Matteo Messina Denaro, Once Italy’s Most Famous Fugitive, Dies at 61

Matteo Messina Denaro, a convicted killer and high-ranking mobster with the Sicilian Cosa Nostra who had eluded seize for 3 a long time, has died 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.
Mr. Messina Denaro had been handled for most cancers for years, and fell right into a coma that medical doctors mentioned on Friday was irreversible. The Italian information company ANSA reported early Monday that he had died.
Mr. Messina Denaro was arrested in January whereas ready to endure chemotherapy at a non-public clinic in Palermo. He had been utilizing a pretend id, and investigators found that he was being handled for most cancers once they discovered a scrap of paper along with his medical historical past rolled up within the leg of a chair in his mom’s house in Castelvetrano, Sicily.
Since he was not handled beneath his actual title, they used nationwide health service data to determine sufferers with related circumstances and slim it down.
Despite working within the shadows, Mr. Messina Denaro had remained at the highest of Italy’s record of most wished fugitives for many years. His skill to confound investigators on a dogged, if irritating, mission to search out him added to his aura of invincibility.
“La Cattura” (“The Capture”), a lately revealed ebook 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 prime anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, in 1992, and for lethal bombings the subsequent yr in Milan, Rome and Florence that prosecutors consider have been a part of a Cosa Nostra technique in opposition to the state.
He additionally acquired a life sentence for his involvement within the kidnapping and demise of the 12-year-old son of a Mafia turncoat after the boy was strangled and his body was dissolved in acid, and within the demise of a police officer.
Lirio Abbate, an investigative journalist, has additionally written a ebook about Mr. Messina Denaro. In that ebook, “U Siccu,” revealed 2020, Mr. Abbate mentioned that Mr. Messina Denaro had confided in a buddy that he may make “a cemetery” out of all of the individuals he had killed or ordered killed.
What little is understood about Mr. Messina Denaro comes by the use of the testimony of Mafia turncoats and arrested mobsters, in addition to court docket data, police studies and rumour. Before his arrest, investigators had little to go on: a 1988 recording of his testimony a few homicide and a handful of images of him as a younger man.
Nicknamed U Siccu (Sicilian for slender), Mr. Messina Denaro was mentioned to have had a penchant for quick luxurious automobiles that he couldn’t bask 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 house in southwestern Sicily the place Mr. Messina Denaro had been residing for a number of years beneath an assumed title.
He advised the investigators who caught him that in recent times he had lived largely within the open, “a tree in the midst of a forest,” considering that he can be much less more likely to be caught. If anybody knew that he was a Italy’s most wished mob boss, they’d not mentioned a phrase to the authorities.
He was mentioned to be a “fimminaru,” or playboy, and books and articles about him recounted his conquests in Italy and overseas. Some women paid a high value, touchdown in jail for abetting his life as a fugitive. Mr. Abbate famous in his ebook that Mr. Messina Denaro’s philandering had damaged with the “family values of the traditional Mafia.”
He is believed to have traveled extensively throughout his years on the run, establishing connections with legal 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 at 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 consider the Sicilian Mafia households determined to wage struggle in opposition to the central authorities by pulling off the high-profile assassinations and bombings of the early 1990s.
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 firm maintain over his turf, the western Sicilian province of Trapani, the place he acquired belongings in authorized companies together with journey businesses, supermarkets and alternative-energy corporations.
He communicated with associates by way of letters and handwritten messages that he prevented writing personally and demanded be burned as soon as learn. He was protected, specialists mentioned, by a big community of associates who feared and revered him, in addition to locals who seemed the opposite approach.
Hundreds of people that helped him elude seize or benefited from his monetary dealings have been jailed over time, together with pals, relations and prime enterprise associates. Nearly 10 billion euros of his in belongings and shares in numerous corporations and companies that have been seized over time have been simply “the tip of the iceberg,” in keeping with Mr. de Lucia.
Piero Grasso, a onetime nationwide anti-Mafia prosecutor, mentioned that Mr. Messina Denaro was “much loved, because he was considered a benefactor in his territories” — a dynamic that helps clarify why he was in a position to keep beneath cowl for therefore lengthy.
By the time he was arrested, he had accrued a number of life sentences. His remaining months have been spent in jail, in court docket and receiving therapy 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 high faculty, in keeping with Mr. de Lucia’s ebook.
Information on survivors was not instantly obtainable.
Mr. de Lucia wrote that through the interrogations after his arrest, Mr. Messina Denaro had continued to disclaim being a part of the Mafia or taking part 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 tip, nonetheless; in a single interrogation in February, he described himself as a “stateless farmer.” “I used to work in the countryside,” he mentioned, complaining that he had misplaced his residence and his property. “I had assets, but you took them all away.”
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