Italian police escorted the body of Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro to his hometown on Tuesday, media reported, where he is expected to be buried quickly and with little ceremony.
Messina Denaro, captured in January after 30 years on the run, died Monday in a hospital in central Italy, taking the secrets of his brutal rule with him to the grave.
His coffin was driven from the hospital in L’Aquila in a hearse and is expected to arrive from his hometown of Castelvetrano in Sicily in the early hours of Wednesday, ANSA news agency said.
Police normally ban funerals for mafia bosses, and only a few relatives – including two sisters and a brother – are expected to attend his funeral at the city cemetery, the agency said.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate from the ‘Godfather’ films.
Outside the morgue, the hearse waits for the body of Matteo Messina Denaro
A distributed mugshot, provided by the Italian Carabinieri, shows mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted man, after his arrest in Palermo, Sicily
The 61-year-old was convicted of involvement in the murders 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 involved 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 thirty years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mafia.
But he remained at the top of Italy’s most wanted list and increasingly became a legendary figure.
Denaro, arrested on January 16, 2023 by the Italian anti-mafia police
Known by investigators as one of the Italian mafia’s most powerful bosses, Matteo Messina Denaro (pictured left and right) disappeared in the summer of 1993. He spent the next thirty years on the run as the state cracked down on the Sicilian mafia.
Living as a fugitive in western Sicily, his stronghold, Denaro evaded law enforcement for thirty years thanks to the help of complicit townspeople – all the while remaining at the top of Italy’s most wanted list and increasingly becoming a legendary figure. That was until eight months ago, when, on January 16, 2023, his need for colon cancer treatment led to his arrest.
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 thirty years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mafia.
But he remained at the top of Italy’s most wanted list and increasingly became a legendary figure.
He was initially treated in his prison cell, but in August was transferred to the prisoner ward of the hospital in L’Aquila, where he remained under heavy security.
He is said to have been in an ‘irreversible coma’ since Friday evening. Medics had stopped feeding him and he had asked not to be resuscitated, according to Italian media reports.
His arrest may have brought some relief to his victims, but the mafia boss remained silent.
In 1993, Messina Denaro helped organize the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo (pictured), in an attempt to blackmail his father into not testifying against the mafia, prosecutors say. The boy was eventually strangled and his body dissolved in acid
Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Pictured: the scene of Falcone’s murder in Palermo, Sicily, in 1992
The site of the bombing that killed Judge Giovanni Falcone on May 24, 1992 in Palermo, Sicily
In interviews in custody after his arrest, Messina Denaro even denied being a member of Cosa Nostra.
“Unfortunately, his capture has not helped 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 grave next to his father, Don Ciccio.
Don Ciccio was also the head of the local clan. He is 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 stayed near his birthplace.
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 and impunity” that Messina Denaro has “cultivated for so long,” he said.
Investigators had scoured the Sicilian countryside for Messina Denaro for years, looking for hideouts and eavesdropping on members of his family and friends. They were heard discussing the medical problems of an unnamed person suffering from cancer, as well as eye problems – a person investigators were sure was Messina Denaro.
They used a national health care system database to search for male patients of the right age and medical history, and finally got in.