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At the beginning of this year, the Italian mafia hunters staged a real coup: Matteo Messina Denaro (61) fell into their net after thirty years on the run. The last major Cosa Nostra boss arrested: the news went around the world.
‘Diabolik’, as the multiple murderer was called, was only arrested because he suffered from colon cancer. He was treated for this in Palermo – and therefore fell into the net of the carabinieri. Now Messina Denaro is dying, reports the Italian news agency ANSA.
The power supply has already stopped
He is in an irreversible coma in the prison hospital of L’Aquila, the agency said. He won’t wake up from this anymore. In fact, on Friday evening the doctors stopped his diet. His death is likely to occur soon.
Denaro has been monitored by doctors in his cell in recent months and a kind of infirmary has even been set up in it. On August 8, he underwent intestinal surgery, which was successful. However, the cancer had progressed so far that his condition rapidly deteriorated.
More than 50 murders committed or ordered
Since 1993, Denaro has been high on the world’s wanted list. At that time, the then boss of the bosses, Salvatore “Toto” Riina (†87), was arrested. Denaro was considered his crown prince. When mafia godfather Bernardo Provenzano (1933–2016) was arrested in 2006, Denaro took over the leadership of Cosa Nostra.
The super mafioso committed or ordered more than 50 murders. He killed for the first time when he was 18. At age 30, Denaro boasted to a friend, “I’ve killed enough people to fill a cemetery.” In 1992, Denaro was part of a hit squad against a rival mafia boss. He strangled his pregnant wife with his own hands.
Body dissolved in acid vessel
He was involved in the 1992 Palermo bombings that killed Italy’s most famous mafia hunters, Giovanni Falcone (1939-1992) and Paolo Borsellino (1940-1992). In the summer of 1993 he was responsible for ten dynamite attacks in Florence, Milan and Rome. The balance at the time: ten dead and 106 injured.
The following November, the mafia boss organized the kidnapping of a 13-year-old. After a long period of captivity, the boy was strangled and his body was dissolved in a vat of acid. Countless other acts of violence followed, with Denaro pulling the strings. In total, he is accused of seven massacres. The godfather was sentenced in absentia several times to life imprisonment for murder.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
