Santo Di Matteo

Mario Santo Di Matteo (Altofonte, December 7, 1954), also known as Mezzanasca, is a member of the Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily.

Santo Di Matteo took part in the killing of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone on May 23, 1992, near Capaci. After his arrest on June 4, 1993, he became the first of Falcone's assassins to become a government witness – a pentito.Jamieson, The Antimafia, p. 98-99 He revealed all the details of the assassination: who tunnelled beneath the motorway, who packed the 13 drums with TNT and Semtex, who hauled them into place on a skateboard, and who pressed the button.

Killing of son

In retaliation the Mafia kidnapped Di Matteo’s 11-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo on November 23, 1993, to force him to retract his testimony. The boy was told that they were taking him to see his father, who was in hiding. Instead they held the boy for 26 months, during which they tortured him and sent grisly photos to his father to force him to retract his testimony.Jamieson, The Antimafia, p. 217 Di Matteo made a desperate trip to Sicily to try to negotiate his son's release. On January 11, 1996 after 779 days, the boy was finally strangled on the orders of Giovanni Brusca. Subsequently the body was dissolved in a barrel of acid to destroy the evidence. , Corriere della Sera, November 10,...
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