Cosa Nostra boss, 61, had been in hiding since 1993 and was arrested in January while attending hospital

Matteo Messina Denaro, the “last godfather” of the Sicilian mafia who was accused of orchestrating some of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by the Cosa Nostra, has died after a long illness.

The national news agency Ansa announced his death overnight on Sunday. The mayor of the central Italian city of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, confirmed Denaro’s death in hospital “following a worsening of his illness”.

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”.

  • Chariotwheel
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    21 year ago

    Yeah, Toto Riina’s bullshit got them in hot trouble and they know it and learned from it.

    • @FabioTheNewOrder
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      11 year ago

      Here in Italy the first one to learn and adapt is always the mafia. The state is so clunky and unnecessarily complicated that it takes ages for it to change and adapt its ways, once this happens the mafia has already changed and transformed to keep away from the law enforcement hands as much as possible.

      Nowadays mafiosi do not go around in poor clothing with weapons on them, the wear nice suits and briefcases filled with documents to keep on their shady businesses as they did from the Borbonic times