Falcone, Giovanni

Born in Palermo, Italy, in 1939, Giovanni Falcone was the son of Arturo Falcone, director of a provincial chemical laboratory, and Luisa Bentivegna. He spent part of his youth in the Magione District, which suffered extensive destruction during the Allied aerial attacks of 1943. Falcone received a classical education and briefly attended Livorno's naval academy prior to studying law. In 1961, he graduated from law school and practiced law for 3 years before being appointed as a judge in 1964. By the 1970s, Falcone was hearing cases involving organized crime. During the next decade, Falcone's work in the courtroom helped dissolve the aura of mystique and myth surrounding the structure and culture of the Mafia. By the 1980s, following years of bloodshed (and the murders of police officers and judges), he was making headway in this pursuit.

Falcone was also an innovator in that he persuaded several important Mafiosi, most notably Tomasso Buscetta, to talk about the Mafia and provide useful information about its activities. Cooperation with authorities was also important, because the Mafia is an international organization. Before Falcone's efforts, little progress had been made in prosecuting Sicilian Mafiosi who moved about the United States, particularly in the New York area, without being traced by Italian authorities or identified by the American system. Later, the success of the “Pizza Connection” trial in the United States owed much to Falcone's efforts in Italy.

In 1986 and 1987, Falcone and others presided over the “Maxi Trial” of 475 alleged Mafiosi in Palermo. The case, a parallel to the Pizza Connection trial, drew international attention by bringing the Mafia out into the open—but most of the 338 criminals convicted served little more than token sentences before being released under Italy's lax penal code, with its extremely high burden of proof. Mafia kingpin Michele Greco and Salvatore Riina, Greco's successor from Corleone, were eventually convicted.

The Mafia permeates every facet of the Sicilian economy, whether in the form of the drug trade, money laundering, political corruption (payoffs and kickbacks), or the pizzo (protection money). Statistically, the problem is far worse in Palermo than in Catania. Giovanni Falcone knew this, and so did most Sicilians. Apart from cases of localized interest, Falcone handled important narcotics cases, which were then the Mafia's stock and trade internationally. For all the press attention he received, Falcone became a lone crusader, and community folk regarded him as a folk hero. Meanwhile, the Mafia was contemplating Falcone's murder and actually attempted it several times.

Falcone and his staff continued their work in the anti-Mafia pool headquartered in Rome. This entailed a national position for Falcone as Italy's main prosecutor for Mafia cases and extensive travel between Rome and Palermo. Along the autostrada on May 23, 1992, near the town of Capaci, Falcone's car was exploded by a mass of plastic explosive placed in a small underpass. Falcone's wife, Francesca Morvilio, also a magistrate, was killed with him along with the members of his escort, police officers Rocco Di Cillo, Vito Schifani, and Antonio Montinaro. Back in Palermo, assassins were already plotting the murder [Page 160]of Paolo Borsellino, the judge who worked with Falcone.

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