The Mafia, the maxi-trial and the deaths of Falcone and Borsellino
Palermo magistrates put hundreds of mafiosi on trial, and in 1992 Cosa Nostra murders Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, provoking a national revolt against the Mafia.
- Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia — John Dickie, Hodder & Stoughton (2004)
- Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic — Alexander Stille, Pantheon (1995)
The Sicilian Mafia, Cosa Nostra, grew out of the violence and weak state of nineteenth-century western Sicily, offering “protection” and brokering power. After 1945 it flourished through construction, public contracts and heroin trafficking, often protected by politicians. In the “second Mafia war” of the early 1980s, the Corleonesi clan of Totò Riina killed hundreds of rivals as well as police chiefs, judges and politicians, including General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa in 1982.
- Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia — John Dickie, Hodder & Stoughton (2004)
A small “anti-mafia pool” of Palermo magistrates, led by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and helped by the testimony of the defector Tommaso Buscetta, proved that Cosa Nostra was a single hierarchical organisation. The maxi-trial, held in a bunker courtroom from February 1986, ended in December 1987 with 346 convictions; Italy’s supreme court upheld the verdicts in January 1992.
- Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic — Alexander Stille, Pantheon (1995)
- Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia — John Dickie, Hodder & Stoughton (2004)
Revenge followed. On 23 May 1992 a huge bomb under the motorway at Capaci killed Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three police escorts. On 19 July a car bomb in Via D’Amelio in Palermo killed Borsellino and five escorts. Public outrage was immense; Riina was arrested in January 1993, and the state passed tougher anti-mafia laws. Suspicions that parts of the state negotiated with the Mafia in those years have been the subject of long and contested trials.
- Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic — Alexander Stille, Pantheon (1995)
- Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia — John Dickie, Hodder & Stoughton (2004)
Today the ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria and the Camorra of Naples are seen as at least as powerful as Cosa Nostra, operating far beyond the South.
- Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia — John Dickie, Hodder & Stoughton (2004)
Why it matters today
For many Italians, Falcone and Borsellino are secular saints, and 23 May is a day of national remembrance. Their deaths turned anti-mafia work into a civic movement, from schoolchildren to shopkeepers refusing to pay protection money. Italians are also tired of the world equating Italy with the Mafia: most see organised crime as a problem they have fought harder, and paid more for, than anyone.