bad film of the same name (dir. Camillo Mastrocinque, 1950), which was issued in the United States as The Fighting Men and can be viewed at http://archive.org/details/fighting_men. Charles Vanel reprises his role as a mafia boss—this time as a caped righter of wrongs: ‘we protect all honest people’.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, ‘Nel regno della mafia’, Processi, 5, 1955. Contains Lo Schiavo’s fond recollections of Calogero Vizzini.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, 100 anni di mafia, Rome, 1962. Contains many of Lo Schiavo’s writings, including his original 1933 response to Puglia, ‘La mafia siciliana’, with the addition of some very strange new footnotes in which he tries to wriggle out of his earlier opinions.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, ‘Il cinema alla luce del costume e della libertà’, Trieste, 1963 (extract from L’osservatore economico e sociale, V, 1). Also contains biographical information.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, ‘La mafia della lupara e quella dei colletti bianchi’, Nuovi Quaderni del Meridione, 4, 1963.
L. Sciascia, ‘La Sicilia nel cinema’ in La corda pazza, Turin, 1970.
M. Sesti (ed.), Signore e signori: Pietro Germi, Siena, 2004.
V. Spinazzola, Cinema e pubblico. Lo spettacolo filmico in Italia 1945–1965, Rome, 1985.
In nome della legge (dir. Pietro Germi), 1949, is available on DVD from Cristaldi Film and on YouTube.
36. Calabria: The last romantic bandit
C. Cingari, ‘Tra brigantaggio e “picciotteria”: Giuseppe Musolino’, in Brigantaggio, proprietari e contadini nel Sud, Reggio Calabria, 1976.
G.G. Lo Schiavo, 100 anni di mafia, Rome, 1962. Reproduces ‘Requisitoria del Sostituto Procuratore Generale del Re dr. Vittorio Barbera’ (Messina, 27/2/1932) in the case against Anile Giuseppantonio + 89: on the Criminale.
A. Sapone, Sant�
�Alessio in Aspromonte. Uomini e storie dell’antico Casale di Alessi, Reggio Calabria, 2001.
F. Truzzolillo, ‘“Criminale” e “Gran Criminale.” La struttura unitaria e verticistica della ’ndrangheta delle origini’, Meridiana, 77, 2013.
Crescenzo Guarino was the journalist who wrote about the aged Musolino most often, such as in the following articles: ‘A colloquio con Musolino’, La Stampa, 16/1/1950; ‘La manìa di grandezza del brigante Musolino’, Stampa Sera, 18–19/1/1950; ‘Una poesia inedita di Pascoli per il brigante dell’Aspromonte’, Il Mattino, 3/7/1955; ‘Arde sempre in Musolino la fiamma della vendetta’, Il Mattino, 5/7/1955; ‘È morto il brigante Musolino’, La Stampa, 24/1/1956; ‘L’ultimo “brigante romantico” viveva tra i fantasmi del passato’, Stampa Sera, 24/1/1956.
The key archival material on Musolino is in the Archivio di Stato di Reggio Calabria: Gabinetto di Prefettura, n. 1089, Associazione a delinquere in S. Stefano, b. 27, inv. 34; and Gabinetto di Prefettura, Serie prima, affari riservati. Bandito Musolino.
37. Naples: Puppets and puppeteers
P.A. Allum, Politics and Society in Post-war Naples, Cambridge, 1973.
‘Camorra’, in Enciclopedia Italiana, VIII, BUC–CARD, Milan, 1930.
M. Figurato and F. Marolda, Storia di contrabbando. Napoli 1945–1981, Naples, 1981.
G. Gribaudi, Donne, uomini, famiglie. Napoli nel Novecento, Naples, 1999.
G. Gribaudi, ‘Les rites et les langages de l’échange politique. Deux exemples napolitains’, in D. Cefaï (ed.), Cultures politiques, Paris, 2001. Very insightful on Navarra.
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. On the trial that destroyed the Honoured Society of Naples.
G. Marotta, San Gennaro non dice mai no, Milan, 1948, especially ‘I “pupanti”’ on puppets, ‘Re Giuseppe’ on Giuseppe Navarra.
G. Marotta, ‘L’angelo degli autocarri’, La Stampa, 13/10/1953, on the correntisti.
L. Musella, Napoli dall’Unità a oggi, Rome, 2010. A short history of Naples that is rich in ideas for several periods including this one.
