Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Laundry betrays reputed No. 1 Mafia boss near Corleone, Sicily Luca Bruno THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PALERMO, Sicily — Italy’s No. 1 fugitive and reputed Mafia “boss of bosses” practically thumbed his nose at authorities for more than 40 years. He counted on Sicilians’ centuries-old mistrust of the state to help him on the run, sleeping in islanders’ homes, having his children born at local hospitals, even sending the public health care system a bill for prostate treatment abroad under a false name. But police finally caught up with Bernardo “The Tractor” Provenzano on Tuesday in a farmhouse outside his power base, Corleone — the town that inspired the family name in “The Godfather.” In the end, Provenzano wasdone in not by an informer or a rival gangster, but by a delivery of clean laundry. Police tracked the package to his hideout and closed in when they saw his hand peek out of the door to take it. Provenzano had escaped capture so often since going into hiding in 1963 that he earned a place in the Italian imagination as “The Phantom of Corleone.” He got his nickname “The Tractor” for the determination he displayed in a mob career that began as a hitman. He is believed to have taken over leadership of the Sicilian Mafia following the 1993 arrest of former boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina. During his years on the run, Provenzano was convicted in absentia and given life sentences for more than a dozen murders of mobsters and investigators. “Bastard! Murderer!” a crowd shouted at the 73 year-old Provenzano as black-hooded policemen took him out of a sedan and rushed him into the courtyard of a police building in Palermo alter driving him from the countryside. Wearing tinted glasses and a wind-breaker, the gray haired Provenzano held up his handcuffed hands as he was hustled away but made no audible comment. Investigators described an extensive operation to track down the mobster. They said cameras that can see up to a mile were trained on suspected accomplices as well as the Corleone home where Provenzano’s wife and children live. A few days ago, police noticed a package leave the wife’s house, then get delivered by car to a series of other homes. On Tuesday morning, the package left Corleone and was driven to the farmhouse where Provenzano was found staying with a shepherd who doubled as a housekeeper. “This morning he reached out with a hand to grab the package and that’s when we decided to move in,” said Nicola Cavaliere, a top police official in Rome. Italy’s national anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, told reporters in Rome that Provenzano was “impassive” and “didn’t say a word” when arrested, but later acknowledged his identity. The last photos that investigators had of the _j u.-~ „„ . iiioL/ovvi. JJJV/ >1 vu min uJ u young man, but police gave the fugitive a “new face” last year — issuing a composite picture drawn with help from a Mafia turncoat in 2001 that depicted him with white hair and hollow cheeks. That effort was also helped by descriptions from personnel at a clinic in Marseilles, France, where investigators say Provenzano sought treatment for a prostate tumor two years ago. Turncoats had told investigators that Provenzano slept in different farmhouses every few nights across Sicily, an island where organized crime has held sway for decades. He allegedly gave orders with written notes — not trusting cell phone conversations for fear of being monitored by police. Grasso said investigators were studying notes found at the farmhouse, along with a typewriter Provenzano apparently used for writing them. After taking over the top leadership, Provenzano helped the Mafia spread its tentacles into the lucrative world of public works contracts in Sicily, turning the mob into more of a white-collar industry of illesral activity — with less dependance on traditional operations like drug trafficking and extortion, investigators have said. During the years when Riina was the Mafia chieftain, murders bloodied Sicily. Mob rivals, police, prosecutors and their bodyguards, and sometimes bystanders, were cut down by bombings and drive-by shootings. Then the bomb assassinations in Sicily of Italy’s two top anti Mafia fighters, magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two months apart in 1992 galvanized many Sicilians against the mob. Alessandra Tarantino / The Associated Tress Italy's National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Piero Grasso holds a picture of Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano during a press conference in Rome on Tuesday. 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But in terms of why he would come up with this now, I just can’t speak to that.” Rumsfeld said the criticism doesn’t affect his ability to do his job. Newbold, in Time magazine, said he was RumsfeiD • 13 -S'' <-' ^ '^“'•: W 800 ALEXANDER RD I I 803.939.0444 I I www.iiniversitycommons.coml |u n i ^Frs i t y| COMMONS B a f a h t in e n t s J I ON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW Opening in Greensboro August 2006 Now accepting applications for the charter class. 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