2023-09-25 12:07:00
Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, passed away this Monday (25) at age 61 Carabinieri via Reuters – 16.01.2023 Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who passed away this Monday (25) at age 61 in Italy, was a merciless killer who spent 30 years on the run after a campaign of extreme violence that contributed to forging the Sicilian mafia’s bloody reputation. “With the people I killed, I could fill a cemetery,” he reportedly stated, a statement impossible to confirm, but which reinforces the legend that surrounded his name. Messina Denaro helped spread terror on behalf of Cosa Nostra and over the years was sentenced to six life sentences, including sentences for his role in the 1992 murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone and deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993. He was a loyal assistant to Salvatore “The Beast” Riina, leader of the Corleonesi clan, immortalized in the films “The Godfather”, who died in prison in 2017. Messina Denaro was based in the province of Trapani, western Sicily, but his influence reached the regional capital, Palermo, at the time of his arrest on January 16, 2023. He had been on the run since 1993, to escape what would turn into a decades-long repression by the state Italian, which drastically reduced the power of Cosa Nostra. Police tracked him down when he was in a Palermo clinic receiving cancer treatment. At the time, journalist Roberto Saviano, a specialist in covering the mafia, told AFP that Messina Denaro was “the king… the last of the mass murderers, the man who carried out the violent massacres of the Cosa Nostra”. Merciless A fan of Rolex watches and clothing from renowned brands, comic books and electronic games, Messina Denaro had a reputation as a “playboy” and once appeared on the cover of an Italian magazine with sunglasses and a rock star look. After his arrest, police found among his belongings objects linked to the film “The Godfather”, including a magnet representing a mafia boss in a suit and the phrase “The Godfather is me”. Messina Denaro’s list of crimes is long and extremely violent, including a child whose body was dissolved in acid and a pregnant woman. Born on April 26, 1962 in Castelvetrano, southwest of Sicily, he grew up in the heart of organized crime. His father, Don Ciccio, was the head of the local clan and his godfather was also a member of the mafia. Messina Denaro’s troubles with the law began in 1989, when he participated in a violent conflict between two clans. In 1992, he was in the group sent to Rome by Riina to try to kill Falcone. They abandoned the plan when the mob leader opted for another approach. Falcone was murdered with a car bomb in the Palermo region, on May 23, 1992, a crime for which Messina Denaro was sentenced in 2020, in absentia, to life in prison. Other crimes demonstrate that he was ruthless, even by mob standards. In July 1992, after participating in the murder of Vincenzo Milazzo, leader of the rival Alcamo clan, he strangled Milazzo’s companion, who was three months pregnant. After Riina’s arrest in January 1993, Messina Denaro continued with the strategy of total terror, with logistical support for bomb attacks in Florence, Milan and Rome, which left 10 dead and more than 100 injured. In November 1993, according to a later court statement, he was one of the organizers of the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo, who was 12 years old and whose father was one of the witnesses in the Falcone murder trial. The child was held captive for 779 days, before being strangled and having his body dissolved in acid. ‘Protected’ Messina Denaro disappeared from the public scene in the summer of 1993, but in the following years statements from several whistleblowers revealed some details about his activities. In 2000, after a major trial against the Sicilian mafia in Trapani, he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for murder and criminal association. During his decades as a fugitive, Messina Denaro managed crimes using the “pizzini” system, in which messages were left on small pieces of paper. He had many sources of income, from drug trafficking to gambling, both in Italy and abroad. In 2015, Teresa Principato, the prosecutor investigating him, declared that authorities had confirmed the mobster’s presence in Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom and Austria. She said the criminal probably escaped prison for so long because he was protected “at a very high level”, without explaining whether it was a reference to the mafia, politicians or institutions.
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