The Cross-Dressing Mafia “Poet Boss” Sentenced
Aldo Gionta is kingpin of a Camorra mafia clan based in Naples, Italy. He is the son of Valentino Gionta, a revered boss who founded a massive drug trafficking and extortion empire in alliance with La Cosa Nostra in the 1980s. Aldo, 42, allegedly took the reigns of his family when his father was locked up and sentenced to hard time. He is known as “The Poet Boss,” due to eloquent letters that he wrote to his son while serving time in 2008, with lines like “Learn to shoot with a machine gun, shotgun and Kalashnikov.” His lyrical prowess was honored by Tony Marciano, a crooner with Gionta Family ties, who used some of his messages in his song “Nun ciamm arrennere,” or “We Must Not Surrender.” In the song, the singer condemns Mafia snitches with lines like, “they have lost their omerta (the Mafia code of silence).” However, Gionta will be joining his father for a spell after being sentenced to four years in the slammer after being a fugitive from the law.
Aldo Gionta has been on the run since June 2014, when he escaped a police raid in Gionta Family stronghold Quartiere Carcere of Torre Annunziata, near Naples, according to The Malta Independent. To evade law enforcement, Gionta wore wigs and women’s clothes, a move that made one investigator say, “Camorra mobsters aren’t what they used to be.” The cross-dressing kingpin was nabbed at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo by plainclothes officers, as he attempted to board a ferry headed to Malta with fake papers claiming that his name was Pasquale Castello. He was wearing a t-shirt and glasses.
Three associates were convicted along with Gionta by the Court of Appeals.
