rome, italy —
It was the necklace that helped Denise Kosko identify her mother after she was murdered by her father and boyfriend.
Cosco, his father Carlo, and his mother Lia Garofalo vacationed together in November 2009, seeing an opportunity for reconciliation after Lia testified to authorities about her husband’s drug dealings with the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organization in Calabria. But Carlo wasn’t willing to forgive. It would be another three years before Leah’s body was found.
“When they showed me the necklace among the remains of her charred bones, I knew right away that it belonged to her and that she had given her life to save me,” Kosko later said. “I can never thank her enough.”
Like her mother, Cosco spent years hiding under Italy’s witness protection program as a result of testifying against the mob. Both left the show due to their dissatisfaction with the Italian state.
And their connection didn’t end there. The most tragic thing is that Leah was 35 years old when she died. This was the same age Denise was when she fell to her death from the apartment she shared with her husband and four-year-old son in Rome earlier this month.
Prosecutors are now trying to find out whether the mafia was behind her death by “abetting” her suicide. She left no notes explaining her thinking.
The incident has sparked a new debate in Italy over the safety of participants in the mafia syndicate’s state witness program and the physical and psychological burden it places on those who dare to challenge the mafia’s code of silence.
Cosco lived for six years under a false identity created by the Italian state after testifying against his father and then-boyfriend Carmine Venturino in November 2009 about the kidnapping, torture, mutilation and murder of his mother. Both men were sentenced to life in prison, although Mr. Venturino’s sentence was later commuted.
The killing of Lea Garofalo was seen as a revenge attack after she testified against her husband and brother about suspected drug trafficking crimes in Milan.
Her testimony about wanting to protect her daughter, who grew up in a mafia family, made her one of Italy’s most famous “turncoats,” or state witnesses who cooperate with authorities against organized crime. Since her murder, streets, parks, and schools have been named after her in honor of her courage.
Mr. Garofalo’s body was discovered after Mr. Venturino admitted to both the murder and hiding and burning the body, and authorities eventually located where it was hidden.
At her mother’s funeral in October 2013, Kosko, then 22, spoke from behind bulletproof glass to express her gratitude to her mother. “Today is a very difficult day for me, but you have given me strength,” she said of her mother. “I will never stop thanking you.”
Garofalo and Kosko are among the few women who chose or were able to escape their crime families, despite the undoubtedly harmful consequences. Approximately 6,000 people are in Italy’s witness protection program, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry, but many are facing difficulties maintaining protection.
Anti-Mafia prosecutor Alessandra Ceretti, who has persuaded dozens of women to testify against organized crime families across Italy, acknowledges the risks are high.
Under Italian law, investigators have 180 days to work with potential collaborators to determine whether they are telling the truth or in fact remain loyal to the crime family.
“There’s only so much time to get the full picture,” Ceretti told CNN, adding that there are often budget constraints and a lack of backers, especially right after someone escapes from a crime family.
If they are accepted into the program, their protection is evaluated every four years to see if the turncoats are still cooperative, or if they have returned to their Mafia families or simply disappeared. The collaborators are given a place to live, false identities, jobs and life stories that can be corroborated by anyone looking into them, but they live on very little money and rarely feel safe, Ceretti said.
Garofalo hid his daughter in convents and small towns across Italy until he left witness protection in 2009, the year she was murdered, citing “financial hardship” and the “constant threat of being removed from protection.” The government was unable to substantiate her testimony because there were no other witnesses.
Under Italian law, the state removes protection if the turncoat’s testimony cannot be corroborated or the threat is no longer perceived.
“More time would allow us to better protect those who come forward and make it easier for others to do the same,” Ceretti said. “But running away often feels just as dangerous as staying.”
Kosko’s husband was home at the time of her fall from the window and was being questioned, but he is not a suspect. It is unclear whether he knew she was in witness protection.
After she spent four days in the hospital and died on September 10, she was known only by authorities as Denise Kosko. Italian media reported that her father said from prison through his lawyer that the two had begun to reconcile, but details about what that meant were not yet clear.
A criminal investigation was launched and Ms Kosko’s cell phone and electronic devices were sequestered to determine whether she had been under threat from someone connected to her mother’s murder, or whether the pressures of a complicated life, guilt and grief had become too much.
Enza Rand, a lawyer who helped testify against her father and boyfriend in 2009, told CNN that the state also bears responsibility for failing to provide adequate protection and support for people who intersect with criminal organizations.
“The mafia kills in many different ways. They kill by creating real monsters in the lives of those left behind,” Rand said. ”
Kosko’s death has shaken anti-Mafia investigators. Naples prosecutor Nicola Gratelli, who has separated hundreds of state informants from criminal families and guided them to cooperate with courts, told reporters her death was a setback for the fight against organized crime and could make it more difficult to get people to testify.
It also upset people living under protection. Giuseppe Carini, who lives under a false identity as a witness to the murder of a Catholic priest who preached against Sicily’s Cosa Nostra in 1993, wrote in an open letter shared by his lawyer that Cosco had let him down “at the highest levels of the state and government.”
“Witnesses of justice are brave people, and Leah and Denise are brave women who are said to never die, but we don’t want tombstones or inscriptions carved in marble. Witnesses of justice have a sacred right to live and lead a normal life,” he said.
After Kosko’s death, his aunt Marisa Garofalo posted a photo of her holding up a T-shirt with her late mother’s name on it.
When she died, only her trusted family members even knew what Costco looked like, as she was living under a false identity. “Now I can show you your beautiful eyes,” my aunt wrote.
“No one can make decisions for you anymore. You don’t have to hide anymore.”
