November 14, 1931 - Maria Serraino
Her significance lies in the exception she represented within one of Italy's most insular and hierarchical criminal organizations — a woman who exercised genuine leadership in a structure that almost universally reserved such roles for men. The 'Ndrangheta, rooted in Calabrian tradition and bound by strict internal codes, rarely permitted women to hold authority, making her position within the Serraino clan historically anomalous. Her case has drawn scholarly attention as evidence that female agency within organized crime, though suppressed, was not entirely absent.
From Wikipedia
Maria Serraino (1931 – 7 December 2017) was an Italian criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta mafia-style organization in Calabria. She is one of the rare examples of a woman leading a 'Ndrangheta clan.
She belonged to a longstanding 'Ndrangheta family from the Reggio Calabria area, the Serraino 'ndrina, from Cardeto, about 10 km southeast of the city of Reggio Calabria. She was a cousin of Paolo Serraino, the boss of the Calabrian branch of the clan.
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