The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-02-25
Vhibodaux Sentinel.
THE CAMORRA'S KING.

His Singular Career-His Death and His
Successor.
The king of the Camorrists died the
other day and many a man in Naples
breathed more freely at the knowledge
that this extraordinary parsonage is no
more.
The "Camorra" is a vast society which
has its ramitications among ali classes,
and is organized mainly with a view to
holding in check justice. the police
even the royal power itself.
4 Camorrist arrested for a crime, or
accused of some indiscretion, is certain
to find one of his fellows either among
the judges, the lawyers, the sherifs,
the j~ailers, the gendarmes or his fellow
prisoners.
Each comrade is bound to do nothing
derogatory to n other comrade, and
the consequence is the welding of a
mysterious power in Naples and in all
southern Italy.
To say of a man that he is a Canon
rista is at once to inspire a vague ter
o concerning all his actions. He is
expected to be capable OF anything,
and to escape unpublished, no matter
how great his crimes.
Ciccio Cappuccio was BORN in the Car
mine quarter of Naples. the scene of
the celebrated revolt of Masaniello and
his heroic fishermen.
His father was a member of the Ca
mora, and was also one of its chiefs.
He had his son initiated at a very early
age, and sent him to work in the royal
spinning mill of Sanifcio, where the
cloth for army and prison uniforms is
made.
Young Cappuccio soon had to wear
some of his own weaving. In 1856 he
had a quarrel with the director Of the
mill. and disfgured him for life by
stabbing him in the face.
He was sen to the galleys. but was
soon liberated by mysterious infiu-
ences. From that time forward 20
Signorino." as the Neapolitans called
him in their picturesque dialect. was
the recognized king of the Camorra.
He had won his grades in prison,
breaking the arms and legs of all who
ventured to disagree with him. In 1859,
during and after the Italian wars, the
revolutionary current had passed over
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and
there was conspiracy everywhere.
Cappuccio was in a position to render
great service or to be a dangerous ene-
my. He remained Camorrist and Nea-
politan. On several occasions he was
able to be of much use to the govern
ment by his control over the masses.
His power was SO great when he chose
to menace any corporation with the in
reference of the Camorra as to be prac-
tically undisputed.
One day the police director of Naples
begged him to bring to an end a strike
of ten thousand cab drivers.
Cappuccio accepted the mission:
warned the cabmen to go back to work
at once. He hired an open cab and
drove through the quarters of the Car
mine, the Porta Capua and the Vicaria,
and down as far as the Posileppo
Grotto. Next morning all the cabs
were rolling about as usual.
In his latter days Cappuccio was but
n nominal sovereign. giving directions
TO a successor appointed by himself, and
holding as much power to free criminals
and cheat justice as any of those who
preceded him.
The Camorra is still very much alive
in southern Italy.
Treason to the society is still pun
lshed by death.-N. Y. Journal.