Latest news with #ItalianPolice
Metro
a day ago
- Metro
Sister of Sicilian mafia's 'last godfather' freed from prison
Matteo Messina Denaro's sister Patrizia Messina Denaro being arrested by Special Police at her home in Castelvetrano (Picture: Franco Lannino/EPA/Shutterstock) The sister of notorious Sicilian Mafia fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro has been freed from prison, sparking fears she will take control of his clan. Patrizia Messina Denaro, 55, has long been considered the right-hand woman in the Borgata headed by her brother, who once claimed to have murdered enough people to fill a cemetery. Messina Denaro was Italy's most wanted man until his arrest in January 2023, which came 30 years and a day after the capture of the Mafia's 'boss of bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, also after decades in hiding. While on the run, he was tried in absentia and convicted of dozens of murders, including helping to plan, along with other Cosa Nostra bosses, a pair of 1992 bombings that killed Italy's leading anti-Mafia prosecutors — Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. During those three decades on the run, Messina Denaro followed mafia tradition in communicating with relatives and affiliates via 'pizzini', small pieces of paper with orders and instructions, sometimes written in code. Chief among them was said to be younger sister Patrizia, who was suspected of overseeing the secret communications network, maintaining contact between the boss and his underlings. A computer generated image released by Italian Police of Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro (Picture: AP) A mugshot made available by Italy's Carabinieri of Messina Denaro (Picture: EPA) Notes found by investigators at the mob boss's hideout included direct references to his sister, including sums of money for legal and personal expenses such as '4,500 Avv. Patrizia' and '1,000 Pat'. One investigator said of Patrizia: 'To understand Matteo, you should meet his sister. 'She is aggressive, determined and happy to use her surname to scare extortion victims. It was her first arrest, and although she didn't say much, she was defiant and communicated with her eyes, which is a Sicilian thing.' The eldest Messina Denaro sister, Rosalia, also fell under investigators' spotlight during their quest to bring down the mob boss. Rosalia was arrested in March 2023, and put on trial as prosecutors similarly accused her of covering up for her fugitive brother, managing his finances and helping him liaise with the outside world. But she is still in jail, along with Messina Denaro's nephew Francesco Guttadauro, leaving Patrizia as the clan's natural successor. Dubbed by the Italian press as 'the last Godfather', Messina Denaro is not believed to have given any information to the police after he was seized outside a private clinic in the Sicilian capital, Palermo. According to medical records leaked to the Italian media, he underwent surgery for colon cancer in 2020 and 2022 under a false name. A doctor at the Palermo clinic told La Repubblica newspaper that Messina Denaro's health had worsened significantly in the months leading up to his capture. A file photograph of fugitive Sicilian godfather Matteo Messina Denaro (Picture: ANSA/AFP via Getty Images) The son of a mafioso, Messina Denaro was born in the southwestern Sicilian town of Castelvetrano in 1962. He followed his father into the mob and at 15, was already carrying a gun. Police say he carried out his first killing when he was 18. The Castelvetrano clan was allied to the Corleonesi, led by Riina, who became the undisputed 'boss of bosses' of the Sicilian mob, known as Cosa Nostra (Our Thing), thanks to his ruthless pursuit of power. Nicknamed 'U Siccu' (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro became his protege and showed he could be just as pitiless as his master, picking up 20 life-prison terms in trials held in absentia for his role in an array of mob murders. Messina Denaro went into hiding in 1993 as a growing number of turncoats started providing details of his role in the mob, but investigators believe he rarely wandered far from Sicily. Police say he spent much of 2022 hiding in Campobello di Mazara, a town of about 11,000, a short drive from his mother's house in western Sicily. He never married, but was known to have had a number of lovers. Messina Denaro wrote that he had a daughter, but had never met her. Italian media said the two saw each other after he was captured and that she had agreed to take his surname. Despite his notoriety, prosecutors have always doubted that Messina Denaro became the Mafia 'boss of bosses', saying it was more likely that he was simply the head of Cosa Nostra in western Sicily. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. Arrow MORE: Everything we know about New York City gunman Shane Devon Tamura Arrow MORE: New York gunman 'was targeting NFL headquarters but took the wrong elevator' Arrow MORE: Tommy Robinson 'boards flight' after being filmed shouting next to 'unconscious' man
BBC News
17-07-2025
- BBC News
Body found in search for British hiker Matthew Hall in Italy
Rescue teams searching for missing British man Matthew Hall in the Italian Alps have found a discovery was made on Wednesday evening, close to the Cross of Daloo, a mountain viewpoint high above the town of Chiavenna, where the 33-year-old, from Hull, had been Hall sent a photograph of the cross to friends on the day he went missing, leading to a search of trails in the police told the BBC the body was found at 19:00 local time and members of Mr Hall's family had been informed. Mr Hall was staying at the B&B Ploncher hotel when he disappeared on 9 July. He was thought to have been planning an eight-hour trek and had told a friend in a text message he had taken a wrong turn and was having a travelled to the town to help with the search and raise awareness that he was Hall began his solo hiking trip on 5 July and was due to have flown back from Milan to Manchester on 12 July. He was known to be a confident walker with knowledge of mountains and rugged family and friends have praised the Italian police, rescue workers and the community in Chiavenna for their help. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices
CNN
16-07-2025
- CNN
Erotic mosaic, stolen by German officer in World War II, returned to Pompeii
An erotic mosaic stolen from Pompeii by a Nazi captain during World War II was finally returned to the ancient site on Tuesday. Featuring a man reclining on a couch being attended to by a scantily clad woman, the small mosaic may have decorated a bedroom floor in a Roman villa, the Pompeii Archaeological Park said in a statement. When Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, its buildings, thousands of inhabitants and this mosaic were buried beneath layers of ash and pumice. This coating perfectly preserved the city for more than 1,600 years, making it one of the most important archaeological sites in the world as it offers an unprecedented insight into Roman daily life. For example, despite dating from between the late 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, this mosaic is still brightly colored, with all its tiles still intact. By World War II, many areas of Pompeii had already been uncovered. This mosaic was stolen by a Wehrmacht captain who oversaw Germany's military supply chain in Italy during the war, the archaeological park said. He gave it to an unnamed German citizen whose heirs contacted the Italian police, asking how they could return it, the park added. A specialist unit of Italy's police, responsible for protecting the country's cultural heritage, then investigated the mosaic's provenance, tentatively tracing it back to the area destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, although certain information about its discovery was missing. 'Every looted artifact that returns is a wound that heals, so we express our gratitude to the Protection Unit for their work. The wound lies not so much in the material value of the work, but in its historical value; a value that is severely compromised by the illicit trafficking of antiquities,' Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park, said in a statement. 'We don't know the artifact's exact provenance and likely never will,' he said, adding that the park will conduct further tests to piece together the mosaic's history as much as possible. The mosaic will be temporarily displayed at a museum in Pompeii for public viewing. Erotic art has been discovered in Pompeii before. Archaeologists uncovered a tiny house filled with elaborate — and sometimes racy — frescoes in October 2024; another house covered in raunchy frescoes reopened to the public in January 2023 after being closed for 20 years; while another fresco, depicting an erotic scene from the Greek myth of Leda and the swan, was uncovered in 2018. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau contributed reporting.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Amanda Knox Claps Back on Leaked Diary About Sex With 7 Past Partners
Originally appeared on E! Online Amanda Knox isn't ashamed of her past romances. The 38-year-old had a thought-provoking response to recent criticism over a past diary entry in which she admitted to having sex with seven partners by the age of 20—a private confession that was leaked to the public by Italian police after she and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were first accused of her roommate Meredith Kercher's murder in 2007. In the old journal entry shared to X July 15, Knox—who was in the midst of being interrogated by authorities over Kercher's killing at the time—listed everyone she had been intimate with after being wrongly informed by police that she had contracted HIV. "I don't know where I could have gotten HIV from," she wrote. "Here is the list of people I've had sex with in general." Now, looking back at her diary, Knox wrote on X July 15, "After years of being vilified as a deviant sex monster, I couldn't help but internalize some of that shame, despite the fact that I knew there was nothing wrong with my sexuality (which was actually quite vanilla)." More from E! Online Dan Rivera, Paranormal Investigator, Dies Suddenly During Tour With 'Possessed' Annabelle Doll Kylie Jenner Shares a Glimpse of Daughter Stormi's Massive Labubu Collection RHONJ's Dolores Catania Shares Important Warning About Injectable Weight Loss Drugs But one user disagreed with her summation, sarcastically writing in response to her tweet, "Sleeping with 7 guys before the age of 19 is like so vanilla." And Knox was quick to clap back at the jab, reminding her troll why she wrote the diary entry in the first place. Yes, I slept with 7 people by age 20. (3 were serious boyfriends; 1 was Raffaele.) This was made public after police lied to me that I had HIV, then told me to write a list of my partners, then confiscated my diary and leaked it to the media. "I don't want to die," I wrote. Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 15, 2025 "Yes, I slept with 7 people by age 20. (3 were serious boyfriends; 1 was Raffaele.)," she replied in a second message on X July 15. "This was made public after police lied to me that I had HIV, then told me to write a list of my partners, then confiscated my diary and leaked it to the media. 'I don't want to die,' I wrote." Knox and Sollecito were convicted of Kercher's murder in 2009, before being acquitted and retried in a 2011 proceeding that she was also convicted in. The pair maintained their innocence throughout their incarceration, and were exonerated of all charges by Italy's highest court in 2015 after deeming the evidence contradictory and the investigation flawed from the start. In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Knox's original interrogation by police violated her human rights and ordered the Italian legal system should pay her $20,000. While testifying in front of the European Court of Human Rights, Knox—whose complicated case has since been documented in the 2016 Netflix movie Amanda Knox—provided further insight into why the police interrogation was her "worst nightmare" while being questioned in a language she "barely knew." "When I couldn't remember the details, one of the officers gave me a little smack on the head and shouted, 'remember, remember,'" Knox—who is a mother to two children with husband Christopher Robinson—said in court in 2019, per NBC News. "And then I put together a jumble of memories and the police made me sign a statement. I was forced to submit. It had been a violation of my rights." (E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.) For more true crime cases that have made it to TV screens, keep reading. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
BBC News
14-07-2025
- BBC News
Hull man goes missing during solo hike in Italy
The mother of a 33-year-old British man who went missing on a solo hiking trip in Italy said she "just wants him home".Matthew Hall, from Hull, was staying at the B&B Ploncher hotel when he disappeared from Chiavenna, Lombardy, on 9 mother, Sara Foster, said: "I'm very wobbly at the moment, obviously, but I'm really trying to stay positive."A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British man missing in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities." Mr Hall was thought to have been planning an eight-hour trek and was wearing a beige top and had a black backpack when he went missing, his mother media reports said he could have headed towards Savogno or Dasile, starting from Borgonuovo, or towards Pianazzola, Daloo or Lagunch, starting from Foster said her son, who lived round the corner from her with his cat Betty, started his trip on 5 July and was planning an eight-hour trail the day before he went was due to have flown back from Milan to Manchester on 12 July. 'Keep an eye out' Ms Foster said Mr Hall was a big Hull KR fan who "loves his trails and walking"."We'd got lots of photos from him from the Saturday to the Monday and then it seemed to be a blank," she said."If you're walking around Chiavenna just keep an eye out. We just want him to come home."Ms Foster praised the Italian police and rescue workers for their help, and said she was "so impressed" with how they had kept her BBC has approached the UK Embassy in Rome for more information. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
