2023-04-27 16:17:35
Known to gourmets from Saint-Etienne as “Rocco”, Edgardo Greco, a friendly Italian pizza maker, may have to return to Italy under police escort to serve his life sentence. His extradition, requested Thursday, April 27 in the morning by the investigating chamber of the Lyon Court of Appeal (suspended by an appeal in cassation), brings this 63-year-old man, on the run since 2006, back to his first career: that of of a Calabrian mafia killer.
The Italian story of Edgardo Greco transports you to the Calabria of the 1990s. A time when the clans of the ‘Ndrangheta settled their accounts in bloodbaths, even in broad daylight. In Cosenza, after climbing the ranks of the hierarchy of henchmen, the young Greco had made a name for himself with the Perna-Pranno clan. A nickname, even, that of “prison killer”in reference to his crimes committed in the prison world.
His main feat of arms will be that which will precipitate his escape. In 2006, as part of the “Missing” maxi-trial, Mr. Greco was found guilty of a double homicide, on behalf of the powerful clan to which he was affiliated.
On January 5, 1991, the one who was known not yet for his culinary talents but for his function as ” killer “, leads in a fish market the two brothers Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo – suspected of fomenting a secessionist project. He accomplished his mission, killing his enemies with an iron bar. Two years later, according to the prosecution, he will dig up their corpses to make them disappear in an acid bath.
Passion for cooking
Greco also evaporates, but in another way, once his sentence of life imprisonment has been pronounced by the court of Catanzaro. According to the Italian police, he wandered around Europe for a while, before landing in Germany and Austria. Ahead of the sleuths on his heels, he cuts off all communication with his family. The best way to escape eavesdropping and be forgotten.
Greco remains nine years in France, without being worried. He takes advantage of his passion for cooking, and a proven know-how, to get hired in various Italian restaurants. In Saint-Etienne, he lived alone, in an apartment in the city center. His identity card shows the assumed name of Paolo Dimitrio. For his friends and customers, he is simply “Rocco”, this friendly Italian who claims to be from Puglia, without giving too much thought to his past. Until he lets his guard down.
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