When the Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore “Totò” Riina was arrested in 1993, after 23 years on the most wanted list, he was living comfortably in Palermo with his wife and four children. Thirteen years later, his sidekick, living like an ascetic, eating cheese and chicory and reading his Bible in a shepherd’s hut near his birthplace, Corleone, was run to ground.
For years, only one of Riina’s inner circle, responsible for a campaign of violence that left hundreds dead including judges, priests and politicians, remained at large. A man known for his wealth and his love of fast cars, who had numerous girlfriends and liked the finer things in life, he nonetheless managed to hide from investigators without going far from home.
The man who once boasted “I filled a cemetery by myself” evaded the police because he still commanded loyalty from the people living in his territory, the town of Castelvetrano and the wider province of Trapani. Hundreds of police had been engaged in the search over the years with no success. A series of arrests of people close to him, including his sister Patrizia, raised hopes that the net was closing, but none of them would talk.
“If you asked, where is Matteo Messina Denaro, people would say, he’s either dead, or he’s in the province of Trapani,” said Giacomo di Girolamo, author of a biography of Denaro called The Invisible. “He wasn’t one of those mafiosi who would go abroad, to Brazil, or northern Europe. He didn’t need to build himself a bunker like the heads of the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria. He was protected in his territory.”