BARI – He was killed in an ambush involving several gunshots on the evening of Monday 1 April Raffaelle Capriatiknown as Lello, 41 years old, son of Sabino and nephew of Tonino Capriati, the latter historical boss of the mafia clan of the same name from Bari Vecchia who is serving a life sentence under the 41bis regime.
The crime was committed in the Torre a Mare district, probably with an automatic weapon. Capriati was taken to the Bari Polyclinic where he died and where there were moments of great tension. Men from the Bari Police Headquarters flying squad are at work on site, coordinated by the DDA, for the ritual investigations.
Capriati was released from prison in September 2022 after serving 17 years for complicity in the killing of Michele Fazio, the 15-year-old killed by mistake in Bari Vecchia on 12 July 2001. His brother Mimmo was also killed in 2018.
THE MURDER OF MICHELE FAZIO
That cursed evening of 12 July 2001 in Largo Amendoni in Bari Vecchia, it was Leonardo Ungredda who pulled the trigger (killed in an ambush on 19 August 2003) but with him were Raffaele Capriati, known as Lello, then 18 years old, Francesco Annoscia, 19 years old and Michele Portoghese, 17 years old. They wanted to avenge the death of Francesco Capriati, 24 years old, another of the numerous nephews of the “godfather” Antonio, killed a few days earlier, on 29 June. Their target was Marino Catacchio, 31 years old (later murdered in 2008), who they considered the perpetrator of that crime.
They didn’t find him at home and focused on Vito De Felice, then 26 years old, son of a big shot like Giuseppe, known as Pinuccio “the Neapolitan”. One of the bullets aimed at De Felice hit the innocent Michele Fazio in the back of the head, just 15 years old, the eldest of four children, while he was returning home at 10.40pm. The assassins immediately realized that they had made a mistake, that they had killed “nu uagnon bun”, a good boy.
Among the pending stories, among the still open accounts of the Capriati clan is the death of Domenico Capriati, known as Mimmo, Lello’s brother, murdered in Japigia on 21 November 2018 while returning home under the eyes of his wife and son. Now Lello is also added, who since his exit had taken his place in the hierarchies of the family always considered hegemonic in the old city of Bari.