EAsunta Mareska, the first woman leader and former beauty queen of the Camora gang in Tali, has said goodbye to the world at the age of 86. The old stories of Mareska, described by the press as the ‘Diva of Crime’, are back in the news.
Assunta Mareska’s life surpassed even movie stories. At the age of 18, her husband’s killer was shot dead in broad daylight in downtown Naples. When she was six months pregnant, she killed Antonio Esposito, the leader of the criminal group ‘Comora’. With this, Naples lost to Mareska in the underworld.
Assunta Mareka died on December 29 at her home near Pompeii, Italy. Asunta Mareska was the leader of the underworld gang and many others. An eventful, dramatic and incredible life that surpasses even Hollywood movies …
Assunta maresca or puppet maresca
Asunta Mareska, better known as Papetta (puppet), is a former beauty queen who quickly became a strong figure in the mafia gang known as Camora. He was born on January 19, 1935, in the Italian city of Castellamare de Stabia. She became internationally infamous in the mid – 1950s when she killed a Kamora gang leader in retaliation for her husband’s murder.
Assunta Mareska was the daughter of Vincenzo Mareska, a member of the Comoros, a mafia group that controlled their hometown of Castellamare de Stabia, south of Naples. She was a member of the Lampettielli criminal family, which specialized in the use of switch blades or folding knives. They were making money by smuggling banned cigarettes.
Assunta was the only girl in a family of four siblings. They were beautiful. Assunta grew up like a princess caressing four brothers. She was affectionately known as Pappetta. At the age of eighteen, Assunta won a beauty pageant in a village on the outskirts of Naples and became ‘Miss Rovegliano’.
Love, revenge, revenge
Simonetti, a wealthy and powerful local Kamora mafia boss who initially worked in a fruit and vegetable market in Naples and later smuggled it, met and fell in love with her. They were married on April 27, 1955.
Simonetti’s rapid growth and working style upset other Kamora members. Shortly after her marriage, in 1955, Simonetti was shot dead in public in broad daylight. Simonetti’s rival, Antonio Esposito, was shot and killed by hired assassin Gaitano Orlando.
Asunta Mareska, who was six months pregnant, could not bear the news of her beloved’s death. But Mareska was not ready to give up. The police knew who the attacker was but they were not ready to take any action as they had taken the money from Esposito.
At the age of nineteen, when he was convinced that justice would not be served by the legal system, Mareska himself took a direct stand for justice. On August 4, 1955, she sailed for Naples with her younger brother, Ciro. As soon as she met Esposito, who was ordered to kill her husband in broad daylight at a market there, she pulled out the gun she had hidden in her handbag. With both hands it aimed and fired at the exposito. Esposito died instantly.
She later revealed in an interview that she feared the peak would go wrong during the shooting.
On October 14, 1955, police arrested Assunta Mareska. The trial began in April 1959 in the Court of Assisi in Naples. The murder and subsequent trial were discussed internationally. Mareska was featured in the headlines of several leading newspapers. During the trial, Mareska raised her head and arrogantly declared that she had no remorse for killing her husband and that she would do it again. Hearing this, the entire courtroom cheered and made headlines internationally.
A newspaper called her the ‘Diva of Crime’. For the first time in history, a court in Naples allowed the use of mics during the trial of this case. This was to let people know directly what was going on in the courtroom.
Many young people who are fans of Assunta Mareska came on the scene with marriage proposals. An Italian musician wrote the song ‘La Legge de Nore’ – ‘The Law of Honor’ in honor of Maresca. The court sentenced them to 18 years in prison after finding them guilty. The sentence was later reduced to 14 years. After returning from years of imprisonment, he later starred in a film.
Scene from a movie starring Asunta Mareska
Papetta from Mareska to Madame Camora
Mareska gives birth to a baby boy while in prison. The boy was born in Mareska. In 1965, Mareska was released from prison on parole. However, he came out and won the favor of the Kamora gang. Another Kamora gang leader, drug trafficker Umberto Ammaturo, became his life partner and gave birth to twins.
Some kidnapped and killed the first eighteen-year-old son of Mareska, who was active in Umberto’s criminal businesses. The murder remains a mystery to this day. But Mareska was adamant that her partner, Umberto Ammaturo, had killed her first-born son. But then there was no further ado about it.
They separated in 1982. In February 1982, Mareska appeared directly at a press conference to defend his followers during the Gang War between the Nouvo Comora Organasita (NCO) and the Nouveau Famiglia (NF). To everyone’s shock, they publicly spoke out against the brutal NCO leader and one of the Comora leaders, Rafael Catolo. Katolo imposed a “tax” on banned cigarettes smuggled into the country by others, and Mareska opposed it.
Later, in 1982, Mareska was arrested along with Umberto Ammaturo for the murder of forensic scientist Aldo Semarari. He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture. But Mareska was sentenced to four years in prison for the incident. He later lived alone in a house near Pompeii. This is where the end came. Assunta Mareska led a life that surpassed even movie stories. Asunta’s death marks the end of a life full of unbelievable twists and turns.
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