The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1911-04-15
Dread
CamOrra
Their Workings Vividly Described in
Weird Narrative.

With the newspapers daily con-
tanning press dispatches from Italy
regarding the trial of the &c camor-
rists for murder, public interest has
been stimulated in the Neapolitan
organization of international noto-
riety. The camorra has become a
common word, but few have an in
sight into the extent of the organiza-
tion which has exercised criminal
control that was absolute over GER
tain parts of Italy. 1t is known that
the camorra is a secret organization,
it is known that many crimes beside
the murder of Cuocoilo and his wife,
for which the SO are now on trial.
have been charged against the ex-
tensive organization; but it is seldom
that an intimate picture of the in
ternal workings of the organization
is given. Naturally those who be-
long to the camorra will not reveal
its secrets and its proceedings with
any detail, and it is difficult for
Others to pierce the mystery of the
society's retreat.
Charles Grant, an English stu
dent, was one man who did learn
OF the secrets of the camorra, and
in a book of tales on Italian life,
entitled Stories of Naples and the
Camorra, published by Macmillan
& Co., London, 1897, he gave most
incisive pictures of the camorra.
These stories do not seek to trace
the history of the organization, or
its hierarchy so much as to present
vivid details of the camorrists and
OF the operations of the members.
The cruel cunning, the desperate
knavery, the insidious criminality
of the camorrists are presented in
glaring light, but simply unadorned
with useless rhetoric as pitiless
analysis.
In particular the book contains a
description of the initiation of one
of the characters into the order.
This camorrist is Domenico, the
illegitimate son of II Turco, leader
of the camorra, and an inn keepers
wife. On the death of the boys
mother and younger half sister, he
leaves the inn and follows the cam
orrist. He first enters the lowest
grade of the order and became a
Giovane Onorato. He had to attend
ii Turco as servant, to serve him
as spy. Later he was give more
advanced work. OF this the writer
says:
At first the tasks he Ql Turco)
proposed were comparatively easy.
Listen to what those people are
saying, or see where they are going
to-, but in week or two it was,
| You see that man? Find out every
thing about him before we meet
again. A family that | am inter
ested in lives in the back rooms of
the fourth story of that house; let
me know by Saturday how much
they earn and what they spend. ,
Later on he would give the youth a
detailed description of some person
who was to be found in such or such
a quarter of the city, and bid him
find out where he lived, or some
other trifiing circumstance about
him."
The lad was put to work spying
on the police. He was apprenticed
to locksmith that he might make
a better burglar when that trade was
required of him. He was forced to
reduce his weight so that he could
crawl through a designated window
l and when, by system of severe
exercise, he could accomplish that
: feat, he was sent into house to gel
e keys. At last he was ready to entel
G the camorra. OF that remarkabl,
Confined on Page ~