Blood Brotherhoods

by John Dickie

  I followed the various trials in a number of newspapers:

  Avanti! On Palizzolo’s convulsive laughter at the verdict 1/8/1902.

  Corriere della Sera. On Palizzolo ‘accessible to the voters’, 1–2/10/1901 (quoted in Lupo, Storia della mafia, p. 111).

  Daily Express. On the Florence verdict, 25/7/1904.

  Giornale di Sicilia. ‘La questione Avellone’, 2–3/4/1892 (quoted in O. Cancila, Palermo, Bari, 2000, pp. 234–5). For the new prefect’s proclamation of a campaign against extortion, see 14–15/9/1898. On how well respected the Giammona family were, 13–14/5/1901. On the Giammonas’ generosity: 20–21/5/1901. On the mafia as a ‘hypertrophy of individualism’, 24–25/5/1901. Interestingly the full quote comes word-for-word from Cosenza’s 1900 speech opening the judicial year (see Renda, Socialisti e cattolici, p. 408). Cosenza also quotes Giuseppe Falcone, a lawyer of Palizzolo’s and the man responsible for trying to smear Sangiorgi at the end of the story. On Sangiorgi’s death, 4–5/11/1908.

  Il Mattino. On Sangiorgi’s death, 4–5/11/1908.

  Morning Post. On the hypocrisy at the pro-Notarbartolo demonstration, see 22/12/1899.

  L’Ora. On the mafia as ‘rustic chivalry’ 5–6/6/1901. For the letter slandering Sangiorgi, 19–20/11/1903. On Sangiorgi’s death, 4/11/1908.

  Resto del Carlino. Sangiorgi on ‘the mafia is powerful’, 30–31/10/1901.

  The St Louis Republic. ‘The bandit-king’s levee’ (anon), 14/1/1900. For the scene at Palizzolo’s bedroom receptions.

  The Times. On Leopoldo Notarbartolo’s ‘sobriety, scrupulous attention to fact’, 18/10/1901.

  Tribuna Giudiziaria. See 29/11/1903 and the article ‘Commedia poliziesca’ for Sangiorgi’s ‘slanderous’ testimony.

  22. The criminal Atlantic

  C. Alvaro, ‘La fibbia’, Corriere della Sera, 17/9/1955. For the anecdote about the ‘association’ in San Luca.

  G. Cingari, Storia della Calabria dall’Unità a oggi, Rome-Bari, 1983.

  G. Cingari, Reggio Calabria, Rome-Bari, 1988. On the picciotteria in the aftermath of the earthquake of 1908.

  D. Critchley, The Origin of Organised Crime in America. The New York City Mafia, 1891–1931, London, 2009. Marshalls a vast amount of excellent documentation but is marred by its lack of knowledge of the best Italian studies on the mafia, which leads, for example, to his taking the Sicilians like Joe Bonanno at their word on ‘honour’ and such like. All the same, Critchley’s book is important in that it is the first to assemble an overview involving both Campanian and Calabrian gangs as well as Sicilians. I have drawn on Critchley for Erricone’s time in New York, among other things.

  P.Y. Herchenroether, Helltown. The Story of the Hillsville Black Hand, unpublished typescript, kindly provided by the author. On picciotteria-style gangs among miners in Pennsylvania.

  S. Lupo, Quando la mafia trovò l’America. Storia di un intreccio intercontinentale, 1888–2008, Turin, 2008. Among many other things, Lupo quotes Antonio Musolino’s statement to the police.

  New York Times. ‘By order of the mafia’, 22/10/1888. Salvatore Lupo identifies this first mafia murder in the USA. Walter Littlefield, ‘Criminal band that murdered Petrosino in police coils’, 11/9/1910.

  The ASRC contains some interesting files on the re-importation of the Black Hand into Calabria and on links between Calabrian gangs and the mining communities of the USA:

  Tribunale penale Reggio Calabria, 1906, b. 981, fasc. 11156, Leone Antonino +63, Associazione a delinquere mano nera.

  Ditto, b. 993, fasc. 11732. Ignoti: minacce.

  Ditto, b. 1028, fasc. 12896. Romeo Francesco e altri (11/1907).

  20. The ‘high’ camorra / 21. The camorra in straw-yellow gloves / 23. Gennaro Abbatemaggio: Genialoid / 24. The strange death of the Honoured Society

  F. Barbagallo, Il Mattino degli Scarfoglio, 1892–1928, Milan, 1979.

  F. Barbagallo, Stato, parlamento e lotte politico-sociali nel Mezzogiorno (1900–1914), Naples, 1980. On Peppuccio Romano, among other things.

  F. Barbagallo, Storia della camorra, Rome-Bari, 2010.

  R. Canosa, Storia della criminalità in Italia, 1845–1945, Turin, 1991. The request from the Carabinieri for more money to pay witnesses is quoted on p. 291.

  E. Ciccotti, Come divenni e come cessai di essere deputato di Vicaria, Naples, 1909. On the election and the camorra in tricolour cockades once more.

  E. De Cosa, Camorra e malavita a Napoli agli inizi del Novecento, Cerchio, 1989 (1908).

  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. S
icily: 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.

  Ditto, 15/4/1926, n. 192, Minniti Antonio, vol. 215.

  Ditto, 2/8/1926 n. 395, Mafrici Stefano + 13, vol. 216.

  Ditto, 7/5/1927 n. 153, De Gaetano Andrea + 28, vol. 218. Three of the accused get themselves photographed with pistols pointing at a sheet of paper and raising hands as if to take an oath. They are all acquitted.

  Ditto, 29/3/1927, Schimizzi Giacomo + 64, vol. 217. In Melito the gang initiation oath emerges from insider evidence: ‘before us there is a tomb covered in flowers, and he who breaches secrecy will receive five dagger blows to the chest’. The judge explains why such insider evidence often emerges: ‘judicial psychology teaches us, members of criminal associations always betray one another’.

  Ditto, 13/7/1928 n. 395, Bruzzaniti Giovanni + 51, vol. 224. A case in Africo where there was an upsurge in picciotteria violence after the First World War. The judge lamely blames ‘social causes’ and reduces the sentences on the grounds that the culprits are reformed characters.

  Ditto, 19/6/1928, Putortì Vittorio +5, vol. 223.

  Ditto, 14/8/1930, Passalacqua Giuseppe + 19, vol. 234. A nasty case involving the rape of a mentally handicapped prostitute.

  Ditto, 26/5/1930 n. 341, Curatola Francesco, vol. 232.

  Ditto, 12/6/1931 n. 524, Altomonte Carmelo + 8, vol. 238.

  Ditto, 16/7/1931 n. 752, De Gaetano Domenico + 20, vol. 239. Describes a battle for territory in San Roberto (near Villa San Giovanni) between Fascists and picciotti. The latter have a close web of kinship and marriage ties between them.

  Ditto, 6 aprile 1933 n. 174, Spanò Demetrio + 106, vol. senza numero Anno 1933—dal 15 gennaio al 30 aprile. Trial of a whole network of picciotteria groups in Reggio Calabria. The leaders pimp and extort money from ju
nior members. A detailed picture of the organisation emerges. There is, as always, a Società minore and a Società maggiore, but the latter is further divided between the Società in testa a.k.a. Gran criminale grouped around the boss, and the Società indrina of which there are several based in different quarters of the city.

  ASC:

  Corte di Appello di Catanzaro, Sentenze, 7/6/1922, De Paola Gregorio + 11, vol. 486.

  Ditto, 8/8/1923, Noto Domenico + 46, vol. 489. The flying boss.

  Ditto, 14/11/1923, Alfinito Donato + 36, vol. 489. Prosecution of a group in Petronà. Two women accused of being in the cosca are acquitted for insufficient evidence. The boss was unseated because his wife betrayed him, ostensibly.

  Ditto, 16/4/1923, Costa Salvatore + 6, vol. 488.

  Ditto, 19/7/1924, Bruzzi Camillo + 18, vol. 491. From Radicena and Gioia Tauro. The gang’s practice of forced initiation produces a witness for the prosecution.

  Ditto, 11/3/1925, Cotela Giuseppe + 14, vol. 492. Some members admit the existence of the association, based in Serrata. Forcible enlisting of members still practised, at least according to some witnesses.

  Ditto, 19/12/1925, Barbara Antonio + 35, vol. 494.

  Ditto, 26/1/1925, Panucci Gesuele + 17, vol. 492.

  Ditto, 22/5/1926, Fabrizio Giuseppe + 26, v. 495. Like many rulings, this one shows an organisation divided between picciotti and camorristi. Once again the evidence is from turncoats inside the group.

  Ditto, 6/2/1926, Pandurri Pietro + 14, vol. 495.

  Ditto, 10/2/1926, Facchineri Giuseppe + 18, vol. 495.

  Ditto, 12/4/1926, Notarianni Vincenzo + 34, vol. 495. Dagger duels.

  Ditto, 13/2/1926, Mascaro Camillo + 3, vol. 495.

  Ditto, 17/3/1926, De Caro Vincenzo, vol. 495. A group in the ethnically Albanian village of Santa Sofia d’Epiro. The group kept women’s clothes for disguise purposes.

  Ditto, 26/4/1926, Albanese Domenico + 26, vol. 495. The ruling describes the disorder following demobilisation in Rosarno.

  Ditto, 28/6/1926, Gullà Francesco, v. 496. Gullà, from Celico in the province of Cosenza, has ties with the Black Hand in the USA.

  Ditto, 10/10/1927, Biancamaro Arturo + 6, vol. 500.