How Mafia’s most bloodthirsty clan was brought to its knees by brave women who risked death by ACID to escape mob bosses

HAVING betrayed the sacred Mafia vow of silence to testify and go on the run, Lea Garofalo’s decision to reunite with her mobster husband Carlo Cosco was always going to be dangerous. During their time apart he had charmed her on dates with promises of reconciliation and forgiveness for the sake of their daughter Denise, before they set off on a family holiday to Milan. Lea Garofalo was tortured and killed after she went on the run from the bloodthirsty ‘Ndrangheta Mafia syndicate Lea fled with daughter Denise – who worked to expose the Mafia clan after her mother’s killing Crowds paid their respects to Lea at her funeral in 2009Getty But by the fourth day of the trip, Lea, 35, had been kidnapped, tortured and killed by Carlo’s hitmen, who then dissolved her corpse in 50 litres of acid in a rural warehouse. The chilling tale is recounted in new Disney+ crime drama The Good Mothers, based on the true stories of the fearless women who tried to topple Italy’s most dangerous Mafia clan. It was adapted from British journalist Alex Perry’s book of the same name, which tells of the courage and grisly fates of those who were trapped in the ’Ndrangheta, one of the most fearsome Mafia crime syndicates. Alex tells The Sun: “The ’Ndrangheta is like a cult. “If you’re going to turn against it you’re betraying everyone you’ve ever known and your closest family. “The courage of these women is two-fold. For one, it’s what you’re risking. “Women are executed for being unfaithful — and even the thought of being unfaithful. “On top of that, your reward is very often a lonely life. “You live in witness protection, you’ve left everything you’ve ever known. “So there’s a huge cost, even if you survive. It takes an enormous amount of courage.” Diabolic game The ’Ndrangheta, which dates back to the late 18th century, is believed to make up to $100billion (£80billion) a year from crime and is responsible for 70 per cent of Europe’s cocaine trade, alongside other illegal activity. For more than 150 years, the deadly Calabrian clan has remained practically impenetrable to law enforcement due to its members operating almost exclusively on blood ties, and the strict code of omerta — the Mafia code of silence. Gaia Girace portrays Denise in Disney+ series The Good MothersDisney+ The streaming show brings to light the bravery of the women who sent shockwaves through Italy’s criminal underworldDisney+ Yet at the turn of this century, four Mafia women sent shockwaves through the criminal underworld, becoming some of the first members ever to testify against their own. Lea Garofalo was born into the ’Ndrangheta and when her father was murdered by a rival, her brother took over the family business. By 16 she had married Cosco, a “farmer” who turned out to be a cocaine smuggler. He regularly physically abused her, and she claimed she was suicidal for years until the birth of their daughter Denise in 1992. In 2002 Lea found the courage to leave Cosco and fled with Denise, then ten, to become a police informant, lifting the lid on a bloody civil war between two ’Ndrangheta families that left 40 dead. She told police about her life: “You don’t really live. You just survive in some way. “You dream about something, anything, because nothing’s worse than that life.” Alex says: “Lea’s evidence was quite broad and in fact it’s still used today in various cases. It’s had an incredible longevity. “It was her and the other women’s evidence that really opened up the organisation and showed the state what a monster it was.” For four years Lea lived in witness protection but in 2009 Mob bosses tracked her down and she was lured to Milan by estranged partner Cosco under the pretence of them getting back together. Alex says: “Lea had been in hiding for the best part of a decade because Carlo was trying to kill her. “She betrayed him and he was unrelenting. “He played this diabolic double game where he was pretending to reconcile, perhaps fall back in love with her, but he was faking everything. “Those entire four days, he was directing his crew to kill her. “Every day they were trying to kill her. They kept messing up, but that’s why she was there. “Before the trip, he even went on a few dates with her in Calabria, so the patience he displayed before he killed her is just unimaginable. “It’s a measure of the ’Ndrangheta organisation. “There is no romance and nothing cool about these gangsters. They are horrendous human beings and violent, misogynist pigs.” To cover the murder, Cosco claimed his wife had fled to Australia to start a new life. It was his daughter Denise who finally brought him to justice, serving as a key witness and testifying against him. After Lea’s murder, she had initially played along, pretending to love her father and even falling for ’Ndrangheta member Carmine Venturino. Cosco was jailed for life in 2012 for his role in Lea’s abduction and killingAP Denise dated mobster Venturino before she tried to get justice for her mother Alex says: “Denise was fighting a number of battles. “First was the grief for her mother — they were incredibly close from living on the run. “On top of that, her parents getting back together was sort of her idea, or she thought it was her idea, and it was something that she wanted. “There was an enormous amount of guilt there but she found the strength to confront her father and throw off everything she’d really ever known.” In March 2012 Cosco and five others were sentenced to life in jail for their roles in Lea’s abduction and killing, and the disposal of her body. Among the five henchmen was Denise’s boyfriend Venturino. She previously said: “He was my first boyfriend and I haven’t had any more. “Sure, he deceived me, but I’m sure that we really loved each other.” Since the trial she has remained in the witness protection programme and has previously said: “The day of the sentence I did not rejoice. “They ruined my life but I can’t hate anyone, not even my father. “Sometimes I feel sorry for him. He did not understand what he was missing — a family, a daughter, the love he could have had.” Giuseppina Pesce was also born into a crime family — the most powerful of the 141 ’Ndrangheta clans at the time— and her father Salvatore was in and out of prison for her entire childhood. To ensure she followed the same path, she had to leave school at 13 and soon afterwards met her future husband Rocco Palaia, who ruthlessly beat her and their children. Giuseppina later told magistrates: “After only three weeks together, he gave me a first slap. “After the birth of our first child, my husband began to treat me and our daughter badly.” She tried to leave Palaia several times but her family intervened. While he was in jail she fell for a supermarket co-worker but she knew they could never be together. She said: “As long as my brother is alive I am condemned to death, because he’s the one who has to carry out the sentence for betrayal.” Alex confirms there are fatal consequences for harming a family’s reputation, and adds: “If you’re unfaithful, you’re dead, and it will be your father, brother or son that kills you, and quite likely dissolves your body in acid to erase the family shame.” In 2010 Giuseppina saw a chance for herself and her children after she was arrested on Mafia-related charges. After six months in custody, she became a police informant. She handed over more than 1,500 pages of evidence that dealt “a massive blow” to the ’Ndrangheta. In 2013 huge sentences and fines were issued against family members and allies. Giuseppina now lives in witness protection and Alex says: “She was an operational gangster. She ran money, knew how everything worked, including cocaine importation. “Her evidence was incredibly valuable and was instrumental in bringing down her entire family — around 64 members of that clan went to jail. “The state confiscated around half a billion dollars (£400million) in assets.” Other women testifying against ’Ndrangheta were not so lucky, such as Giuseppina’s cousin, mum-of-three Maria Concetta Cacciola. Oppressed by her husband and family, she escaped their clutches by offering cops information on weapon stashes in exchange for protection. Later, she shared information about loan-sharking, racketeering and several murders. However, unable to escape with her children, against police advice she returned to her family home to retrieve them in 2011. After days of psychological and physical abuse, allegedly at her family’s hands, she was forced to drink a bottle of highly corrosive muriatic acid and suffered an agonising death. Her mother, father and brother were arrested, accused of using threatening behaviour and physical violence against her. Prosecutors believe they staged her suicide. Alex says: “That’s what the ’Ndrangheta did to these women. It tried to erase them and their stories — in Maria’s case quite literally with acid. It tried to erase the mouth that had shamed them.” One of The Good Mothers’ final heroes is prosecutor Anna Lozaro, who realised that Mafia women are the weapon to fight the clans. Alex says: “The women are in the room all the time. Sometimes they are absolutely involved, like Giuseppina. They also had the motivation to speak out because they were living horrible lives. “Unsurprisingly, it took a woman to have that kind of intuition.” But while the women’s testimony hit the ’Ndrangheta, it did not last long. Alex says another family “takes their place after one falls” and says the organisation is “bigger today than they were ten years ago”. He adds: “But the legacy, what lasts, is that the ’Ndrangheta’s invincibility was broken. “No one had challenged them so publicly from their own ranks. “That’s because the price of betrayal, the price of testifying against the organisation is so high, and that’s why these women were and remain so important to this day.”  The Good Mothers is available to stream on Disney+ now. Giuseppina Pesce dealt a huge blow to the Mafia clan after informing on them Her cousin Maria Concetta Cacciola was not so lucky and suffered an agonising death