Giovanni Falcone - Bibliography

Magistrate, born in Palermo, Sicily, S Italy. In 1978 he was appointed to Palermo where he began a campaign against the Mafia, leading to the successful prosecution of 338 top members in 1987. He became director-general of the criminal affairs division in the Justice Ministry in Rome, and several attempts were made on his life. He was killed, along with his wife and escort, when a one-ton bomb exploded under his car.

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

Falcone was one of the major organizers of the Maxi Trial that began February 10, 1986 and finished December 16, 1987. 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 murder was organized by Salvatore Riina in revenge for Falcone's conviction of dozens of mobsters in the Maxi-Trials. 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.

The last years of Falcone's life, the Maxi Trial and his assassination are documented in the HBO movie Excellent Cadavers.

Bibliography

(Italian) Claudio Fava, Cinque delitti imperfetti: Impastato, Giuliano, Insalaco, Rostagno, Falcone, Mondadori, 1994 Fondazione Giovanni Falcone, Giovanni Falcone: interventi e proposte (1982 – 1992) F. Patroni Griffi, Sansoni, 1994 Lucio Galluzzo, Obiettivo Falcone, Pironti, 1992 Francesco La Licata, Storia di Giovanni Falcone, Rizzoli, 1993 Saverio Lodato, Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone: la confessione di Giovanni Brusca, Mondadori, 1999 Giammaria Monti, Falcone e Borsellino: la calunnia il tradimento la tragedia, Editori Riuniti, 1996 Marcelle Padovani e Giovanni Falcone, Cose di Cosa Nostra, Rizzoli, Milano 1991 Luca Rossi, I disarmati: Falcone, Cassarà e gli altri, Mondadori, 1992 Raoul Muhm, Gian Carlo Caselli : Il ruolo del Pubblico Ministero – Esperienze in Europa ;