Pasquale Simonetti

Pasquale Simonetti
Camorra boss Pasquale Simonetti
Born	(1926-02-26)February 26, 1926 Palma Campania, Italy
Died	July 16, 1955(1955-07-16) (aged 29) Naples, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Pascalone 'e Nola
Allegiance	Camorra

Pasquale Simonetti (Palma Campania, February 26, 1926 - Naples, July 16, 1955), known as Pascalone 'e Nola, was an Italian criminal of the Camorra, a Mafia-type organisation in Naples and Campania in Italy.

He was born in a poor family in Palma Campania, a town located at the foot of the Vesuvius in the hinterland of Naples about 25 km east of the city. His father was a carter and his mother was a housewife. His criminal career started in the 1940s falsifying ration books for food which he then sold on the black market.

Subsequently, he entered the lucrative control over the fruit and vegetable business in Naples. In the early 1950s the Camorra controlled the entire chain of the fruit and vegetable markets. They imposed themselves as the protectors of the peasant farmers and shopkeepers, demanding in exchange the right to fix the price of products and control the business. They set whatever price they wanted and were called ‘the Presidents of prices’.

This type of mediation racket developed in the immediate post-war period. Weak modern market structures were regulated by violent mediators who imposed their own business rules. Farmers who did not accept the conditions would be threatened or their farm would go up in flames. Bigger companies like Cirio, a large tinned tomatoes company in Campania, also fell victim to these practices. It was very complicated, if not impossible, to collect sufficient evidence to prove the criminal aspect of this business. He became a partner of Antonio Esposito, known as Totonno 'e Pomigliano, a Camorra boss from Pomigliano d'Arco.

Simonetti became one of the emerging bosses of the Camorra. He was a real guappo, a tall and strong man with a robust physique. An imposing criminal with great charisma, he used this advantage and became a kind of lawgiver in his area. To a certain extent he was an alternative to the State authorities which were barely present. Some of his fellow citizens turned to him to ask for justice. A typical episode was the intimidation of a man who had made his girlfriend pregnant and then left her. Simonetti asked the young man, if he preferred spending hundred thousand lire in flowers on his marriage or his funeral.