Giancarlo Siani (;
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, September 19, 1959, - Naples, September 23, 1985) was an Italian crime reporter from Naples, who was killed by the
, the Neapolitan mafia.
He started to write in the magazine ''Osservatorio sulla camorra'', and later as a
stringer for ''
Il Mattino'', the principal newspaper of Naples. He was assigned to the local area editor of
Castellammare di Stabia. He wrote articles about the links between organized crime, politicians and construction contracts.
Death
Siani was executed in his soft top
Citroën Méhari on September 23, 1985, in Naples by the
, while approaching his apartment. He was killed by an assassination squad of at least 2 men who approached from behind and shot him 10 times in the head with 7.65mm small arms fire from at least 2 Beretta pistols. The killers escaped on a motorcycle. At the time he was conducting an investigation of one of their leaders,
Valentino Gionta. Gionta was the boss of the
Gionta clan, a Camorra clan that was based in
Torre Annunziata and controlled
cigarette smuggling.
[The Siani Case]
, website dedicated to the memory of Giancarlo Siani (access date April 6, 2010)
On June 10, 1985, 3 months before his murder, Siani had revealed that the Valentino Gionta's arrest had been decided by
Lorenzo Nuvoletta, head of the
Nuvoletta clan, (an ally Camorra clan) to arrive in peace with Alfieri-Bardellino. Siani was preparing a dossier on the
Torre Annunziata massacre in August 1984, which left eight people killed and 24 wounded among the Gionta clan, allied with the Nuvolettas at the time. After the massacre tensions between the two clans had increased.
In 2000,
Angelo Nuvoletta,
Valentino Gionta and
Luigi Baccante were sentenced in absentia to life in prison for ordering the murder, as well as the material killers Gaetano Iacolare, Ferdinando Cataldo, Armando Del Core and Ciro Cappuccio.
[Camorra, arrestato l'assassino del giornalista Siani]
La Repubblica, March 27, 2001
La Repubblica, May 17, 2001
In 2009, the movie ''
Fortapàsc'' based on his life story was released, directed by
Marco Risi. The title (pronounced "Fort-apash" in dialect) is a reference to
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...
's classic western, ''
Fort Apache'', and the lawlessness of Camorra-ruled Naples.
[Fortapasc]
review in Variety, May 5, 2009
See also
*
List of journalists killed in Europe
References
External links
Giancarlo Siani: Un giornalista ucciso dalla camorra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siani, Giancarlo
1959 births
1985 deaths
Journalists from Naples
Antimafia
Assassinated Italian journalists
Non-fiction writers about organized crime in Italy
People murdered by the Camorra
People murdered in Campania
20th-century Italian journalists
Italian male journalists
20th-century Italian male writers