Author John Dickie has a good Twitter thread about Cutolo.
Most of the tweets below are found at
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1362 ... 1613668679. I added a few tweets at the very end of my post, as they aren't found at the aforementioned link.
Raffaele Cutolo has died. He tried to unite the vast and chaotic Neapolitan underworld in his Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) in the late 1970s and early 1980s--and did it all from prison. (1)
Multiple strands of mafia history meet in Cutolo's career. He was initiated into the 'ndrangheta in 1974, and plagiarised the Calabrian mafia's rituals for the NCO. (2)
He plagiarised 19th century poems about camorristi from the prison library to give the NCO an ideology, and himself an intellectual aura. He was known as 'the Professor'. (3)
Many of his recruits were vulnerable young criminals. He turned them into fanatics with an ideology that borrowed elements from extreme left groups of the time. (4)
Most notorious perhaps was the Ciro Cirillo episode. Cirillo was in charge of spending the vast sums allocated for reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Irpinia. He was kidnapped in 1981 by the Red Brigades.... (5)
Cirillo's party, the ruling DC, broke its policy of not negotiating with terrorists to pay a ransom and obtain his release. More than that, the DC went through Raffaele Cutolo to negotiate. (6)
Cutolo left a deep impression on popular culture, including Tornatore's rambling Il camorrista (1986) with its famous prison earthquake scene. (7)
https://youtu.be/cnS5KUX1Iys
Il camorrista sustained Cutolo's own myth about his first having been sent to prison for defending the honour of a woman. In reality he viciously murdered a fire fighter in a senseless road rage episode. (8)
And then of course there is Fabrizio De Andrè's song Don Raffaè, in the voice of a prison guard captivated by Cutolo's charisma. (9
ends)
https://youtu.be/yp_CvmOvLoQ
______________
toast fam @toast_fam
8h
Replying to
@JohnDickie1
i didn't know he was originally 'ndrangheta. i didn't even know it was possible to move between different organizations, altho i knew they work closely with one another quite often. is it common for mobsters to move between the 3 main mafias?
John Dickie @JohnDickie1
8h
Became fairly common in 1970s
Big Time Tonty @leninslinguine
8h
I was reading about inter-mob collaboration last night while watching Gomorra, apparently there has long been a suspected Camorra-Ndrangheta link
toast fam @toast_fam
8h
luciano leggio (cosa nostra) contracted some 'ndrangheta guys to help kidnap john paul getty III. random factoid for the day.
Author John Dickie has a good Twitter thread about Cutolo.
Most of the tweets below are found at https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1362310068943912960?refresh=1613668679. I added a few tweets at the very end of my post, as they aren't found at the aforementioned link.
Raffaele Cutolo has died. He tried to unite the vast and chaotic Neapolitan underworld in his Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) in the late 1970s and early 1980s--and did it all from prison. (1)
Multiple strands of mafia history meet in Cutolo's career. He was initiated into the 'ndrangheta in 1974, and plagiarised the Calabrian mafia's rituals for the NCO. (2)
He plagiarised 19th century poems about camorristi from the prison library to give the NCO an ideology, and himself an intellectual aura. He was known as 'the Professor'. (3)
Many of his recruits were vulnerable young criminals. He turned them into fanatics with an ideology that borrowed elements from extreme left groups of the time. (4)
Most notorious perhaps was the Ciro Cirillo episode. Cirillo was in charge of spending the vast sums allocated for reconstruction after the 1980 earthquake in Irpinia. He was kidnapped in 1981 by the Red Brigades.... (5)
Cirillo's party, the ruling DC, broke its policy of not negotiating with terrorists to pay a ransom and obtain his release. More than that, the DC went through Raffaele Cutolo to negotiate. (6)
Cutolo left a deep impression on popular culture, including Tornatore's rambling Il camorrista (1986) with its famous prison earthquake scene. (7)
https://youtu.be/cnS5KUX1Iys
Il camorrista sustained Cutolo's own myth about his first having been sent to prison for defending the honour of a woman. In reality he viciously murdered a fire fighter in a senseless road rage episode. (8)
And then of course there is Fabrizio De Andrè's song Don Raffaè, in the voice of a prison guard captivated by Cutolo's charisma. (9 [b]ends[/b])
https://youtu.be/yp_CvmOvLoQ
______________
toast fam @toast_fam
8h
Replying to
@JohnDickie1
i didn't know he was originally 'ndrangheta. i didn't even know it was possible to move between different organizations, altho i knew they work closely with one another quite often. is it common for mobsters to move between the 3 main mafias?
John Dickie @JohnDickie1
8h
Became fairly common in 1970s
Big Time Tonty @leninslinguine
8h
I was reading about inter-mob collaboration last night while watching Gomorra, apparently there has long been a suspected Camorra-Ndrangheta link
toast fam @toast_fam
8h
luciano leggio (cosa nostra) contracted some 'ndrangheta guys to help kidnap john paul getty III. random factoid for the day.