Assunta 'Pupetta' Maresca, the former Italian beauty queen who later became the first female boss of the Camorra mafia gang, died aged 86. La Presse reported that she died at her home Castellammare di Stabia, in Naples on Thursday.
Maresca became a global sensation in 1955 when she shot her husband's murderer at the age of 18.
She was the daughter of Vincenzo Maresca, a notorious black marketer and member of the Camorra mafia. When she was six months pregnant she killed Antonio Esposito, who was a crime partner to her husband, Pasquale Simonetti, in the streets of Naples with a Smith & Wesson .38.
She was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the murder. During her trial she said, “I would do it again!” It was this spirit of defiance that cemented her status as “Lady Camorra” in the Italian mafia.
Though her sentence was reduced to 13 years and four months, she was pardoned after ten years. Maresca gave birth in prison to her eldest son, Pasqualino, with whom she was reunited after her release years later.
She had won the beauty pageant in Naples and was named Miss Rovegliano, prior to her arrest. Even after she was released from prison, her life in crime continued.
She married the infamous drug trafficker and arms dealer Umberto Ammaturo, with whom she had twins. According to The Guardian, Ammaturo, wary of Pasqualino's ambition to lead the Camorra, is suspected to have murdered him when the boy went to meet him on a construction site.
Although her private life was unhappy, she did not leave Ammaturo in order to protect the twins. Being the only girl in her family, Maresca had a history of violence to her name.
She was accused of killing Ciro Galli, a member of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, in 1981.
Maresca openly challenged Raffaele Cutolo, who formed the new group, during a press conference. In the same year, she was arrested along with Ammaturo for the murder of forensic scientist Aldo Semerari, for which she served four years in prison.
Ammaturo, who had fled to Peru to become a cocaine lord, broke the mafia code of silence, omerta, and became a state witness.
During her lifetime, Maresca starred in a film on her own life and even started two clothing stores.
