Justice?

By J. D. Henington

What is justice?
Is it the conviction of fairness, of moral righteousness?
If so, by whose standard of fairness?
If so, by whose standard of morality?
Or is it the administration of justifiable punishment?
To be administered by whom?
This novel cuts apart and scrutinizes the shadowy lives, the scandalous history and innermost emotions of two post World War II Italian families coincidentally seeking asylum in Australia’s South Coast village of Cringila.
The Panzarroti and Garibaldi families’ cross paths after a local steelworker is murdered at Port Kembla Iron and Steel Works in an identical style to a Camorra execution which occurred almost forty years ago in Naples.
The two family’s secret feud is exacerbated by the inheritance of one family’s fortune over the other, obstructed and dishonourably administered with prejudice by the Capo of the Giordano Clan, one of Naples’ most notorious Camorra Clans.
Is Justice simply based on the principle that a person receives that which he or she deserves?
Or is Justice nothing more than a misshapen word conveniently used by anybody to validate their actions?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669831204

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Copyright © 2022 by J. D. Henington.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/07/2022

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CONTENTS

Justice?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Justice?

What is justice? Is it the conviction of fairness, of moral righteousness? If so, by whose standard of fairness? If so, by whose standard of morality? Or is it the administration of justifiable punishment? To be administered by whom?

This novel cuts apart and scrutinizes the shadowy lives, the scandalous history, and the innermost emotions of two post–World War II Italian families coincidentally seeking asylum in Australia’s South Coast village of Cringila.

The Panzarroti and Garibaldi family’s cross paths after a local steelworker is murdered at Port Kembla Iron and Steel Works identical to a Camorra execution which occurred almost forty years ago in Naples.

The two families’ secret feud is exacerbated by the inheritance of one family’s fortune over the other, obstructed and dishonourably administered with prejudice by the capo of the Giordano clan, one of Naples’ most notorious Camorra clans.

Is Justice simply based on the principle that a person receives that which he or she deserves?

Or is Justice nothing more than a misshapen word conveniently used by anybody to validate their actions?

CHAPTER

1

Tommaso Panzarroti migrated to Australia from Naples in 1948. Post–World War II Italian life was depressing for Tommaso. As a 26-year-old young man, he had survived Mussolini’s fascist regime, the Nazis, and 200 Allied air raids between 1940 and 1943, their primary targets being the critical facilities of Naples Port. The city’s restoration process was hard and arduous. The post-war period in Naples was miserable. Naples had been razed to the ground, levelled to a mass of rubble, first by the invading Germans and then by the Allied Air Force’s carpet bombing of the entire city, both antagonists recognizing the critical importance of occupying this grand old Mediterranean port city. Almost 30,000 Neapolitan citizens were estimated to be killed during this period.

Tommaso was a heartbroken man. His young wife, Maria, was killed on 29 September 1943 during the popular ad hoc uprising known as Le Quattro Giornate di Napoli (the Four Days of Naples), by the Neapolitan resistance engaged in battle against the occupying German forces. This brave, short action by the local Neapolitan citizens successfully thwarted Nazi plans to execute or deport the Neapolitan population en masse and then to completely destroy Naples to prevent Allied Forces from occupying Naples and thereby gaining a strategic foothold on the Italian peninsula. The city of Naples was subsequently awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour, celebrated annually during the month of September.

Maria, her parents, and Tommaso’s parents all died bravely during the uprising, leaving Alessandro, their 3-month-old baby son, with Tommaso to bring up alone. With the help of neighbours, Tommaso committed himself to rebuilding his life and that of his baby son.

Tommaso lived and worked all his life in the Mercato (the ‘market’), the south-eastern neighbourhood part of the city bounded by the industrial port on the south of Naples.

Years of demanding physical work while deprived of decent, healthy food hardens a man’s soul as well as his body. And so, it was with Tommaso Panzarroti. He rarely displayed emotion and had no compassion for other citizens, only malevolence; his sole motivation in life was survival for himself and his baby boy. During those war years, young Tommaso had developed into a hard man, both physically and mentally.

For all intents and purposes, Tommaso Panzarroti was just another average citizen. Physically, he was a medium-sized man of average height, but a deceiving appearance concealed the strength of a lion and the speed of a striking viper.

Tommaso often recounted the joy in Naples when the city was liberated by the Americans, followed by the heartbreak of life thereafter. ‘When the Germans occupied Naples, we ate perhaps once per day. After the Americans rescued us, we might eat once per week,’ he often lamented.

With the onset of winter, the citizens of Naples were degraded to looting and petty crime, driven by a lack of housing, food, and basic living essentials. Tommaso barely managed to make ends meet by collecting scrap telephone cable left behind by the fleeing Germans and then selling it through the black market to the occupying Americans. This activity was illegal; the official position spread by the occupying Americans was that telephone cable and all supplies and equipment abandoned by the fleeing Germans were legally now the property of the American military. The Martial courts upheld that opinion. However, the philosophical motivator of practical reasoning by the US military effectively legitimized the black-market activity, guaranteeing recovery of all supplies and equipment, albeit paying excessive black-market prices. Money was not a problem for the American government.

Very rarely did the US military attempt to prosecute the black-market system, but when it did, it did so with no serious conviction. The US military acquisition branch considered it better to work with the system, notwithstanding paying a premium for supplies and equipment, than attempt to buck the system. The Neapolitan Camorra clans, which originated in the region of Campania and its capital city, Naples, were swift to control the movement of supplies within the Naples black market. The Camorra is one of the oldest and largest criminal organisations in Italy dating back to the seventeenth century, far longer than even the fragile construct called Italy has existed. Unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, which is quite defined and can be separated from society or disciplined in court action, the Camorra is an amorphous grouping in Naples and its hinterlands comprising many autonomous groups divided into individual groups known as clans. Each clan has its own organizational structure, in which there may be as many as a hundred affiliates, depending on the clan’s power and structure. Each clan, often family organized and operated, has its head capo, its boss. The Camorra is said to be an understanding, a way of justice, a means of creating wealth and spreading it around. It is also not unusual for Camorra clans to infiltrate into the politics of their respective areas. Consequently, because the Camorra clans act independently, they are more prone to feuding amongst themselves. Such feuds often erupt into violent wars.

During this post-war period in Naples, the loyalty of the collectors of supplies and equipment was not always paramount, and buyers attempted to outbid one another for scarce resources. The time was now for the Camorra family clan capos to specialize and exert their authority and power.

Occasionally, an American military pleb who stupidly attempted to enter the market and work with a local to ‘score some of the action’ was either found beaten close to death or had ‘deserted, absent without leave’, while the local accomplice had simply ‘disappeared’. On one such occasion, late one afternoon while Tommaso was privately fossicking through the rubble at Mercato, an American soldier approached him and in a threatening tone demanded that Tommaso hand over his rather substantial pickings. While Tommaso didn’t understand English very well, he certainly did not understand the thick American’s accent littered with foul language, but he definitely understood his attitude and body language. Tommaso simply stood his ground and shook his head, replying, ‘No!’

The soldier approached Tommaso to within a short arm’s distance, opening a flick knife he had up to this point concealed in his jacket. Once again, he demanded that Tommaso hand over his stash, brandishing his weapon in Tommaso’s face. Before the soldier knew what was happening to him, Tommaso had broken his assailant’s arm and stabbed him with his own knife into his heart three times.

The American was never found. He ‘disappeared’. The killer of a disappeared victim is nameless and can never face trial.

‘Business is business,’ reasoned Tommaso without once feeling any remorse.

Tommaso’s contact, his buyer, was a young man from the Forcella district in the heart of the historical centre of Naples. Pietro Giordano, the capo of the Giordano family clan, was a young Camorrista on the ascendancy. Pietro Giordano was a dedicated family man who fathered eleven children, six boys and five girls. Pietro was a strong man physically, mentally, and emotionally. He was a handsome, popular, generous man who shared himself as well as his relative wealth, his ‘treasure’. He had the innate ability to evaluate a person’s character, to cultivate and expand a person’s talent, and to draw close to him those he most trusted yet distancing those he didn’t trust or, worse, who had betrayed him. Above all, Pietro had a well-developed sense of good business arrangement.

Tommaso and Pietro had formed a close relationship, with Tommaso staying loyal to the Giordano clan, never questioning prices or clan business, and Pietro never taking advantage of Tommaso’s loyalty.

CHAPTER

2

One Sunday morning, Pietro visited Tommaso at his home, one of a few surviving shacks in the rubble of the port-side neighbourhood of Mercato. Tommaso embarrassingly invited Pietro into his hovel and offered him a coffee. Baby Alessandro played on the stone floor with a stick. ‘Bang, bang!’ he shouted, pointing his stick at Pietro.

Pietro laughed and patted the lad on his head and said, ‘one day, my little bravaccio, one day.’

Never ever will my child be associated with you or your clan, Tommaso thought. I have other plans.

After exchanging pleasantries and the usual complaints about the weather and the Americans, Pietro fell silent; then assuming a serious face, he told Tommaso he was going to concentrate on another ‘business enterprise’. He explained that he held a view that the business of recovery of supplies and equipment for the Americans was gradually declining and held no future. ‘I am going to embark on a new business to spearhead some other activities I have in mind. Are you interested in joining me?’ he asked Tommaso.

‘Of course, but your business is your business. You are under no obligation to divulge anything to me.’

‘Tommaso, you are very efficient at doing what you do, and importantly, you keep a low profile at all times. Your professional approach to your task demonstrates a high degree of skill, and you have never interfered with my business nor queried my pricing arrangement. Further, your style of efficiency and low profile never makes me feel threatened.’

‘Thank you, Pietro.’

‘The business of recovery of supplies and equipment and selling through the black market to the Americans is openly tolerated, not so with my new enterprise. Loyalty, discretion, and honesty are paramount. Tommaso, we are starting a new enterprise, cigarette smuggling and distribution. The current demand is high and cannot be satisfied by the state. Supply is low and currently being rationed. We are familiar with the workings of the black market, which is opening up to highly organized cigarette smugglers from Marseilles, Corsica, and the Sicilian Mafia. Providing we do not abuse the market; we are assured a great position to move into other areas of business. What do you think? Tommaso, I invite you to join me.’

‘Pietro, your business is your business. I am honoured that you have faith in me. Of course, I’ll work for you. But you do understand that I have a great responsibility now, caring for my baby son. Perhaps you have a role for me as a private soldier, a secret operative working behind the scenes, a shadow soldier, a minor consigliere operating in the dark. I ask for nothing more from you. You have my absolute loyalty and friendship; but my baby, privacy, and anonymity are so important to me. Discretion and a low profile are critical matters for you as they are for me.’

Pietro and Tommaso silently stared at each other, both wondering how to work with the other for their mutual benefit. Pietro broke the silence. ‘Tommaso, I admire your frankness, and maybe your suggestion has merit. Perhaps we can work out something suitable for both of us. But first, I want you to do some work for me. This job will be a test of your proficiency and judgement in your new role and a test of my trust in your performance. Early this evening, just after sunset, I want you to pick up a large box for me from a foreign importer named Alfredo in exchange for this envelope which I entrust to you. You will meet this Alfredo secretly and out of sight from observing eyes down by the base of the third rubble stockpile at the northern port rebuild site opposite Ospedale Santa Maria di Loreto Mare. Tommaso, I dislike and do not trust this Alfredo fellow. I ask you to make your assessment of him, and if he falls short of your standards, I want you to execute him and then have him disappear. Understand?’

‘Perfectly’, Tommaso answered, displaying absolutely no emotion without so much as blinking. ‘Where do you want me to deliver the box?’

‘I will drive a small delivery truck along Via Nuova Marina and park in a dark section of road opposite Palazzo Salgar Hotel forty-five minutes after your rendezvous with Alfredo. I will meet you there and take the box from you. You will give me a brief yet precise report before I drive away. Understand?’

‘Perfectly’, Tommaso responded.

The stockpiles of thousands of tonnes of rubble collected during clean-up work from the bombed city served as the perfect landfill for the rebuild of the Naples Port facilities. Firms of contractors, hauliers, and the military were engaged to remove the city’s debris and waste in a mammoth Napoli clean-up programme. Many thousands of tonnes of waste were treated by crude machinery to first magnetically separate recyclable ferrous materials from building reclaim before rudimentary crushing equipment reduced the reclaim to usable fill. Small mountains comprising thousands of tonnes of fill were established along the port side. These stockpiles were held in position by hastily erected timber walls, the bottoms of which could be opened by unsophisticated manual unlocking apparatus allowing the weight of the rubble and gravity to force the material through the large chutes, covering the designated rebuild area, which then was levelled and compacted to form the base of that section of development. Occasionally, the release mechanisms failed, which didn’t greatly concern the port rebuild authority in that it simply meant that the released pile was selected as the next build site.

At the prearranged time, Pietro parked his van opposite the Palazzo Salgar, where Tommaso was waiting. At Pietro’s command, two men leapt from the van into the evening darkness, seized the box from Tommaso, and loaded it into the back of Pietro’s van, locking the van doors, never once setting eyes on Tommaso. Immediately after they had completed their work, the two men crossed Via Nuova Marina and faded into the backstreets of the Porto quarter.

During the loading activity, Tommaso told Pietro that ‘Alfredo looked inside the envelope and laughed at me and then spat on my shoes. He offered me more money for me to come and work for him, insulting you. Pietro, it is my opinion that your assessment of this pig was accurate. When I refused to cooperate, he pulled out a knife and approached me in a threatening and menacing manner. Unfortunately, Alfredo died there and then. He fell on his knife several times. As I departed, somehow, the entire rubble mountain collapsed over his body. This rubble, as it now stands, will be used as landfill, levelled, compacted, and utilized as the base for the next wharf’s foundation. Here is your envelope, Pietro.’

‘Did you look inside the envelope?’ Pietro asked.

‘No, I did not. That is not my business, Pietro.’

‘Tommaso, I want you to keep the envelope. It belongs to you.’

‘Thank you, Pietro. You are very generous.’

Tommaso conducted