Notorious Italian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has died in custody after a battle with colon cancer, Reuters reported Monday.
Messina Denaro, dubbed by Italian media as “the last Godfather,” spent 30 years on the run before his capture in January 2023. Authorities recently moved 61-year-old Messina Denaro from his high-security lockup to a central Italian hospital, according to Reuters. He reportedly slipped into a coma Friday and never woke up.
A fugitive since the 1990s, Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2020 over the 1992 killings of two anti-Mafia prosecutors. He was further suspected for numerous Mafia-related murders and received additional convictions relating to bombings, torture, racketeering, illegal waste dumping, drug trafficking and money-laundering.
#UPDATE Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, captured in January after three decades on the run, died on Monday in hospital in central Italy ➡️ https://t.co/Yq7lfGU4Qi pic.twitter.com/HxTBHGS2Z8
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 25, 2023
Authorities believe Messina Denaro — who allegedly once said he murdered enough people to fill a graveyard — ran the Western Sicilian clan of the Cosa Nostra mob, according to Reuters.
Despite his 30-year flight, Messina Denaro likely failed to travel far and wide. Instead, authorities believe he stayed in Sicily, the outlet reported. The mobster remained low-key, communicating with associates via “pizzini,” or small paper notes with occasionally encoded messages. (RELATED: Infamous Mafioso Involved In Over 100 Murders Released From Prison)
Messina Denaro spent a large part of 2022 in Campobello di Mazara, a small town near his mother’s house, as his health worsened, according to Reuters.
2023 also saw authorities nab a former Italian mafia hitman living a new life as a French pizza chef, along with an alleged white-collar Italian mafioso in Greece after he was caught cheering for an Italian soccer team.