Someone Just Pulled a Bloody Godfather Stunt in Sicily

Severed horse's head found on businessman's property near Palermo, an apparent Mafia warning
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 22, 2024 8:58 AM CST
Updated Nov 24, 2024 3:50 PM CST
Sicilian Businessman Sent a Severed Horse's Head
Stock photo of Palermo.   (Getty Images/Iurii Buriak)

It's one of the most famous scenes in moviemaking history, and it just played out in real life on the Italian island of Sicily. The Guardian reports that a severed horse's head was found on the property of a local contractor, located in Altofonte near Palermo, placed on the seat of one of his construction vehicles. The remains of a pregnant cow and her calf were also found on the estate. The well-known businessman reported the incident, and other threats he's received previously, to police, who suspect he may have been targeted by the Sicilian mob—aka La Cosa Nostra—for not complying with some financial or other demand.

The grim discovery was reminiscent of the scene in 1972's The Godfather, in which director Francis Ford Coppola decided to shock audiences by having a movie producer wake up one morning to find a bloodied horse's head lying next to him in bed. "I can't comprehend such barbarity," says Altofonte Mayor Angela De Luca, offering her "total solidarity" to the contractor over a move that "seems to take us back to medieval times," per the Telegraph. "Like scenes from a horror movie" is how one local paper described what happened.

The Guardian notes that leaving decapitated animal heads or other body parts is a common intimidation move by Sicily's Mafia, "long ... known for its brutality," per the Telegraph. It's not the first time the area around Palermo has seen such tactics: Earlier this year, a goat's head was deposited at the home of another local contractor, while in 2023, a pig's head was left at the gate of a Messina police station. Meanwhile, a headless bird was found at a Palermo school in 2017. There are other incidents dating back even further, including a severed goat's head wrapped in a box and delivered on Christmas Eve in 2007 to the home of a sports director. "It gave my wife a terrible fright. She fainted when she opened the box," Rino Foschi told Reuters at the time. (More Sicily stories.)

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