The Cuocolo Trial was a trial against the Camorra, a Mafia-type organisation in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. The court hearing began in Viterbo on 11 March 1911 and the verdict was delivered on 8 July 1912. The trial was ostensibly to prosecute those charged with the murder of the Camorra boss Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife in 1906. The main investigator, Carabinieri Captain Carlo Fabbroni, transformed the trial into one against the Camorra as a whole, intending to use it to strike the final blow to the criminal organisation.The Cuocolo trial: the Camorra in the dock, Museo criminologico (Retrieved 25 May 2011)Cuocolo Trial May Be Death Blow of the Camorra; Italian Government Hopes That the Great Murder Case at Viterbo Will End in the Extermination of the Powerful Criminal Organization, by Walter Littlefield, The New York Times, March 5, 1911, M section, p. 4
After 17 months, the proceedings ended with a guilty verdict on 8 July 1912 against the 47 defendants that included 27 leading Camorra associates. They were sentenced to a total of 354 years' imprisonment. Enrico Alfano, the main defendant and alleged head of the Camorra, was sentenced to 30 years.Camorrist Leaders Get 30-Year Terms, The New York Times, 9 July 1912"Camorra Verdict; All Found Guilty", New York Tribune, 9 July 1912 The often tumultuous and spectacular trial attracted a lot of attention of newspapers and the general public both in Italy as well as in the United States, including by Pathé's Gazette. In 1927, the main incriminating witness retracted his version of the facts, but Italy's dictatorial Prime Minister Benito Mussolini did not authorise the revision of the trial.
The Cuocolo murder
Gennaro Cuocolo and his wife, Maria Cutinelli, were murdered on 6 June 1906, suspected of being police informers,Camorrist Victims Were Police Spies; Evidence Against Alfano and 40 Others Shows Double Dealings of Cuoccolo and His Wife, The New York Times, 27 February 1911 and opposing the Camorra leadership.Lack Of Jury Halts Camorrists' Trial, The New York Times, 12 March 1911 Cuocolo was, in fact, a notorious burglar, although he descended from leather merchants; Cutinelli came from prostitution. Storia di Maria Cuocolo e del primo maxi-processo, Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 19 August 2019 He was murdered on the beach at Torre del Greco; she, a few hours later, in her new house in Via Nardones, between Via Toledo and the Quartieri Spagnoli in Naples. The motive was, almost certainly, a breach of the criminal code of the Camorra. Cuocolo had appropriated the share due to the thieves who had ended up in prison, who then took revenge.
The murder case would develop into one of the most complicated legal cases of the early twentieth century in Italy. The police moved quickly to arrest Alfano and his brother Ciro, Giovanni Rapi, and two members of the Camorra rank and file, Gennaro Jacovitti and Gennaro Ibello. Arresti pel misterioso assassinio di Napoli, La Stampa, 11 June 1906 They had been in a restaurant in Torre del Greco, in the vicinity of the spot where Cuocolo was murdered on the same day. However, the investigation did not produce reliable evidence and the suspects were released from jail 50 days later, not in the least thanks to the intervention of the priest Ciro Vitozzi, the "guardian angel" of the Camorra and Erricone's godfather.Don Ciro Vitozzi's Tears Move Court, The New York Times, 7 April 1911
The hypothesis that the double murder was Camorra-related did not convince the investigating judge and the judiciary was persuaded that the trail to follow was that of revenge, of a reprisal for matters of booty. On the basis of Vitozzi's declarations and the testimony of Giacomo Ascrittore, a regular police informer and member of the Camorra, the local police and judiciary of Naples identified Gaetano Amodeo and Tommaso De Angelis, two receivers and former collaborators of Cuocolo, as the real killers, because Cuocolo had refused to share the proceeds of a jewellery theft.Ascrittore Again Heard At Viterbo, The New York Times, 12 April 1911Ex-Ministers At Trial; One of Them, Signor Riccio, Mentioned by Sortino in His Defense, The New York Times, 21 May 1911
Captain Carlo Fabbroni of the Carabinieri, the national gendarmerie of Italy, did not think so, and decided for an open confrontation with the local police. He accused the Naples police of inefficiency, corruption and collusion with the city’s underworld. Due to political pressure, the murder investigation was delegated to Fabbroni. Fabbroni and his right-hand man Marshal Erminio Capezzuti worked relentlessly on the incrimination of Alfano and his associates by interrogating and threatening a large number of criminals. The investigation gained new momentum in February 1907, when Gennaro Abbatemaggio, known as 'o Cucchieriello because of his work as a coachman, a young camorrista and police informer serving a jail sentence in Naples, testified that the decision to kill Cuocolo had been taken at a meeting at the restaurant chaired by Alfano.
From that moment on, everything contributed to reinforcing an accusatory picture not devoid of inconsistencies and gross errors. The main newspaper of Naples, Il Mattino, that sold 70,000 copies at the time, Cuocolo, camorra sotto scacco anche con un falso pentito, Il Mattino, 19 March 2017 supported Fabbroni's line of investigation with dozens of articles signed in particular by the newspaper's influential editor Edoardo Scarfoglio and crime reporter Ernesto Serao. Indicted on 22 October 1907, the defendants faced a circumstantial trial on the basis of Abbatemaggio's testimony alone. The developments of the case and suspected police corruption were discussed in parliament several times. Atti Parlamentari 17 giugno 1907, Camera dei Deputati I rapporti fra camorra e polizia in Napoli discussi a la Camera, Corriere della Sera, 2 April 1908 Meanwhile, after his release Alfano had moved to New York City, where he was arrested by the head of the Italian squad of the New York police, Joseph Petrosino. The arrest caused a sensation in Naples.Camorra's Chief Caught, The New York Times, April 20, 1907 Alfano was expelled and put behind bars in Naples.
The Trial
On 27 March 1909, the Assistant Public Prosecutor committed 47 persons for trial by the Court of Assizes in Naples. However, due to many attempts to corrupt the authorities and other obstacles the trial was transferred to the Court of Assizes in Viterbo, 250 kilometres from Naples and 80 kilometres north of Rome. The transfer of the defendants from Naples to Viterbo in January 1911 led to riots and fears for attempts to liberate the prisoners.Riot As Camorrists Arrive For Trial, The New York Times, 8 January 1911All Rome Stirred By Camorra Trial, The New York Times, 15 January 1911
Funds to pay the defendant's lawyers were reportedly collected in Naples and from Neapolitan restaurants in New York. The amount collected was 50,000 lire, or US$10,000, at the start of the trial. Giovanni Rapi, the Camorra's "treasurer", had an interest in several private banks in New York where the savings of immigrants were forwarded to Italy. The New York defence fund treasurer was Andrea Attanasio, also sought in connection with the Cuocolo matter.
The trial was transformed from a murder trial into one against the Camorra as a whole. The hearings began in the spring of 1911 and would continue for twelve months. Captain Fabbroni intended to use the trial to strike the final blow to the Camorra. The trial was Fabbroni's finest moment. He testified in 21 hearings and his testimony filled 285 pages. He accused the police, politicians and even the judiciary of being involved with the Camorra.
All defendants claimed they were innocent. "I am the victim of yellow journalism," Alfano told the judge. "I have been ruined by the Carabinieri. The story that I have been the head of the Camorra is a legend. I was neither its head nor its tail. I admit that I have committed some excesses. What youth of my social class in Naples has not?"Alfano Holds Stage at Viterbo Assizes, The New York Times, 1 April 1911
Convictions After a 17-month trial, the often tumultuous proceedings ended with a guilty verdict on 8 July 1912. The defendants, including 27 leading Camorra bosses, were sentenced to a total of 354 years' imprisonment. The main defendants Enrico Alfano and Giovanni Rapi were sentenced to 30 years. The priest Vitozzi received seven years and government witness Abbatemaggio five years. Trent'anni di reclusione ai cinque assassini dei coniugi Cuocolo e ai camorristi "Erricone", De Marinis e Rapi, La Stampa, 9 July, 1912 The jury had been held in isolation since March 1911. The reports of the proceedings were about 40,000 pages in 63 volumes.
In his last statement before the verdict, a furious Alfano accused the authorities to have killed his brother Ciro, who had died in prison. Another defendant, Gennaro De Marinis, who was sentenced to 30 years as well, slashed his throat with a piece of glass in the Court when the verdict was delivered. The proclamation of the sentence was received with "uproarious protests", according to a report of the New York Tribune. According to The New York Times, the men "acted like wild beasts."
One defendant shouted: "We are innocent. This is legal assassination." Some of them shook their fists at the judge and others tore at the bars of the cage where the defendants had to attend the trial. The condemned priest, Vitozzi, knelt praying and wept. "All the prisoners acted like maniacs," the Tribune report said, and the guards had difficulty maintaining order and carry the wounded Di Marinis out of the cage. A battalion of army troops with fixed bayonets stood outside the courthouse out of fear that there would be an attempt to liberate the prisoners.
The Cuocolo Trial dealt the Camorra a decisive blow. The historical Camorra in its 19th century form, known as the Honoured Society or Bella Società Riformata, would disappear after the trial and, in its traditional form, would no longer appear. According to Camorra legend not long after the Cuocolo verdict, on 25 May 1915, a few remaining camorristi met in the Sanita area of Naples and disbanded the organisation. The trial also confirmed the Camorra’s social marginality and political subalternity to the ruling powers in the kingdom of Italy who, after using it, had no difficulty in eliminating it. What remained was the individual guappo as a local street boss in the Neapolitan neighbourhoods, who operated in much the same way a typical camorrista had done – many of them were former or sons of camorristi –, but the overarching structure of the criminal brotherhood in Naples was gone.
Legitimacy of the trial
Many legal experts, both contemporary and later, advanced doubts about the regularity of the investigation and considered the trial 'false' and based on 'rigged papers' motivated to inflict a setback on the Neapolitan underworld even at the cost of falsifying evidence. The murders and trial followed a series of scandals that had exposed the infiltration of the Camorra in Naples society and the city's governance structures. The 1901 Saredo Inquiry into corruption and bad governance in Naples City Hall, identified a system of political patronage ran by what the report called the "high Camorra" and the relations of the Camorra with Mayor Celestino Summonte and deputy Alberto Casale. In 1904, Alfano had been implicated in the active campaign of the Camorra against socialist deputy Ettore Ciccotti, who lost the election.Says Politicians Hire The Camorra; Capt. Fabbroni Declares Nobody Can Be Elected in Naples Without Its Aid, The New York Times, July 13, 1911 Serena Robba (2009). Camorra - uno stile di vita, Tesi di Laurea, Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale "Amedeo Avogadro"