Mafia 'godmother' turns supergrass on own family

A Mafia "godmother" who heads one of Sicily's most powerful crime families has scandalised the Cosa Nostra after becoming the first female boss in its history to turn supergrass.

Giuseppina "Giusy" Vitale, whose nickname is pronounced "Juicy", has confessed to ordering a string of murders as one of the island's new breed of female crime queens.

	Vito Vitale arrest led to 'Giusy's' elevation to 'godmother' status

Evidence from the mother of two, which was revealed to state prosecutors after she entered a witness protection programme, threatens to expose a web of collusion between senior Mafioso and politicians.

Yet the fury in Mafia circles lies not just in her decision to break the "omerta," or code of silence. Ms Vitale, 33, has petitioned for divorce and violated another of the Cosa Nostra's strict rules, which forbids adultery.

To make matters even worse, the new man in her life is himself a "pentiti", or collaborator. Alfio Garozzo, 36, who was formerly head of the Cursotti clan, is said to have met Ms Vitale in prison and the pair are expected to marry.

Lest any members of the outraged Vitale family felt tempted to dismiss the jailhouse romance as a wicked rumour put about by police, Garozzo himself confirmed it. Anybody who doubted their love, he pointed out, could read the police wiretaps of their romantic conversations.

"Giusy Vitale has decided to collaborate with the law solely for reasons of love," he wrote in an open letter to the Italian media. "That is the love she has for me. And I, by the same token, am in love with her."

Ms Vitale is one of a number of women to assume prominent roles in Sicilian Mafia families after a decade of police crackdowns that have seen key male figures jailed.

Traditionally expected to do nothing more than cook for their husbands and keep quiet, the "bosses in skirts and high heels", as they are known, have become feared forces in their own right. "Juicy's" brothers, Leonardo and Vito Vitale, were part of Palermo's criminal aristocracy.

They are said to have been chosen in the 1990s as the eventual heirs to Bernardo Provenzano, the godfather of Sicily, who has been on the run for 42 years. By 1998, however, both were in jail, forcing Ms Vitale to run the organisation herself.