The New International Encyclopædia/Camorra

​CAMORRA, kȧ-mŏr′rȧ (OIt., frock, cassock). A secret society with ramifications throughout the former Kingdom of Naples, which exerts considerable influence among the lower classes in that part of Italy, and whose activity extends to higher official quarters. The members are called Camorriste. Under the Bourbons, Camorriste appeared in public places on all occasions of popular amusement, and levied contributions which their victims dared not refuse. They undertook the transport of smuggled goods, and contracted for the commission of serious crimes. Their readiness for violence and murder, and their close association among themselves, made them so much dreaded that Camorriste who had been thrown into prison succeeded in exacting money from their fellow-prisoners and from the jailer himself. When at the height of its power, the society had a central rendezvous in every large provincial town, and twelve in the city of Naples. Those who belonged to each of these sections of the society were under the absolute government of a chief elected by themselves, with whom was associated a treasurer. The latter had the charge of the common fund into which all the Camorriste of that section paid their entire gains for equal distribution among all their associates. Candidates for membership were obliged to show that they had been guilty neither of espionage nor theft; also that neither their wives nor their sisters were prostitutes, and to swear upon an iron crucifix a fearful oath of fidelity and secrecy. The candidate remained for a year, with the designation of picciotto d’onore, as a pupil under an old Camorrista; and having completed this probation, and given proof of his courage and obedience in circumstances involving danger of life, was advanced to the rank of a picciotto di sgarro. Finally, after a longer period, in which he had given proof of his fitness on a number of occasions, he was admitted to full membership of the society as a Camorrista. Each Camorrista carried about with him two knives of peculiar form, by which the members of the society recognized each other. They were held under the strictest discipline. Disobedience was punished by flogging, suspension from employment, or expulsion; treachery, by death. If two Camorriste quarreled, their chief decided the question between them; but in difficult cases a duel with daggers was the mode of decision. Under Ferdinand II. the Camorra was tolerated for political reasons. The Government of Francis II. endeavored to put down the society, and the police received instructions to seize and transport all known members of it. Those who remained entered into alliance with the Garibaldi Committee, and rendered essential service in the expulsion of the Bourbons. When the Neapolitan and Sicilian influence became strong in the politics of the new Italy (see Italy), the Government attempted to use the Camorra in its struggle with brigandage, and thus strengthened the influence of the society by making it a political force, as it had often been under the Bourbons. Of recent years the Camorra has tended to assume more of the nature of a political machine, manipulated for the purpose of plunder. For a number of years the society was in full control of the municipal government of Naples, and included among its members the heads of the chief departments and practically the entire body of city employés. The association put up offices for sale, guaranteed officials immunity in the pursuit of peaceful peculation, and, in the last extreme, defended them in the courts. Conditions finally became so scandalous as to warrant (1899) the intervention of the Italian Government. Municipal government in Naples was suspended, while a royal commission was appointed to investigate the operations of the Camorra. The revelations of the commission led to the formation of an Honest Government League, which succeeded in completely defeating the candidates of the Camorra in the municipal elections of 1901. Consult: Monnier, La Camorra (Florence, 1863); Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (New York, 1897); Umiltà, Camorra et Mafia (Neuchâtel, 1878); Blasio, Usi e costumi dei camorriste (Naples, 1897).