Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, has died in hospital in central Italy, the local mayor confirmed yesterday.
The 61-year-old had been treated for colon cancer while detained in a high-security jail in L’Aquila, but was moved last month to hospital after his condition deteriorated.
L’Aquila Mayor Pierluigi Biondi confirmed the mobster’s death in hospital “following a worsening of his illness” in a statement to the ANSA news agency, which had earlier broken the news.
Photo: EPA-EFE / CARABINIERI
His death “puts the end to a story of violence and blood,” Biondi said, thanking prison and hospital staff for their “professionalism and humanity.”
It was “the epilogue of an existence lived without remorse or repentance, a painful chapter of the recent history of our nation,” he said.
Messina Denaro was one of the most ruthless bosses in Cosa Nostra, the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies.
He was convicted by the courts of involvement in the murder of anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in 1992, and deadly bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993.
One of his six life sentences was also handed down for the kidnapping and subsequent 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 30 years on the run as the Italian state cracked down on the Sicilian mob, but he remained the top name on Italy’s most-wanted list and increasingly became a figure of legend.
It was his decision to seek treatment for his cancer that led to his capture. He was arrested on Jan. 16 when he visited a health clinic in Palermo.
He was jailed in L’Aquila, where he continued treatment in his cell, but was moved to hospital last month under heavy security.
Since Friday night last week, he had been reported to have been in an “irreversible coma.”
Medics had stopped feeding him and he had asked not to be resuscitated, Italian media reports said.
His arrest might have brought some relief for his victims, but the mob boss always maintained his silence.
In interviews in custody after being arrested, Messina Denaro even denied he was a member of the Cosa Nostra.
After Messina Denaro went on the run, there was intense speculation that he had gone abroad — and he likely did — but in the end he was found to have been staying near his hometown of Castelvetrano in western Sicily.
Preparations are already under way for his burial in the family tomb in the town, alongside his father, Don Ciccio, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Don Ciccio was also head of the local clan. He was said to have died of a heart attack while on the run.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS