It's a chilling Cosa Nostra family snap. A loving nan stretched out on a bed as her granddaughter stands beside her cuddling a doll – and wielding a gun.
Welcome to the Mafia childhood of a 52-year-old mum now living quietly in a Lancashire town.
Marisa Merico’s story has been made into an explosive 10-part TV drama, with drug deals, shootouts and an astonishing twist.
Forget the The Godfather. Bang Bang Baby is about The Grandmother – the crime boss nan, Maria, in the picture who Marisa adored.
And young gun-toting Marisa herself is also portrayed in Bang Bang Baby in her former life as a Mafia princess – along with her dealer dad Emilio.
A rollercoaster life that would lead to her being banged up in prison – alongside Rose West and Myra Hindley.
Now reformed with a university degree in criminology, Marisa – who was raised in Blackpool – reflects on her childhood memories of summer visits to Nonna’s flat in Milan.
“She was an amazing, lovely, compassionate, beautiful woman – and yet she was a criminal,” says Marisa. “To see her on screen was emotional – in the kitchen, with her apron and the food. The nonna, stuffing your face with sweets. That made me cry.”
But behind the facade was a hardened crime boss nicknamed Granny Heroin – in charge of an infamous organised drugs gang known as ’Ndrangheta.
Marisa’s Blackpool-born mum Pat had no idea about this when she met Maria’s son Emilio while working as an au pair in Milan as a teenager. Love blossomed and Marisa was born – but Pat became fearful of the family’s criminal lifestyle and took Marisa back to Blackpool when she was nine.
It was during summer visits to see her gran that Marisa watched vast swathes of drugs arrive at the family home.
Emilio and others would sort the packages of heroin and cocaine – then wait for orders from Maria, who had a razor-sharp mind even though she couldn’t read or write.
And on these visits as a teenager Marisa found herself drawn into the excitement of her gran’s life – a powerful woman in a man’s world.
“Bang Bang Baby shows what the women go through and the psyche of the women who get involved,” says Marisa.
“If you look at the Sopranos, Goodfellas and The Godfather, it’s all about the men. But when police raided homes, they never used to look at the women. Then they started to realise, women are the backbone.
“What my dad was doing would not have worked without my nan being involved with it. My nan was such a strong character.”
At 17 Marisa moved to Italy and became a courier for the gang, delivering packages worth £500,000. She married gang henchman Bruno Merico, with whom she had daughter Lara, now 30. At 23, she returned to England and bought a home kitted out in designer furniture funded by her ill-gotten gains worth almost £2 million.
But Marisa, now a gran herself, paid the price for being born into what she describes as “Mafia royalty” when the long arm of the law caught up with her.
Police swooped on her house in a dawn raid. Lara, then two, was taken from her and Marisa was convicted of money laundering in 1993, spending almost four years in HMP Durham’s notorious H wing, alongside killers Myra Hindley and Rose West.
Marisa, who also has a son Frank, 21, said: “My whole world just stopped. It was heartbreaking for my daughter. She had to go to my mum. Lara was coming to see her 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.
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 Poulton-le-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
