Infamous for his "tractor" style of shooting, Sicilian mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano could have died in a hail of bullets. Instead, the 83 old Cosa Nostra crime group’s “boss of bosses” died of cancer at the San Paolo hospital in Milan in northern Italy.
He was born in the village of Corleone – the name of which became associated with the Sicilian mafia thanks to the Godfather novels and films – and reportedly committed his first murder aged 25 when he killed a rival boss. Provenzano was supreme in the Cosa Nostra family, until his arrest in 2006 after 40 years on the run, during which he communicated with his lieutenants by word of mouth or typewritten notes.
Provenzano became the uncontested head of Cosa Nostra after Riina was arrested in 1993 - something one informer said Provenzano had had a hand in. He gained a second nickname, “the accountant”, because of his mastery of his crime empire’s finances.
Italy’s most-wanted man for many years, he was finally arrested in a farmhouse in his fiefdom in the Corleone region near Palermo, Sicily. Sentenced to several consecutive life sentences, he was transferred in 2014 to the hospital in Milan suffering from neurological problems. Italy’s supreme court rejected a plea from his lawyers to release him on the grounds of ill health.
Provenzano had reportedly attempted suicide in his cell in 2012 but was stopped by prison guards. Bosses captured in Italy are imprisoned in particularly severe conditions under a law known as “41-bis”, which greatly restricts their contact with other inmates and non-prisoners in an attempt to stop them continuing to orchestrate crime from the inside.
He was born in the village of Corleone – the name of which became associated with the Sicilian mafia thanks to the Godfather novels and films – and reportedly committed his first murder aged 25 when he killed a rival boss. Provenzano was supreme in the Cosa Nostra family, until his arrest in 2006 after 40 years on the run, during which he communicated with his lieutenants by word of mouth or typewritten notes.
Provenzano became the uncontested head of Cosa Nostra after Riina was arrested in 1993 - something one informer said Provenzano had had a hand in. He gained a second nickname, “the accountant”, because of his mastery of his crime empire’s finances.
Italy’s most-wanted man for many years, he was finally arrested in a farmhouse in his fiefdom in the Corleone region near Palermo, Sicily. Sentenced to several consecutive life sentences, he was transferred in 2014 to the hospital in Milan suffering from neurological problems. Italy’s supreme court rejected a plea from his lawyers to release him on the grounds of ill health.
Provenzano had reportedly attempted suicide in his cell in 2012 but was stopped by prison guards. Bosses captured in Italy are imprisoned in particularly severe conditions under a law known as “41-bis”, which greatly restricts their contact with other inmates and non-prisoners in an attempt to stop them continuing to orchestrate crime from the inside.