ABSTRACT
Ottaviano is a small town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, in the province of Naples, whose name is associated with Raffaele Cutolo, the boss and founder of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), established in 1970, who played a central role in Italian crime in the 1970s. In this chapter, the authors focus on analysing the local context in order to delve more deeply into the relationship between the community, violence and the myths surrounding Cutolo. By reconstructing the main events that have marked the history of Ottaviano since the late 19th century, the analysis seeks to investigate the elements underlying the genesis and development of violent powers in the area. The local community is addressed not as an object of study but rather as a space in which one might locate oneself in order to investigate people’s experiences of violence and their memory of the mafia war. The methodology is inspired by community studies and includes oral sources, grey literature, local history, literary texts, direct observation and on-site surveys as well as judicial documents.
