by Paolo Virtuani
Even then, the boss was recognized in a medical clinic, albeit in Barcelona, Spain, where he had been treated for a serious eye disease. This is how the recognition process works: from the experience of the portrait painters to the new artificial intelligence programs
If not exactly identical, very similar. Matteo Messina Denaro’s latest identikit, released during the mob boss’ escape, is not very dissimilar to the real-life image of the Cosa Nostra boss’s face that emerged after his arrest Monday morning at a private clinic in Palermo after some thirty years on the run life imprisonment against him.
The most recent
The most recent identikit dates back to 2014 and had been drawn up by the Gico of the Guardia di Finanza following the indications of a pentito, Vincenzo Sinacori, who had said that after an eye operation for retinal diseases carried out in Spain, the nr no longer wore the glasses of the ’70s model that he appeared in the previous Identikits.
The Barcelona Clinic
Fatality also in this case, so a medical clinic had something to do with it. The health manager interviewed by investigators confirmed the meeting and admitted to investigators that by the evening the man was suffering from an illness, so much so that he hypothesized that the mafia boss had gone blind in one eye. At the reception of the eye center, the boss gave his real date of birth and revealed his hometown: Castelevetrano. But he would have said his name was Matteo Messina and omitted the middle surname Money.
To change
For the rest, the new identikit was transmitted by the then assistant prosecutor of Palermo Teresa Principato, who coordinated the investigations to find the mafia boss at the Ros dei Carabinieri, at the SCO of the police and at the Dia: it showed a higher receding hairline than at the previous reconstructions, his hair still dark and his cheeks heavier with age. Almost as we saw it today, even if Messina Denaro was once again photographed with glasses.
The identity sentences
But how is identity testing done? Police, Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri have their own experienced designers based on the descriptions of witnesses, but now technology is helping too. For example, there are programs (from the most sophisticated, used by police forces, to the simplest, which can also be downloaded online) that allow the fugitive to “age” (this is the case, the one in history used by Matteo Messina Denaro) or the missing person (note the cases of Emanuela Orlandi and Denise Pipitone, who suspect their appearance as adults).
Artificial intelligence
We often use a database consisting of more than 16 million mug shots, also captured by security cameras, then the software can tell in less than a second if a person’s ID matches a person with a criminal record. The specific software uses the most advanced applications of artificial intelligence (AI), a topic around which an ethical debate has recently been opened due to the ability of the AI to simulate texts and speeches “in the style of historical figures”, but entirely invented. Using points and measurements, the program carries out a biometric image of the face, from which an identification code is obtained. This is then compared with the database.
drawing
Then there is the classic method, entrusted to experienced draftsmen and portrait painters. Their expertise is not just being able to draw: it is much more important to be able to grasp the nuances that allow you to personalize a face. You need a lot of patience and the ability to coordinate with contemporary witnesses, sometimes it takes dozens of portraits and hours of interviews before the right drawing is created. A drawing that must not be “cold”, but must convey the feeling of having a real face in front of you, only in this way can the identikit be useful for later recognition. If there is then more than one witness, each perhaps capturing a different detail of a character, the draftsman’s art lies entirely in his experience and in synthesizing the various clues or knowing how to capture the one that seems to appear be the most consistent.
January 16, 2023 (change January 16, 2023 | 2:28 p.m.)
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