Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted killer and high-ranking mobster with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra who had eluded seize for 3 many years, died on Monday in a hospital within the central Italian metropolis of L’Aquila, the place he had been serving time in a maximum-security jail. He was 61.
Alessandro Cerella, a lawyer for Mr. Messina Denaro, stated the trigger was colon most cancers. Mr. Messina Denaro had been present process remedy for a number of years, and on Friday he fell right into a coma that docs stated was irreversible.
Mr. Messina Denaro was arrested in January whereas ready to bear chemotherapy at a personal clinic in Palermo. He had been utilizing a faux id, and investigators found that he was being handled for most cancers after they discovered a scrap of paper along with his medical historical past rolled up within the leg of a chair in his mom’s residence in Castelvetrano, Sicily.
Since he was not handled below his actual identify, they used nationwide well being service data to establish sufferers with comparable situations and slender it down.
Despite working within the shadows, Mr. Messina Denaro had remained on the high of Italy’s record of most needed fugitives for many years. His potential to confound investigators on a dogged, if irritating, mission to seek out him added to his aura of invincibility.
“La Cattura” (“The Capture”), a not too long ago revealed e book about looking him down written by Maurizio de Lucia, the chief prosecutor in Palermo, calls Mr. Messina Denaro “one of Italy’s greatest mysteries.” He was, Mr. de Lucia wrote, “the mobster who ferried Sicily’s Cosa Nostra into a new era, within a criminal system that unites many segments.”
In 2020, Mr. Messina Denaro was convicted in absentia for his function within the high-profile murders of two of Italy’s high anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992, and for lethal bombings the subsequent 12 months in Milan, Rome and Florence that prosecutors imagine had been a part of a Cosa Nostra technique in opposition to the state.
He additionally obtained a life sentence for his involvement within the kidnapping and loss of life of the 12-year-old son of a Mafia turncoat after the boy was strangled and his physique was dissolved in acid, and within the loss of life of a police officer.
Lirio Abbate, an investigative journalist, has additionally written a e book about Mr. Messina Denaro. In that e book, “U Siccu,” revealed 2020, Mr. Abbate stated that Mr. Messina Denaro had confided in a pal that he might make “a cemetery” out of all of the folks he had killed or ordered killed.
What little is thought about Mr. Messina Denaro comes by means of the testimony of Mafia turncoats and arrested mobsters, in addition to court docket data, police experiences and rumour. Before his arrest, investigators had little to go on: a 1988 recording of his testimony a few homicide and a handful of pictures of him as a younger man.
Nicknamed U Siccu (Sicilian for slender), Mr. Messina Denaro was stated to have had a penchant for quick luxurious automobiles that he couldn’t take pleasure in for concern of being caught. According to 1 investigator, he was carrying a watch valued at over 30,000 euros (about $32,000) when he was arrested. The police additionally discovered designer garments and costly perfumes in his final hide-out, an residence in southwestern Sicily the place Mr. Messina Denaro had been residing for a number of years below an assumed identify.
He informed the investigators who caught him that lately he had lived largely within the open, “a tree in the midst of a forest,” considering that he could be much less more likely to be caught. If anybody knew that he was Italy’s most needed mob boss, they’d not stated a phrase to the authorities.
He was stated to be a “fimminaru,” or playboy, and books and articles about him recounted his conquests in Italy and overseas. Some girls paid a excessive value, touchdown in jail for abetting his life as a fugitive. Mr. Abbate famous in his e book that Mr. Messina Denaro’s philandering had damaged with the “family values of the traditional Mafia.”
He is assumed to have traveled extensively throughout his years on the run, establishing connections with felony teams in Europe and the Americas. “He was everywhere and nowhere,” Attilio Bolzoni, a seasoned Mafia reporter, wrote after the arrest. “A ghost.”
Mr. Messina Denaro had taken his place on the Cosa Nostra desk when his father, who additionally had Mafia affiliations, grew to become a fugitive after his personal authorized troubles. In 1991, the son attended an notorious assembly at which prosecutors imagine the Sicilian Mafia households determined to wage warfare in opposition to the central authorities by pulling off the high-profile assassinations and bombings of the early Nineties.
His rise throughout the echelons of organized crime was facilitated by his affiliation with the Corleonesi crime household, which was headed by Salvatore (Toto) Riina, the so-called Boss of all Bosses, who is claimed to have thought-about him like a son.
When a Mafia turncoat related Mr. Messina Denaro to a number of murders in 1993, he went underground. But he maintained a agency maintain over his turf, the western Sicilian province of Trapani, the place he acquired property in authorized companies together with journey businesses, supermarkets and alternative-energy firms.
He communicated with associates via letters and handwritten messages that he prevented writing personally and demanded be burned as soon as learn. He was protected, consultants stated, by a big community of associates who feared and revered him, in addition to locals who regarded the opposite manner.
Hundreds of people that helped him elude seize or benefited from his monetary dealings had been jailed through the years, together with pals, members of the family and high business associates. Nearly 10 billion euros of his in property and shares in varied firms and companies that had been seized through the years had been simply “the tip of the iceberg,” based on Mr. de Lucia.
Piero Grasso, a onetime nationwide anti-Mafia prosecutor, stated that Mr. Messina Denaro was “much loved, because he was considered a benefactor in his territories” — a dynamic that helps clarify why he was capable of keep below cowl for thus lengthy.
By the time he was arrested, he had accrued a number of life sentences. His last months had been spent in jail, in court docket and receiving remedy for most cancers. He had been scheduled to attend a listening to for one trial this month.
Mr. Messina Denaro was born on April 26, 1962, in Castelvetrano, a rural city in western Sicily, the fourth of six kids. His father, Francesco Messina Denaro, often called “don Ciccio,” was an area crime household boss who died in 1998 whereas a fugitive. His mom, Lorenza Santangelo, was a homemaker.
He grew up on an property belonging to a rich native household and attended a technical faculty within the space however didn’t end highschool, based on Mr. de Lucia’s e book.
Information on survivors was not instantly out there.
Mr. de Lucia wrote that throughout the interrogations after his arrest, Mr. Messina Denaro had continued to disclaim being a part of the Mafia or collaborating in its killings.
Yet his violent streak started early.
“He was already shooting at 14,” Mr. Abbate wrote. “Killing at 18. At 31, he was placing bombs in the north. This is what we know about him, a boy with undeniable criminal skills.”
Mr. Messina Denaro maintained his innocence till the top, nevertheless; in a single interrogation in February, he described himself as a “stateless farmer.” “I used to work in the countryside,” he stated, complaining that he had misplaced his residence and his property. “I had assets, but you took them all away.”
Source: www.nytimes.com