Matteo Messina Denaro dead – Mafia boss dubbed 'The Devil' who led clan that inspired The Godfather dies aged 61 | The Sun
SICILIAN mafia don Matteo Messina Denaro, who spent 30 years on the run before his arrest in January, has died.
The 61 year old "boss of bosses"- responsible for heinous crimes that shocked Italy and the world – had been suffering from cancer.
As Messina Denaro's health deteriorated in recent weeks, he was transferred from his maximum security prison to hospital where he died.
The mafia's "last godfather", who fronted up the notorious Sicilian Cosa Nostra group, once boasted to have murdered "enough people to fill a cemetery."
He once joined El Chapo and the successor to Osama Bin Laden in the list of the world’s 10 most wanted fugitives.
His murderous clan had previously inspired the epic 1969 crime novel and blockbuster 1972 film, The Godfather.
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Following his reign of terror, he picked up 20 life sentences in absentia for his role in numerous murders, bombings and attacks on competing mobsters, their relatives and civilians.
The "boss of bosses" was convicted of the 1992 murders of two anti-mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The following year, he was responsible for a spate of horrifying bombings, which killed ten people and injured 93 across Florence, Milan and Rome the following year.
His savage brutality led to him nicknaming himself "The Devil".
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Messina Denaro also authorised the kidnapping and murder of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 12-year-old son of a mobster who was preparing to testify against the mafia.
The child was held in captivity for two years before being strangled to death and his body dissolved in acid in an act of sickening brutality.
On January 16 after decades on the run, Messina Denaro was arrested during a daring police raid.
He was seized during a visit to a private medical clinic in Sicily's largest city of Palermo, where he was reportedly receiving cancer treatment.
Italian media reported that he had previously undergone surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a false name.
Astonishing footage showed crowds applauding and cheering the police in the streets as Italy's most wanted mobster, now frail, was led away in handcuffs.
The ruthless killer's last confirmed sighting was in August 1993 when he was spotted with two friends holidaying in Forte dei Marmi in the northern Italian region of Tuscany.
Since then, he went into hiding after a growing number of informants provided information to police on his long history of crimes.
However, investigators believed that he never left the rugged hills of his native Sicily, continued to communicate to his mob via secret letters and was only hiding a short drive from his mother's house.
Hot on Denaro’s tail was an elite team of Mafia hunters called the Catturandi, who have snared some of Italy’s biggest crime bosses.
In 2017, the net tightened as 200 officers searched caverns and bunkers around Castelvetrano – believing he was living a Bin Laden-esque fugitive lifestyle below ground.
Yet despite every manhunt, he remained a ghost – until last January.
The son of a notorious Sicilian mafioso, Francesco Don Ciccio, Denaro was born into the Italian mafia underworld in 1962.
By 15, he was already carrying a gun and following his father's footsteps into a life of crime in Castelvetrano.
Cops say he carried out his first killing at 18 and was quickly working with the Corleonesi mafia to crush two rebellious mafia families.
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In 1998, his 78-year-old father was found dead in a riverbed after falling victim to a mafia feud. His ruthless son was now the "Cosa Nostra" godfather.
He was known for his flashy playboy lifestyle – always dressed in Armani suits with Rolex watches, he is believed to have had a hareem of lovers and left a string of illegitimate children behind.
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