Taking On The Mob

Just north of 1.5 m tall, Silvana Fucito is a towering example of how to stand up to the brutal crime syndicate that terrorizes Naples. The Neapolitan mob, the Camorra, picked on the wrong lady when it began demanding that Fucito and her husband, Gennaro Petrucci, cough up the notorious extortion payments known as the pizzo (from the Italian word for goatee, describing those who dip their beards in their neighbors' soup) at the family paint store four years ago.

Like many, the couple first tried shooing the thugs away with excuses, free cans of paint and an...