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Giovanni Melluso
Giovanni Melluso (born 1956) is an Italian criminal. He became a significant informant against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), a Camorra organization in Naples. He would be used by the Italian Justice Department to testify about the NCO's show business connections in Northern Italy, during the three-year-long Maxi Trial which began in 1983. However, many of his accusations were later proven to be unfounded.
He is particularly infamous for the frame-up of the popular Italian talk show host, Enzo Tortora, whom he falsely accused of cocaine trafficking and NCO membership. Melluso was known by his multiple nicknames, "Gianni il Bello", or "Cha-cha-cha", both of which meant "handsome" (the latter expression having that meaning in the Southern Italy slang of the time).
A native of Sicily, Melluso had migrated to Milan at the age of 18 in 1974. According to Melluso, Turatello had asked him to become a member of his organization. Melluso refused, only accepting work as an outside contractor dealing cocaine in the show-business world. Melluso rounded up the activity of drug dealer for Turatello, by working as a pimp and occasionally committing petty burglaries. During this period, he also adopted numerous false identities including Michele Tiano, Sante Breguglio, Mario Dalleri, Giuseppe Montalbano, Vincenzo Campo, and Paolo Belvisi. Melluso chose to operate in the Italian Riviera, and had a smooth operation running until the end of 1978, when he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment. Subsequent sentences and comparisons with criminal of the caliber of Renato Vallanzasca and Angelo Epaminonda show that Melluso never actually met Turatello.
After six years of rigorous imprisonment, Melluso decided to become a pentito. On March 2, 1984, when the preliminary hearings of the trial against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) were already in motion, he asked to be transferred from his prison cell to the Carabinieri barracks. There, he declared to an investigating magistrate of his decision to change his life because he was tired of the prison conditions and also because one of his former associates, Andrea Villa, had already decided to collaborate and had involved Melluso in his testimony. In the long run, Melluso wanted a reduction of his prison sentence, in exchange for his testimony.
Upon becoming a pentito, Melluso was granted accommodation in the Carabinieri barracks, where he was treated more as a guest than as a prisoner. He received various visits from his wife, who reportedly became pregnant during this period. He was able to dress well, and enjoyed an easy life under the protection of the Carabinieri. Even when other pentiti had to return to their prison, Melluso was able to prolong his stay by timing the delivery of his information, in a skilled exchange of evidence for perks. When his brother was killed some time after his denunciation of the activities of the Turatello gang, Melluso used this fact as a bargaining chip to complain about and demand better security.
Giovanni Melluso was not a Neapolitan, did not live in Naples, and was not known as a Camorrista by the Justice department. Since he had always operated in Northern Italy, he did not have any intimate knowledge of the criminal underworld in Naples. He claimed to have only been an outsider in Turatello's business and to have never belonged to his organization. He also denied membership in the NCO. Unlike the other pentiti such as Pasquale Barra, Giovanni Pandico and Luigi Riccio, Melluso never admitted to any horrible crime. However, Melluso's repentance had some value for the Justice Department because it need some evidence to back its prosecutions of NCO's connections in the show business industry in Northern Italy. In court, Melluso proved to be a skillful performer, able to answer on cue, fend off attacks from the defense, and to animate his accounts with precise details and colourful anecdotes.
In 1983, the Justice Department had arrested some well-respected members of the Italian show business industry who had been above suspicion, thus attracting much needed public attention to the work of law-enforcement agencies in cracking down on Organized Crime. This move was inspired by the Justice department's perception that a drive against Organized Crime could only be successful if public opinion was focused on it, and therefore strove very hard to find any incriminating evidence against people able to attract media attention.
Giovanni Melluso was the chief witness against Enzo Tortora, perhaps Italy's most famous talk show host, who was falsely accused of receiving and selling over ten kilograms of cocaine on different occasions by people affiliated with the NCO. He became instrumental in helping the Justice department to substantiate its charges against Tortora, when he confessed to having had various encounters with Tortora in delivering him cocaine.
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Giovanni Melluso
Giovanni Melluso (born 1956) is an Italian criminal. He became a significant informant against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), a Camorra organization in Naples. He would be used by the Italian Justice Department to testify about the NCO's show business connections in Northern Italy, during the three-year-long Maxi Trial which began in 1983. However, many of his accusations were later proven to be unfounded.
He is particularly infamous for the frame-up of the popular Italian talk show host, Enzo Tortora, whom he falsely accused of cocaine trafficking and NCO membership. Melluso was known by his multiple nicknames, "Gianni il Bello", or "Cha-cha-cha", both of which meant "handsome" (the latter expression having that meaning in the Southern Italy slang of the time).
A native of Sicily, Melluso had migrated to Milan at the age of 18 in 1974. According to Melluso, Turatello had asked him to become a member of his organization. Melluso refused, only accepting work as an outside contractor dealing cocaine in the show-business world. Melluso rounded up the activity of drug dealer for Turatello, by working as a pimp and occasionally committing petty burglaries. During this period, he also adopted numerous false identities including Michele Tiano, Sante Breguglio, Mario Dalleri, Giuseppe Montalbano, Vincenzo Campo, and Paolo Belvisi. Melluso chose to operate in the Italian Riviera, and had a smooth operation running until the end of 1978, when he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment. Subsequent sentences and comparisons with criminal of the caliber of Renato Vallanzasca and Angelo Epaminonda show that Melluso never actually met Turatello.
After six years of rigorous imprisonment, Melluso decided to become a pentito. On March 2, 1984, when the preliminary hearings of the trial against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) were already in motion, he asked to be transferred from his prison cell to the Carabinieri barracks. There, he declared to an investigating magistrate of his decision to change his life because he was tired of the prison conditions and also because one of his former associates, Andrea Villa, had already decided to collaborate and had involved Melluso in his testimony. In the long run, Melluso wanted a reduction of his prison sentence, in exchange for his testimony.
Upon becoming a pentito, Melluso was granted accommodation in the Carabinieri barracks, where he was treated more as a guest than as a prisoner. He received various visits from his wife, who reportedly became pregnant during this period. He was able to dress well, and enjoyed an easy life under the protection of the Carabinieri. Even when other pentiti had to return to their prison, Melluso was able to prolong his stay by timing the delivery of his information, in a skilled exchange of evidence for perks. When his brother was killed some time after his denunciation of the activities of the Turatello gang, Melluso used this fact as a bargaining chip to complain about and demand better security.
Giovanni Melluso was not a Neapolitan, did not live in Naples, and was not known as a Camorrista by the Justice department. Since he had always operated in Northern Italy, he did not have any intimate knowledge of the criminal underworld in Naples. He claimed to have only been an outsider in Turatello's business and to have never belonged to his organization. He also denied membership in the NCO. Unlike the other pentiti such as Pasquale Barra, Giovanni Pandico and Luigi Riccio, Melluso never admitted to any horrible crime. However, Melluso's repentance had some value for the Justice Department because it need some evidence to back its prosecutions of NCO's connections in the show business industry in Northern Italy. In court, Melluso proved to be a skillful performer, able to answer on cue, fend off attacks from the defense, and to animate his accounts with precise details and colourful anecdotes.
In 1983, the Justice Department had arrested some well-respected members of the Italian show business industry who had been above suspicion, thus attracting much needed public attention to the work of law-enforcement agencies in cracking down on Organized Crime. This move was inspired by the Justice department's perception that a drive against Organized Crime could only be successful if public opinion was focused on it, and therefore strove very hard to find any incriminating evidence against people able to attract media attention.
Giovanni Melluso was the chief witness against Enzo Tortora, perhaps Italy's most famous talk show host, who was falsely accused of receiving and selling over ten kilograms of cocaine on different occasions by people affiliated with the NCO. He became instrumental in helping the Justice department to substantiate its charges against Tortora, when he confessed to having had various encounters with Tortora in delivering him cocaine.