Mafia Leader's Lair Exposes Sexual Hang-Ups

ROME — Bernardo Provenzano, the former godfather of the Sicilian Mafia, was worried about being impotent, it emerged yesterday.

Mr. Provenzano, 74, was captured in April 2006 after an unprecedented 43 years on the run. In his lair, a small shepherd's hut near the town of Corleone in Sicily, thousands of tiny notes, or pizzini, were discovered, with instructions to his henchmen.

The notes were in code, and investigators have only just worked out that "number 60" was a man who gave regular medical attention to Mr. Provenzano and sought to calm his fears about his virility. With the cracking of the code this week, and the arrest of Gaetano Lipari, 47, the godfather's nurse, the full extent of his anxiety has been uncovered.

A page of typewritten notes contained suggestions and remedies for impotence, ranging from counseling to "a recently invented medicine, which can be taken by mouth before sexual relations." Another note from Mr. Lipari stated: "Dearest, I received your news with joy, but I am sorry to hear that you are not very well and things are going badly. I understand your movements are not as normal as the rest of us, but it is important to make an urgent appointment for an injection so as not to make your situation worse."

The police said Mr. Provenzano, the boss of all the bosses, had become worried after an operation on his prostate gland in 2002 in Marseille.