Like Don Pietro Savastano from Gomorrah, who feigned insanity to escape prison, or rather, it was Don Pietro in the Sky drama who took inspiration from the prison conditions of bloodthirsty crime boss Cosimo Di Lauro, son of "Ciruzzo the Millionaire." The boss has been held under strict prison conditions for 12 years in Opera, Milan, and refuses contact or conversations with his family. Tomorrow he was due to appear via video conference at the Assize Court in Naples for trial accused of instigating the murder of Mariano Nocera, the real ambush that sparked the first bloody feud in Scampia, followed by the double homicide of Fulvio Montanino and Claudio Salierno, before the long trail of bloodshed. Di Lauro will not be present, remaining faithful to his "isolated" behavior. The judges believe this is a strategy aimed at obtaining a mitigation of the strict prison regime. His lawyers believe he may be suffering from a serious psychiatric disorder. The battle between the prosecution and the defense has been raging for some time, with medical specialists consulting. "Cosimino" currently faces a 30-year prison sentence, but other trials are underway, starting tomorrow's for the Nocera murder (for which he was jailed last October).
It was the repentant Gennaro Notturno o' sarracino, a man of the split, who revealed some unpublished background information of that murder and clarified that it was the spark that made the war break out. Before him, two other excellent men like Giovanni Piana and Pasquale Riccio had done it. Here is what the collaborator of justice put on record during the interrogation on May 18, 2017.
“Giovanni Piana and his brother-in-law Pasquale Riccio were often together with a certain Mariano, whose last name was Nocera, who was later killed in front of the bar-cafeteria called “dei cafoni” because it was frequented by the Abbinantes, Antonello Montanino and Claudio Salierno. Mariano Nocera was killed because he had in turn committed the murder of an insurance salesman outside the “Zelinda” bar. Nocera committed the murder without any authorization, which at that time Cosimo Di Lauro should have given, given the time of the facts, before the feud in 2004. After the crime I met with Fulvio Montanino, Antonello Montanino, Claudio Salierno and Arcangelo Abete down at the “Cappe”. The Abbinantes had forgiven Nocera for the unauthorized murder and had received a guarantee from Cosimo Di Lauro that he would be “spared”. So they had made him come down from the place where he was hiding, but Nocera was killed by the Di Lauro firing squad on the orders of Cosimo Di Lauro. At that point Arcangelo Abete and I went to the “Cappe” to find out from Fulvio Montanino why Nocera had been killed despite his word and he replied: “Are you asking me? Ask Cosimino who gave the order. Antonello Montanino explained the dynamics to us, saying that he was the one who shot while Salierno was waiting outside. Nocera was having coffee”.
Giovanni Piana also spoke about Mariano Nocera. “He had recently joined the Abbinante clan. About a month before being killed, Nocera was responsible for the murder of Vincenzo Arciello, committed near a bar. Nocera had committed it alone and was motivated by the fact that he had given Arciello 200 grams of cocaine that had not been paid for”.
On March 18, 2015, Pasquale Riccio was the first collaborator of justice to speak about the murder of Mariano Nocera, revealing the alleged background. He and his brother-in-law Giovanni Piana had gone to the house of “Cosimino” after the latter had summoned Vincenzo Mazzocchi o' scotch, who had refused to go. At that time there was fibrillation among all the members of the Di Lauro clan, especially among the “old ones”: in fact, the Amato-Pagano and other criminal families wanted to break away from the Cupa dell'Arco clan, not agreeing on the methods and organization wanted by the son of the boss Paolo Di Lauro o' milionario. Here are some passages from Riccio's statements: “Cosimo said that he, considering himself the absolute boss, had to be informed of everything before it happened and that Mariano Nocera had made a mistake. Cosimo told us that he had to give the order to kill him to set an example for all the members since he had committed the Arciello murder without warning anyone and that in any case he was sorry to see such young boys die”.
