25 Facts About Bernardo Provenzano

Bernardo Provenzano's nickname was Binnu u tratturi because, in the words of one informant, "he mows people down".

In 1963, Bernardo Provenzano became a fugitive after a failed hit.

Bernardo Provenzano participated in the Viale Lazio massacre in the late 1960s.

Salvatore Riina succeeded Leggio in the mid-1970s, and Bernardo Provenzano became the second-in-command of the Corleonesi.

Bernardo Provenzano took the reins after Riina and Bagarella's arrests, but the three had already been sentenced to life in absentia in the late 1980s as part of the Maxi Trial and in the 1990s for the two high-profile bombings that killed prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Bernardo Provenzano was born the third of seven children on 31 January 1933, in Corleone, Sicily, to farmers Angelo Bernardo Provenzano and Giovanna Rigoglioso.

Bernardo Provenzano participated in the Viale Lazio massacre on 10 December 1969: the killing of Michele Cavataio for his role in the First Mafia War.

However, according to Gaetano Grado, one of the participants who turned government witness later, it was Bernardo Provenzano who botched the attack, shooting too early.

Bernardo Provenzano became the second-in-command of the Corleonesi, Riina's right-hand man.

In 1997 and 1999 respectively, Bernardo Provenzano was given life sentences for the 1992 murders of anti-mafia magistrates Falcone and Borsellino.

Bernardo Provenzano frowned upon the use of telephones, and issued orders and communications through small, hand-delivered notes called pizzini.

For example, Bernardo Provenzano systematically underlined verses from the Bible and took notes of relevant passages to be threaded in his pizzini through otherwise routine instructions regarding daily business matters.

Bernardo Provenzano used a version of the Caesar cypher, used by Julius Caesar in wartime communications.

In October 2003, Bernardo Provenzano was driven to France, allegedly by Villabate mobster Salvatore Troia, to undergo prostate surgery at a private clinic near Marseille.

Bernardo Provenzano was provided with fake travel and medical records, under the name of Salvatore Troia's father, Gaspare Troia, a Sicilian baker.

Mario Cusimano, another Villabate mobster who was later arrested, began to collaborate with police in 2005, and revealed to the investigators that the identity card used by Bernardo Provenzano to go to Marseille had been stamped by Francesco Campanella, former president of the municipal council of Villabate, and in September 2005, Campanella began to collaborate with police who confirmed that he was the one who had stamped the document.

The Italian State Police were able to create a photofit of Bernardo Provenzano based on the descriptions of informants, as well as doctors and nurses at the Marseilles clinic where Bernardo Provenzano was admitted for surgery.

On 25 January 2005, police raided various homes in Sicily and arrested 46 Mafia suspects believed to be helping Bernardo Provenzano elude the authorities.

Bernardo Provenzano had been a fugitive from the law since 1963.

Bernardo Provenzano was finally captured on 11 April 2006, by the Italian police near his home town, Corleone.

In total, Bernardo Provenzano was given 20 life sentences plus 49 years and one month, and solitary confinement for 33 years and six months.

In November 2009, Massimo Ciancimino, the son of a former mayor of Palermo Vito Ciancimino, said that Bernardo Provenzano had betrayed the whereabouts of Riina.

Ciancimino said the map was returned by Bernardo Provenzano who indicated the precise location of Riina's hiding place.

On 19 March 2011, it was confirmed that Bernardo Provenzano was suffering from bladder cancer, and he was transferred from Novara to a prison in Parma; on 9 May 2012, he attempted suicide by putting his head in a plastic bag, with the aim of suffocation, but was foiled when it was observed by a prison police officer.

On 13 July 2016, Bernardo Provenzano died aged 83 at San Paolo Hospital in Milan from complications from bladder cancer.