Rosetta Cutolo is the sister of the notorious Camorra

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:...

 boss 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"...

, the head of 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), an organisation he built to renew the Camorra. As Cutolo spent most of his time behind bars from where he sent out his instructions, the everyday running of the enterprise was entrusted to his older sister Rosetta. Her nickname was "Occh'egghiaccio", meaning Ice Eyes.

Background

Rosetta, a grey-haired, pious-looking woman, lived alone for years with her mother in Ottaviano

Ottaviano

Ottaviano is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 20 km east of Naples and is located in the Vesuvian Area. Ottaviano was in Roman times a hamlet of houses within a vast estate belonging to the gens Octavia, Augustus's family...

 near Naples

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...

, tending her roses. She was the power behind her brother for over 15 years, passing on his orders from jail and cultivating his devoted followers outside. Without her the NCO would have collapsed, according to a resident from Ottaviano.

While her megalomanious

Megalomania

Megalomania is a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs'...

 brother created scandal by giving interviews and making speeches in the courtroom, Rosetta kept a low profile. She had a love-hate relationship with her brother. According to their lawyer Paolo Trofino, they had a stormy relationship: “They often have rows. She thinks he talks too much. She wishes he wouldn’t give interviews.” She ruled in the headquarters of the NCO: the Castle Mediceo, a vast 16th century palace with 365 rooms and a large park with tennis courts and swimming pool. The castle was bought for several billion lire at the time and provided direct contact for Cutolo from the prisons of Poggioreale

Poggioreale

Poggioreale is a small town and comune in Sicily, Italy, set on the Belice valley, which administratively belongs to the province of Trapani....

 and Ascoli Piceno

Ascoli Piceno

Ascoli Piceno is a town and comune in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is c. 51,400.-Geography:...

.

Fugitive

Brilliant with figures, Rosetta Cutolo negotiated with South American cocaine barons, narrowly failed to blow up police headquarters and was glamourised in a film, Il Camorrista. She participated in a high-level meeting with representatives of the Sicilian Mafia and Camorra clans to try to put an end to the bloody war between the NCO and their rivals from 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....

, together with Cutolo’s right hand man Vincenzo Casillo

Vincenzo Casillo

Vincenzo Casillo was an Italian Camorrista and the second in command of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , a Camorra organization in Naples. His nickname was "'o Nirone" .-Second in Command:...

.

In October 1981, police raided her stronghold while she was presiding a meeting of the NCO. Cutolo escaped under a rug in a car driven past checkpoints by the neighbourhood priest. She was not seen in public anymore for over 10 years and directed operations from a series of safe houses in different cities.

Arrest

In February 1993, she gave herself up after police found her hide out. Cutolo appeared at the entrance, saying “I am tired of being a fugitive.” She had been sentenced in absentia in 1990 to nine years in prison on charges of Mafia association, later reduced to five years. Prosecutors alleged she had been running her brother's organisation. She was acquitted on nine murder charges. Rosetta had persuaded the authorities she was harmless, and her frumpy image definitely helped.

Her brother Raffaele Cutolo has always maintained that that Rosetta knew nothing of his criminal activities and did only what he asked: "Rosetta has never been a Camorrista... She only listened to me and sent me a few suitcases of money to prisoners like I told her to." Nevertheless, it is clear that Cutolo had always wanted to maintain a male-only organization based on principles such as criminal fraternity and so could never be seen giving a role to his sister. It could be argued that he did not want to implicate her and therefore, always insisted that she was innocent.

Role in NCO

Many important members did not believe that she held an important role because she was a woman. For instance, former NCO lieutenant and pentito

Pentito

Pentito designates people in Italy who, formerly part of criminal or terrorist organizations, following their arrests decide to "repent" and collaborate with the judicial system to help investigations...

, Pasquale Barra

Pasquale Barra

Pasquale Barra is a former Italian Camorrista who was a senior member and hitman for the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , a Camorra organization in Naples. Barra has the distinction of being the first NCO member to become a pentito, when he decided to collaborate with Italian Justice in 1982.Barra...

argued: "What has Rosa Cutolo got to do with it? What have woman got to do with the Camorra?"

However, according to prosecutor Antonio Laudati, who questioned Cutolo many times, his sister was the true force behind the NCO: "Her brother has always been under the power of her forceful personality. He’s been in prison for 30 years; during that time she became director of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata in her own right."