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Matteo Messina Denaro in a police photo from January: the mafioso succumbed to a serious illness

Photo: HANDOUT / AFP

The Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has died eight months after his arrest: The 61-year-old succumbed to the consequences of cancer in a clinic in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, as the Ansa news agency reported on Monday night. The boss of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra had only been arrested in mid-January. At that time, he wanted to be treated in a private clinic under a false name in the island's capital Palermo. He never made a confession. There was no trial.

The health of the criminal, who suffers from colon cancer, had deteriorated drastically in recent days. On Friday evening, the attending physicians announced that the multiple murderer had fallen into a coma from which he would not wake up. At his own request, life support measures had been discontinued. Relatives were allowed to say goodbye to Messina Denaro. In the last few hours, according to media reports, his daughter, who was born during his years in hiding, was with him.

Murder, kidnapping, attacks

As a member of the Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian-born committed or organized dozens of murders, according to the investigations – he was also jointly responsible for the bombings of the two mafia hunters Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. At that time, several bodyguards and other companions also died. He was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for the 1992 crime and other attacks.

He is also said to have planned the kidnapping of little Giuseppe Di Matteo in 1993: The boy was kidnapped so that his father would not testify in court. After 779 days, the mafiosi strangled him shortly before his 15th birthday and dissolved the body in acid. He was also accused of involvement in mafia attacks in Rome, Milan and Florence in 1993, in which a total of ten people were killed.

Messina Denaro was considered a confidant and then successor of the former godfathers Salvatore "Totò" Riina and Bernardo Provenzano. The brutal and unscrupulous Riina was called the "boss of bosses". He was arrested on January 15, 1993, almost exactly 30 years before Messina Denaro. Riina and Provenzano died in prison in 2017 and 2016 respectively.

"You caught me because I'm sick"

Messina Denaro had known for a long time that he had cancer. In the private clinic, where he was finally arrested, he had been treated for several months. He operated there as a patient named Andrea Bonafede, underwent surgery and also came for follow-up checks. When he was arrested, he also had an identity card under that name and even a tax number for the tax authorities.

To this day, the public has never learned how exactly he managed to stay in hiding for so long. It is suspected that he also had supporters on the part of the state. According to investigators, Messina Denaro was never willing to cooperate with the authorities, even after his arrest. He was quoted from an interrogation as saying: "I don't want to make a fuss about Superman or sound arrogant. You've caught me because I'm sick." During his time in prison, Messina Denaro had to undergo two surgeries, most recently in August. He also received chemotherapy. In his last hours, according to the doctors, he received only pain-relieving drugs.

bbr/dpa/AFP