Raffaele Cutolo

Founder of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata who built a mass criminal organization from prison and received four life sentences for murders ordered during the Camorra war.

Editorial standard

Convictions, acquittals, appeals, allegations and police assessments are kept separate. Sentence information is case-specific and sourced.

Background

Cutolo entered prison as a violent criminal and built the Nuova Camorra Organizzata from inside the prison system.

Network

The NCO grew into a mass organization with thousands of affiliates.

Major case

The resulting conflict in the early 1980s caused hundreds of deaths.

Legal status

Cutolo received four life sentences for murders ordered during his leadership.

Graph role

His page anchors the historic Camorra-war layer.

Death

– Date: 17 February 2021 – Place: Parma, Italy – Cause / finding: died in prison hospital

Network links

– Nuova Camorra Organizzata — founder / boss – Camorra war of the early 1980s — principal faction leader – Naples — criminal sphere

Direct people links

– No direct person edge added without stronger sourcing.

Sources

– The Guardian. Raffaele Cutolo, mafia boss who ruled from prison cell, dies aged 79 (2021-02-18). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/raffaele-cutolo-mafia-boss-who-ruled-from-prison-cell-dies-aged-79

Why this profile matters

Cutolo’s significance comes from the scale of the organization he built and from the fact that much of his influence was exercised from prison. That makes his biography unusually useful for understanding how incarceration did not necessarily end criminal authority in the Camorra. His rise also belongs to the history of a violent factional conflict rather than to a simple succession of bosses.

Connections across the archive

Documented network

Camorra (organization) is recorded in the canonical graph as associated with, documented status, 95% confidence. This label is preserved without inferring a broader association.

Carmine Alfieri (person): Leaders on opposing sides of the NCO–Nuova Famiglia conflict.

Antonio Bardellino (person): Bardellino was a principal Nuova Famiglia opponent of Cutolo.

Nuova Camorra Organizzata (organization) is recorded in the canonical graph as founder boss, documented status, 90% confidence. This label is preserved without inferring a broader association.

Camorra war of the early 1980s (event) is recorded in the canonical graph as principal faction leader, documented status, 90% confidence. This label is preserved without inferring a broader association.

Naples (location) is recorded in the canonical graph as criminal sphere, documented status, 90% confidence. This label is preserved without inferring a broader association.

Timeline and case connections

Structured events are separated from general biography so a later audit can change a date, conviction, killing, organizational split or court outcome without rewriting unrelated portions of the page.

Documented event. This is retained as a structured timeline connection.

Date not specified in current profile sources — Camorra war of the early 1980s. principal faction leader

17 February 2021 — Death of Raffaele Cutolo. died in prison hospital

Status and record

The structured birth record lists 1941 in Ottaviano, Campania, Italy. The death record lists 17 February 2021 in Parma, Italy. Cause: died in prison hospital.

Books and screen

Source record

The Master package currently attaches these sources to the profile: – Parliamentary anti-mafia hearing on Camorra and Casalesi structures — Camera dei Deputati, Tier 1. – Direzione Nazionale Antimafia report concerning the Casalesi clan — Camera dei Deputati / Direzione Nazionale Antimafia, Tier 1. – Raffaele Cutolo, mafia boss who ruled from prison cell, dies aged 79 — The Guardian, Tier 2.

The presence of a source does not mean it supports every sentence. Claim-level source references remain in the structured data for later audits.

Evidence and editorial boundaries

For living subjects in particular, legal status and allegations require dated evidence. Future expansion should therefore come from stronger records, court material, archival documents or newly processed canonical entities rather than generalized crime lore.

How this profile fits the archive

The source package currently includes Parliamentary anti-mafia hearing on Camorra and Casalesi structures; Direzione Nazionale Antimafia report concerning the Casalesi clan; Raffaele Cutolo, mafia boss who ruled from prison cell, dies aged 79. Those records define the safe editorial boundary for this version of the page. Unknown dates and unresolved associations remain explicit because a missing fact is a research task, not permission to speculate.

Research state

This depth pass expands the page from structured evidence already present in the Master. The next meaningful improvement should be a stronger primary source, a dated event, a verified legal-status change, a prison record, or a newly processed Book, Screen or Organization entity that creates a legitimate reverse link.

Media remains a separate completion gate. A portrait should be attached only after source page, provenance and reuse status are checked. Until then, text can be complete while media remains pending.