Santino Di Matteo

Santino Di Matteo (Altofonte, December 7, 1954), also known as Mezzanasca, is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia from the town of Altofonte in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy.

Santo Di Matteo took part in the killing of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone on May 23, 1992, near Capaci. After his arrest on June 4, 1993, he became the first of Falcone's assassins to become a government witness – a pentito. He revealed all the details of the assassination: who tunnelled beneath the motorway, who packed the 13 drums with TNT and Semtex, who hauled them into place on a skateboard, and who pressed the button.

In retaliation of Di Matteao becoming informant, the Mafia kidnapped Di Matteo’s 11-year-old son, Giuseppe Di Matteo on November 23, 1993. According to a later confession by one of the kidnappers, Gaspare Spatuzza, they dressed as police officers and told the boy he was being taken to see his father, who at that time was being kept in police protection on the Italian mainland. In Spatuzza's words, "To the kid's eyes we appeared like angels, but in reality we were devils. (...) He was really happy, he kept saying 'My father, my dear father'". Instead they held Giuseppe for 26 months, during which time they tortured him and sent grisly photos to his father to force him to retract his testimony although he'd already signed a legally binding deposition.

Di Matteo made a desperate trip to Sicily to try to negotiate his son's release but on January 11, 1996 after 779 days, the boy, who by now had also become physically ill due to mistreatment, was finally strangled on the orders of Giovanni Brusca. The body was subsequently dissolved in a barrel of acid to prevent the family holding a proper funeral at which they could mourn and to destroy evidence — a practice known colloquially as the lupara bianca.

Di Matteo once had to face Brusca, in court. Bursting into tears Di Matteo told the judge: "I guarantee my collaboration but to this animal I guarantee nothing. If you leave me alone with him for two minutes I'll cut off his head." The confrontation nearly got violent, if not for the guards who restrained Di Matteo.

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