MESSINA, Sicily -- Two young gunmen burst into a sporting goods shop and killed a wealthy businessman related to New York Gov. Mario Cuomo's wife, Matilda, police said.
Francesco Gitto, 58, who played host to New York's first lady on a trip to Sicily in April, died in the Monday attack. The gunmen also killed Francesco Lavorini, 75, Gitto's relative who worked at the store in the town of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, police said Tuesday.
The Italian news agency ANSA described the attack on Gitto as a 'Mafia-style execution,' but did not elaborate on that description.
Former convict, Antonio Tardi, 26, suspected of acting as lookout in the double murder, was arrested Tuesday, officials said. They said two youths were seen fleeing the store.
Authorities said the killings might be linked to another double murder in which Saverio Squadrito, 52, and his son Giuseppe, 30, were shot in nearby Falcone Monday.
The popular New York governor once said there is no such thing as the Mafia, the Italian-run crime mob, but later retracted the statement. He also has complained about being plagued by rumors that his decision not to run for president is related to alleged family ties to the mob.
The Monday attack was witnessed by Gitto's grandmother, Girolama Raffa, 85, through whom Gitto traced his relationship to Matilda Raffa Cuomo. Gitto, a wealthy businessman, owned several shops in the town.
Matilda Cuomo, who was at the governor's mansion in Albany, was called upstairs from a Christmas party for disadvantaged children to receive the news of her cousin's death by telephone. She appeared shaken, but did not discuss the incident.
'The press office has confirmed questions we have received ... regarding a relative of Mrs. Cuomo,' said Thomas Conroy, a Cuomo spokesman. 'Mrs. Cuomo will not make any statement about the incident.'
Mario Cuomo expressed relief in November that a New York Magazine report found no substance to charges he and his wife's families had links to organized crime figures.
Much of the talk surrounded the mysterious mugging of Mrs. Cuomo's father, Charles Raffa, who was beaten so brutally in a Brooklyn parking lot that he suffered long-term brain damage.
