Doctor who treated mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro says even ‘monsters’ deserve care

A doctor whose job was to try and save the life of infamous mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro tells The Sun: “You cannot take away the right to medical care from anyone, not even from such monsters.”

In an exclusive interview, oncologist Luciano Mutti revealed the quandary of treating a man who once boasted that he had “filled a cemetery all by myself.”

Luciano, 70, spent decades as a consultant at Manchester Royal Infirmary, fighting cancer and saving lives.

But when he took a job back in his native Italy at the Hospital San Salvatore in L’Aquila, he had no idea he would be plunged into the world of death threats and grim confessions at the heart of the Cosa Nostra.

The Sicilian mafia gang is known for its brutal history and strict code of silence, known as the Omerta, with the group thought to be responsible for thousands of deaths.

The hospital is twinned with the notorious L’Aquila prison where Denaro was serving multiple life sentences for the assassinations of anti-mafia prosecutors, bomb attacks which killed 10 people, and the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old boy whose body was dissolved in acid.

After he was appointed as the Godfather’s doctor, Luciano received several death threats and was put under protection by Italian law enforcement.

Speaking for the first time, Luciano said: “I am honoured to have had the opportunity to serve my country in this way.

“I received so many death threats for the simple fact that I was assisting Messina Denaro.

“It was really scary for my family and me.

“Now it should be fine, but we will never feel completely safe anymore.

“Death threats came from both sides.

“People were threatening me when I was trying to save him, and people were threatening me because I wasn’t able to cure his cancer.

“In the end, police forces insisted on putting me under a special protection programme.”

Ruthless gangster Denaro, known as Diabolik, was arrested in Sicily in January 2023 after 30 years on the run.

He was receiving chemo for colon cancer at a private hospital at the time, and more than 100 police and armed forces were involved in catching him.

Luciano Mutti traded his job in Manchester for a job back in his native Italy and ended up looking after the ‘last Godfather’

Luciano took over Denaro’s treatment when he was moved to prison – but he died some eight months later in September 2023, aged 61.

The mob boss, who ran the real-life Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in The Godfather movies, had a lengthy rap sheet and was sentenced to six life sentences before his death.

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When asked how he got on with Denaro, Luciano said: “As a doctor, I have the responsibility to look after my patients to the best of my abilities.

“If every single person is entitled to medical care, it doesn’t matter who they are.

“My profession couldn’t exist without the willingness to empathise with the people I have to take care of.

“Human relations cannot be left at the hospital door.

“Certainly, feelings and emotions have to be under control, but I don’t think it would be possible to be a good doctor without being empathetic.

“At the very beginning, I have to admit it was a bit difficult to distinguish between what I read in the news and the person standing in front of me.

“However, the more time passed, the more we started talking about the illness, alongside potential therapies – and the dichotomies between the individual and the crimes he committed disappeared in the background.”

Luciano, who also worked as a professor in Philadelphia and at the University of Buckingham, said of Denaro: “Irony was among his qualities.

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“He definitely had a very good sense of humour.

“I think that every doctor is constantly faced with a crucial question: the ill or the illness?

“What do you want to give relevance to? Not everyone picks the person.”

Luciano, who has a partner, Raffaella, 52, and a daughter with his ex-wife, now lives in Rome but often visits the UK for work and conferences.

Last month, Italian police shared video footage of them clawing back “huge amounts of capital” from the late Cosa Nostra head through a series of daring raids.

Riot gear-clad officers were filmed storming palm-tree-lined estates, assisted by drones, helicopters and thermal scanners, to detect hidden cavities that concealed ill-gotten gains.

The mobster’s corporate holding companies, securities portfolios and eight foreign enterprises, used for estate investments and asset management, were also discovered.

The Cosa Nostra crime syndicate was formed back in the mid-19th century and rose to power, infiltrating politics, finance, and later expanding into crimes such as drug trafficking and money laundering.

The mob bosses who ran the blood-thirsty clan with an iron fist became infamous, with Matteo Messina Denaro among them.

Dubbed “the last Godfather,” he was responsible for numerous murders, including the 1992 killings of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo was also kidnapped in a bid to stop the boy’s father from testifying against Denaro, but was eventually strangled after the blackmail plot failed – his remains dissolved in acid.

Denaro remained on the run for 30 years while still issuing orders to mafia enforcers from secret locations and enjoying the high-life with flash cars, Rolex watches and Armani suits.

But in 2002, he was tried and sentenced to life for the murders of Falcone and Borsellino and finally arrested in January 2023 before his death eight months later.

The mayor of L’Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, said Denaro’s death “puts the end to a story of violence and blood.”