Cosa Nostra leader, who controlled most of eastern Sicily, dies while serving multiple life sentences for murder
Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, a Sicilian mafia boss and one of the most dangerous figures in Italian criminal history, has died aged 87.
Santapaola, who was widely believed to have been the architect of a campaign of bloodshed that scarred Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, died on Monday in a Milan prison where he was serving multiple life sentences. An autopsy has been ordered.
Before his imprisonment, Santapaola was regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the history of the Sicilian mafia, allied with Totò Riina – the self-styled “boss of bosses” – and Bernardo Provenzano, the Cosa Nostra’s most influential leaders. His base was in the city of Catania, from where he exerted control over much of eastern Sicily.
Among the atrocities attributed to him was the bombing at Capaci in May 1992, an attack that killed the anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife, Francesca Morvillo, and three of his bodyguards, and sent shockwaves through a country locked in a bitter struggle with organised crime.
