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Gangster “Boss of bosses” Toto Riina was one of the most violent and feared Godfathers in the history of the Sicilian Mafia, according to the AFP. It is said he was responsible for the murder of some 150 people. Many said he was “more powerful than Jesus”.
Italian media reported last month that Riina died at 87 and had been suffering from cancer.
From the AFP:
He is believed to have first murdered for the Mafia aged 19 and followed that a year later by killing a man during an argument — landing him behind bars for a six-year manslaughter stretch.
Once out, he became a foot soldier for volatile and vain boss Luciano Leggio, eventually taking over from him at the end of the 1970s when the cigar-puffing fugitive was caught and jailed.
Riina went on the run himself in 1969, but continued to lead the Corleonesi clan from hiding, increasing his influence by bumping off rivals such as Filippo Marchese, a hitman who garotted his victims in a “room of death”.
Riina would elude police efforts to snare him for almost a quarter of a century — without ever leaving Sicily — and took charge of Cosa Nostra’s key businesses, from drug trafficking to kidnapping and racketeering.
Riina had been serving 26 life sentences since 1992.
Even from behind bars, Riina would go on to order the murder of a 13-year-old boy, who was kidnapped in a bid to stop his father from spilling Mafia secrets. He would eventually be strangled and his body dissolved in acid.
Just two weeks after this news, an Italian judge ruled Riina’s son Giuseppe Salvatore Riina to be detained for a year in a secure labour unit.
In 2004, Giuseppe Salvatore was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison before being released on parole. He was under police surveillance and found to be in contact with various drug dealers.
Criminals who are deemed dangerous to society or likely to re-offend can be sent to a secure unit, known as a "workhouse" in Italy, with the aim of rehabilitating them into society through manual labour.
