Vitale cooperated in the kidnap and killing of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of fellow mafioso Santino Di Matteo, who had become a pentito in 1993. The boy was held for 26 months to force his father to retract his testimony. The boy was finally strangled on the orders of Giovanni Brusca. Subsequently the body was dissolved in a barrel of acid to destroy the evidence. Vitale, who allegedly supplied the acid, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.