The “cheerful” inaction of Messina Denaro: tattoos and lunches in a restaurant with false identities

Two more false identities used by Matteo Messina Denaro emerge during his time in hiding and new details on the life of the boss who, wanted by the police throughout Italy, went quietly to Palermo in the company of Andrea Bonafede, one of his supporters, to get tattoos and then to eat in a restaurant in the centre.

Investigative news that the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office will use in the appeal of the sentence issued against Andrea Bonafede, sentenced to 6 years and 8 months for aggravated aiding and abetting. In the appeal against the verdict – the prosecutors had accused the accused of being a mafia association which was then reclassified by the investigating judge as aiding and abetting – the magistrates included a series of previously unpublished episodes. Like the two aliases used by the boss who told the tattoo artist his name was Vito Firreri and gave the name of Averna to the worker who had to repair his dishwasher in his house in Campobello di Mazara.

Regarding the tattoos, done in Palermo, the deceased boss had three in particular: «Tra le savage tigri», «Ad augusta per angusta» and “VIII X MCML, XXXI”. He himself had explained the meaning to his sister Rosalia. It always emerges from the investigations of the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office. The boss used a C to indicate the tattoos to the woman, as will emerge from a note later found by the police. «C» “Tattoo” she wrote to remember it. The mafia boss will then dwell on the meaning of the writings during a conversation in prison with Rosalia, who will then be arrested, and the other two sisters Bice and Giovanna. In the dialogue, intercepted by the investigators, Messina Denaro clarified that “ad augusta per angusta”, done in 2012, meant “to glory through suffering”. “I did it for my daughter when she left,” he explained. “This (18 August 1981) is an important date for me,” he adds, referring to the Roman numerals. «This – he explains, referring to the writing “among the wild tigers” – I did seven or eight years ago». With the Palermo tattoo artist Messina Denaro he had used the false name of Vito Ferreri. And the boss also talks about the tattoos in one of the diaries seized after the arrest: «they are not to follow fashion, they are my experience and they help me not to forget», he notes.