Italian mafia boss shot dead leaving beach

CBS/AP

(AP) MILAN - Authorities were searching Friday for a gunman who shot and killed an organized crime boss clad in a swimsuit as he walked from a beach to join his family in a hotel in Terracina, a resort town south of Rome.

Gaetano Marino — a boss from the Neapolitan Camorra — was hit by at least four shots to the head and another five or six to his back Thursday afternoon as he left the beach en route to his hotel in Terracina, 60 miles south of Rome in Lazio region. His family had gone ahead of him back to the hotel, police said.

The shooting caused panic along the crowded beach, and witnesses told police the gunman fled the scene in a small gray car driven by a second man.

Marino, 48, headed the Scissionisti , or "secessionists" clan, which had fought a bloody turf war in the streets of Naples for years with the rival Di Lauro clan over control of drug trafficking. His killing was being investigated as a hit by rivals, either inside or out of his own clan.

Marino was known by the nickname "Moncherino," or stump, after he lost both hands in an explosion while planting a bomb in the 1990s. He stirred public outrage by appearing in the front row of a state TV audience this year while his 12-year-old daughter dedicated a song to him.

The Camorra in recent decades has been pushing up from Naples into Lazio, whose capital is Rome.

[formerlyluvnut]

4 to the head; not bad!

[lifeduringwartime]

Mama Mia! First I loosa mya handsa, then I getta shotta.

[Regur44]

Nine or ten shots!! Thatsa what I call a nicea overkill!! Looks like he won't be making anymore TV appearances.

[melbatom]

Someone had to tip off the shooter that this man was to be on the beach at this time! Wonder if government workers were involved? Time will NEVER tell us the truth in this case.

[randomites]

Maybe they didn't like the color of his Speedo.

[Molly-Pchr]

"clad in a bathing suit"...sounds suspicious.

[formerlyluvnut]

No loss to society.

[rwsmith29456]

Four in the head and five or six in the back. He must have made somebody angry.

[formerlyluvnut]

Very.