Notorious Sicilian mafia boss dies in prison at 87, sources tell Reuters

Benedetto Santapaola is shown in this undated photo. (Wikimedia Commons)

Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, a notorious Sicilian mafia boss who has been in prison for more than three decades, has died at the age of 87, two sources close to the matter said on Monday.

Santapaola, who was arrested in 1993 and was serving multiple life sentences for murder and other crimes, died in a high-security jail in Milan, one of the two sources said.

Italy’s justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Santapaola, known as “il cacciatore” (the hunter) or “il licantropo” (the werewolf), led the mafia in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

He was tried and convicted as one of the instigators of the 1992 murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two of Italy’s most famous anti-mafia prosecutors.

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Angelo Amante; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)