Mafia's brutal new leader

THE recently arrested head of the Mafia has appointed as his successor a trigger-happy playboy who has been on the run for 13 years.

The promotion of Matteo "Diabolik" Messina Denaro, 43, was revealed in a letter written by Bernardo Provenzano, the 73-year-old former "boss of all bosses", who was seized by police two weeks ago at a farmhouse near Corleone, in Sicily.

"Matteo, the head of the Mafia will be you," Provenzano wrote a week before he was discovered.

It is not certain that the instructions were received.

Denaro, who once boasted that "I filled a cemetery all by myself", was born in western Sicily and by 14 had learned to use a gun. He later sealed a reputation for brutality by murdering a rival gang leader and strangling his pregnant girlfriend.

His nickname "Diabolik" comes from a comic book, and he is an icon for the younger Mafiosi.

Bible studies may reveal Godfather's secrets

Italian police codebreakers are turning to the Bible in their efforts to get at the many secrets of the mafia's "boss of bosses".

Bernardo Provenzano was arrested this month after 43 years on the run. When an undercover policewoman known as "the Cat" walked into his rural hideout on April 11 she found him surrounded by encoded messages to and from his lieutenants.

Piero Grasso, Italy's chief anti-mafia prosecutor, said they offer investigators a mine of information on the inner workings of the world's most notorious crime syndicate. But the meaning of some remains obscure, and there is a suspicion Cosa Nostra's leader used the Good Book as a key.

Reputed Mafia Boss Provenzano Tight-Lipped

ROME - Reputed Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano refused to answer prosecutors' questions Thursday, ending his first official interrogation since his arrest after eight minutes, his lawyer said.Three prosecutors and a police official from Palermo, Sicily, questioned Provenzano in the presence of his lawyer, Franco Marasa. Provenzano responded when asked his name and date and place of birth, then clammed up as soon as prosecutors read him his rights, said Marasa.

"He said 'I intend to avail myself of my right not to answer,'" Marasa said by telephone, quoting his client.

The 73-year-old Provenzano was interrogated at the prison in Terni, central Italy, where he is being kept in an isolation cell.

Prosecutors Giuseppe Pignatone, Marzia Sabelli and Michele Prestipino were traveling Thursday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Provenzano was captured April 11, more than 40 years after he went into hiding, and is believed to have taken over leadership of the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of Salvatore "Toto" Riina.

Riina also did not talk to investigators after he was captured, prosecutors have said.

Fears of Mafia power struggle

THE arrest of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano has raised fears about the stability of Sicily's Cosa Nostra, amid fears that the succession in organised crime circles could lead to a return of bloody clan feuding.

The two men tipped as his successor are Matteo "Diabolik" Messina Denaro, 43, from western Sicily and Salvatore Lo Piccolo, 63, from Palermo.

Both men are on the run, accused of Mafia crimes and murder, but their management styles are different. Denaro is a playboy and allegedly the more trigger-happy of the two. Lo Piccolo is said, like Provenzano in later years, to prefer a strategy of peace between clans as the best way to improve profits.

Denaro is viewed by the US FBI as one of the biggest drug dealers in the world and is said to have contacts with Colombian cocaine barons.

The last known picture of Denaro, who gets his nickname Diabolik from a cartoon character, was taken 10 years ago.

He was born near Trapani in western Sicily, where his father Francesco was the Mafia boss. He is said to have learned how to use a gun at 14.

He has reportedly killed at least 50 people and is believed to be behind Mafia bombings in 1993 in Rome, Florence and Milan in which 10 people died. After the bombings he went into hiding and has not been seen since.

Mafia shadow hangs over Corleone

Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano's reign is over, but who waits in the wings?
On a hillside, just a few kilometres from the Mafia heartland of Corleone, four men are hoeing soil around young vines.

The wind whistles around them on a sharp spring day as they push and pull great clods of earth away from the green plants.

They work for a co-operative called Libera Terra - Free Land.

The land it uses has been given to it by the Sicilian authorities - it is land confiscated from the Mafia.

Because one of the things the co-operative makes is pasta, its motto is: "Fighting the Mafia with macaroni". It's not a great joke, but it raises a smile.

For those who detest the Mafia and all its works in Sicily there has been one very good reason to smile this week; the capture, after an astonishing 43 years on the run, of Bernardo Provenzano.

Italian Mafia Boss Caught After 40 Years

PALERMO, Sicily - Italy's reputed No. 1 Mafia boss was arrested Tuesday at a farmhouse in the Sicilian countryside after frustrating investigators' efforts to catch him during more than 40 years on the run, the Interior Ministry said.Bernardo Provenzano, Italy's most wanted man, is believed to have taken over the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of former boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina in Palermo.

"Bastard! Murderer!" a crowd shouted as black-hooded policemen took the elderly man out of a sedan and rushed him into the courtyard of a police building in Palermo. The gray-haired Provenzano, wearing a windbreaker and tinted glasses, glanced aside at one point but made no audible comment.

A Palermo police spokesman, Agent Daniele Macaluso, said Provenzano had been arrested in the morning near Corleone, the Sicilian town made famous in the "Godfather" movies. He was then driven to Palermo, 37 miles north of Corleone.

He was being questioned by anti-Mafia prosecutors in police offices, but was saying little, answering only questions about his identity, the Italian news agency ANSA reported from Palermo.

Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano described Provenzano as "the most important person from Cosa Nostra" after Riina, the so-called "boss of bosses" who was also arrested after years as a fugitive. He called the arrest "an important step forward ... for the entire nation."

Mexican Mafia cases split up

Four men pled not guilty Monday to charges of involvement in the Mexican Mafia and several 2005 robberies in the Kerrville area. All four were facing trial in the 198th Judicial District Court, however, only the case against Jesus “Jesse” Jiminez of Ingram proceeded Monday.

The attorneys for Sammy Menchaca of Rocksprings, Robert Menchaca of Center Point and Robert Perez of Kerrville successfully sought for their clients cases to be separated out. The three now are scheduled to go on trial in May.

Prosecutor Amos Barton finally gave opening arguments Monday, after procedural issues Thursday forced a delay. The nine-woman, three-man jury was seated, then sent home Thursday following a two-day selection process.

Two other men — Librado Rodriguez and Stephen Flores — also have been indicted on related charges. Flores took the stand Monday afternoon as the prosecution’s first witness. During more than three hours of testimony, he admitted involvement in the Mexican Mafia and his part in three robberies in June 2005.

Deliberations Start In 'Mafia Cops' Trial

(CBS) BROOKLYN A jury has started deliberating the fate of two retired NYPD detectives charged with being paid hit men for the mafia on eight counts of murder, two counts of attemtpted murder and various other racketerring charges.

The pair Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephan Caracappa, 64, together with their flamboyant defense attorneys transformed the federal courthouse in Brooklyn into what resembled the set of a Hollywood mobster movie.

Authorities allege Eppolito, 57, and Caracappa, 64, were involved in eight killings between 1986 and 1990 while on the payroll both of the NYPD and Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. In return, they helped Casso avoid arrest, warned him of impending investigations and committed killings for up to $65,000 a hit, prosecutors said.

Late last month, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein ruled that 11th-hour revelations by jailed Mafia underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso would not be cause for a mistrial, as the defense attorneys Bruce Cutler and Edward Hayes had asked for. Both attorneys had informed Weinstein, with the trial nearing an end, that Casso, notoroiusly violent capo of the Luchese crime family, was claiming that their clients were innocent of some of the charges, reversing previous allegations he made against the pair.