Sicilian "Cosa Nostra" mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano, dubbed "the tractor" for the way he mowed down his victims, died Wednesday after a long illness. Provenzano, 83, was the Cosa Nostra crime group's "boss of bosses" until his arrest in 2006 after 40 years on the run, during which he communicated with his lieutenants by word of mouth or typewritten notes.
He died at the San Paolo hospital in Milan in northern Italy, where he was being treated for bladder cancer, his lawyer Rosalba Di Gregorio said. Born in the village of Corleone, whose name of which became associated with the Sicilian mafia thanks to the "Godfather" novels and films, he reportedly committed his first murder aged 25, when he killed a rival boss. He became second-in-command to mafia leader "Toto" Riina, who presided over a series of gangland wars and killings of top judges that were a hallmark of Italian life in the 1980s.