PANIC and confusion followed the arrest. As Italy's specialised antiMafia police - their identities concealed by balaclavas - held the elderly figure in a small farmhouse in Sicily, they could not be certain that they had their man.

So elusive was Bernardo Provenzano that authorities had only one photograph of Italy's most wanted individual, a black-and-white mugshot dating from 1959. The burly, dark-haired 26-yearold in the photograph bore little resemblance to the grey-haired, bespectacled man now under their capture. Police had been here before - in 2003 they were convinced they had arrested Provenzano, but the man in custody turned out to be a completely innocent bystander who happened to bear a resemblance to a computer-generated image of what the aged mafia boss should look like.

This time, however, the special agents had a trumpcard - a DNA sample taken from a doctor in Marseille whom Provenzano had secretly visited two years ago. Using the sample, they could prove that the 73-year-old captured in a remote farmhouse on Tuesday was their man.

The 42-year manhunt for Bernardo Provenzano, the capo dei capi of the Sicilian Costa Nostra, was finally over.

For Provenzano, last week marked the end of a remarkable criminal career spanning over 50 years. For the mafia organisation he ran with such ruthless efficiency, Tuesday's capture is also a watershed and is a massive blow against their criminal empire.

Like mafia bosses that have fallen before him, Provenzano will now be consigned to prison for the rest of his life.

In 1993 he was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for his role in the double murders of anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Further charges relating to his widespread criminality - which include murder, extortion, human trafficking and money-laundering to name but a few - may also be added.

In an organisation engulfed by secrecy and legend, Provenzano was perhaps the most legendary of all mafia bosses. For over 40 years, he has remained on the run, constantly one step ahead of police despite a widelyheld belief that he has remained on the island of Sicily since disappearing without a trace in 1963.

Yet, for all the romantic imagery of Provenzano's elusive past, the smiling eyes of the boss of bosses that were paraded before the media in Palermo this week hide a vicious and bloodstained legacy.

Born in Corleone, the Sicilian town made famous by Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Provenzano joined the local mafia shortly after the end of second world war. Michele Navarra was the highest boss at the time but Provenzano was ambitious and was taken in by Luciano Liggio, one of Navarra's lieutenants.

It was not long before Provenzano, together with his closest ally Toto Riina, were planning an audacious coup. Under the guidance of Liggio, the two young enforcers led a fatal ambush on Navarra in 1958, riddling his car with 112 bullets, leaving Liggio as the undisputed godfather of the underworld.

The assassination of Navarra propelled Provenzano - then just 25 years of age - to the top of the mafia. It gained him power, but also enemies. In the internal mafia war which followed Navarra's killing, Provenzano was behind so many killings that he became known as ?The Tractor' for his ability to mow down opponents.

In 1963, Provenzano disappeared into the hills of Sicily, where, until last Tuesday, he has remained. Even after rising to the position of Godfather in 1993 following the arrest of Riina, who had replaced Liggio as boss of bosses, Provenzano's life has been far from glamourous. Although he has been protected by a series of safehouses, the mafia don has often, literally, resided in the hills.

It was from rural confines five years ago that Provenzano watched anti-Mafia police break-up a meeting of crime bosses in Palermo, resulting in the arrest of some of his top lieutenants. Police had believed Provenzano would be at the meeting but, agonizingly, he was just 200 metres away, watching the event unfold.

After 42 years on the run, Provenzano's race against the police ended on Tuesday, when he gave up without resistance after the authorities surrounded a farmhouse near Corleone.

He has remained in custody this week, although it is understood that he has refused to cooperate with police's attempts to unravel his 50-year criminal legacy.

Unshaven but neatly groomed, Provenzano was displayed to the media in Palermo on Tuesday following his capture. A small crowd of people also gathered to spray insults at the man who has been at the top of the world's most notorious criminal organisation for almost 50 years.

His eyes hiding the secrets of Italy's shame, Provenzano faced down the crowd with a smile that appeared to break into laughter. Even if Bernard Provenzano never says one word to investigating police, perhaps the smile said it all.