Boy, 12, dissolved in acid after mafia boss's terrifying five words
Sicilian Mafia hitman Giovanni Brusca kidnapped 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo in and held him for 779 days before ordering his murder with five callous words
In 1993, young Giuseppe Di Matteo believed he was being taken to visit his father when the police arrived to collect him.
His father, former Mafia member Santino Di Matteo, had recently betrayed his criminal associates and was in protective custody. However, his 12-year-old son soon found himself a pawn in a sinister game when Cosa Nostra mobsters in Sicily, Italy, masquerading as police officers, abducted him.
The chilling operation was orchestrated by hitman Giovanni Brusca and mafia boss Salvatore 'Toto' Riina. For nearly 800 days, the innocent boy suffered unspeakable abuse whilst held captive in a cafe.
He was subjected to beatings and starvation by the gang, who even sent photographs of the boy to Santino as part of their cruel intimidation tactics. The initial objective was to prevent the turncoat from testifying in the case of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, who was assassinated in a car bombing.
The renowned judge had dedicated his career to bringing the mob to justice, notably masterminding the so-called "maxi trial" in 1986, which resulted in the conviction of 342 mafiosi, reports the Mirror.
Brusca was tasked with exacting revenge and, in 1992, he planted half a tonne of explosives under a road near Palermo, targeting Falcone as his car passed by.
The judge, along with his wife and three bodyguards, were killed, forcing Brusca to immediately go into hiding. Santino's eventual capture implicated Brusca - known as 'The Pig' - as the mastermind, sealing the tragic destiny of Giuseppe.
In 1996 - 779 days after his abduction - Brusca coldly ordered Giuseppe's murder with five chilling words: "Get rid of the puppy". The child was so worn out from his abuse that he didn't resist as he was strangled to death.
His body was subsequently dissolved in acid to ensure it would never be discovered - a method known as 'lupara bianca'. Disturbingly, Brusca showed no regret, later bragging in his memoirs about his increasingly horrific deeds.
"I've dissolved bodies in acid; I've roasted corpses on big grills; I've buried the remains after digging graves with an earthmover," he wrote.
"Some pentiti [former Mafiosi] say today they feel disgust for what they did. I can speak for myself: I've never been upset by these things."
Brusca was swiftly arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison after admitting his involvement in over 100 murders. His subsequent release in 2021, at the age of 64, sparked fury in Italy that such a deadly killer was now free to walk the streets.
Tina Montinaro, whose bodyguard husband was killed alongside Falcone, told the Repubblica at the time: "The state is against us - after 29 years we still don't know the truth about the massacre and Giovanni Brusca, the man who destroyed my family, is free."
Three years prior in 2018, Giuseppe's family received more than €2.2m (£1.9m) in compensation for his murder. Santino said in an interview on the 25th anniversary of his son's kidnapping: "I think about it every day.
"How can there be people so evil to treat a child this way? When people get involved in stuff like this, it's most likely they are never coming back."
