Nitto Santapaola, on March 12, 1999. Credit: Studiocamera / GIACOMINOFOTO / ipa-agency.net / IPA / Profimedia
Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, who was arrested in 1993 and has not been released from prison since, has died at the age of 87, two sources close to the case told Reuters on Monday.
BenedettoSantapaola, who was serving multiple life sentences for murder and other crimes, died in a high-security prison in Milan, one of the sources said.
The prosecutor's office in Milan ordered an autopsy, according to Il Sole 24Ore.
Nitto Santapaola was arrested at dawn on May 18, 1993, after 11 years on the run, and has never been out of prison.
Known as “il cacciatore” (the hunter) or “il lycantropo” (the werewolf), he ran the mafia in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.
His name appeared in numerous court proceedings and he was found guilty as one of the instigators of the murder of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two of Italy's most famous anti-mafia prosecutors.
