Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca (19 January 1935 – 29 December 2021) was an Italian criminal who was a well-known figure in the Camorra.

Assunta Maresca was born in Castellamare di Stabia, a town south of Naples in Campania.

Her uncle Vincenzo Maresca, sentenced to seven years in prison for the murder of his brother Gerardo,[2] was a known Camorrista who controlled their hometown.

The Maresca family was known as the "Lightning Knives" (Italian: Lampetielli) for their expert use of switchblades, and made their money in contraband cigarettes.

[3] At the age of 19, she won a local beauty contest and became Miss Rovegliano, a suburban village of Naples.

[4] Maresca was courted by a wealthy and powerful local guappo, or Camorra boss, from Palma Campania.

She became the lover of yet another Camorra boss, the drug baron Umberto Ammaturo, and gave birth to twins.

In February 1982, during the war between the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) and the Nuova Famiglia (NF), she held a press conference to defend her men, publicly defying the NCO boss Raffaele Cutolo.

[3] Later in 1982, Maresca and Ammaturo were arrested and charged with extortion as well as the murder of forensic scientist Aldo Semerari.