[rotor blades whirring]
[seagulls squawking]
[man speaking Italian] At the end of my shift, around 1:50 p.m...
I left the precinct...
in a Fiat Panda, whose brake pads
had to be changed, so I had to drive slowly.
When I got to the seafront...
I heard the roar of a car engine that was speeding up.
It was not coming towards me
but from behind. I heard the car approaching.
The driver was Matteo Messina Denaro.
A man greeted me with a shotgun.
He leaned out of the window and shot me.
As I was shot, I felt the blood running down my face.
Instinctively, I crouched.
I stopped.
They stopped too, a few meters ahead.
So, I got out of the car, took my gun, and shot them.
This time, the man with the Kalashnikov fired in bursts.
[indistinct chatter]
Thank goodness, or thank fate, he stopped.
They looked at me and then left.
[reporter speaking Italian] Do you think this attack may be linked to your work?
[speaking Italian] The precinct deals with the Mafia,
drugs, minor or major drugs. It does a lot of things.
[speaking Italian] Matteo Messina Denaro is
the most wanted fugitive in Cosa Nostra.
[man speaking Italian] He once said to me,
"With all the corpses I left behind, I could have a private cemetery."
[speaking Italian] He would get to the place where his target was.
As if it were nothing, he'd take his gun and shoot. Boom, boom.
[speaking Italian] Matteo Messina Denaro helped everybody to set
the country on fire back in those years.
[man speaking Italian] How Messina Denaro has managed to remain free
is a million-dollar question.
[reporter 1 speaking Italian] Matteo Messina Denaro, the last godfather
at the top of the black list of the most dangerous fugitives...
[reporter 2 speaking Italian] The Cosa Nostra boss,
who has been a fugitive since '93...
[reporter 3 speaking Italian] Still today, Messina Denaro is a ghost.
[seagulls squawking in the distance]
[police siren wailing]
[man speaking Italian] I've been under government protection since 2007...
because I've received death threats.
I'm Lirio Abbate, and I've been investigating the Mafia for 28 years.
In the '80s,
you were aware that
the area was completely handled by the Mafia.
[scooter engine revs]
[Lirio speaking Italian] Everything that was going on there
was managed by the Mafia,
from the economy to entrepreneurship to politics.
The control of the organization called, as we found out later, Cosa Nostra,
landed in the hands of Salvatore Riina.
He is an animal, responsible for thousands of murders...
who became the supreme leader of this organization that everyone feared.
What followed were days of terror.
Every single day, people were shot dead.
And you would find someone
whose head had been chopped off, left on a car seat.
Or others who had been disfigured.
[indistinct chatter]
Matteo Messina Denaro was born into a mafioso family.
And he would flaunt the fact that
people knew he was from the Mafia and they had to fear him.
[lady shouts]
He killed a pregnant woman
just because she was the girlfriend of someone he hated.
The Messina Denaro's Mafia family
is and was very important in the Trapani region.
His father was a Mafia boss.
[man speaking Italian] I am a friend of Matteo Messina Denaro.
My name is Giuseppe Fontana.
I was released in 2012, after 18 long years in jail.
[door lock clicking]
Don Ciccio, Matteo Messina Denaro's father,
was one of those who were supposed to die.
Totò Riina replaced all the bosses of the provinces...
by having them killed.
I don't know the exact reason why, but he was pardoned.
And, out of gratitude, he entrusted his son to Totò Riina.
At that point, he became his favorite godson.
[Lirio speaking Italian] Matteo did his training under Riina.
As a young man, he would follow the older killers and mafiosi...
and was a proper criminal pupil.
[man speaking Italian] Messina Denaro would commit murder, extortion,
anything that had to be done. He was a soldier like me.
Riina was the one who gave the orders.
I am Santino Di Matteo, ex-mafioso and a cooperating witness.
I never say where I live.
Fewer people know, the better, right?
You have to face the fear. You have to live with it.
[birds chirping]
They had us running from one place to another to commit murders.
That's what we did from the '80s to 1992.
And so, little by little...
at some point, we came to meet,
uh, Messina Denaro.
That night we met in Alcamo.
We went to a farm...
because we had to commit a murder.
I think we did a double murder together.
We killed both father and son.
Messina Denaro took his gun out and fired. Boom, boom.
So we shot these two people.
And, very calmly, we delivered the bag with our weapons.
Then we just went back to Alcamo. Like it was nothing,
we went to a cafe for breakfast.
He was a guy who didn't scare easily. He was a full-fledged mafioso.
I saw him like a cold, cool agent, you know, like 007.
Who goes home, listens to classical music,
uh, drinks his wine, and then maybe decides to kill off...
two hundred enemies,
uh, in a strategical and smart way, obviously.
[reporter] When Mafia hit men strike, it's usually with a gun and a silencer.
But not in Palermo, Sicily, today.
[siren wailing]
The weapon there was a bomb estimated at one ton of explosives.
The target: Italy’s top anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
He and at least six others were killed when their convoy was blown up.
[reporter speaking Italian] ...dramatic scenes, scenes of war.
[reporter] Judge Paolo Borsellino was killed yesterday,
less than two months after judge Giovanni Falcone.
They were Italy's top anti-Mafia investigators.
[indistinct chatter]
[Lirio speaking Italian] Judges Falcone and Borsellino
were the enemies of Cosa Nostra. They were the ones
who orchestrated the first big trial against Cosa Nostra.
They're the ones who hurt the Mafia the most.
[crowd shouting and screaming]
[Lirio speaking Italian] Matteo Messina Denaro was part
of a very restricted, private board that Riina used to plan
Falcone and Borsellino's assassinations.
[indistinct chatter]
[man speaking Italian] We pay our last respects.
With this Christian rite of farewell
we express our love...
[Lirio speaking Italian] I remember the funerals.
[organ playing]
The people were angry.
That's what... [chuckles]
You realize you're living in the Mafia's territory.
[organ continues playing]
[woman speaking Italian] ...I'm the widow of Officer Vito Schifani, my Vito.
I'm addressing the people from the Mafia because they are here.
You can be forgiven.
I forgive you, but you need to get on your knees.
If you have the courage to change.
[crying] But they won't change.
-[crowd applauding] -[man speaking Italian indistinctly]
If you have the courage...
...to change. Change.
[crying] They don't want to change. They won't change.
[man and woman speaking Italian indistinctly]
The Falcone and Borsellino attacks changed Italian history.
[man speaking Italian] It's the worst time, not just for Sicily
but for all of Italy.
[police siren wailing]
I was 30 years old.
Barely.
I'm Massimo Russo.
I'm a prosecuting magistrate. From 1991 to 2007, I worked on Cosa Nostra.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Massimo speaking Italian] I went after fugitive Messina Denaro Matteo.
I had five bodyguards at some point.
We were getting into uncharted territory
and an extremely dangerous situation.
But we can also say that we had some great victories.
[speaking Italian] I have to give you some good news.
-[man in crowd shouts] -[woman in crowd speaks up]
Finally, the government and civil society could see
what kind of monster,
uh, we had in our country.
He was identified and caught.
[indistinct chatter]
[speaking Italian] Riina Salvatore has been arrested
this morning by the carabinieri in Palermo.
The Italian police dealt a significant blow against the Mafia today
with the arrest of Salvatore "Totò" Riina.
The alleged boss of bosses.
Riina, a fugitive from justice for 20 years...
[Massimo speaking Italian] So, six months after Riina's arrest,
for the first time, the attention shifts
to Matteo Messina Denaro.
In that moment, he becomes a fugitive.
Obviously, all kinds of strategies are employed in order to catch him.
In 1996, we have an idea
of where Matteo Messina Denaro is.
POLICE
[man speaking Italian] It was 1996, I remember well.
A patrol car stopped a vehicle and inspected it.
During the search, they found a plastic container,
which had dozens and dozens of pizzini.
Pizzini are the letters
that fugitives used to communicate with the acolytes in their Mafia family.
The analysis of a pizzino signed "Mari"...
led the State Police to easily identify Maria Mesi.
It referred to a location
where the two lovers,
the woman and the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro,
used to meet.
However,
we were not able to find that secret location.
But in May 1996...
a patrol reported the presence of a woman.
She was walking around suspiciously in the streets of Aspra.
She was disguised.
This figure wore a cape, a hat, a pair of glasses, and a neck tube.
So, we couldn't figure out who she was.
But what got us excited is that somebody said, "Wait a minute."
As the feminine figure approached Milwaukee Street,
she started taking off her hat, her glasses, and her neck tube.
That's when the police officer said,
"It's Maria Mesi."
[Giuseppe speaking Italian] He was a true gentleman of a past time.
He managed to court a woman
in a romantic and tempting way.
He was a handsome Mediterranean man.
He was a charming man.
He had a very... peculiar gaze.
You've never seen his eyes.
He's a bit cross-eyed.
But his eyes had...
a feline look.
[Carmelo speaking Italian] We'd discovered where the meetings happened.
That was the hideout where those two, Maria Mesi and Matteo Messina Denaro...
used to meet.
[dogs barking]
At that point, we had to be sure.
And the only way to be sure was to enter the apartment
and install some wiretaps.
We finally managed to enter that apartment.
[man speaking Italian] Aspra is the only place we can be sure
the fugitive has spent time, where we found traces of his presence.
I'm Lieutenant Colonel Rocco Lo Pane
from the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate.
[birds chirping and squawking]
On the second floor of this building, there was a small apartment
that was occupied by Matteo Messina Denaro.
In that hideout, we found some personal effects,
gold jewelry, a puzzle...
cigarettes of the same brand Matteo Messina Denaro was known to smoke.
We found an Austrian sauce...
which he had a passion for.
And video games.
We knew he had a passion for Super Mario.
We could feel the breath of the fugitive.
[Rocco speaking Italian] We decided to install some wiretaps
and wait for the fugitive to come back, so we could arrest him.
[Carmelo speaking Italian] We tapped phone lines.
We set up cameras and deployed a large number of forces.
Time passed by.
Weeks, months.
All we could do was wait.
He knew that if they ever found him...
they would kill him.
I'm also sure
that he arranged
his hideout in such a way that if they were to come for him,
I think he'd just have a button to push to blow them all up.
Matteo Messina Denaro never went back
to that apartment to meet Maria Mesi.
He's very cautious
and is not the kind of fugitive who hides
in basements or underground bunkers.
He's well-versed in how to flee and getting his accomplices to cover for him.
[radio chatter in Italian]
[man 1 over radio] They called me from Rome.
They have to get some money out without problems.
[man 2 over radio] How much?
[man 1 over radio] €20,000,000.
[Massimo speaking Italian] Many people, through the wiretaps,
refer to him with veneration.
"We need to worship the Sicilian." The Sicilian is Messina Denaro's nickname.
"I would like to see The Sicilian even just for a moment."
This expression of extreme
adulation explains why the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro is so difficult.
No mafioso has had contact with him directly
for a very long time.
Therefore, nobody can recognize him.
ANTI-MAFIA INVESTIGATION DIRECTORATE
And all of that makes him elusive.
[Rocco speaking Italian] When it comes to Messina Denaro, we don't have anything
written by him nor the sound of his voice
to help us confirm his identity.
We believe that the scorched earth approach,
for such a clever, expert, cautious fugitive, is the best strategy.
[police siren wailing]
We've been arresting and convicting
all the people who were close to Matteo Messina Denaro.
We've been eliminating from the equation all the people
the fugitive can still count on.
We're isolating him.
Even physically.
We're draining his finances.
We're literally starving him.
[police sirens wailing]
I personally arrested Patrizia Messina Denaro.
His sister.
Patrizia Messina Denaro had played a critical role as a link
between her brother and the criminal organization.
We went to her place at night.
She actually opened the door, we didn't need to break it down.
What struck us was a painting.
Andy Warhol-style portraits of her brother.
She didn't say a word.
She just showed us her brother's picture
and said she would never betray him.
Patrizia Messina Denaro was convicted for associating with the Mafia.
She got a 14-year sentence
that she's still serving in a maximum-security prison.
She gave us the silent treatment,
which is typical of Mafia ladies.
[police sirens wailing]
How could the investigations go forward and fight
Cosa Nostra's military structure, masterminds, and organization,
if there had not been someone inside to reveal
names, actions, and projects?
[bird squawking]
In the last 30 years
of fighting the Mafia,
there are a little more than a dozen collaborators.
[dog barking]
[Santino speaking Italian] Messina Denaro and I know each other since the '90s.
I was arrested in 1993.
On June 4th...
I decided to cooperate because during our frequent meetings...
the investigators would tell me, "Santino, help us stop their war machine."
So, I made a decision. One day, I said, "I'll help you."
I think a few days later they called me
and said, "Listen, they've kidnapped your son."
The worst example...
is the kidnapping of the young Di Matteo...
who was guilty of being the son of a cooperating witness.
The boy was kidnapped at the end of a riding lesson.
They sent me a picture
and Giuseppe's t-shirt. Later on, they sent the picture to the newspapers.
Of course, it hurts. If I think about my son in that picture...
They wanted to silence me.
If you see the pictures of Giuseppe riding a horse, he has a huge smile.
That smile, it was Giuseppe.
As good as gold.
[Rocco speaking Italian] He was kept in different places.
Sometimes in houses, sometimes in underground bunkers.
But when he went through Messina Denaro, he went through hell.
[Rocco speaking Italian] He was tied up with ropes and chains.
They took out the anger they had
for the father on the kid
because his father was cooperating.
My son was kept in conditions which were...
inhuman.
He spent 779 days in hell.
[birds squawking and chirping]
[Santino speaking Italian] They were trying to silence me by any means.
But I told them they couldn't stop me.
In the end, they killed him. He was strangled and dissolved in acid.
You know what I mean? I don't know...
When I think about it, I can hardly believe it.
To me, Messina Denaro is a beast.
I think...
he can no longer get out of the hole
he's hiding in,
because he doesn't trust anyone.
His right-hand man betrayed him.
Another one betrayed him too.
Cooperating witness Cimarosa did a lot of damage to his family.
[Rocco speaking Italian] Cimarosa Lorenzo was the only relative
of the Messina Denaros who cooperated with the justice system.
The fugitive had entrusted very important tasks to Cimarosa.
Cimarosa represented Denaro in meetings with other mafiosi.
Cimarosa received the money the other Mafia families
paid to Matteo Messina Denaro.
[man speaking Italian] I'm the proud son of a Mafia traitor.
For the first time,
the wall of silence within the Messina Denaro family was breached.
My name is Giuseppe Cimarosa,
and I'm related to the Messina Denaro family.
The night my father was arrested,
he immediately asked to cooperate with the magistrates.
Everyone was taken aback because nobody could've ever predicted that
a member of the Messina Denaro family
would start cooperating.
But he wanted to get rid of that burden. And the only way was to open up and talk.
My father has already died of natural causes.
He knew the people, he knew the facts.
He told the magistrates everything he knew.
After my father's cooperation,
our lives changed and became a living hell.
I was out of town for work and received the news
that my father's grave had been desecrated,
the headstone had been destroyed, the angel statue had been torn off.
They offered us a protection program,
which we didn't accept, because
we'd have to move to another city, change our name, live who knows where.
It was too high a price to pay.
[door opens and closes]
I fear for my family, for my mother.
[speaking Italian] Pour me some water in that glass.
That's good.
You walk on the streets and people look at you and talk behind your back.
They point at you, they won't talk to you anymore.
You're isolated.
Unfortunately, you can't choose your family. I wish we could.
Uh, but with these people...
there's no other way.
You can't say no.
[journalist speaking Italian] Who said so? What are you talking about?
I'm talking about the Mafia in general, about this whole situation.
[Giuseppe speaking Italian] Mom, you knew who they were.
[speaking Italian] Yes--
You must tell her. I can't say I knew and then you say you didn't.
She's asking if you knew who the Messina Denaros were.
You knew they were in the Mafia. I mean, everyone knew, and you didn't?
-Dad is dead. -It's hard!
He sacrificed his life for this.
-He's dead. -Giuseppe!
You must talk about the Messina Denaros, not about the Mafia.
-Because you look scared. -Giuseppe.
I'm not scared.
I'm not scared, Giuseppe.
[horse snorting]
Today, Matteo Messina Denaro is
[clicks tongue] the last, most important Cosa Nostra fugitive boss.
If he is still a fugitive, Cosa Nostra is still alive.
[brass band playing]
[rattling]
He obviously still keeps huge secrets to himself,
uh, and the story he embodies will probably end with his arrest.
[brass band continues playing]
[Santino speaking Italian] Today, the only move he could make
would be to collaborate with the State.
It’s the only thing he can do. There is no other way.
They need to lock him up and throw away the key.
[brass band continues playing]
[bird squawking]
[Lirio speaking Italian] Within Cosa Nostra,
there are Greek tragedies.
Every single boss has his own,
from the first betrayal to the final arrest.
Time will show that the investigative efforts were right.
I think we will catch him.
I can't predict when and how, though.
But we'll surely look for him.