 Welcome into the original gangsters podcast. I am your host Scott Bernstein along with my co-conspirator partner crime the doctor Jimmy Guigelato. Hi everyone. Hey now we're going to do a quick hitter episode right now and discuss some things that are happy and over in the motherland. The other side in Sicily, the death of Jimmy Jimmy pushes back on the notion that he was the boss of bosses, but Matteo. Matteo Genaro passed away in the last week, and he had been on the run until this past January when he was finally taken in to custody one of the most treacherous and infamous Sicilian mafiosi in history. And Jimmy, there's no better expert when it comes to this stuff than the doctor to give us his analysis. I think we did a little bit of content with John Penisi back in January when he was captured. And now this is kind of the addendum to that. He didn't last that long in custody less than a year and passed away on September 25. Yeah, so since we've already discussed it a little bit in that other episode and we're obviously not breaking any news at this point about it, I figured we would just just give a little bit of analysis and maybe some tidbits that people weren't aware of. But yeah, just in terms of some analysis, I don't agree with the sort of mainstream media's argument that he was the capo di tutti copy. I just don't think someone from outside of Palermo would have that much power on the island, especially in the post-Totorina world. But he was certainly very powerful, very influential in Palermo. And he was, you might say he was the boss of bosses within his province, which is the province of Trapani, and he's from Castello Vettrano, and he comes from a long line mafia family. And this is something I made in the episode we did with John, that I think he was hiding in plain sight. I find it difficult to believe that at least somebody in the Italian government didn't know where he was. I mean, you know, John, I think pushed back a little bit and said it could have been, they just stumbled upon it. I find that difficult to believe. I mean, there were rumors all those years, the decades he was a fugitive that he was in any number of places in Europe, in South America. Yeah, go ahead. He was on the run for 30 years. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so there is evidence that he did, he actually did travel outside of Sicily, but people was like, there's no way he could be hiding right basically near his hometown. And that's where he, that's where he was hiding out. So I mean, one thing, another thing I would would just add and maybe our audience will find this interesting is, I have a specific research interest in Castello Marri del Golfo. Which is also in Trapani, and my family is from there. People have read my book or know about the Bonanno history, maybe familiar with my family. We just recorded an episode with Frank Fierdalino. That's where he's from too. You know, that should be up soon. People can find out more about Castello Marri and the Bonanos. But there is some overlap between Donaro because it was that part of the island and the mafia with what was going on in Castello Marri in Trapani. So just some murders that I think I'd like to talk about for a minute that Donaro was linked to that relate to the mafia in Castello Marri. In March 27th, 1990, the Avala brothers were murdered and Donaro was was linked to that conspiracy. At the time, the Avala brothers were running the mafia in Castello Marri and they were on the out with Totarina at that time and they were twin brothers and they were killed. So then on October 3rd, 1992, Feligii Bucciolato was murdered. Another prominent member of the Borgata in Castello Marri and he was viewed as a rival to the pro Corleonesa side of that world. And another interesting connection there is Feligii Bucciolato's father, Don Cola, Zucola Bucciolato was the provincial representante of Cosa Nostra for around 40 years. And when he died, Francesco Messina-Donaro became the provincial representative and that was that was Matteo Messina-Donaro's father, Francesco Doncic. So some other things to point out. This one's pretty brutal. This has been reported. You know, a lot of people mentioned this when they talk about Donaro. The July 1992, the murder of Vincenzo Milazzo and Antonella Bonomo. And one of the reasons why this really caught people's attention is that the Vincenzo Milazzo was the boss of Elcamo at the time and they killed him and then they killed his fiance. And according to the people that were there that became informants, they said she was pleading for her life because she was pregnant. And I've heard different things and that's commonly reported. I remember reading somewhere that according to the autopsy, she wasn't pregnant that maybe she thought she was pregnant, but I don't know. Either way, it's pretty gruesome. She was a civilian and Donaro was one of the conspirators in that murder. Was he also involved in the murder of the judge and the prosecutor? Yeah. Well, that's the big one, which is Falcone and her wife. He died alone and, yeah. Yeah. They were killed. They were blown up. They blew up the expressway. So he was linked to a lot of infamous murders. Just one more I'll mention. Ambrojo Farino, I'm sorry, Farina, was killed in March of 1995. He was an OG connected to the Pizza Connection, another Castellammari's guy that was... Donaro was part of that murder. So anyhow, I have an interest in him as it connects to Castellammari. I thought I would share some of those, but he's definitely, you know, was a big deal. And, you know, one last thing I'll mention was interesting about him is he was kind of a secular guy, which you don't hear that too much with especially Sicilian mafiosi, very devout Catholics giving money to the church. He was a pretty secular guy and open about that, and he was very critical of the church at times. And I don't know another interesting part about it. Well, something I read after he died was he was critical of the church in a very specific way. He was angry about the sex, the predator, molestation, priests diddling little kids controversy and calling the church hypocrites. Yeah, he was pretty outspoken about that. I can get behind that. Yeah, right. Right. But it's usually the church and the Sicilian mafia have had this like, here no evil, here no evil, right? And they don't call each other out. And so that was a rare kind of a rarity. Another interesting... Before we wrap this up, I want to ask you, does Donaro, is he still alive right now if he's not captured in January? Did his capture create a apathy towards life as a prisoner and that sent him into the coma that he died from? I know he'd been fighting cancer and so forth, but... I think he had been ill for some time, which is probably one of the reasons why I think he was more vulnerable to, if you accept my conspiracy theory that he was hiding in plain sight and then someone snitched on him because I think he was having some health issues. So I imagine it didn't help. I mean, I'm not a physician, but it seemed like he was on the way out. So if it did, probably on the margins, I would say. Mateo Donaro died September 2023 after about six months of incarceration on the heels of 30 years on the run. His legacy is, you know, it's... Legacy of brutality. It's stenciled in blood and that carnage, but it's definitely historically significant and we wanted to share our analysis with you. He might be the last one. Sorry to interrupt, but he might be just like Joe Massino. People talk about the last Don. I'm not sure we're going to see big names like that anymore. Where Massino Donaro, where like anyone who researches this stuff, they at least have heard of them. Even sometimes people who aren't that familiar with this have heard of these guys. I think you're seeing the last of an era with those two guys dying, not too far apart. He chiseled that reputation of being a maniacal bloodthirsty mafia Don with bone, with like human bone. He chiseled it into his gravestone. So this is what we're here to do here at OGPod, is give you this type of insight and analysis. So thank you for joining us for Jimmy Bucciolato and Benny behind the glass. I'm Jimmy Bucciolato, I'm the host of the OGPod Brunch Team. Check in later for another episode of the OGPod Hour.