Fugitive mafia mobster Matteo Messina Denaro had a poster of the vintage movie The Godfather on the wall of his key bunker.
Denaro, 60, who was arrested before this week after a lot more than 30 decades evading police is reported to idolise the Oscar winning blockbuster that starred Marlon Brando as the boss of an Italo-American criminal offense family members, based on Denaro’s Cosa Nostra mafia.
The 1972 cinema strike described how a Sicilian migrant, played by Brando, went to New York in the early 20th Century and went on to develop into 1 of the greatest Mafia bosses – just like Denaro did by increasing to the best of the Sicilian mafia.
Officers identified the poster in the initial of 3 bunkers Denaro employed as his hideaways in the village of Campobello di Mazara, 70 miles from the city of Palermo, where by he was arrested as he attended a chemotherapy clinic.
Fugitive mafia mobster Matteo Messina Denaro (pictured becoming detained by law enforcement on Monday) had a poster of the traditional film The Godfather on the wall of his secret bunker
Denaro, 60, who was arrested before this week immediately after extra than 30 yrs evading law enforcement is mentioned to idolise the Oscar winning blockbuster that starred Marlon Brando as the manager of an Italo-American crime family (pictured), based on Denaro’s Cosa Nostra mafia
Aside from the big poster of the Francis Ford Coppola-directed film – which confirmed Brando in the traditional brooding pose, dressed in a tuxedo and with a pink button gap, law enforcement also uncovered a poster of The Joker – Batman’s villainous nemesis.
It is not the very first time that genuine everyday living has imitated Hollywood as several months in the past law enforcement in Naples raided the villa of a area organised criminal offense boss which was developed to resemble that of Tony Montana’s from the blockbuster Scarface.
Within there ended up framed film posters of Pacino who is remembered for a memorable scene in which he sprays his enemies with a equipment gun as his villa is attacked.
In the a few bunkers utilised by Denaro, Sicilian police also uncovered Viagra, condoms, high-priced designer fits and aftershave as effectively as boxes of money and receipts for high-priced meals – as effectively as a diary and notes they hope will describe how he managed to evade capture for so very long.
A source explained: ‘The Godfather poster was on a wall driving a desk in the very first bunker, it epitomises the vainness the Mafia has of how Hollywood has portrayed organised criminal offense. We know Denaro admired Brando’s depiction of a Mafia manager and how he rose from humble roots to be a ruthless chief – considerably the identical way as he did.’
The Godfather was adapted from the best-offering reserve of the similar name by Mario Puzo, a novelist who grew up in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen area.
Controversy surrounded the film from the starting and quickly following Paramount Photographs introduced its generation, the Italian-American Civil Rights League held a rally in Madison Square Garden, professing the movie would total to a slur towards Italian Individuals.
The uproar only enhanced publicity for the motion picture, which Paramount was counting to become a huge-money hit soon after the good results of Puzo’s novel.
Even though the words and phrases ‘Mafia’ and ‘Cosa Nostra’ show up all through the novel, posted in 1969, the producer of the film – at the ask for of the Italian American Civil Legal rights League – agreed to eradicate all these kinds of references from the screen participate in.
Pictured: A Carabinieri officer takes pics of the household of Italy’s top rated desired mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro in Palermo, in his native Sicily island, right after 30 yrs on the run. Italian anti-mafia police caught the Sicilian godfather on January 16, 2023
Italian newspapers with the information of fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro’s arrest on January 17, 2023 in Bari, Italy
Choose Maria Carmela Giannazzo speaks inside the Caltanissetta courtroom on the working day of the get started of a trial towards Italy’s most wanted mafia manager Matteo Messina Denaro, in Caltanissetta, Italy, January 19, 2023
Men and women wave blank sheets all through a protest towards the mafia in the Sicilian city of Castelvetrano, wherever Italy’s most wanted mafia manager Matteo Messina Denaro was born, wishing that a new tale fill those people sheets, in Castelvetrano, Italy, January 19, 2023
Denaro wielded big electricity and coordinated a long time of terror which resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people, despite by no means becoming viewed in general public after heading on the run in the early 1990s.
The mafioso, who at the time boasted he could ‘fill a cemetery with his victims’, was pressured into hiding following he purchased a collection of deadly assaults, including the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, as very well as a series of vehicle bombs in Florence, Milan and Rome that remaining 10 individuals useless and 93 wounded in 1993.
In the similar yr, Messina Denaro served organise the kidnapping of a 12-yr-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in an try to dissuade his father from giving proof from the mafia, prosecutors say. The boy was held in captivity for two decades just before he was brutally strangled to demise, and his body dissolved in a vat of acid.
Italy’s No. 1 fugitive was lastly arrested by police before this 7 days.
The 60-12 months-previous was led away from Palermo’s ‘La Maddalena’ hospital by two uniformed law enforcement officers and bundled into a black minivan – perhaps closing the door on a extended chapter of blood and violence wrought by the crime boss.
Nicknamed ‘Diabolik’ and ‘U Siccu’ (The Skinny One particular), Messina Denaro experienced been sentenced in absentia to a daily life term for his part in the 1992 murders of the two anti-mafia prosecutors Falcone and Borsellino.
Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to a lifestyle term for his function in 1992 in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Pictured: The scene of the murder of Falcone in Palermo, Sicily, in 1992
The mafia boss, who arrives from the compact town of Castelvetrano in Sicily, also faces a lifetime sentence for his job in bomb assaults in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 people today the adhering to yr
In 1993, Messina Denaro aided organise the kidnap of a 12-yr-previous boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo (pictured), in an attempt to blackmail his father into not supplying evidence towards the mafia. The boy was killed soon after two years in captivity, and his entire body was dissolved in acid
The horrific murders had been a trademark for the feared criminal. They stunned the country and sparked a crackdown on Cosa Nostra.
On Wednesday, a doctor at the wellbeing clinic in which the fugitive was captured stated the convicted killer is critically sick from cancer.
‘He is severely ill. The condition has accelerated in modern months,’ Vittorio Gebbia, head of the oncology division at the Maddalena clinic in Palermo, explained to the Repubblica day by day.
Law enforcement go on to research for clues as to how Messina Denaro managed to elude capture for a few many years.
Denaro underwent surgical treatment for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a wrong name, in accordance to leaked professional medical records released in Italian media.
He was detained Monday following detectives found by means of wiretapped discussions with family members members that he was sick, and searched Italy for probable suspects of the proper gender and age with the same type of cancer.
The law enforcement officers checked with Gebbia regardless of whether Messina Denaro wanted urgent cure.
‘The police asked me if it mattered if the chemotherapy cycle he was established to get was delayed by a number of times, and I signed off on it due to the fact these a tiny hold off will have no impact,’ Gebbia reported.
Messina Denaro was moved soon soon after his arrest in Palermo to a higher protection prison in L’Aquila in the Abruzzo area, in which he was currently being held in solitary confinement.
He was predicted to be taken for chemotherapy cure at the San Salvatore healthcare facility in L’Aquila, which has a exclusive unit reserved for this form of prisoner, in accordance to the Corriere della Sera every day.
