01x05 - Matteo Messina Denaro: Cosa Nostra's Last Godfather

[bunniefuu]

[rotor blades whirring]

[seagulls squawking]

[man speaking Italian] At the end

of my shift, around 1:50 p.m

I left the precinct

in a Fiat Panda, whose brake pads

had to be changed,

so I had to drive slowly.

When I got to the seafront

I heard the roar of a car engine

that was speeding up.

It was not coming towards me

but from behind.

I heard the car approaching.

The driver was Matteo Messina Denaro.

A man greeted me with a shotgun.

He leaned out of the window and shot me.

As I was shot, I felt the blood

running down my face.

Instinctively, I crouched.

I stopped.

They stopped too, a few meters ahead.

So, I got out of the car,

took my g*n, and shot them.

This time, the man with the Kalashnikov

fired in bursts.

[indistinct chatter]

Thank goodness, or thank fate, he stopped.

They looked at me and then left.

[reporter speaking Italian] Do you think

this attack may be linked to your work?

[speaking Italian]

The precinct deals with the Mafia,

drugs, minor or major drugs.

It does a lot of things.

[speaking Italian]

Matteo Messina Denaro is

the most wanted fugitive in Cosa Nostra.

[man speaking Italian]

He once said to me,

"With all the corpses I left behind,

I could have a private cemetery."

[speaking Italian] He would get

to the place where his target was.

As if it were nothing, he'd take his g*n

and sh**t. Boom, boom.

[speaking Italian] Matteo Messina Denaro

helped everybody to set

the country on fire back in those years.

[man speaking Italian] How Messina Denaro

has managed to remain free

is a million-dollar question.

[reporter 1 speaking Italian]

Matteo Messina Denaro, the last godfather

at the top of the black list

of the most dangerous fugitives

[reporter 2 speaking Italian]

The Cosa Nostra boss,

who has been a fugitive since '93

[reporter 3 speaking Italian]

Still today, Messina Denaro is a ghost.

[seagulls squawking in the distance]

[police siren wailing]

[man speaking Italian] I've been under

government protection since 2007

because I've received death threats.

I'm Lirio Abbate, and I've been

investigating the Mafia for 28 years.

In the '80s,

you were aware that

the area was completely handled

by the Mafia.

[scooter engine revs]

[Lirio speaking Italian]

Everything that was going on there

was managed by the Mafia,

from the economy

to entrepreneurship to politics.

The control of the organization called,

as we found out later, Cosa Nostra,

landed in the hands of Salvatore Riina.

He is an animal,

responsible for thousands of murders

who became the supreme leader

of this organization that everyone feared.

What followed were days of terror.

Every single day, people were shot dead.

And you would find someone

whose head had been chopped off,

left on a car seat.

Or others who had been d*sfigured.

[indistinct chatter]

Matteo Messina Denaro

was born into a mafioso family.

And he would flaunt the fact that

people knew he was from the Mafia

and they had to fear him.

[lady shouts]

He k*lled a pregnant woman

just because she was the girlfriend

of someone he hated.

The Messina Denaro's Mafia family

is and was very important

in the Trapani region.

His father was a Mafia boss.

[man speaking Italian]

I am a friend of Matteo Messina Denaro.

My name is Giuseppe Fontana.

I was released in 2012,

after 18 long years in jail.

[door lock clicking]

Don Ciccio,

Matteo Messina Denaro's father,

was one of those who were supposed to die.

Totò Riina replaced

all the bosses of the provinces

by having them k*lled.

I don't know the exact reason why,

but he was pardoned.

And, out of gratitude,

he entrusted his son to Totò Riina.

At that point,

he became his favorite godson.

[Lirio speaking Italian]

Matteo did his training under Riina.

As a young man, he would follow

the older K*llers and mafiosi

and was a proper criminal pupil.

[man speaking Italian] Messina Denaro

would commit m*rder, extortion,

anything that had to be done.

He was a soldier like me.

Riina was the one who gave the orders.

I am Santino Di Matteo,

ex-mafioso and a cooperating witness.

I never say where I live.

Fewer people know, the better, right?

You have to face the fear.

You have to live with it.

[birds chirping]

They had us running from one place

to another to commit murders.

That's what we did from the '80s to 1992.

And so, little by little

at some point, we came to meet,

uh, Messina Denaro.

That night we met in Alcamo.

We went to a farm

because we had to commit a m*rder.

I think we did a double m*rder together.

We k*lled both father and son.

Messina Denaro took his g*n out

and fired. Boom, boom.

So we shot these two people.

And, very calmly, we delivered the bag

with our weapons.

Then we just went back to Alcamo.

Like it was nothing,

we went to a cafe for breakfast.

He was a guy who didn't scare easily.

He was a full-fledged mafioso.

I saw him like a cold, cool agent,

you know, like 007.

Who goes home, listens to classical music,

uh, drinks his wine,

and then maybe decides to k*ll off

two hundred enemies,

uh, in a strategical and smart way,

obviously.

[reporter] When Mafia hit men strike,

it's usually with a g*n and a sil*ncer.

But not in Palermo, Sicily, today.

[siren wailing]

The weapon there was a b*mb

estimated at one ton of expl*sives.

The target: Italy’s top

anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.

He and at least six others were k*lled

when their convoy was blown up.

[reporter speaking Italian]

dramatic scenes, scenes of w*r.

[reporter] Judge Paolo Borsellino

was k*lled yesterday,

less than two months

after judge Giovanni Falcone.

They were Italy's

top anti-Mafia investigators.

[indistinct chatter]

[Lirio speaking Italian]

Judges Falcone and Borsellino

were the enemies of Cosa Nostra.

They were the ones

who orchestrated the first big trial

against Cosa Nostra.

They're the ones

who hurt the Mafia the most.

[crowd shouting and screaming]

[Lirio speaking Italian]

Matteo Messina Denaro was part

of a very restricted, private board

that Riina used to plan

Falcone and Borsellino's assassinations.

[indistinct chatter]

[man speaking Italian]

We pay our last respects.

With this Christian rite of farewell

we express our love

[Lirio speaking Italian]

I remember the funerals.

[organ playing]

The people were angry.

That's what [chuckles]

You realize you're living

in the Mafia's territory.

[organ continues playing]

[woman speaking Italian] I'm the widow

of Officer Vito Schifani, my Vito.

I'm addressing the people from the Mafia

because they are here.

You can be forgiven.

I forgive you,

but you need to get on your knees.

If you have the courage to change.

[crying]

But they won't change.

-[crowd applauding]

-[man speaking Italian indistinctly]

If you have the courage

to change. Change.

[crying] They don't want to change.

They won't change.

[man and woman

speaking Italian indistinctly]

The Falcone and Borsellino attacks

changed Italian history.

[man speaking Italian]

It's the worst time, not just for Sicily

but for all of Italy.

[police siren wailing]

I was 30 years old.

Barely.

I'm Massimo Russo.

I'm a prosecuting magistrate. From 1991

to 2007, I worked on Cosa Nostra.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Massimo speaking Italian] I went after

fugitive Messina Denaro Matteo.

I had five bodyguards at some point.

We were getting into uncharted territory

and an extremely dangerous situation.

But we can also say

that we had some great victories.

[speaking Italian]

I have to give you some good news.

-[man in crowd shouts]

-[woman in crowd speaks up]

Finally, the government

and civil society could see

what kind of monster,

uh, we had in our country.

He was identified and caught.

[indistinct chatter]

[speaking Italian]

Riina Salvatore has been arrested

this morning by the carabinieri

in Palermo.

The Italian police dealt a significant

blow against the Mafia today

with the arrest

of Salvatore "Totò" Riina.

The alleged boss of bosses.

Riina, a fugitive from justice

for 20 years

[Massimo speaking Italian]

So, six months after Riina's arrest,

for the first time, the attention shifts

to Matteo Messina Denaro.

In that moment, he becomes a fugitive.

Obviously, all kinds of strategies

are employed in order to catch him.

In 1996, we have an idea

of where Matteo Messina Denaro is.

POLICE

[man speaking Italian]

It was 1996, I remember well.

A patrol car stopped a vehicle

and inspected it.

During the search,

they found a plastic container,

which had dozens and dozens of pizzini.

Pizzini are the letters

that fugitives used to communicate

with the acolytes in their Mafia family.

The analysis of a pizzino signed "Mari"

led the State Police

to easily identify Maria Mesi.

It referred to a location

where the two lovers,

the woman and the fugitive

Matteo Messina Denaro,

used to meet.

However,

we were not able

to find that secret location.

But in May 1996

a patrol reported the presence of a woman.

She was walking around suspiciously

in the streets of Aspra.

She was disguised.

This figure wore a cape, a hat,

a pair of glasses, and a neck tube.

So, we couldn't figure out who she was.

But what got us excited is that

somebody said, "Wait a minute."

As the feminine figure

approached Milwaukee Street,

she started taking off her hat,

her glasses, and her neck tube.

That's when the police officer said,

"It's Maria Mesi."

[Giuseppe speaking Italian]

He was a true gentleman of a past time.

He managed to court a woman

in a romantic and tempting way.

He was a handsome Mediterranean man.

He was a charming man.

He had a very peculiar gaze.

You've never seen his eyes.

He's a bit cross-eyed.

But his eyes had

a feline look.

[Carmelo speaking Italian] We'd discovered

where the meetings happened.

That was the hideout where those two,

Maria Mesi and Matteo Messina Denaro

used to meet.

[dogs barking]

At that point, we had to be sure.

And the only way to be sure

was to enter the apartment

and install some wiretaps.

We finally managed

to enter that apartment.

[man speaking Italian]

Aspra is the only place we can be sure

the fugitive has spent time,

where we found traces of his presence.

I'm Lieutenant Colonel Rocco Lo Pane

from the Anti-Mafia

Investigation Directorate.

[birds chirping and squawking]

On the second floor of this building,

there was a small apartment

that was occupied

by Matteo Messina Denaro.

In that hideout,

we found some personal effects,

gold jewelry, a puzzle

cigarettes of the same brand

Matteo Messina Denaro was known to smoke.

We found an Austrian sauce

which he had a passion for.

And video games.

We knew he had a passion

for Super Mario.

We could feel the breath of the fugitive.

[Rocco speaking Italian]

We decided to install some wiretaps

and wait for the fugitive to come back,

so we could arrest him.

[Carmelo speaking Italian]

We tapped phone lines.

We set up cameras

and deployed a large number of forces.

Time passed by.

Weeks, months.

All we could do was wait.

He knew that if they ever found him

they would k*ll him.

I'm also sure

that he arranged

his hideout in such a way

that if they were to come for him,

I think he'd just have a button to push

to blow them all up.

Matteo Messina Denaro never went back

to that apartment to meet Maria Mesi.

He's very cautious

and is not the kind of fugitive

who hides

in basements or underground bunkers.

He's well-versed in how to flee and

getting his accomplices to cover for him.

[radio chatter in Italian]

[man 1 over radio]

They called me from Rome.

They have to get some money out

without problems.

[man 2 over radio] How much?

[man 1 over radio] €20,000,000.

[Massimo speaking Italian]

Many people, through the wiretaps,

refer to him with veneration.

"We need to worship the Sicilian."

The Sicilian is Messina Denaro's nickname.

"I would like to see The Sicilian

even just for a moment."

This expression of extreme

adulation explains why the arrest

of Matteo Messina Denaro is so difficult.

No mafioso has had contact

with him directly

for a very long time.

Therefore, nobody can recognize him.

ANTI-MAFIA INVESTIGATION DIRECTORATE

And all of that makes him elusive.

[Rocco speaking Italian] When it comes

to Messina Denaro, we don't have anything

written by him nor the sound of his voice

to help us confirm his identity.

We believe that

the scorched earth approach,

for such a clever, expert,

cautious fugitive, is the best strategy.

[police siren wailing]

We've been arresting and convicting

all the people who were close

to Matteo Messina Denaro.

We've been eliminating from the equation

all the people

the fugitive can still count on.

We're isolating him.

Even physically.

We're draining his finances.

We're literally starving him.

[police sirens wailing]

I personally arrested

Patrizia Messina Denaro.

His sister.

Patrizia Messina Denaro

had played a critical role as a link

between her brother

and the criminal organization.

We went to her place at night.

She actually opened the door,

we didn't need to break it down.

What struck us was a painting.

Andy Warhol-style portraits

of her brother.

She didn't say a word.

She just showed us her brother's picture

and said she would never betray him.

Patrizia Messina Denaro was convicted

for associating with the Mafia.

She got a 14-year sentence

that she's still serving

in a maximum-security prison.

She gave us the silent treatment,

which is typical of Mafia ladies.

[police sirens wailing]

How could the investigations

go forward and fight

Cosa Nostra's military structure,

masterminds, and organization,

if there had not been

someone inside to reveal

names, actions, and projects?

[bird squawking]

In the last 30 years

of fighting the Mafia,

there are a little more

than a dozen collaborators.

[dog barking]

[Santino speaking Italian] Messina Denaro

and I know each other since the '90s.

I was arrested in 1993.

On June 4th

I decided to cooperate

because during our frequent meetings

the investigators would tell me,

"Santino, help us stop their w*r machine."

So, I made a decision.

One day, I said, "I'll help you."

I think a few days later they called me

and said, "Listen,

they've kidnapped your son."

The worst example

is the kidnapping

of the young Di Matteo

who was guilty of being

the son of a cooperating witness.

The boy was kidnapped

at the end of a riding lesson.

They sent me a picture

and Giuseppe's t-shirt. Later on,

they sent the picture to the newspapers.

Of course, it hurts.

If I think about my son in that picture

They wanted to silence me.

If you see the pictures of Giuseppe

riding a horse, he has a huge smile.

That smile, it was Giuseppe.

As good as gold.

[Rocco speaking Italian]

He was kept in different places.

Sometimes in houses,

sometimes in underground bunkers.

But when he went through Messina Denaro,

he went through hell.

[Rocco speaking Italian]

He was tied up with ropes and chains.

They took out the anger they had

for the father on the kid

because his father was cooperating.

My son was kept

in conditions which were

inhuman.

He spent 779 days in hell.

[birds squawking and chirping]

[Santino speaking Italian] They were

trying to silence me by any means.

But I told them they couldn't stop me.

In the end, they k*lled him.

He was strangled and dissolved in acid.

You know what I mean? I don't know

When I think about it,

I can hardly believe it.

To me, Messina Denaro is a beast.

I think

he can no longer get out of the hole

he's hiding in,

because he doesn't trust anyone.

His right-hand man betrayed him.

Another one betrayed him too.

Cooperating witness Cimarosa

did a lot of damage to his family.

[Rocco speaking Italian]

Cimarosa Lorenzo was the only relative

of the Messina Denaros who cooperated

with the justice system.

The fugitive had entrusted

very important tasks to Cimarosa.

Cimarosa represented Denaro

in meetings with other mafiosi.

Cimarosa received the money

the other Mafia families

paid to Matteo Messina Denaro.

[man speaking Italian]

I'm the proud son of a Mafia traitor.

For the first time,

the wall of silence within

the Messina Denaro family was breached.

My name is Giuseppe Cimarosa,

and I'm related

to the Messina Denaro family.

The night my father was arrested,

he immediately asked

to cooperate with the magistrates.

Everyone was taken aback because

nobody could've ever predicted that

a member of the Messina Denaro family

would start cooperating.

But he wanted to get rid of that burden.

And the only way was to open up and talk.

My father has already died

of natural causes.

He knew the people, he knew the facts.

He told the magistrates

everything he knew.

After my father's cooperation,

our lives changed

and became a living hell.

I was out of town for work

and received the news

that my father's grave

had been desecrated,

the headstone had been destroyed,

the angel statue had been torn off.

They offered us a protection program,

which we didn't accept, because

we'd have to move to another city,

change our name, live who knows where.

It was too high a price to pay.

[door opens and closes]

I fear for my family, for my mother.

[speaking Italian]

Pour me some water in that glass.

That's good.

You walk on the streets and people

look at you and talk behind your back.

They point at you,

they won't talk to you anymore.

You're isolated.

Unfortunately, you can't choose

your family. I wish we could.

Uh, but with these people

there's no other way.

You can't say no.

[journalist speaking Italian]

Who said so? What are you talking about?

I'm talking about the Mafia in general,

about this whole situation.

[Giuseppe speaking Italian]

Mom, you knew who they were.

[speaking Italian] Yes--

You must tell her. I can't say I knew

and then you say you didn't.

She's asking if you knew

who the Messina Denaros were.

You knew they were in the Mafia.

I mean, everyone knew, and you didn't?

-Dad is dead.

-It's hard!

He sacrificed his life for this.

-He's dead.

-Giuseppe!

You must talk about the Messina Denaros,

not about the Mafia.

-Because you look scared.

-Giuseppe.

I'm not scared.

I'm not scared, Giuseppe.

[horse snorting]

Today, Matteo Messina Denaro is

[clicks tongue] the last, most important

Cosa Nostra fugitive boss.

If he is still a fugitive,

Cosa Nostra is still alive.

[brass band playing]

[rattling]

He obviously still keeps

huge secrets to himself,

uh, and the story he embodies

will probably end with his arrest.

[brass band continues playing]

[Santino speaking Italian]

Today, the only move he could make

would be to collaborate with the State.

It’s the only thing he can do.

There is no other way.

They need to lock him up

and throw away the key.

[brass band continues playing]

[bird squawking]

[Lirio speaking Italian]

Within Cosa Nostra,

there are Greek tragedies.

Every single boss has his own,

from the first betrayal

to the final arrest.

Time will show that

the investigative efforts were right.

I think we will catch him.

I can't predict when and how, though.

But we'll surely look for him.