Open funeral banned for convicted Camorra mafia ‘godfather’
(ANSA) – Naples, October 21 – The Naples police chief on Monday banned an open funeral anywhere in the southern Italian city for a man convicted of ordering the murder of a 26-year-old crime reporter, considered by authorities to have been a ruthless, powerful, top-ranking Camorra mafia boss.
Angelo Nuvoletta died at the age of 71 on Sunday in a Parma hospital where he was serving the end of a life sentence for ordering the execution of Giancarlo Siani, killed on September 23, 1985 as he approached his apartment.
Siani had written an article in the Naples newspaper Il Mattino revealing Nuvoletta’s betrayal of an another Camorra boss, Valentino Gionta, an ally who Nuvoletta had had arrested in order to placate an adversary during a bloody, violent rash of reprisals.
Nuvoletta is believed to have ordered Siani’s murder to save face, and cover up the fact that he had broken a mafia honor code.
Nuvoletta was arrested in May 2001 after 17 years in hiding.
Investigators believe he spent all or most of the time in or near his hometown of Marano, seven kilometres northwest of Naples, where he is thought to have continued running the Camorra Marano clan.
Nuvoletta and his two brothers, Lorenzo and Ciro, ran the Marano clan, which over a period of decades strengthened its ties and collaboration with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia. Lorenzo died in prison, while Ciro was killed in a mafia war. Angelo was considered the “mind” of the clan, managing its business affairs and contacts with the Cosa Nostra, and in particular, the Corleonesi.
In the years since, Siani has become a symbol of the fight to expose the truth about the mafia in Italy, and venerated as a martyr.
In addition to Siani, Nuvoletta is suspected of being responsible for the strangulation and dissolution in acid of five members of the rival Alfieri clan.