CATANIA – The Carabinieri of Catania have arrested 62-year-old Nunzio Zuccaro, a man of honor of Cosa Nostra Etna who has previous convictions for two murders, kidnapping, concealment of a corpse, mafia-type association and robberies, for family mistreatment. Zuccaro began persecuting his wife in 2019, when he was still in prison serving a 30-year sentence, which ended in 2020. The woman, over the years subjected to a vexatious and humiliating lifestyle, fearing for her safety and that of his children, decided to report him last March.
She told the police that she had continuously been the victim of insults, death threats and violence from her partner who, even when she was still in prison, would have threatened her with death, complaining about her absence from the interviews and the small amount of money she paid. he sent him weekly: “Since you make me look bad to the other prisoners, as soon as I get out I’ll cut off your head and put it in the middle of the street to show it on all the news.”
Also from prison, Zuccaro, furious because his wife would not comply with his request to threaten her relatives to obtain an exclusive inheritance of some land, threatened her by shouting that in addition to killing her, he would also harm their children. Out of fear, the woman remained to live with him once he was released from prison. Zuccaro, however, did not miss an opportunity to continue to demonstrate his violent character.
Among the many oppressive episodes she suffered, the woman said that, close to Christmas 2023, the 62-year-old dragged her in front of a crowded bar in Mascalucia and here he spat in her face to punish the fact that she had dared to tell him ‘enough’ out loud and in front of the employees of the business where he worked: “This is what an honorable man feels when someone raises their voice at him, even if it is his wife.” On other occasions Zuccaro beat her with a crutch and grabbed her by the neck because her wife “did not submit and did not show him respect”. And she still forced her to stay awake with him all night because he suffered from insomnia.
Given the escalation of the violence, the woman fled from home and took refuge in her sisters’ house where she remained for about a month, but even in that case her husband bombarded her with phone calls threatening her with death if she did not return from he. She returned to protect her children, but last January, after witnessing an argument between her husband and son and having taken the latter’s defense, the 62-year-old grabbed her by the neck, chasing her out of the house together with the boy. He then threatened her by saying that he would take a gun to kill both her and her entire family.
