CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Michele Zagaria

Italian Camorrista boss

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1421929
Source-derived summary

Michele Zagaria (Italian pronunciation: [miˈkɛːle ddzaɡaˈriːa]; born 21 May 1958) is an Italian Camorrista and one of the bosses of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta northwest of Naples. He was nicknamed Capastorta, which translates to "twisted head", because of his violent reputation.

He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior from 1995 until 2011, for Camorra association, murder, extortion, robbery and other crimes. On 8 February 2000, an international warrant was issued against him, to be arrested for extradition.

Criminal career

The criminal career of Michele Zagaria, began in the 1980s, alongside Alberto Beneduce and Francesco Schiavone. His first arrest dates back to 1988, when he was found with a 7.65 submachine gun—the weapon of choice for soldiers of the Camorra—in his car. Since then he was in and out of jail, until, on 6 December 1995, the so-called Spartacus investigation identified him as one of the heads of the Casalesi clan. Since then he vanished from public life.

Zagaria is an atypical Casalesi boss. According to informants, he doesn't refuse a few lines of cocaine, a strict taboo within the clan.

Editorial summary

“Michele Zagaria” enters the record as italian Camorrista boss. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michele, Zagaria and Italian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 1995, 2011, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1958-05-21. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Michele, Zagaria and Italian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Michele Zagaria” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Michele, Zagaria and Italian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1421929. VIAF identifies the subject as 300188316. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1995, 2011 and 2000.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Michele Zagaria”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Michele Zagaria primary sources, Michele Zagaria archive and Michele research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michele Zagaria”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Michele Zagaria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.