March 3 (UPI) -- Benedetto "Nitto" Santapaola, the Sicilian mafia boss convicted of a string of mafia murders in the 1980s and 1990s, has died in a Milan prison at 87.
Santapaola is believed to have been the mastermind behind the murder of one of Italy's most famous anti-mafia judges in 1992. His base was in Catania, Sicily, and he controlled much of eastern Sicily.
Santapaola was known as "il cacciatore," the hunter. He was convicted of the 1984 murder of journalist Pippo Fava and a 1992 car bomb that killed Giovanne Falcone, an anti-mafia judge in Palermo, Sicily. That attack, which became known as the Capaci massacre, also killed Falcone's wife, Francesca Morvillo, and three of his bodyguards.
A few weeks later, another anti-mafia judge Paolo Borsellino was killed in a car bombing with his bodyguards. In 2006, Santapaola was sentenced to life in prison for both attacks.
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