Which bosses of the Camorra are inspired by the characters of Gomorra La Serie, from the Immortal to Genny Savastano

For writing the script of Gomorrah – The series the screenwriters and authors have drawn heavily from the blackest pages of the Neapolitan Camorra, recreating characters who in some cases are transpositions of the alter egos of reality, in others they are a mixture of several bosses sadly passed into history for their ferocity; probably the choice not to be inspired by a single Camorra for the creation of a character was taken to avoid drifts of mythologizing the real counterparts.

In addition to the Savastano family, which closely resembles the Di Lauro of Secondigliano, there are the Levante, who follow the Nuvolettas and the Polverino di Marano, the Sangueblu group, a mixture of the paranza of Walter Mallo and that of Emanuele Sibillo, and the clan by Salvatore Conte, modeled on the Amato-Pagano base. In the lucky show, of which the fifth and final season is coming, over the years they have also been recalled episodes linked to the Camorra wars and which saw innocent victims: this is the case of Gelsomina Verde and Lino Romano, the first tortured to reveal the whereabouts of a splinter and then killed and the second killed in an ambush for a tragic mistaken identity.

Enzo Sangueblu inspired by Walter Mallo and Emanuele Sibillo

The character of Enzo Sangueblu, the young boss whose history is intertwined with that of the Savastano when the criminal interests move to the historic center of Naples, is inspired by the figures of two boy bosses. The first is Walter Mallo, who openly challenged the overwhelming power of the Lo Russo clan by shooting in front of the “Capitoni” marketplaces and imposing protection money on their drug dealers. In the telefilm Enzo Sangueblu, animated by a spirit of revenge, defines himself as a “ghost child” because his father was killed and the body was never found. A similar past for Walter Mallo: his uncle of the same name was a victim of white shotgun in 1997 and in 1998 his father, Giovanni Mallo, was killed; both murders were allegedly committed by the Lo Russo. The tattoo on the head also unites the two figures: three crosses on the neck for Sangueblu, a tear under the eye for Mallo.

To eliminate that thorn in his side, the boss Carlo Lo Russo, as he himself reported by a collaborator of justice, gave the order to kill him and to do it in a blatant way: he had instructed the very young and trusted killer Luigi Cutarelli to cut off his head and have it found in a toilet located on the street in the Don Guanella district. Walter Mallo was arrested on 5 May 2016 and is currently being held.

Another real figure that inspired the character of Sangueblu is that of Emanuele Sibillo, the young baby boss of the Decumani around whom the clan has built an aura of legend. Not yet twenty, he headed a satellite group of the Contini clan. Emanuele Sibillo, known as ES17, was killed in 2015, in an ambush during the war with the Buonerba; an altar with his bust and the urn of the ashes had been set up in the courtyard of the building where the family lives and, for the investigators, it was used as a symbol of the power of the clan.

Valerio ‘or vocabulary inspired by Mirko Romano

The figure of Valerio Misano, called ‘or vocabulary, the young university student from Posillipo who finds himself involved in the Camorra and becomes the right hand of Enzo Sangueblu, is inspired by that of Mirko Romano. He too distinguished from the other affiliates for his way of speaking, so much so that he was called “the Italian”, the Arenella boy was climbing the hierarchy of the Amato-Pagano to the point of troubling the regent, Mariano Riccio, son-in-law of the boss Cesare Pagano .

The repentants of Romano said that in recent times he had become almost paranoid, to the point of always turning armed with two pistols and never sitting in the front seats of cars for fear that someone might shoot him from behind. Mirko Romano was killed on 2 December 2012 on the ramp of the median axis towards Melito, trapped by the affiliates of his own clan.

The boss Pietro Savastano inspired by Paolo Di Lauro

The figure of Pietro Savastano is inspired by that of Paolo Di Lauro. Several traits that unite the character played by Fortunato Cerlino with the chieftain known in the Camorra registry as Ciruzzo the Millionario, starting from the background: he is the undisputed boss of Scampia and Secondigliano, dominus of all the criminal affairs that revolve around the two neighborhoods on the northern outskirts of Naples. As with the other characters, however, over time the similarities are reduced, although the line evolves along the lines of what was the first Scampia feud: even “Don Pietro” will have to deal with an internal split (guided , among others, by Ciro Di Marzio and Scianel), he will have to clash with the Salvatore Conte clan and the power will pass into the hands of his son, Genny Savastano. Paolo Di Lauro is currently in prison.

Genny Savastano inspired by Cosimo Di Lauro

Genny is the son of Don Pietro Savastano, he takes the reins of an autonomous group during the split and subsequently controls the entire clan. The figure, partly tracing its look, is inspired by Cosimo Di Lauro, son of Paolo, who controlled the clan in the period immediately preceding the Camorra war: just like Cosimo “the lame”, Genny also ends up unleashing the war because he decides to replace the old bosses loyal to his father with young people close to him . The storyline, however, evolves in a different way: in reality Cosimo Di Lauro is arrested in January 2005, while Genny Savastano manages, between alliances and about-face, to become the new boss. Cosimo Di Lauro is currently in prison.

Ciro the Immortal is inspired by Gennaro Marino

Ciro Di Marzio, the Immortal, at the beginning of the story is among the loyalists of the boss Pietro Savastano and is the mentor of his son Genny. With the evolution of the plot, however, he becomes one of the bitter enemies of the clan. The figure is inspired by that of Gennaro Marino, boss of the Heavenly Houses together with his brother Gaetano. The two were called “the Mekkeys”, because their father resembled the character of an old American TV show, Zeb McKay. In reality, the Marines, during the Feud, passed through the ranks of the Scissionists. Even in the fiction Ciro the Immortal goes up against the boss Savastano. Gennaro Marino is currently in prison.

Gaetano Marino was killed in an ambush in 2012 in Terracina, while he was on vacation on the beach with his wife, Tina Rispoli, and children. The ambush has various similarities with the death of Rosario Ercolano, ‘or Nano: Ciro Di Marzio sends him to the Lazio coast to protect him from the revenge of the clan, but two assassins reach him and kill him in front of his wife.

The figure of Ciro Di Marzio, however, was built by mixing the “base” of Gennaro Marino with other episodes that actually occurred during that Camorra war. In one of the episodes he is seen torturing and killing Manu to be revealed where Danielino is, the boy who, hired with a scam and pushed to kill a man of Salvatore Conte, had precipitated the balance between the two clans. The episode is inspired by the death of Gelsomine Green, who was tortured and killed, and whose body was burned to hide the torture, in an attempt to find out where Gennaro Notturno, a young man who had passed from the Di Lauro to the Scissionists and with whom the girl had had a relationship years before, was hiding; for that brutal murder Ugo De Lucia was sentenced to life imprisonment, according to the investigators the order would have started from Cosimo Di Lauro.

Salvatore Conte inspired by Lello Amato

In the fiction Salvatore Conte is a Camorra boss who moved to Spain and from there continues to control part of the crime in Naples; he is the protagonist of the clash with Don Pietro Savastano and, during the war, he manages to bring to his side several important characters who were previously on the side of the rival. The similarities with Raffaele Amato, “‘a vecchiarella”, former right-hand man of Paolo Di Lauro, at the head of the Amato-Pagano (the Secondigliano Scissionists), also known as the “Spaniards” due to the strong contacts and logistical bases they had in Spain. Raffaele Amato is currently in prison.

Today the Amato-Pagano, although greatly reduced, remain among the main clans of the Neapolitan Camorra; during the successive feuds of the Camorra they moved from Scampia and Secondigliano and today they control the crime in most of the municipalities of the area north of Naples.

Scianel inspired by the woman boss Maria Licciardi

Scianel’s character, Annalisa Magliocca, is partly inspired by Maria Licciardi, sister of the deceased chieftain Gennaro “‘a Scigna” and still today considered by investigators to be the undisputed leader of the clan and top figure of the Secondigliano Alliance, one of the two macro-groups (together with the Mazzarella) of the Neapolitan Camorra. The character of Donna Imma Savastano, Don Pietro’s wife is also inspired by the same woman boss: like ‘a Piccerella “, she too takes the reins of the clan after a bereavement, in the case of the fiction after the murder of her husband. Maria Licciardi is currently detained.

Scianel is also the mother of Lelluccio Magliocca, who is saved from an ambush by the Camorra because the killers miss their target. Also in this case a real story ended on the screen: it is the death of Lino Romano, killed in the house of his girlfriend, in the Marianella district. He died in the place of Domenico Gargiulo, called sicc penniell, affiliated to the Vanella Grassi group and close to the Marines. After that ambush Gargiulo got a date tattooed, October 15, 2012: the day he escaped death. After escaping several ambushes, on 8 September 2019 Gargiulo was found, a corpse, in the hood of a car parked in the Don Guanella district.