Thursday, May 20, 2010

Italian police release 'depressed' Mafioso

Magistrates in the northern Italian city of Pavia have released a jailed mobster because he was reportedly depressed and afflicted with diabetes and a heart condition, according to a story by Nick Squires of the UK Telegraph. Sicilian Mafioso Salvatore "Vito" Vitale (left), 64, was part of a gang that kidnapped and killed a boy in order to silence his informant father. Eleven-year-old Giuseppe DiMatteo was kidnapped in November 1993. He was held for two years as gangsters tried to force the father to alter his testimony. The boy was then strangled to death. Vitale provided his underworld associates with a tub of acid to dissolve the boy's remains and conceal the murder. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Vitale's attorneys convinced the Pavia court that Vitale was deserving of a compassionate release. He has returned to his home in Palermo, Sicily.

No comments:

About Me

My photo
Writer, editor, researcher, web publisher, specializing in organized crime history. (Available to assist with historical/genealogical research, writing, editing. Email at tphunt@gmail.com.)
Editor/publisher of crime history journal, Informer; publisher of American Mafia history website Mafiahistory.us; moderator of online forums; author of Wrongly Executed?; coauthor of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia and DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime; contributor of U.S. Mafia history to Australian-published Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime; writer/co-writer of crime history articles for several publications.
Visit me on Mastodon