EX-beauty queen Assunta Maresca, who became the first female boss of the dreaded Camorra gang after killing her rival, has died at the age of 86.

       The feared mob boss, dubbed Pupetta, or "Little Doll" in English, died at her home in Castellamare di Stabia, near Pompeii, following an illness.

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       Assunta Maresca ran the Camorra gang after executing her rival in broad daylight Credit: Eyevine 3

       The former beauty queen died at her Naples home aged 86 Credit: Eyevine

       The heartless mafia icon rose to prominence when she shot dead her husband's killer in Naples at the age of 18 and went on to become the first female boss of the bloody Camorra clan.

       Maresca - the daughter of a notorious black marketeer - hunted down Antontio Esposito, the then-Camorra boss who ordered her husband's killing, and shot him dead in broad daylight on a street in Naples.

       The gruesome execution cemented her position in the Naples underworld.

       The former beauty queen has always insisted she acted alone and during her trial for murder in 1959 told the courtroom defiantly: "I would do it again!".

       The ruthless mob boss gave birth in prison but wasn't reunited with her son Pasqualino until after her release 14 years later.

       Once out, Maresca acted in a film based upon her life and opened two clothes shops in Naples.

       She also married notorious drug smuggler and arms dealer Umberto Ammaturo, with whom she had twins.

       The marriage would take a disastrous turn when Maresca accused her husband of killing Pasqualino, according to The Guardian.

       The publication reports that Ammaturo became jealous of Pasqualino's dream to lead the Camorra.

       When Pasqualino was 18, in January 1974, he went to meet Ammaturo at a construction site in Naples and disappeared.

       Maresca suspected Ammaturo of murdering her son and burying his body in cement but stayed with the mob figure out of fear he may hurt their twins.

       She was later accused of being behind the killing of Ciro Galli, a member of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, which was lead by violent kingping Raffaele Cutolo.

       Maresca openly challenged Cutolo during a press conference in 1982 and in the same year was arrested alongside Ammaturo for the murder of Aldo Semerari, a forensic scientist and well-known neo-fascist.

       She served four years in prison before being acquitted.

       Maresca was the only girl in a family of four brothers and reportedly showed violent tendencies as a child.

       She once attacked a classmate, causing them serious injury, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

       Maresca won a local beauty contest in 1953 and was crowned Miss Rovegliano.

       It comes months after female Italian mob boss Maria Licciardi - known as "Bloody Mary" - died in August aged 70.

       Licciardi is said to be 'The God Mother' of Secondigliano Alliance, a cartel of Camorra clans that controls drug trafficking, counterfeiting luxury brands and extortion in much of Naples.

       Licciardi was one of the victors in a long-running blood feud between clans that left Naples littered nearly daily with corpses earlier this century, prosecutors say.

       According to a Camorra boss turned prosecution witness Luigi Misso Licciardi responsible for more than 100 murders.

       He said she is “much more dangerous” than the reputed head of the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian branch of the Mafia.

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       Maresca shot to fame when she murdered the mob boss who killed her husband Credit: Eyevine

       Camorra mafia boss Marco Di Lauro arrested in the Italian city of Naples after 15 years on the run