The citizens of Corleone on Wednesday exorcised the ghost of Cosa Nostra superboss Bernardo Provenzano, whose shadowy aura fed the Sicilian Mafia's mystique for almost half a century until he was arrested outside his native town exactly a year ago.
Some 150 local students staged a "freedom run" from the centre of the Sicilian hilltown - made famous by the Godfather movies - down to the broken-down farmhouse where the Mafia chief was caught on April 11, 2006 after 43 years on the run.
The event was organised by the Sicilian branch of the Italian Olympic Committee along with Corleone town council.
"With this mini-marathon, the young people of Corleone have reclaimed a place that had become a symbol of 'old Corleone'," organisers said.
When the run finished, Sicilian government officials formally renamed the dirt track leading to Provenzano's former hide-out 'Via 11 April 2006 - the Arrest of Mafioso Bernardo Provenzano'.
Citizens of Corleone and two neighbouring towns then marched to the old farmhouse, carrying anti-Mafia banners.
The town ended its commemoration of Provenzano's arrest by giving the keys of the city to the police and magistrates who put Provenzano behind bars.
Palermo Prefect Giuseppe Caruso, one of those honoured, said "this is an important symbolic moment for Corleone, which we hope the citizens will take pride in".
Meanwhile, in Palermo, a trial kicked off in which Provenzano is charged with the murder of a lower boss in a late 1980s turf war.
Provenzano, 74, followed the proceedings on a video link from a high-security prison in Terni, Umbria, without saying a word.
Provenzano has already been convicted in absentia of a string of murders he committed as a young hitman and more recent assassinations he approved including the 1992 bomb slayings of Italy's top anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
TRACKING DOWN THE 'GHOST'.
The superboss's arrest on April 11, 2006 was the biggest police coup in over a decade.
Police finally cornered the boss - who had slipped through the police's fingers on several occasions, helped by well-placed 'moles' - by using wiretaps to follow packages of messages and laundry.
They then planted bugs in the farm building and moved in when they were sure who the 'old farmer' staying there really was.
"If he's a ghost then we're the ghostbusters," said Anti-Mafia Chief Piero Grasso.
Provenzano, a peasant who rose up the Mafia's ranks through his ability as a killer, was found with a bundle of messages in his jeans.
Shunning phones, he had used these scraps of paper for years to give orders and send out for food and other necessities, shielded by lieutenants and relatives.
A slew of arrests have been made in the past year after most of the so-called 'pizzini' were deciphered - although the FBI is still working on a Bible Provenzano may have used as a cipher.
Provenzano, nicknamed Binnu (The Tractor) for his steamroller character, became the undisputed 'boss of bosses' of the Sicilian Mafia after the January 1993 arrest of Salvatore (Toto') Riina, his former rival as the mob's top hitman.
Provenzano reined in the offensive unleashed by Riina - which included the murder of Italy's top two anti-Mafia judges and bombings in Rome and Milan - and took the organisation back underground to forge new political ties, claim public contracts and run rackets in relative peace, police say.
Until shortly before his arrest Provenzano's physical appearance was shrouded in mystery.
Investigators got a crucial break when they learned that he had travelled to a Marseilles clinic twice in 2003 for prostate surgery under an assumed name.
They arrested the Sicilian politician who obtained identity papers for the fugitive and he later turned state's witness.
Information offered by doctors and nurses at the clinic allowed computer experts to construct a more accurate identikit of the fugitive.
Until then all police had to go on was a photograph taken over 40 years ago for Provenzano's identity card, before he went underground.
