'One is for your head, one for your heart': How the Mafia boss found living in Uxbridge once sent a chilling note with bullets and a severed lamb's head to a prison chaplain

Domenico Rancadore, 64, went missing in 1994 and has an English family

Nicknamed 'The Professor', he was head of Mafia family in northern Sicily

Was convicted and jailed for seven years in Italy while he was on the run

Scotland Yard tracked him down to suburban street in Uxbridge, London

Neighbours to the fugitive's £300,000 home thought he was a chauffeur



Caught: 'Mafia' boss Domenico Rancadore has been arrested in London after 19 years on the run, where he had lived a secret life as a travel agent

For 19 years he has lived quietly in a £300,000 white-painted house in a prosperous London suburb, running a travel agency business with his wife.

Neighbours knew him as Marc Skinner, a 64-year-old father of two described as ‘reserved and polite’ who appeared to be a pillar of the community.

Yesterday, however, they discovered he is actually Domenico Rancadore – a feared Mafia boss who has been on the run from the Italian authorities since 1994.

While at large he was placed on the list of Italy’s most wanted criminals after being sentenced to seven years in jail in his absence for running a branch of the Sicilian Mafia.

He was head of a crime family involved in extortion, racketeering and drug trafficking, police said.

According to The Sun, he once sent a lamb's head and ten bullets to a prison chaplain who had spoken out about Mafia influence in Palermo, Sicily.



A note with the bullets read: 'One is for your head, one for your heart.

'One is for the coup de grace. This is your final warning.'



Italian detectives knew he was living in London under a false identity but could not intervene because the crime of ‘Mafia association’ is not recognised by authorities in Britain.

The situation is understood to have changed significantly to have allowed British police to raid his home in Uxbridge, West London, on Wednesday evening.

When officers arrived at his front door he tried to escape though the back gate. But a detective constable was waiting there and arrested him.

Yesterday he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court where a lawyer for the Italian government called for him to be extradited to serve his prison sentence.

However, he could go free today because of ‘significant deficiencies’ in the warrant for his arrest.

Born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1949, Rancadore was the son of a Mafia boss called Giuseppe, who was later jailed for life.

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Family: His wife Anne (right), 60, and daughter Daniela Skinner (left), 33, leaving Westminster Magistrates' Court today

He worked as a PE teacher and was fondly known as ‘the professor’ before turning to crime. Italian police say he was involved in the so-called Mafia Wars 30 years ago.

He was known as a ‘man of honour’ in the Mafia or ‘Cosa Nostra’ group which controlled the Palermo district of Trabia, the court heard.

Rancadore was jailed in his absence in 1999 for being part of a criminal organisation between 1987 and 1995. Gaetano Lima, a Mafia supergrass, told La Repubblica newspaper: ‘Rancadore is dangerous, I can assure you. I know, because I raised him.’

By the time he was convicted he was already thriving in his new life with his wife Ann, 60, the daughter of a former Italian consul to London, and their children Giuseppe, 36, and Daniela, 33.

Sources said Rancadore was ‘living a golden life’ in Britain and was often seen driving Jaguar and Mercedes cars. Last night neighbours expressed surprise that he had chosen their neighbourhood to live in. One said: ‘People don’t hide out in Uxbridge, not even the Mafia.’

Home: This is the house in Uxbridge, London where fugitive Mafia boss Domenico Rancadore had been living with his wife and two children until he was arrested last night

Joan Hills, 76, said: ‘I know him very well and he’s one of the best neighbours you could ever have.

‘They have been here for years. I’ve seen the children grow up with my children. I don’t know the ins and outs of this, but they are the nicest people that you could wish to meet.’

COSA NOSTRA: SICILY'S MAFIA STILL STRONG WITH 4,000 FULL MEMBERS

The Sicilian Mafia, or Cosa Nostra, which translates into English as 'Our Thing', emerged in the mid-19th century and is still going strong. It is not one single organisation, instead it is made up of around 100 families who each run a territory on the island, either a district of a city, a town or a few villages. Its stronghold is Palermo, the capital of the Sicilian region, and the areas surrounding it, where at least half of all members are based. Their power grew from protection, racketeering and extortion, because of the number of traders and landowners there to exploit. In more recent times, much of their money has come from the smuggling of cigarettes and drugs like heroin to Europe and America.

In the post-war era the Italian authorities fought against the Mafia, but even after a series of huge court cases the families couldn't be broken.

According to Francesco Messineo, the Chief Prosecutor of Palermo, there are still 94 Mafia families on Sicily, with between 3,500 to 4,000 mobsters.

Tennis coach Terry Stidder, 53, said: ‘As far as I can tell he seemed a nice guy – quiet, reserved and polite. He would always say hello or wave. He would always go out dressed nicely, he was either in a very sharp suit or smart casual.

‘He was your typical southern European. He had dark hair, greased down and very sharp. There was no real weight on him, he looked in good shape for his age.’

According to Italian media, Rancadore lived openly in London and considered himself untouchable because his conviction was apparently not recognised under British law.

He was remanded in custody yesterday, but could walk free today because of ‘deficiencies’ surrounding the warrant for his arrest. District Judge Quentin Purdy said: ‘The warrant may be such it has to be discharged. There are concerns about the validity of the warrant that has come before the court.’

Defence solicitor Euan Macmillan agreed that there were ‘significant deficiencies’ with the document.

In a statement the Italian interior ministry said: ‘Several witnesses have referred to him as a leading member of the Palermo Mafia “family”. In particular, in the 1990s, he played the role of chief of the Cosa Nostra in Trabia, Palermo.'



Convicted: The boss was jailed for seven years in his absence for crimes carried out around the cathedral city of Palermo in Sicily

London arrest another blow to Mafia



By RYAN HOOPER



Mafia man: Gerlandino Messina lasted 11 years on the run before being caught in 2010 - one of several mobster arrests that year

Domenico Rancadore's arrest in London this week brought to an end almost two decades of life as a fugitive for the Mafia boss.

He had evaded justice since 1994, having been sentenced to seven years in jail his absence for links to the Mafia group Cosa Nostra, and was believed to have been running a travel agency in London.

However his capture by authorities yesterday represents the latest in a line of Mafia fugitives to have been apprehended after years of evasion.

Michele Zagaria was described as one of Italy's most wanted mobsters before he was caught at the end of 2011.

On the run since 1995, Zagaria was found in an underground bunker in Casapesenna, in his home town province of Caserta in southern Italy, headquarters of the Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra.

Prosecutors said at the time how the province's well-known infiltration of local businesses and politics was similar to that of the Cosa Nostra.

Gerlandino Messina lasted 11 years on the run before being caught in 2010 - one of several mobster arrests that year.

Messina had been on the run since the late 1990s having been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for mafia association and a series of murders.

He was eventually nabbed by the Carabinieri in Favara, near Agrigento, his power base in Sicily. It prompted then-premier Silvio Berlusconi to say the arrest was the latest evidence of the government's 'unprecedented success' in cracking down on organised crime.

It came as anti-Mafia police arrested dozens of suspected mobsters that summer, including Nicola Schiavone, from the Camorra crime syndicate in southern Italy, who was believed to have taken the helm of the Casalesi clan, a ruthless group responsible for murders, extortion and other trafficking - though police said he showed no resistance to his arrest.

Found: In November 2007, Salvatore Lo Piccolo, convicted of murder and on the run since 1998, was caught in a morning raid near Sicily's capital Palermo

In November 2007, Salvatore Lo Piccolo, convicted of murder and on the run since 1998, was caught in a morning raid near Sicily's capital Palermo.

Lo Piccolo's son Sandro, another top mob figure, and two men accused of being local bosses also were also arrested.

Investigators believe Lo Piccolo could have emerged as the Mafia's new overall head after Bernardo Provenzano, the reputed number one of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, was held in Corleone in April the previous year.

The group's second in command, Gianni Nicchi, was captured in 2009 when he was found hiding in an apartment in Palermo.

Police said Nicchi, described as a 'young, dangerous, ambitious, pitiless killer', quickly climbed to the top of Palermo-based crime families after Lo Piccolo's arrest. Nicchi, a fugitive since 2006, was convicted in 2008 of extortion and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

One man still evading capture is Matteo Messina Denaro, who has been on Italy's wanted list since 1993 for murder and other crimes.

Rancadore's arrest is not the first time someone with links to the Mafia has been held in England. In 2007, housewife Ann Hathaway, from Greater Manchester, agreed to be extradited where Italian authorities wanted her to stand trial as one of 88 people accused over alleged Mafia activities.