The confession that didn't save Totoriello: neither the lengthy confession nor the full admission of guilt were enough. Salvatore Barile, known as "Totoriello," 41, leader of the Sant'Alfonso neighborhood and nephew of longtime boss Vincenzo Mazzarella, was sentenced on appeal to thirty years in prison for the murder of Salvatore Lausi, known as "Pirulino."
The ambush took place on October 6, 2002, on Via Vergini, in the heart of the Sanità district. Barile had decided to confess everything, perhaps hoping for more lenient treatment, as is increasingly the case among men of honor who, once cornered, choose self-accusation. But his strategy paid no dividends.
"I wanted to be like my uncle"
In the statement filed before the judges, and reported by Il Roma, Barile recounts his criminal rise and the weight of the surname he bears:
"Being Vincenzo Mazzarella's nephew and feeling an adoration for my uncle, I wanted to be close to him and follow his path." A path marked by blood and clan loyalty, which in 2002 led him to participate in a high-profile murder.
In his story, Totoriello reconstructs “Pirulino’s” last day: “That day Ciro Spirito said to me, ‘Now you come with me.’ I immediately said yes, and I remember him placing his hand on my chest, as if to feel my heartbeat. He laughed and said, ‘Let’s go.’”
I accepted without perhaps fully realizing the gravity of what I was about to commit, but I would finally join the clan, earning respect and consideration.
The baptism of blood
Barile had a history of petty crimes and a stint in a juvenile detention center.
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The opportunity came in October 2002. According to his version, the motive for the murder was a question of betrayed loyalty: "My uncle decided to kill Lausi because he was playing a double game between the Mazzarellas and the Missos."
The context was a fragile balance between clans fighting over drug dealing hubs in Naples' historic center. With the arrest of Michele Mazzarella in 1999, Lausi had assumed a leading role, eventually tying up with the Missos and seizing several of their locations. For this, he was sentenced to death.
Barile coldly describes the attack: "He approached Lausi on foot and fired several shots. After firing, he came back to me, got on his scooter, and I drove toward Via Foria."
A late truth
The murder of "Pirulino" remained unsolved for over twenty years, until investigators were able to piece together the ambush in March 2023, leading to the arrest of Barile and his cousin Michele Mazzarella.
The young boss's detailed and self-accusatory statement, however, failed to convince the judges. Neither the first-instance trial nor the appeals court recognized any mitigating circumstances.
A strategy that doesn't always pay off
In recent years, Camorra mafia bosses and their associates have become increasingly inclined to draft confessional memoirs in trials, hoping to secure reduced sentences or a more cooperative image in court. But, as the case of Totoriello Barile demonstrates, sincerity isn't enough when it arrives late and isn't accompanied by genuine cooperation with justice.
For him, as for other "half-repentant" bosses, the confession remained an isolated act, insufficient to change the sentence: thirty years in prison, confirmed on appeal.
Comments (1)
Totoriello's story is complex and shows how confessions don't always lead to positive outcomes. It's sad to think that after so many years, the truth has only now come out, but the judges found no mitigating circumstances. Perhaps something different was to be expected.