ANTONIO COTUGNO
The pages of post-Risorgimento history were also written by a phenomenon of ancient origins and geographically widespread but which the collective memory attributes to a limited period and a limited place of the Italian peninsula. It is the Brigantage that rages in the territories of the center-south from 1861 to 1870, when the Italian state officially declares it eradicated with the removal of the military zones established here. These are actions of popular guerrilla warfare carried out by groups of numerous men and women who immediately after the Unity of Italy continue their struggle, this time in an organized manner and politically targeted against injustices and abuses perpetuated by the affluent and dominant classes against the poor people. The eternal contrast between the peasant people and the few wealthy owners does not fade even with the transition to the new government from which the resolution of the problems that prevent the improvement of the economic and social conditions of the population is expected. Access to land to be cultivated and to credit, more bearable taxes, the people of the South continue to pay for the burden of lack rights that are now being strongly claimed. The Brigantes speak of this discontent and of proclamations about the return of the ousted Bourbon government which, they say, would not disappoint this time. They constitude armed gangs made up of former gendarmes of the Neapolitan army, peasants, shepherds, draft dodgers who seek the support of the population while the government organizes the harsh repression by sending thousands of soldiers and by enacting special laws. And yet there are those in Parliament who want to see clearly and put pressur so that a special committee of inquiry to be set up to analyse the phenomenon. The committee set up in December 1862, after four months of work, compiles its report which shows the serious state of poverty in the territories annexed to the Kingdom of Savoy. Here there is a lack of infrastructure, health care, schools, the minimum means of subsistence. The ongoing rebellion is the result of this state of affairs. Initially supported by the population, advantaged by the good knowledge of the mainly mountainous and wooded territory that guarantees rapid movement and safe hiding places, the Brigantes in the years ahead succumb to a government that neglects the conclusions and implicit solutions of the parliamentary committee. Instead, they veer towards harmful attitudes against the same people that they wanted to defend by diffusing terror in the villages and in the countryside. Feared now by the people the gangs either hand themselves in or are defeated by the army. Until their final capitulation, which takes place without the resolution of the age-old social problems of the South that persist in the following decades, not without consequences.
In Basilicata among the best known of the brigand leaders is Carmine Donatelli of Rionero called "Crocco". As we saw there were many gangs scattered throughout the territory. In Montemurro, Antonio Cotugno led one consisting of eight men, including his brother Leonardo, a defector of the Bourbon army. He is born on December 29, 1823 by Domenico and Aurelia San Martino of Montemurro. An episode relating to the last months of his run is documented of him. It is the evening of September 25, 1869 and a group of Montemurres are returning from the fair in Moliterno, a village not very far away. One of them, a gallant man, stops to water the horse but the pause is prolonged and he loses sight of the others. He is not discouraged, his village is not far, it can be seen lighted by the moon. But he try calling his companions, it's best not to be alone in unsafe times. And he's right. In the darkness he meets a man, he is a brigand who tells him to follow him without the horse. After having walked along a section of the path they arrive at a small clearing where he is in front of three men. He recognises one of them. It is Antonio Cotugno, the Montemurrese shepherd who for eight years is the head of a gang that is rife in the area. The hapless man immediately thinks of the worst but it is the same brigand who reassures him by entrusting him with a message to be delivered to Judge Giuseppe Imperatrice that the gallant man knows well. The judge is born in Naples but his family is originally from Montemurro so much that every summer he comes here to spend his holidays. In essence, the former shepherd calls for the intermediation of Imperatrice in order to enter into negotiations with the Italian government represented by General Emilio Pallavicini, commander of the troops for the repression of brigandage in the provinces of Basilicata, Terra di Lavoro, Aquila, Molise, Benevento, Avellino, Salerno. The gang would spontaneously hand over itself in exchange for the mitigating factors granted by the law and the release of his father sentenced to the forced domicile on the island of Tremiti. Upon learning this news from the gallant man to whom the brigand ordered the secrecy, the judge on duty at the Salerno Tribunal gets to work, seriously intending to save their lives. He informs the Minister of Grace and Justice, the Minister of the Interior who in turn informs the Prefects of Potenza and Salerno and General Pallavicini. The latter summons the judge to Caserta at the General Command to have further informations that he obviously cannot provide because the request has been reported orally, but convinces him about the sincerity of those proposals. The general agrees. On the capture or presentation of Cotugno’s gang is fixed a prize of 6,000 ducats by Colonel Noris of Potenza, money that in this way would not be paid. Informed by the judge the gallant man of Montemurro twice goes to the site established by the brigand to report that his requests have been accepted but he does not show up. Being able to track him down is a very difficult thing. No one is aware of the negotiations and the army is guarding the territory. Meanwhile, some members of the gang are captured at Sant’Arcangelo and Viggiano including his brother Leonardo. Two months later his father arrives in Salerno where he meets Imperatrice who finances his return to Basilicata, ordering him to look for his son so that he turns himself in with the rest of his men immediately. The man arrives in Sarconi (a village near Montemurro) on the evening of November 11 and sets out to find his son who is nowhere to be found. With the help of a guide, he searches the forest of Sarconi, the Saponara patch (Grumento), pushing even close to the coast. When he finds him, he reassures him of the judge's interest. On 6 December 1869 Cotugno sends a letter to Imperatrice asking him what he should do but in the end it is the brigand himself who decides the place of the meeting, a gorge of the Maorno mountain between Moliterno and Montemurro, where he must show up without the troops. After communicating this arrangement to General Fontana, Giuseppe Imperatrice and Major Milanovich of the Salerno Division go to the place indicated regardless of the dangers to which he is exposing himself and the cold temperatures. However, he waits in vain for a few hours then cold finds refuge in Moliterno. Three more days pass and Cotugno's father introduces himself to the judge, assuring him that the gang would show up two days later in Montemurro in the Imperatrice Palace, that is, at the home of the judge who patiently accepts. But once again the wait is vain. Later informations will report that the brigands arrived at the courtyard of the palace but someone advised them to leave because it was a trap and they would be shot. The reason for this lie is unknown, perhaps for fear of compromising revelations. The real ambush occurs after 15 days. In the night of 9-10 January 1870, the brigands who camped out a countryside of district Valloni between Viggiano and Montemurro are captured by the troops thanks to the complicity of people who in this way pocket the prize. They all die.
The case had court after effects with charges of complicity and subsequent acquittals. Several documents were provided in order to shed full light on everything related to the gang including its relations with the locals as was the practice in the Brigantes environment. It is a sad chapter of local history, a piece in the complicated mosaic of Brigandage for some time object of revisionism from historians who have "rewound the tape of events" in search of objective responsibilities. A work of reconstruction that, while on the one hand admits the undeniable victory of the established order on the other must recognize that it was a bitter victory.