April 11 (Bloomberg) -- Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was arrested in an abandoned country house above his native town of Corleone after almost 43 years as a fugitive, police and magistrates said.

Provenzano, 73, had been the boss of bosses of the Sicilian mob, known as Cosa Nostra, since the previous Don, Salvatore Riina, was captured in 1993. He was Italy's most wanted fugitive.

``Provenzano is a very important criminal boss and his capture is of extraordinary importance,'' said Gian Carlo Caselli, Palermo's former chief prosecutor who oversaw Riina's arrest. ``But let's not forget that the Mafia isn't just one boss, it's an organization whose history shows that it's able to survive the capture of its most prestigious leaders.''

Provenzano has been convicted in absentia and given life sentences for several murders, including those of magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. Provenzano is one of the men responsible for the rise of the Corleone family to the apex of Cosa Nostra, and earned the nickname in his youth of ``the tractor'' because he mowed down everything in his path.

``This is a great victory for the state,'' said Maurizio De Lucia, one of the Palermo prosecutors involved in the arrest. ``It wasn't acceptable that after almost 43 years this man was free.''

`Godfather'

Palermo prosecutors De Lucia, Michele Prestipino, and Antonino Di Matteo have led the search for the boss from Corleone, birthplace of Mario Puzo's fictional ``Godfather,'' for about a decade. Provenzano was the undisputed leader of Europe's most powerful crime syndicate, suspected of having about 5,000 members, they said.

Provenzano's arrival at the Palermo police station was accompanied by a mob of law enforcement officials rejoicing and citizens shouting ``Assassin!'' The first glimpse of Provenzano was of a grey-haired, stocky man wearing glasses, jeans and a flannel shirt. The only photo police had of him dated back to 1959, when he was 26 years old.

Police finally tracked him down by following his laundry, which the mother of his two sons, Saveria Palazzolo, had sent him from her home in Corleone, just two kilometers (1.2 miles) away, Italy's chief mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso told reporters in Rome.

``When we saw a hand reach out of the house for the laundry, we moved in,'' Grasso said. Provenzano had developed a mafia mail service in order to deliver his orders and receive information from other mobsters. The old typewriter he used to type his messages was found in his hideout, along with several unsent messages, Grasso said.

Elections

Politicians who spent the night waiting for results in Italy's national election unanimously welcomed the news and praised the work of the police forces and investigative magistrates. That's after a campaign in which the problem of organized crime in southern Italy was ignored by the two candidates for prime minister, Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi.

Prodi declared victory after having won the Chamber of Deputies by 25,000 votes. While the Senate is still unclear, the count appears to favor a two-seat majority for Prodi. As Italy's government changes, so does the leadership of Cosa Nostra.

Provenzano was probably the last of his generation of bosses from Corleone. Born on Jan. 31, 1933, the third of seven brothers, the future boss of bosses never finished second grade. Instead, he followed his father and toiled the rocky fields around Corleone, according to Ernesto Oliva and Salvo Palazzolo's short biography ``L'Altra Mafia.''

The Massacre

The Corleone family began its rise within Cosa Nostra with the Lazio Street Massacre of 1969, and Provenzano was chosen to lead the hit to take out Michele ``the Cobra'' Cavataio. Cosa Nostra's high commission wanted him out of the way in order to end the first so-called mafia war and consolidate power in Palermo, Sicily's biggest city.

Provenzano, then 36, and four other men carrying machineguns and pistols entered the two-story office building dressed as police, according to a report by Italy's Antimafia Commission.

Cavataio was the most feared gangster of his time. His nickname ``the Cobra'' came from his favorite firearm, the Colt Cobra, a six-shot revolver. It was the same brand of pistol Jack Ruby used to kill John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Cavataio, though skilled, was no match for Provenzano.

After a shootout that left 200 bullet casings on the floor and four people dead, including one of Provenzano's gang, ``an unreal silence fell upon the room,'' according to Giuseppe Calderone, a mobster who turned state's witness and told the story to magistrates 20 years after the crime. ``They could hear the cars passing by on the street outside.''

The Cobra

Cavataio played dead, and then turned on Provenzano with his Colt Cobra in hand. There was only a click. He had finished his bullets, Calderone said. Provenzano then tried to shoot him with his machinegun. That was jammed. Provenzano used the butt of his gun and his feet to knock Cavataio unconscious, and then his pistol to finish him off, Calderone said.

It was the story of this crime, and others before it, that earned Provenzano his nickname ``the tractor,'' or ``u tratturi'' in Sicilian dialect. It was a turning point in his Mafia career that earned him the kind of fear and respect needed to become a boss within Cosa Nostra, Calderone said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Palermo at sscherer@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 11, 2006 12:58 EDT