Trilogy about Graziano Mesina – Part 3 ‘The End’

(Newcomers to this topic should start with Part 1)

When Mesina was pardoned in 2004, he was a truly free man again for the first time after more than 50 years in prison or under house arrest. He had lived through and survived all the ups and downs of his life as a convict and celebrity. A new chapter could begin. It was exciting to see what he would do with this freedom. My friends in Sardinia had no doubt: ‘He's a broken man. If he's begging the President of the Republic for mercy, not much else will happen!’ By this they meant blood revenge and the settling of outstanding ‘debts’. They were right, but not in the way they thought.

What could be more natural for someone who had never learned a trade or profession in his life than to capitalise on what had distinguished him? So he settled in his homeland and worked as a tourist guide.  After Orgosolo had become a tourist attraction with its murales and reputation as a notorious bandit hideout, the tour operators who had hired him now had the ‘icing on the cake’: Europe's most famous bandit was guiding their tourists to the sites of his past!

On the one hand, this provided him with a livelihood, but on the other hand, it gave him the opportunity to build on the myth that the media and politicians had created for him. He remained prominent, was invited to political forums and was still worthy of coverage in the tabloid press.  He finally seemed to have arrived ...

Then, on 10 June 2013, a news report shattered the idyll: Mesina had been arrested! He was being held in the high-security prison ‘Badu e Carros’ in Nuoro, together with Mafia bosses Toto Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and others. What had happened?

My Sardinian friends immediately suspected a new police conspiracy, probably instigated by his political opponents. Just two weeks earlier, he had been interviewed in front of 600 guests at the Gorizia Festival, attracting a lot of media attention, and had not shied away from speaking plainly about certain politicians ...

Unfortunately, if appearances are not deceiving, the reality is as follows:

The cat won't stop hunting mice. Mesina has joined the bosses. He has allied himself with the Calabrian mafia. Being a tour guide was not the right fit for him. It was only good for camouflage. He was a large-scale distributor of heroin, cocaine and cannabis. He also planned robberies, thefts and kidnappings, just like in his heyday. When he was arrested at his sister's house in Orgosolo, he did not resist.

He had been under suspicion for several years. The investigation was conducted with great caution because he was known all too well. When the trap snapped shut in 2013, more than 300 Carabinieri and special forces were involved, just as in his heyday. Simultaneous raids were carried out across the entire island. Twenty-five ‘pezzi da novanta’* were arrested, the list of whom reads like a who's who of his former companions.

This is the story of a man who was on his way to becoming a Sardinian ‘national hero’ and ended up as a drug lord. God knows his homeland did not deserve that! At least Orgosolo, which I have a special fondness for after unforgettable experiences, is now free of bandits.

Or is it? Because now, much to the chagrin of tour operators, the place has lost one of its attractions.

And so ends the myth of the Sardinian Robin Hood. However, he will still earn himself an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in the next few years:

that of the longest-imprisoned gangster of all time.


With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.
Joachim Waßmann

Notes:

A ‘pezzo da novanta’ is a person of great influence. This is how important politicians and business leaders, among others, are referred to in popular parlance.

If you are interested in what I experienced in Messina's home village of Orgosolo, click here.