Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro’s body is escorted by police back to his hometown where he will be buried at small funeral – after bloodstained gangster’s death from colon cancer aged 61
Italian police escorted the body of Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro back to his hometown Tuesday, media reports said, where he is expected to be buried quickly and with little ceremony.
Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died on Monday in hospital in central Italy, taking to the grave the secrets of his brutal reign.
His coffin was driven in a hearse out of the hospital in L’Aquila and is expected to arrive in his hometown of Castelvetrano in Sicily in the early hours of Wednesday, according to the ANSA news agency.
Police normally ban funerals for mafia bosses, and only a few family members – including two sisters and a brother – are expected to be present at his burial in the town’s cemetery, the agency said.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the ‘Godfather’ movies.
Hearse awaits Matteo Messina Denaro’s body outside the morgue
A handout mugshot made available by Italy’s Carabinieri shows Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted man, following his arrest in Palermo, Sicily
The 61-year-old was convicted of involvement in the murder of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992 and in deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
One of his six life sentences was for the kidnapping and murder of the 12-year-old son of a witness in the Falcone case.
Messina Denaro disappeared in the summer of 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob.
But he remained at the top of Italy’s most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.
Denaro, caught by Italian anti-mafia police on January 16, 2023
Reputed by investigators to be one of the Italian Mafia’s most powerful bosses, Matteo Messina Denaro (pictured left and right) disappeared in the summer of 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the state cracked down on the Sicilian mob
Denaro lived as a fugitive in western Sicily, his stronghold, eluding law enforcement for 30 years thanks to the help of complicit townspeople – all while remaining at the top of Italy ‘s most-wanted list and increasingly becoming a figure of legend. That was until eight months ago when, on January 16, 2023, his need for colon cancer treatment led to his capture
It was his decision to seek treatment for colon cancer that led to his arrest on January 16, 2023, when he visited a health clinic in Palermo.
Messina Denaro disappeared in the summer of 1993 and spent the next 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob.
But he remained at the top of Italy’s most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.
He was initially treated in his jail cell, but was moved to the inmates’ ward of the hospital in L’Aquila in August, where he remained under heavy security.
Since Friday night, he had been reported to have been in an ‘irreversible coma’. Medics had stopped feeding him and he had asked not to be resuscitated, Italian media reports said.
His arrest may have brought some relief for his victims, but the mob boss always maintained his silence.
In 1993, Messina Denaro helped organise the kidnap of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo (pictured), in an attempt to blackmail his father into not giving evidence against the mafia, prosecutors say. The boy was eventually strangled, and his body dissolved in acid
Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in 1992 in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Pictured: The scene of the murder of Falcone in Palermo, Sicily, in 1992
The scene of the bomb attack which killed Judge Giovanni Falcone on 24 May 1992 in Palermo, Sicily
In interviews in custody after being arrested, Messina Denaro even denied he was a member of the Cosa Nostra.
‘Unfortunately his capture did not help the search for truth and justice,’ Borsellino’s brother, Salvatore, told LaPresse news agency.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper had previously reported that Messina Denaro could be buried in the family tomb, alongside his father, Don Ciccio.
Don Ciccio was also head of the local clan. He was said to have died of a heart attack while on the run, his body left in the countryside, dressed for the funeral.
After Messina Denaro went on the run, there was intense speculation that he had gone abroad – and he probably did. But in the months before his capture, he had been staying near his hometown.
Castelvetrano mayor Enzo Alfano said he hoped the ‘suffocating cloud’ hanging over his town would now lift.
‘It will take decades to eradicate the mentality, the sometimes rampant culture of lawlessness, of impunity’ that Messina Denaro ‘cultivated for so long’, he said.
Investigators had been combing the Sicilian countryside for Messina Denaro for years, searching for hideouts and wiretapping members of his family and his friends. They were heard discussing the medical problems of an unnamed person who suffered from cancer, as well as eye problems – a person who detectives became sure was Messina Denaro.
They used a national health system database to search for male patients of the right age and medical history, and eventually closed in.
Source: Read Full Article
