Thread by @NickWhithorn

11 January 1996, just 8 days short of his 15th birthday, after being held hostage for 779 days, Giuseppe Di Matteo (photo) is strangled to death using a rope & his body is dissolved in a tub of nitric acid. One of the most heinous crimes committed by Cosa Nostra [Thread] >> 1

23 November 1993, 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo is horse-riding, his great passion, at stables in Piana degli Albanesi in the province of Palermo. During a break, a group of men in police uniform come up to him, saying they have orders to take him to see his father >> 2

Giuseppe is overjoyed to hear this, as he hasn't seen his father for several months and accompanies the men willingly. His father is living under protection in northern Italy because he is a mafioso who has decided to collaborate with the authorities, a so called "pentito" >> 3

Santino Di Matteo is providing information on many cases, including the murder of Giovanni Falcone. Di Matteo is one of the men chosen by Giovanni Brusca to plan & organise the bomb attack against Falcone. After his arrest on 4 June 1993, he decides to turn state's evidence >> 4

The men who take away Giuseppe are members of the San Giuseppe Jato clan of Cosa Nostra, affiliated to Totò Riina's Corleonesi, under orders from Giovanni Brusca, the man who detonated the bomb that killed Falcone. Their aim is to stop Santino Di Matteo from talking >> 5

On 1 December 1993, at their home in Altofonte, Giuseppe's family receive a photo of the boy holding a newspaper dated 29 November and a message saying, "Keep your mouth shut". Thus, it is clear that Giuseppe is being held in an attempt to silence his father >> 6

On 14 December 1993, Giuseppe's mother reports him missing and, same evening, his grandfather receives a message, "we've got the boy. Your son had better not cause a tragedy". At first, Santino Di Matteo stops collaborating but then, despite his anxiety, chooses to continue >> 7

For a year & a half Giuseppe Di Matteo is moved around various prisons, mostly abandoned farmhouses or outbuildings in isolated countryside locations in the provinces of Trapani, Agrigento and Caltanissetta >> 8

Finally, in the summer of 1995, he is moved to a house in San Giuseppe Jato under which a sort of bunker-cellar has been built. The cellar has no doors or windows & is accessible only using a hoist. The boys spends most of the final months of his life in complete darkness >> 9

In October 1995, Santino Di Matteo manages to elude his protection team & spends 36 hours searching personally for his son, without success. In the meantime he continues to cooperate with investigators and testifies in trials against various members of the Corleonesi clan >> 10

On 11 January 1996, Giovanni Brusca is convicted (in absentia, as he is in hiding) of the murder of Ignazio Salvo, in part thanks to the testimony of Santino Di Matteo. At this point, Brusca decides it is no longer worth keeping the boy hostage and orders his murder >> 11

He calls the men guarding the boy (Enzo Brusca, Vincenzo Chiodo & Giuseppe Monticciolo) and tells them, in Sicilian, "allibertatevi du cagnuleddu" (lit. get rid of the little dog).
WARNING: following tweets contain graphic description in order to illustrate mafia brutality >> 12

From testimony of Vincenzo Chiodo at trial: "I told the boy to stand in the corner, at the foot of the best, with his hands in the air and facing the wall ... I went up behind him and placed the rope around his neck. I pulled hard, pulled him backwards onto the floor." >> 13

"Enzo Brusca sat on his arms crossed on his back and Monticciolo sat on the boy's lega so that he couldn't move ... the boy didn't realises what was happening because he wasn't expecting it ... he didn't react like a child, he seemed weak" >> 14

"... although he had plenty of food ... the lack of freedom certainly meant he was weak ... it seemed like he was made of butter ... I don't think the boy even realised he was about to die ... he made just one slight jolt in reaction, then he didn't move any more ..." >> 15

"... he just turned his eyes and looked at us ... after removing his clothes ... we poured some acid into the tub and picked up the boy. I held him by the legs and Monticciolo and Brusca held one arm each, we put him into the acid and then went upstairs ... " >> 16

"... I went back down to check and all that was left of the boy was a part of a leg and a part of his back, ... but I only stayed for a moment ... because it was full of acid fumes in there, it was suffocating ... then we all went to bed." >> 17

Years later, Monticciolo said, "To stop Di Matteo talking we chose the vilest way, kidnapping his son. We thought we'd resolved the problem but the child's murder defeated the mafia. It was worse than a military defeat because Cosa Nostra lost face and people's respect >> 18

Santino Di Matteo, released from prison in 2002, returned to his home town, Altofonte. Trials over the years for the kidnapping & murder of Giuseppe have seen the conviction of numerous people either materially responsible or responsible for ordering it or conspiring in it >> 19

Leoluca Bagarella, Giovanni Brusca, Giuseppe Graviano & Matteo Messina Denaro were convicted of ordering the kidnapping >> 20

Gaspare Spatuzza, Cristofaro Cannella, Salvatore Vitale, Nicolò Vitale, Salvatore Benigno, Salvatore Grigoli, Cosimo Lo Nigro, Francesco Giuliano, Luigi Giacalone and Benedetto Capizzi were convicted of materially kidnapping Giuseppe Di Matteo >> 21

Agostino Lentini, Michele Mercadante, Vito Coraci, Vito Mazzara and Giuseppe Costa were convicted of holding the boy prisoner in the province of Trapani >> 22

Antonio Di Caro, Ciro Vara, Salvatore Fragapane, Mario Capizzi, Giovanni Pollari, Angelo Longo, Alfonso Falzone, Giuseppe Gambacorta, Gerlandino Messina, Luigi Putrone & Filippo Sciara were convicted of holding him prisoner in the provinces of Agrigento and Caltanissetta >> 23

Giovanni Brusca was convicted of ordering the murder while Enzo Brusca, Vincenzo Chiodo and Giuseppe Monticciolo were convicted of materially murdering Giuseppe Di Matteo >> 24

Giuseppe Di Matteo
b. 19 January 1981, Altofonte
d. 11 January 1996, San Giuseppe Jato