The head of the Sicilian mafia sent a hit man to America to arrange the murder of Rudy Giuliani in the 1980s, Italian news media reported. 
 
 “Boss of bosses” Salvatore Riina targeted Giuliani because of his friendship with an anti-mafia judge in Sicily, Giovanni Falcone. 
 
 The plot to kill Giuliani, while he was US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, came to light during a trial in Sicily in which former Italian government officials are accused of agreeing to a peace pact with the mob in the 1990s. 
 
 During the trial in Palermo, it was disclosed that a former mafioso, Rosario Naimo, moved to the United States in 1965 and became the Sicilian mob’s senior representative in the US. 
 
 Naimo told investigators that a bloodthirsty mobster named Benedetto “The Beast” Villico arrived from Italy with a letter from Riina that ordered the assassination of Giuliani, the news agency ANSA reported. 
 
 But Riina dropped the plan when he realized that US law enforcement could retaliate by destroying the Sicilian mob, the website Palermo Today said. 
 
 Falcone wasn’t as lucky. He was assassinated by Riina’s men in 1992. 
 
 Giuliani has said in the past that he was targeted while he was mayor. “They offered $800,000 to kill me,” he said last year in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. 
 
 “Then toward the end of the time I was mayor, a particular mafia guy, who was convicted and put in jail for 100 years, put out a contract to kill me for $400,000,” he said. “I kind of felt bad that I went down in value.” 
 
 He appeared to be referring to Riina, who is serving multiple life sentences. 

 The Sicilian mafia wanted Rudy Giuliani to sleep with the fishes. 
 
 Crime boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina ordered the hit on Giuliani back in the 1980s when the future New York City mayor was a mob-busting federal prosecutor, Italian newspapers are reporting. 
 
 The source of that story is mafia turncoat Rosario Naimo, who spilled his secrets this week to Palermo-based prosecutors. 
 
 Naimo said Riina was alarmed that Giuliani was joining forces with Sicily-based prosecutors like the legendary Giovanni Falcone, the papers reported. 
 
 So Riina dispatched Naimo to New York City and told him to get the okay from the Gambino crime family to rub out Giuliani. 
 
 No way, said the alarmed Gambinos, who warned Naimo that if Giuliani was murdered the U.S. government would “annihilate the mafia,” the papers reported. 
 
 Giuliani was out of the country Friday and not immediately reachable for comment about the reports, a spokesman said. 
 
 But back in November, the failed Republican presidential candidate told Oprah Winfrey the mafia took out a contract on him during his first year as mayor. 
 
 “They offered $800,000 to kill me,” he said. “Then, toward the end of the time I was the mayor, a particular mafia guy who we convicted and put in jail for 100 years put out a contract to kill me for $400,000.” 
 
 Then Giuliani joked, “I kind of felt bad that I went down in value.” 
 
 Giuliani might want to count his blessings. Falcone, his wife and three cops was killed in 1992 by a massive roadside bomb outside Palermo. 
 
 Riina, who was the “boss of bosses” of Cosa Nostra, was imprisoned for multiple murders and other crimes a year later. 
 
 Short of stature and temper, Riina was born and raised in Corleone — a town made famous by the Godfather movies — and nicknamed “The Beast” by fellow mobsters. 
 
 csiemaszko@nydailynews.com 
 
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– The Sicilian mob hated Rudy Giuliani so much when he worked as a federal prosecutor in New York back in the 1980s that it sent a hit man to the US to get rid of him, reports the New York Post. Similar reports have surfaced before, but a mafia turncoat fleshed out the details this week during a trial in Italy. It seems that the head of the Sicilian mafia, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, personally ordered the hit and sent a lackey from Italy to the US with a letter ordering it to take place. Luckily for Giuliani, the Gambino crime family vetoed the idea, knowing that the feds would strike back hard if one of their own were assassinated, reports the Daily News. Giuliani drew the ire of the mob not only for his own crackdown on organized crime but for his close association with an anti-mafia judge in Sicily named Giovanni Falcone. The judge, incidentally, was murdered by mob hitmen in 1992. Giuliani himself has spoken of such plots before, telling Oprah Winfrey last year that he knew of two contracts against him as mayor.