Giovanni Falcone

Giovanni Falcone.

Giovanni Falcone, (May 18, 1939 – May 23, 1992), was an Italian magistrate who specialised in prosecuting mafia crimes.

 

Aerial view of the ambush site.

 

 

 

His life story is quite similar to that of his closest friend Paolo Borsellino. Both shared provenance from a rather poor area of Palermo, had careers as Anti-mafia magistrates, and equally sad fates: both were killed (less than two months apart) in particularly audacious bomb attacks in 1992.

 

 

Falcone was one of the major organizers of the Maxi Trial of the mid-1980s that saw hundreds of Mafiosi convicted of serious crimes. One of the most important factors in the trial was the testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, the first ever Sicilian Mafioso to become an informant. It was Falcone to whom Buscetta preferred to speak when giving up the secrets of the Mafia, as Buscetta later claimed that, whilst other magistrates and detectives patronized him, Falcone treated him with respect.

 

Falcone was killed with his wife Francesca Morvillo (herself a magistrate) and three policemen: Rocco Di Cillo, Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani, in Capaci on the motorway between Palermo International Airport and the city of Palermo on May 23, 1992. The car in which he was travelling was blown up by a bomb that had been placed in trenches dug by the side of the road. When passing over the bomb, Falcone was driving his car at an estimated speed of nearly 160 km/h.

 

The murder was organized by Salvatore Riina in revenge for Falcone's conviction of dozens of mobsters in the Maxi-Trials. In the major crackdown against the Mafia following Falcone and Borsellino's deaths, Riina was arrested and is now serving life for sanctioning the murders of both magistrates as well as many other crimes. Another mafioso convicted of the murder of Falcone is Giovanni Brusca, one of Riina's associates who admitted to being the one who actually detonated the explosives.

Palermo airport is now also known by the name Falcone-Borsellino Airport in honor of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. A memorial by local sculptor Tommaso Geraci can be found there. The Spirits of Falcone and Borsellino stand guard over anti-mafia laws like 41 bis and would exact a heavy political price before they surrendered them.

Sheets exposed in solidarity with Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. They read: "You did not kill them: their ideas walk on our legs".

 The story is documented in the movie Excellent Cadavers.