Matteo Messina Denaro dies: jailed Italian mafia boss was dubbed ‘the last Godfather’
- Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was captured in January after three decades on the run
- Dubbed by the Italian press as ‘the last Godfather’, he was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra
Messina Denaro, 61, was suffering from cancer at the time of his arrest. As his condition worsened in recent weeks he was transferred to a hospital from the maximum-security prison in central Italy where he was initially held.
Denaro had requested no aggressive medical treatment, ANSA reported on Monday, adding that doctors had stopped feeding him after he was declared to be in irreversible coma.
He was convicted of numerous crimes, including for his role in planning the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino – crimes that shocked Italy and sparked a crackdown on the Sicilian mob.
He was also held responsible for bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993 that killed 10 people, as well as helping organise the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo, 12, to try to dissuade the boy’s father from giving evidence against the mafia. The boy was held for two years, then murdered.