Messina Denaro Cause of death – Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was convicted of multiple murders and was arrested in January after spending 30 years on the run, has died of cancer, officials said on Monday.
At the time of his arrest, Messina Denaro, aged 61, was battling colon cancer. As his health deteriorated over the past few weeks, authorities moved him from the high-security prison in central Italy where he was initially incarcerated to a hospital.
He fell into a coma on Friday and never regained consciousness.
“You shouldn’t deny prayers to anyone, but I can’t say I am sorry,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Instagram.
Messina Denaro, who played a key role in planning the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, crimes that deeply shocked Italy and prompted a crackdown on the Sicilian mafia, has been found guilty of multiple offenses.
He was also held accountable for the 1993 bombings in Rome, Florence, and Milan, resulting in the deaths of 10 people. Additionally, he was involved in orchestrating the abduction of 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo to deter the boy’s father from testifying against the mafia. Tragically, the young boy was held captive for two years before being brutally murdered.
The Italian press has dubbed Messina Denaro as “the last Godfather,” and it is believed that he has not cooperated with law enforcement since his capture outside a private clinic in the Sicilian capital, Palermo, on January 16.
Medical records leaked to Italian media reveal that he had surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022, using a false name during both procedures. A doctor at the Palermo clinic informed La Repubblica newspaper that Messina Denaro’s health had significantly deteriorated in the months preceding his capture.
RUTHLESS
Messina Denaro, the son of a mafioso, was born in the town of Castelvetrano in southwest Sicily in 1962. He followed in his father’s footsteps and began his involvement in the mafia at a young age. By the age of 15, he was already carrying a firearm, and authorities claim that he committed his first murder at the age of 18.
The Castelvetrano clan was in alliance with the Corleonesi, a faction led by Salvatore “the Beast” Riina, who would later become the uncontested “boss of bosses” of the Sicilian mafia, known as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), due to his ruthless pursuit of power.
Given the nickname “U Siccu” (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro became Riina’s protege and demonstrated that he could be just as merciless as his mentor. He accumulated 20 life sentences in absentia during trials for his involvement in a series of mafia-related murders.
He himself once claimed to have murdered enough people to fill a cemetery.
“You always need to respect death, because unlike mafiosi, we respect life until death. But we cannot forget who Messina Denaro was, a murderer, a mass murderer who hurt his land,” the mayor of Castelvetrano Enzo Alfano told Adnkronos news agency.
In 1993, Messina Denaro went into hiding as an increasing number of informants started revealing his involvement in the mafia. However, investigators believe that he seldom strayed far from Sicily.
Police assert that during much of 2022, he concealed himself in Campobello di Mazara, a town with a population of around 11,000, located not far from his mother’s residence in western Sicily.
He maintained communication with other members of the mafia through “pizzini,” which were small pieces of paper, often written in code, and distributed by messengers. Some of these messages were intercepted by law enforcement.
Messina Denaro never entered into marriage, but he was known to have had several romantic partners. He did acknowledge having a daughter, although he had never met her. Reports from Italian media suggested that they finally met after his capture, and she agreed to adopt his surname.
Despite his infamy, prosecutors have consistently cast doubt on Messina Denaro’s status as the Mafia’s “boss of bosses,” suggesting that he was more likely the leader of Cosa Nostra in western Sicily.
A government official stated that his remains would be returned to Sicily in the coming days for a strictly private funeral.
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