Last Godfather Messina Denaro killed hundreds, including a child – but mafia he leaves behind is completely different

The Sun ^ | 9/25/23 | Alison Maloney

[DeathBeforeDishonor1]

He was known as the Last Godfather and boasted he had “filled a graveyard all by myself” with his brutal crimes.

Now Sicilian don Matteo Messina Denaro has met his own end, at the age of 61.

The mafia boss, who was arrested in January after 30 years on the run, died in hospital in the Central Italian city of L’Aquila suffering from cancer.

A notorious womaniser who flaunted his wealth with Porsche cars, Rolex watches, Armani suits and Ray-Ban sunglasses, Denaro was respon­sible for some of the most heinous crimes perpetrated by the Cosa Nostra.

Among them was a terrorist-style 1993 bombing campaign that killed ten, including a nine-year-old girl and her baby sister.

Known as “the Skinny One”, the ruthless crime boss was linked to more than 50 murders, including the killing of a child who was kidnapped, strangled then dissolved in acid.

Born in Trapani, Sicily, he was the son of regional mafia boss Francesco Messina Debaro, known as Don Ciccio, and was taught to handle a gun at 14.

He rose quickly through the ranks of the Cosa Nostra and committed his first murder at 18 before becoming the protege of Totò Riina, the boss of bosses — Capo dei capi — gaining a reputation as a relentless womaniser and a ruthless killer.

During a 1991 affair with an Austrian receptionist who was working in a hotel on the island, he heard her manager, Nicola Consales, complaining about the “little mafiosi” hanging around the lounge.

Consales was shot dead in Palermo shortly afterwards.

A year later, Denaro invited Riina’s rival, Vincenzo Milazzo, to a meeting before shooting him and strangling his pregnant partner, Antonella Bonomo.

[DeathBeforeDishonor1]

[lightman]

Pope Frankie will grant dispensation for a full monty bells and smells Funeral.

[LouAvul]

including a nine-year-old girl and her baby sister

Prov 6:16-17: These ... things doth the Lord hate: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood

[kiryandil]

The families of the victims should be allowed to attend the burial and have the honor of filling his grave with soil.

Night soil.

[cowboyusa]

Vito or Michael would have rubbed him out quickly.

[DesertRhino]

Trash with no honor. Wasted his life.

[Rummyfan]

Marking...

[Mr Radical]

he lived the life our Hollywood elites dream about

[Deplorable American1776]

Hollywood loves to portray the Mafia as wonderful people, but not really, they are cold blooded killers.

[Zuriel]

I wonder how many died because he was told he looked gay?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Burning in Hell forever is a long time. 😏

[Albion Wilde]

With police watching their every move, they have been unable to set up a Commission, or Cupola, which is attended by the heads of each family and is the way a new leader is usually chosen. The last one, in 2018, was rumbled by the Italian police when the attendees simultaneously switched off their mobiles, and 46 were arrested.

The ever-increasing ability of authorities to observe, listen and track people through digital and wireless technologies is one of the reasons the mafia's traditional consolidated power structure—a tight heirarchy ultimately headed by one man—has eroded. As the article notes, the "Cosa Nostra" ("our thing") is now a loose federation of localized entities.

[minnesota_bound]

FTA: “They still launder money in the wind energy market....”

Now you know why wind energy is promoted here. It is a money laundering operation.