A jailed mafia boss and his wife have been given permission to use state-funded assisted fertility techniques in order to have child. Salvino Madonia, who is serving a life sentence for Mafia crimes including murder in the central city of Aquila, applied for authorisation to become a father again in 2004.
He mysteriously made his younger wife pregnant in 2000, despite being in a high security jail which allowed no private meetings with relatives. This time a judge ordered that a sample of Madonia's sperm be obtained in jail and given to local doctors for the necessary fertilisation procedures, the Giornale di Sicilia daily reported.
The treatment for both father and mother will be paid for by the local health service in Aquila. The Mafia hitman is famous for having killed Libero Grasso, a Palermo businessman who rebelled against the Mob's protection racket.
He married his wife, Mariangela Di Trapani, in 1992, when he was already in prison. The mystery of how she became pregnant in 2000 was never cleared up, although it is suspected that artificial insemination was also used on that occasion.
This had happened before. In 1997 two Mafia boss brothers, Giuseppe and Filippo Graviano, managed to become fathers by different women while they were in a high security jail. Investigators suspected for a time that their lawyer had played a hand in the business but this was never proved. Life in jail has prompted mobsters to think about procreation on other occasions too. Raffaele Cutolo, the former king of Neapolitan organised crime, also asked to be allowed to have a child using assisted fertility a few years ago but his request was denied.
