 | Notorious Sicilian Mafia 'boss of all bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina has died from cancer in jail, aged 87.
Riina was serving 26 life sentences and is believed to have ordered more than 150 murders.
The head of the feared Cosa Nostra spent nearly a quarter of a century on the run before being jailed in 1993. He ordered more murders from jail. Riina was born in 1930 to poor farmers in Corleone, Sicily. His father was killed when he was 13 and at 19 he joined the local Mafia. His cruelty propelled him up the ranks and by 1974 he was boss. |  |
 | Under his leadership, the clan came to dominate the Cosa Nostra through the 1970s, as its fortunes were buoyed by a booming trade in heroin and cocaine to North America. He was a wanted man, but evaded justice for 24 years, remaining all the while on the island of Sicily. Riina was the most savage of them all, earning his nickname 'The Beast'. In 1992 he ordered the killing of two leading judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Riina was arrested but his savagery continued. He ordered the murder of a 13-year-old boy to prevent his father revealing information about the Mafia. The boy was strangled and his body partially dissolved in acid. |  Earlier this year Riina was recorded on a wiretap saying he "regrets nothing". |
