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'I AM CAMORRE'S DAUGHTER' Former mafia boss for Jutarnja: 'I liked to see fear in other people's eyes while holding a gun' An explosive interview with Christina Pinto, the first woman to head a criminal organization from Naples Writes: Heidi Karakas JakubinPosted: October 4, 2020 6:54 pm Facebook Twitter Messenger E-mail Upon entering the Neapolitan Camorra, boss Mario Perrelli gave her a pistol of caliber 38 and 500 thousand lire as a gift. He placed them in her right hand and squeezed them tightly with his palms. He patted her on the shoulder and in return received the omerta, the eternal vow of silence and service to the new Family. It was back in 1990, after which it didn't take long for him to get the nickname Lady Camorra or simply Nikita for the role of a faithful and dedicated member, and to earn a million lira a week. She became the right hand of the leader of the Perrelli clan and thus the first and youngest female murderer at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, more precisely in the city of Naples where the other side of the law for the world of crime is actually the real one. Nikita was the code name for Cristina Pinto in the mafia world . She is a woman who has reached the age of 52 and after whom she spent a little more than 22 years in Italian penitentiaries because she gave her heartless illness in five bloody fights. After her release from prison in 2014, Slovenian author Siniša Gačić made a documentary about her for several years and called him "Daughter of the Camorra", which will be premiered by the Zagreb audience at ZagrebDox this Sunday. On the occasion of that premiere, we got in touch with Cristina Pinto, who agreed for Nedjeljni Jutarnja to look back on her turbulent life and briefly sum it up in a one-hour telephone conversation, although, as she pointed out, she prefers a face-to-face conversation. She was pleasantly surprised that the Croatian audience will have the opportunity to finally see a documentary about her and her in the lead role, because the situation with covid-19 has stopped many events around the world. - I am sorry that I personally cannot attend the premiere because apart from the crown, I am also hindered by my past, due to which I still have some restrictions outside the borders. The past is as it is. I can't change it, but I have no problem talking about it, at least not in the part that is publicly known and for which I have served my sentence. The Camorra is not a game. Membership in it even less. Crime doesn’t pay off, but at the time, those late ’80s and early’ 90s, somehow it all seemed fine to me. Cost effective and as if it should be so. Let's say it was destiny - says Cristina Pinto. When asked if she had seen the film, she replied that she had not because it had not yet reached Italy. In doing so, he immediately looks back at how pure, harsh reality the documentary is. image Cristina Pinto Siniša Gačić - There is no acting in that film. Those are three episodes of my life. Before prison, what I went through in prison and now finally life after all with a partner who has been with me all the time for 30 years and who is now dying of cancer in the most severe torment. It's not easy, but I'm not asking for anyone's pity - he assures further and replies with a counter-question: 'What are you interested in? I will answer as much as I can because the seven postulates of the Camorra, which is no longer what it used to be, I still respect. There is no betrayal '. I suggested to her that we start from scratch wherever that criminal beginning was. We went back to her high school days. At the age of 16, her family was going through a crash. Her parents were divorcing, and the problems with the law were not unknown to her mother. Her younger brother, on the other hand, died of an overdose. And she didn't go to school, she had to crack the collected negative energy somewhere. And literally. - For a moment I went astray and started stealing. From small street pickpockets to more serious ones in which there were three or four of us. They would hang around people in the streets and pickpockets. Hashish was also sold at retail. You get organized, you gather a little bit. You are playing with someone else's property, at someone else's trouble. It wasn’t a normal upbringing, but I was getting more and more rebellious. Full of negative energy, disappointment, anger. It was our childhood, and around me children from families who have empty refrigerators, hollow shoes and parents who don’t care - Pinto recalls. School was less and less on her mind. Because of these street backstage robberies, she has gained a “good reputation” as someone who is persistent and doesn’t give up until the job is done thoroughly. And with her physical appearance, she stood out from the crowd because her blue strands on her curly brown hair were a kind of seal. But then she met the gang leader Perrelli, a certain Maria , who was initially speculated to be in a relationship and that he therefore took her "under his wing". And she refuses to reveal the real reasons for entering the Camorra because she would "compromise one person". - There was no love between us, but a strong friendship, and that unbreakable one, as it seemed to me at least then, because I swore allegiance to him and Camorra. He had confidence in me, and when one woman is among the many men of the Camorra, new challenges, new proofs, are constantly before you. And you have to give your best - he says pausingly. But what did she really like, what could she like at all about the leader of such a dangerous criminal group? Cristina reveals in her breath: "I liked his treatment of others, and when he spoke about the Camorra, his eyes twinkled. I became loyal to him. And as I was already known in the world of crime, when I was admitted to the Camorra, there was no no ceremonies and oaths as ‘Ndranghetta does. Mario took my hand and put a gun and a 500,000 lire bill in it which soon became a million lira a week”. Cristina guarded the boss's back, provided him with physical protection, and managed the logistics of organizing the assassination. She also brought him a daily newspaper if the news was read to him. She had her own four-member group in the clan. Everyone had a role to play and was in charge of the drug, arms and debt collection business. Those mistakes she had made for four or five years of her youth seemed fine and meaningful to her at the time. Because she did not think about the future, but lived from today to tomorrow. image Fabio Sasso / Lapresse / Profime - What did I see in the Camorra as an organization? Um, well, that feeling when you shoot a gun, you feel great and you release the accumulated energy. I also felt bigger than I wanted to be. I liked looking at the fear in other people’s eyes as I held the gun in my hand. I also liked ordering others. As a group, we were well-established, militarily trained because, when you’re in the Camorra, you change your whole life, just like your life turns 180 degrees. I do not mean clothes, but the way of speaking, gestures, behavior, treatment of others. That world entailed luxury as well. Large amounts of luxury. Expensive cars, expensive food in restaurants, weapons, money in streams. You can't resist. The rule is that the less you go out, the less you are seen, the better. In return, humility, silence, and fidelity to the Camorra are sought. Actually, Anyway, she says, she was fine then. He corroborates this with the fact that "the male figure was replaced by a woman, as happened to her when she replaced the mafia boss after his arrest. She had all possible powers in her hands, including the power to order someone's murder." While back in 1992, Croatia was bleeding in a whirlwind of war, on the other side of the Adriatic, Cristina's Camorra wiped 40 people off the face of the earth. A stray bullet from conflicting gang clans also strayed into 11-year-old boy Fabio as he returned home with his parents. These were clashes of gang clans fighting for power, for that of others despite the 10th commandment of God which, as believers, they all in turn strictly adhered to. Returning to the death of an 11-year-old boy who died in a crossfire as an innocent victim, I ask Pinto if she felt the need to at least apologize, if nothing else, to the boy’s family when her name is already associated with him everywhere? Pinto thanks the question and answers emphatically that it has nothing to do with the death of the student, but that another person from the opposite clan is responsible for his death. - I don't see why the media needs to blame me for the boy's death. For clicks and circulation? I was not there when he was killed, and it is known that he was killed by another man. But by that, the entire Camorra should apologize to absolutely all the families of its victims, right? Is it feasible and realistic? Just to mention that we, the Camorra, at the time, paid for the boy's funeral and gave his father 500,000 lire a week - adds Pinto. The death of that innocent schoolboy, who became the youngest victim of the Camorra who then had a rule not to touch children and women, raised Italy to its feet. Investigators began narrowing the circle in early 1992 and got serious about dealing with the Neapolitan mob. When handcuffs were placed on Perrelli, the leader of Cristina's clan, she took his boss's baton. She ran finances, organized actions and sat on two chairs because she was already the mother of a little girl with whom she ran in her arms and with one suitcase in front of the carabinieri through the neighborhoods of Naples trying to find a secret refuge. - I had to hide, so I painted myself black. It is not always enough to move at night because the day also serves great things. Arrests followed. I felt that I would be arrested someday. I realized later that the life of the Camorra is a big lie, like when you go to the market to buy apples and you know, because the trader sells and works for himself and not just the buyer, that there are good and bad fruit trees in that hill - he explains and looks back when she was deprived of her freedom. image Fabio Sasso / Zuma Press / Profi In 1992, she did not separate from her daughter Elena . She didn't let go of her hands. She knew there were no wrong steps and there shouldn’t be because the Camorra doesn’t forgive. She took refuge in an apartment in Via Oriana 2. - When the carabinieri found me, I asked them to be gentle in front of the child and to talk quietly so that the little girl, who was three years old at the time, would not notice anything strange, so that she would not wake up. I took great care of her. She grew up with my sister. I didn't let him bring her to jail as a child. Because of her and my family, I did not betray anyone and I did not cooperate with the judiciary. I paid my debt to society. That's why today I walk calmly through the city, I don't look back if someone is following me. And I'm not afraid of anyone, and I kept my family away from the world of crime - he adds. I ask her why she also did not follow the moves of some members of the Camorra who "drowned the brothers" and in return received milder punishments, changed identities and now live in secret locations, she just sighed, repeating that her word was sacred. About some things from the past, Pinto skillfully avoided answers, even to the, perhaps, innocent question of whether she had ever been outside Italy, given that she was from a dysfunctional family and had spent almost half her life behind bars. She doubted whether she would answer or not. I’m not asking about those ‘business’ trips, I explain to her. RELATED NEWS Italian Attorney General Nicola Gratteri 'NDRANGHETA Italy prepares for historic trial against powerful mafia clan, prosecutor: 'It's war' BLOOD BLOOD BEHIND BARS Mafia boss threatens prison guards with a broom, once bit off his little finger and ate it - I was in Switzerland, but let everything remain on the answer that I was mostly in Italy. I don’t want to compromise anyone. And yes, two years ago I was in Ljubljana, less than a week. A beautiful city, country, people, and the occasion was a film about me - Pinto said cautiously again. She does not talk about her remorse, but her family and partner and everything they went through during the two decades of the casemate are in the foreground. She has a hoarse voice and speaks decisively about her negative, black side, and when she mentions her daughter and grandchildren, her voice breaks down and changes color. Fashion trends are irrelevant to her even though her daughter would like the opposite, to have a mother from the catwalk. - I'm not a woman of fashion. I wear jeans and baggy t-shirts although my daughter would love me to be more feminine. Time heals the wounds and throws the ugly things into oblivion, so does my past in her eyes. When I apologized to her for everything because as a mother I was not with her when she was growing up, she told me that I didn’t need to apologize to her because I had already paid the price for my sins and mistakes. And it hit me in the soul - with a dumpling in his throat, Pinto confides. Her prison days, like all prisoners, were endless. She is proud of the fact that she did not cooperate with the prosecution during the investigation. She kept any information that would be harmful to her "Camorra family" at the time to herself during the court proceedings. She also protected her own family because it "is not their business anyway, and it is only her fault and it is up to her to pay off the debt". She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a total of five horrific crimes, but was pardoned after 22 years in prison for good behavior. She shows, she reveals, enviable behavior behind bars, and she also gained many benefits. She lacked nothing in prison because the people of the Camorra in the local prison are, as is well known, ahead of everyone. They are revered, they are satisfied. They are also feared, so they are additionally under scrutiny, especially while she was in pre-trial detention, where there are cameras in the cells in order to prevent possible influence on the course of the investigation at any cost, because the roommates in the rooms are changing. kolaju ... Her family members and partner came to the prison. There was no "place" for friends there. She was cleaning and washing when it was her turn in the penitentiary. A few months before the final release on parole, without anyone’s knowledge, she says, she went to her house. She was serving a 20-minute drive from the home where her family lives. - That one weekend I got a two-day leave. I looked outside the house and thought. I saw family members in the distance. I needed it to prepare for the final return. After that, I went to lunch with my daughter in 2014. We parted with a big hug. She went back to her life, and I went back to my cell. And when I got my final dismissal that same year, I surprised everyone. I showed up at their door with my things and fainted with fatigue because my emotions overwhelmed me - Pinto remembers that the cameras of Slovenian filmmakers then began to "follow". She has not felt free since she was released. Her main support has been her partner Raffaele , a local Neapolitan fisherman, for 30 years . He did not leave her while she was serving her sentence, and their bond became even stronger after all. image Cristina Pinto and her partner Raffaele Siniša Gačić - Raffaele never turned his back on me. We fish together and make a living from it. It is true for us that we are together in good and evil. As he has cancer and is being treated for years, and now he is in the terminal phase and his life is hanging by a thread, I pulled him out of the hospital and I take care of him 24 hours a day in our home. Because he deserved me to be with him until the last second of his life. He is a part of my world. And together we are strong - she speaks emotionally about her partner with an indescribable amount of sadness and is aware that she is losing him. And Naples, like Naples, is still full of challenges. Other gangs are circulating in the streets, but the showdowns are always about the same things. As a grandmother, Cristina is aware of the dangers lurking around the corner, so I ask her how she would react if her grandchildren followed in her footsteps, the paths of crime. - One clan shuts down, two new ones sprout. But I would do my best to prevent my grandchildren from kneeling. She would distance them as I distanced my daughter. My decision was to join the Camorra, but that’s why my family doesn’t have to suffer. Delinquency is not harmless and should not be ignored. It starts with small nonsensical things that instantly become big and unstoppable. Well I’m on a weekly basis as a kid bringing home a million lira back then. I put them in one box and everyone could dispose of it. And just to let you know, in our country in the south of Italy, mothers are saints and they are protected with blood if necessary - the 52-year-old will say decisively. Cristina recalls that, in addition to the usual meetings in front of certain restaurants where there is no sound system, communication and arrangements were made by phone. And to those phones that only a few at the time had built into their cars. - I bought a Renault 5 turbo. Mamma mia, what a car it was. In 1989, I was the main face in the city. And that car had a built-in cell phone in it so that communication was not absent wherever it was and whatever it did. Today it is much easier, just as it is easier to be caught - Pinto thinks. - And the drugs? Given that streams of narcotics flowed through the Camorra, was it hard not to take drugs in that world? - It's not. You need to have an attitude. I didn't drink or take drugs. Occasionally I knew which one to roll, but who doesn’t? She is aware that the crimes signed by the Camorra are disgusting to many people. Even to her neighbors, some look at her with contempt and others just avoid her. Pinto is convinced it's because of fear. However, there are those who consider her a victim of this well-established criminal organization and whose leaders she failed to resist due to her youth, inexperience, bad family (un) opportunities ... Time in her life flows slower than it did while she was active in the Camorra . That's why she hasn't felt free since she was released from prison because there are a lot of "things behind her whose strings will be dragged indefinitely". - Maybe I'll never taste that real freedom again. When I agreed to make a documentary in which I am in the lead role, I was not aware of how much of a burden it would be at certain moments. He was filming with breaks for a few years, and the hardest part for me was at the very beginning of my release. I had not yet got used to reality, to everything that awaited me, and I was trying to perceive the outside world, and for a full year and a half I was still under police surveillance. I had the option of leaving the house from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the cameraman with the camera had been panting behind my neck since early morning. I had to spend the night at home and they used to check me at night to see if I was breaking the condition. Since last year, as five years have passed since my release and good behavior in freedom, during which I had restrictions and even a ban on leaving the country, I can say that the door is slowly starting to open for me. And she, thanks to her partner, threw herself into the fishing waters. She went to sea and with it she diligently fished and sold it at local markets every day until a year ago. - Fishing is a physically difficult job. Demanding. But you get used to everything when you have to. But that's why the view of the open sea and the blue of the sea liberates me. I look at things positively because otherwise it doesn’t make sense. I have repaid my sins even though many do not think so and I am aware that the future ahead of me is full of challenges and unpredictable things. With such a burden on my soul, I can only continue if I look ahead - concludes Cristina Pinto.