Mafia 'boss of bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina has died while serving multiple life sentences, according to Italian media.
The justice ministry had allowed his family a bedside visit at a hospital in Parma shortly before his death on Thursday. The reports said he died aged 87 on Friday morning but the government had no immediate comment.
He had been placed in a medically induced coma after his health deteriorated following two recent surgeries.
Riina, one of Sicily's most notorious Mafia bosses, was serving 26 life sentences for murder convictions as a powerful Cosa Nostra boss.
He was captured in Palermo, Sicily's capital, in 1993 and imprisoned under a law that requires strict security for top mobsters, including isolation in prison and limited time outside their cells.
PA