Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My life as a Mafia princess
mummy in prison. At first, she thought it was a hospital, but as she got older the truth had to be told.
“Prison was not good. I was in with Rose West and Myra Hindley. I saw Rose in the showers – an image I can’t get out of my mind. She just stood there showing everything, looking at me. It made me uncomfortable. “I didn’t ever speak to Myra Hindley. Her cell smelled awful and musty. She was a heavy smoker. I remember her coming across the landing with a walking stick – she’d had a hip operation. She just looked me up and down.
“She had a horrible aura about her. If I saw her in the queue in the kitchen, I’d wait a few minutes. I just didn’t want to be near her.”
Just before Marisa was released in 1997, her grandmother was sentenced to life for a string of crimes related to her role with the Mob.
SQUEEZED
Around 180 members of the organisation were arrested. She had lost five of her 12 children because of addiction to the heroin on which the family’s empire depended. Maria was later freed but spent the rest of her life under house arrest after losing her vast wealth.
Marisa was reunited with her dad and gran in 2014 – and visited Maria several more times before she died aged 86 in 2017. Marisa had been at her bedside.
“It was one of the saddest times of my life. I was her favourite grandchild. She was asleep but squeezed my hand. Her last words were, ‘Be a good girl’.” And with her life of crime behind her, Marisa is doing just that. Now living in Poultonle-Fylde near Blackpool she hopes to open an Italian restaurant on the Lancashire coast with dad Emilio, 72, who retrained as a chef after being freed early from a
30-year stretch for helping police.
Alongside her will be fiancé James, 51, who held her hand as she watched
Bang Bang Baby for the first time. Marisa, who has written an autobiography, tells how the Amazon Prime drama had her in tears.
She spent seven hours telling her story to the actress who plays her – 17-year-old Arianna Becheroni. They hugged and cried as they discussed her rollercoaster life. Marisa said: “I’m proud that I’ve been able to turn my life around and I’m now a criminologist. My studies have helped me understand why I did certain things. It was my fault in some ways because I knew right from wrong.
“I beat myself up for years but when I look at the bigger picture, I can see I was a victim of circumstances and I was taken advantage of a lot. It was because I was loyal and I loved my family.
“It wasn’t about the money, power or the glamorous life. It was the love I had for my nan and my dad.” Mafia Princess, published by Harper Collins, is on Amazon and in bookstores. Bang Bang Baby launches on Amazon Prime Video on April 28
geraldine.mckelvie@mirror.co.uk