Maria Concetta Cacciola's life and death offers a window into the world of mafia women

By Connie Agius 

Prosecutors say more women from inside Italian mafia organisations are turning against their criminal relatives and collaborating with authorities. Connie Agius travelled to Calabria to investigate the issue.

This is not another story about an honour killing in an Islamic country. It’s about a young woman in “modern”, post-Enlightenment Italy.

Married at 13 and pregnant by 15, the story of Maria Concetta Cacciola offers an insight into the life of a woman born into the ‘Ndrangheta — the mafia group that has adopted the region commonly known as Italy’s “toe” as their home.

I asked a doctor to describe Maria Concetta’s last moments of life after deliberately swallowing acid, and he said the poisonous liquid would have burnt her mouth at the first touch.

It would then run like an aggressive rampaging river down her throat, along her oesophagus, eventually reaching her stomach. Every drop set her body afire from the inside.

She would eventually stop convulsing, her organs would shut down, her heart would give up and she would die.

Dr Giuseppe Creazzo is the chief prosecutor in the northern Italian city of Florence, but until 2013 he worked in the anti-mafia division in Calabria. He learned about the Cacciola family through his investigations.

“The Cacciola family is one of the most powerful family of ‘Ndrangheta in Rosarno, along with the Pesce family and the Bellocco family, of whom they are also relatives,” Dr Creazzo said.

“For many years they have controlled the territory. They also participated in drug trafficking and every productive activity, the shops and also the factories, every kind of economic activity.”

It’s not just drug trafficking and money laundering — court documents outline the power of this family and their use of corrupt politicians, lawyers and businessmen to secure lucrative contracts.

A business built on ‘Family’ and silence

Maria Concetta’s destiny was sealed at birth because only relatives can be indoctrinated into the ‘Ndrangheta.

The name ‘Ndrangheta comes from the Greek: it means courage and loyalty. They’re two things the mafia’s members claim underpin the powerful and ruthless organisation.

Each family or clan is autonomous, but united by the mafia’s code of honour. The rules are feudal in nature.

Sons are educated from birth to become the next generation of criminal bosses. Daughters are forced to marry these young mafiosi, sometimes before puberty.

Maria Concetta is an example of how this system is put into practice. She was engaged by 12, married at 13, and pregnant with her first child at 15. It was the first of three children for the young couple.

‘Ndrangheta women normally have no choice of life partner, and some don’t even marry outside the family — they’re forced to marry cousins.

The wedding vows are a tool to ensure the longevity of a “pure” ‘Ndrangheta bloodline. In some instances, arranged marriages are also used to resolve feuds or build business alliances.

It’s these ties of blood that let the mafia manipulate the concept of family loyalty and lock away their criminal secret dealings.

This is called omerta — or a vow of silence.

Police investigations prove the organisation has exported this ‘Family’ model to Australia, which has allowed the ‘Ndrangheta to flourish in Australia since the 1920s. It’s made them almost impenetrable to authorities.

Revelling in the first taste of freedom after her escape

Some women accept the rules and support the criminal family — Maria Concetta wanted to escape the ‘Ndrangheta’s system.

“She went to the Carabineri [military police] to propose a collaboration with the justice because her family was a well-placed ‘ndrangheta family and she knew a lot,” Dr Creazzo said.

“Immediately, she was put under a witness protection program, which is something the state does for everyone who wants to cooperate with the justice in order to provide that they’re not killed.”

Maria Concetta was completely isolated. She had fled without her children and wrote a letter to her mother to explain her decision.

“I was married at 13. It ruined our lives. It’s everything that I didn’t want. I wanted peace, love, to feel, to be myself. Life has brought me nothing but pain,” she wrote.

Maria Concetta thought she was close enough to her mother that she would understand her decision to collaborate with justice. She was wrong.

Initially she revelled in her new found freedom.

“She had various love stories when she went away from her family because she was so repressed when she was in the family. Being finally free she also freed her feelings,” Dr Creazzo said.

“The important thing is that it was the first time that she was self-determinating. She never had the freedom to choose for herself.”

That ability to make her own decisions may have been part of her downfall.

“The mistake was deciding and asking specifically to let her children stay with their grandparents, so her parents,” Dr Creazzo said.

Love for her children exploited

Maria Concetta’s children became a bargaining chip.

“Her own family decide to exploit this weakness, saying if you don’t come back you are never going to see your children again,” Dr Creazzo said.

The threat brought her back to Calabria.

“Her parents and brothers — everyone is a Mafioso,” Dr Creazzo said.

“They knew that Maria Concetta was very dangerous if she started to talk. She could have posed a danger to the family.

“They needed to silence her because of the honour of the family.

“Because having a pentito [criminal informant] in the family, it’s a dishonourable thing to have.”

Her father and brother picked her up in northern Italy.

“Coming back, they took her directly to the lawyer’s office to check what she had said in collaboration,” Dr Creazzo said.

“She was forced to record a tape taking back all she had said, saying that the things she had said were not true and she had done it only to anger her family because they had argued.”

The family home, already almost a jail, now turned into a dungeon. Maria Concetta then contacted the police.

“I am scared. Maybe not directly of my family, of my father, like not right now, but there is the whole context,” she said.

“Things are getting out, that I have been with the law.”

Maria Concetta wanted to take her children and leave the mafia family forever.

“Her officer set a date to get her out of the house,” Dr Creazzo said.

“Some hours before, she calls the officer and says my daughter has a fever. We have to reschedule.”

Maria Concetta went down to the basement after that phone call. She swallowed a highly corrosive form of acid.

Mystery over who killed Maria Concetta

The coronial inquiry into Maria Concetta’s death highlighted the restrictions placed on her.

“That she could not go out by herself. They also found letters that describe being held captive,” Dr Creazzo said.

“She also denounces being beaten by her family.”

Maria Concetta’s father, mother and brother were arrested.

“The trial started of family harassment that ended in suicide. For this crime, the Italian law has a maximum of 20 years in jail.”

More evidence came to light about the circumstances surrounding her death. The coroner made mistakes.

“He hadn’t reported some scratches she had around her wrists, and other injuries, which were compatible with a murder. She was held by force,” Dr Creazzo said.

“The court is convinced that it’s not a suicide but a murder.”

Who actually held Maria Concetta Cacciola and poured acid down her throat is still unknown.

Authorities have said they are investigating another 10 “suicides” that are similar in nature on the suspicion of the ‘ndrangheta’s involvement.

‘If the women rebel, the ‘Ndrangheta will end’

“These case acknowledge the real power of the ‘Ndrangheta,” Dr Creazzo said.

“The Maria Concetta Cacciola case is one that gives us a precise idea of what it means to be in one of these families.”

“She was a courageous, brave woman. She rebelled the silence and submission that are typical of the ‘Ndrangheta, that hold the ‘Ndrangheta together.

“She’s not the only woman who has done this.”

Other cases have also ended in death, like the famous case of Lea Garofalo, but some women have survived and are living in witness protection, like Maria Concetta Cacciola’s relative, Giuseppina Pesce.

Dr Creazzo has seen how the actions of these women are influencing others.

“The fact that a woman rebels is something that really worries the ‘Ndrangheta because the women are the ones that are responsible for educating the children to the disvalues of the ‘Ndrangheta,” he explained.

Dr Roberto Di Bella, the president of the Juvenile Court in Reggio Calabria, agreed with Dr Creazzo and has taken it upon himself to support the women and children that want to escape the ‘Ndrangheta.

Since 2011, he has removed more than 40 children from mafia families based on evidence that their well-being was at risk. Some of those children have been re-educated, counselled, and introduced to a life without crime.

“More women and children are now coming forward for help,” Dr Di Bella said.

His claim is supported by statistics from the Ministry of Justice that show the number of ‘Ndrangheta women that have collaborated with the state has more than doubled since 2005.

“The child will grow up immediately and copying what his or her mother taught him,” Dr Creazzo said.

“So, if the women of the ‘Ndrangheta rebel, the ‘Ndrangheta is going to end.”

What happened to Maria Concetta Cacciola’s children?

The ‘Ndrangheta’s unspeakable cruelty has left three children without a mother.

They visit Maria Concetta’s grave every Sunday to lay flowers.

I’m told that one child would eventually like to study psychology. I can’t help but wonder if they’ll ever answer the question that haunts anti-mafia prosecutors: How could Maria Concetta’s family have treated her with such hate?

This post originally appeared on ABC News.