Francesco Schiavone
Encyclopedia
Camorra
The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...
, the Neapolitan
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
organized crime syndicate, and the head of the Casalesi clan
Casalesi clan
The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno.Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederation of clans in the Caserta area...
from Casal di Principe
Casal di Principe
Casal di Principe is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 25 km northwest of Naples and about 20 km southwest of Caserta....
in the province of Caserta
Province of Caserta
The Province of Caserta is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Caserta. The former royal palace of Caserta is located near to the city.It has an area of 2,639 km², and a total population of 879,342...
between Naples and Salerno. He has been dubbed Sandokan
Sandokan
Sandokan is a fictional pirate of the late 19th century, who first appeared in publication in 1883, created by Italian author Emilio Salgari. He is the protagonist of eleven adventure novels and is known throughout the South China Sea as "The Tiger of Malaysia".-Sandokan novels:Emilio Salgari...
after a popular 1970s television series starring Kabir Bedi
Kabir Bedi
Kabir Bedi is an Indian television and film actor. His career has spanned three continents including India, the United States and many European countries in three mediums: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story...
because of his thick, dark beard.
Early career
His first arrest was in 1972, when he was just 18-years old, for illegal possession of firearms. Schiavone was involved in several bloody clan wars of the Camorra in which dozens of people were killed in the Naples area in the past decades. He sided with Antonio BardellinoAntonio Bardellino
Antonio Bardellino was a powerful Neapolitan Camorrista and boss of the Casalesi clan, having a prominent role in the organized crime in the province of Caserta during the 1980s...
– the founder of the Casalesi clan and prominent leader of the Nuova Famiglia
Nuova Famiglia
The Nuova Famiglia was an Italian Camorra criminal organization created in the 1980s to face Raffaele Cutolo's Nuova Camorra Organizzata....
– and Mario Iovine against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata
Nuova Camorra Organizzata
The Nuova Camorra Organizzata was an Italian Camorra criminal organization founded in the late 1970s by a Neapolitan Camorrista, Raffaele Cutolo, in the region of Campania. It was also known by the initials NCO...
(NCO) of Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo
Raffaele Cutolo is an Italian crime boss and the charismatic leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. Cutolo has a variety of nicknames including "'o Vangelo" , "'o Principe" , "'o Professore" and "'o Monaco"...
. When the NCO was defeated, an internal feud broke out between Bardellino and Iovine. Schiavone, together with Francesco Bidognetti
Francesco Bidognetti
Francesco Bidognetti is a powerful Italian Camorrista. He is the chief lieutenant of Francesco Schiavone, boss of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno, and head of the Bidognetti clan, one of the five clans which make up the Casalesi...
and Vincenzo Di Falco sided with Iovine.
A new feud broke out between the Di Falco clan and Iovine and Schiavone. Di Falco allegedly betrayed Schiavone’s right-hand man Francesco Bidognetti, who was arrested in December 1990. Vincenzo Di Falco was subsequently killed in February 1991, in Casal di Principe. In retaliation Nunzio Di Falco killed Mario Iovine on March 6, 1991, in Portugal. Schiavone was arrested on April 25, 1991. While in custody the Di Falco clan was defeated.
Fugitive and arrest
In 1993, after ending a three-year jail term, Schiavone disappeared before judges could put him under surveillance. The Schiavone-Bidognetti clan now firmly led the Casalesi clan. After more than five years on the run, he was arrested on July 11, 1998, in his hideout – a secret apartment behind a sliding wall of granite in his Naples villa, equipped with high tech tools. At the time he was considered to be the Camorra’s "number one" fugitive.He had been living there with his wife and seven children. Schiavone had already been arrested on at least two prior occasions, but each time he was able to avoid a lengthy sentence on legal technicalities. The mayor of Naples, Antonio Bassolino
Antonio Bassolino
Antonio Bassolino, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian politician. He has been President of the Campania region from 2000 to 2010.-Biography:Bassolino was born in Afragola, Campania...
, praised the local police, and said, "the head of one of the most dangerous criminal clans in southern Italy has been arrested." He compared the arrest to that of Sicilian Mafia chief Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore "Totò" Riina is a member of the Sicilian Mafia who became the most powerful member of the criminal organization in the early 1980s. Fellow mobsters nicknamed him The Beast due to his violent nature, or sometimes The Short One due to his diminutive stature...
in 1993.
Police informers describe him as a charismatic figure with an entrepreneurial mind, not keen on violent action that only creates problems and police attention, instead of business. In his hide out, police found a library dedicated to his idol Napoleon. While on the run, he fathered three of his six children. At the same time, he had love affairs with two American female NATO officials, Kathryn Houston and Cristina Emich. Houston received a 18 months sentence for delivering three .357 Magnum pistols.
Immense wealth
The Casalesi clan gathered immense wealth with skimming of public contracts for the construction of the A1 highway Rome-Naples and the prison in Santa Maria Capua Vetere. Ironically, many of its members ended up in that same prison. They also were active in waste management from the north of Italy in Caserta, and the distribution racket of dairy products by ParmalatParmalat
Parmalat SpA is a multinational Italian dairy and food corporation. Having become the leading global company in the production of ultra high temperature milk, the company collapsed in 2003 with a €14 billion hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy...
and Cirio
Cirio
Cirio S.p.A. is a major Italian food company.It was founded in 1856 in Turin, Italy....
. Profits were invested in real estate in Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
According to author Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano is an Italian writer and journalist.In his writings, articles, television programs, and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra , exposing its territory and business connections.Since 2006, following the publication of his bestselling...
– raised in Casal di Principe – the Schiavone family is immensely rich: "In two legal proceedings against the Schiavone family in August 1996, authorities confiscated 450 billion lire; a year later, they seized another 515 billion. That adds up to US$788 million … from just one of the many families that make up the Casalesi, an amount that would bring any business to its knees. But the Schiavone family and the Casalesi continue to prosper. All told, they are estimated to be worth about US$47 billion." The patrimony is managed by his wife Giuseppina Nappa and his brother Walter.
Life sentence
He was finally sentenced to life on June 19, 2008, after a 10-year trial – named the Spartacus TrialSpartacus Trial
The Spartacus Maxi-Trial was a series of criminal trials that were specifically directed against the activities of the powerful Casalesi clan of the Camorra. The trial was opened at the Corte d'Assise of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta...
– against 36 members of the Casalesi clan charged with a string of murders and other crimes. Over the course of the first trial and the last appeal, five people involved in the case were murdered, including an interpreter. A judge and two journalists received death threats.
All defendants were found guilty and 16 will never be released. Schiavone’s lieutenant, Francesco Bidognetti
Francesco Bidognetti
Francesco Bidognetti is a powerful Italian Camorrista. He is the chief lieutenant of Francesco Schiavone, boss of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno, and head of the Bidognetti clan, one of the five clans which make up the Casalesi...
, known as 'Cicciott' 'e Mezzanotte' (Midnight Fatty), was also given life imprisonment. Michele Zagaria
Michele Zagaria
Michele Zagaria , is a powerful Italian Camorrista and one of the bosses of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta northwest of Naples. He is on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 1995, for Camorra association, murder, extortion,...
, another Casalesi bosses, got the same sentence but is currently on the run and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy.