[2] Another nickname was il ragioniere ("the accountant"), due to his apparently subtle and low-key approach to running his crime empire, at least in contrast to some of his more violent predecessors.

[2][3] Provenzano was part of the Corleonesi Mafia clan who backed mob boss Luciano Leggio in the ambush and murder of Michele Navarra in the late 1950s.

In August 1958, Provenzano was one of the 14 gunmen who backed mob boss Luciano Leggio in the ambush and murder of Michele Navarra.

[2][3] In 1981, Provenzano and Riina unleashed the so-called Second Mafia War, with which they eliminated rival bosses and established a new "Commission", composed only of capomandamenti;[10] during the meetings of the "Commission", Provenzano participated in the decisions and the organization of numerous murders as an influential exponent of the district of Corleone[11][12] and repeatedly protected, with intimidation, the political career of Vito Ciancimino, the main political referent of the Corleonesi.

[13][14][15] In 1993 after Riina's arrest, in a meeting at Villabate, it was decided that both Bernardo Provenzano and Leoluca Bagarella would take charge of holding Corleone's mandate together.

[3] According to mob godmother-turned-informant Giuseppina Vitale, Provenzano had appeared at a 1992 Cosa Nostra summit meeting dressed in the purple robes of a Catholic bishop.

For example, Provenzano systematically underlined verses from the Bible and took notes of relevant passages to be threaded in his pizzini through otherwise routine instructions regarding daily business matters.

In particular, the expression Con il volere di Dio (With God's will), to date has been counted 43 times, and it often appears more than once in the same piece of communication.

[24] In October 2003, Provenzano was driven to France, allegedly by Villabate mobster Salvatore Troia, to undergo prostate surgery at a private clinic near Marseille.

[26] Mario Cusimano, another Villabate mobster who was later arrested, began to collaborate with police in 2005, and revealed to the investigators that the identity card used by Provenzano to go to Marseille had been stamped by Francesco Campanella, former president of the municipal council of Villabate,[27] and in September 2005, Campanella also began to collaborate with police who confirmed that he was the one who had stamped the document.

[30] On 25 January 2005, police raided various homes in Sicily and arrested 46 Mafia suspects believed to be helping Provenzano elude the authorities.

[2][35][36] The police were able to pinpoint Provenzano's exact location by the simplest of connections; they tracked a delivery of clean laundry from his family to his farmhouse hide-out.

In a message referring to an important decision for Cosa Nostra, Provenzano told Rotolo: "It's up to you, me and Lo Piccolo to decide this thing.

"[44] Anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo said that it was unlikely that there would be an all-out war over who would fill Provenzano's shoes.

[64] Refused a public funeral by the church and the Palermo police chief,[65] Provenzano was cremated in Milan, and on 18 July his ashes were buried in his family tomb in a cemetery in his hometown of Corleone.