The well-known boss of the Sicilian mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died in a hospital in central ItalyThe ANSA news agency reported this Monday.
Messina Denaro, 61, suffered from colon cancer for which he had been treated during his time as a fugitive, a decision that caught the attention of the authorities, who detained him in a clinic in Palermo.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses of Cosa Nostra, depicted in the “Godfather” films.
Matteo Messina Denaro is dead from @Today_it https://t.co/ZDLf2ssRY6 pic.twitter.com/3vgey4WOZN
— Roma Today (@romatoday) September 25, 2023
He was convicted by the courts for his involvement in the murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992 and in deadly attacks in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
One of the six life sentences against him was handed down for the kidnapping and subsequent 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 while the Italian state repressed the Sicilian mafia.
However, he remained high on Italy’s most wanted list and eventually became a legendary criminal figure.
On January 16, 2023, he was arrested during a visit to a clinic, where he was being treated under a false identity.
He was held in a high-security prison in L’Aquila, central Italy, where he continued cancer treatment in his cell.
Doctors stopped feeding him
In August, Messina Denaro was transferred to the inmate ward of the local hospital, where his condition had worsened in recent days.
This weekend, the media reported that he was in an “irreversible coma.” The doctors had stopped feeding him and he had asked not to be resuscitated, they added.
After Messina Denaro fled, there was intense speculation that he had gone abroad. But it was eventually discovered that he had remained near his hometown of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.
Investigators had been scouring the Sicilian countryside for years in search of Messina Denaro, searching for hiding places and intercepting members of his family and friends.
They were heard talking about the medical problems of an anonymous person who suffered from cancer and eye problems. The detectives were sure that the identity corresponded to Messina Denaro.
They used a national health system database to find male patients of the appropriate age and medical history, and eventually closed the case.
But, Although his arrest brought some relief to his victims, the mafia boss always maintained his silence.
In interviews in custody, Messina Denaro even denied that he was a member of Cosa Nostra.
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