The murderer of Judge Falcone, released after serving 25 years in prison
The end of the sentence came punctually, slowly but inexorably: thirty years in prison, which with the early release that applies to all prisoners – 45 days discount for every six months spent in the cell, the only benefit that is also grants gangsters – they stay at twenty five. And so Giovanni Brusca, the man at the heart of the “capo” of Cosa Nostra Salvatore “Totó” Riina, the arsonist who detonated the Capaci bomb, arrested in 1996, was released Monday from the Roman prison of Rebibbia. Free, although with some residual limitations and always under protection, fully enrolled in the program for those who repent.
It was the collaboration with Justice that allowed the perpetrator of the Capaci massacre, the murderer of Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and the three escort agents not to die in jail like the other leaders of Cosa Nostra who planned this and other massacres as well as hundreds of homicides. The crimes committed by Brusca could not even be counted, because of how numerous they were.. But thanks to the decision to confess, denounce and convict the other gangsters, bosses, sub-bosses and henchmen, he avoided life imprisonment. Thirty years is a long time, but everything ends up coming and now that period has come to an end..
The leader of the League, Matteo Salvini has assured: “It is not the justice that Italy deserves”, while Maria Falcone, the sister of judge Giovanni, has commented: “Humanly it is news that hurts me, but this is the law, a law that my brother wanted, that's why you have to respect it”. Brusca is the last repentant of the massacre to be released from jail; those who helped him blow up the Palermo-Punta Raisi highway and who also chose the path of collaboration have been free for some time: Gioacchino La Barbera, Santino Di Matteo and some others.
Di Matteo was the first to confess, in the fall of '93; In revenge, the mafia kidnapped his twelve-year-old son Giuseppe, kept him kidnapped for more than two years and then killed him and dissolved him in acid.. All this, by order of Giovanni Brusca. It was early 1996 and the murderer, also called “'u verru” (the pig, in Sicilian), had only a few months left on his freedom.. He was captured on May 20 of that year, in the province of Agrigento, after some failed attempts in which the investigators were left with only the designer shirts that Brusca liked to wear so much and that he left abandoned in his flight.. That time, however, they hit the mark, and the mafia boss, who was not yet thirty (he was born on February 20, 1957) was arrested along with his brother Enzo, another Corleonesi worker, another repentant that has been released.
The collaboration of Giovanni Brusca -son of the capo Bernardo, sentenced to prison in a trial conducted by Falcone and Paolo Borsellino- began with an attempt to mislead. He spoke of pacts under the table, tried to reveal ambiguous contacts with the State and tried to target the former president of the Antimafia Luciano Violante; it was all lies orchestrated to undermine the institutions.
The Capaci Massacre
After the failure of that strategy, Brusca decided to collaborate and revealed many details of Totò Riina's strategy, first to dominate Cosa Nostra and then to attack the State.. Brusca was one of his operational arms; if not the most faithful, one of the most effective.
When in 1992 the Corleone cacique decided to end the pacts with politicians by whom he felt betrayed and revive mafia terrorism to put an end to his historical enemies, Falcone and Borsellino, Brusca was in charge of carrying it out.. Other assassins who had been sent to Rome to track down the anti-mafia judge (who had moved to the Ministry of Justice = did not fulfill their mission. It was at that time that Riina charged Brusca with the murder that took place on May 23, 1992, with the explosion on the highway. Also then, as a repentant Brusa would later confess, “his uncle Totò” ordered him to kill the Christian democrat Calogero Mannino, although immediately afterwards he asked him to wait; there was another victim to give priority to: the also anti-family judge Paolo Borsellino.
With his statements, Brusca gave rise to an investigation into the relations between the mafia and the State and spoke of the “papello” (note, in Sicilian), the agreement between elements of the Cosa nostra and public officials. Always questioned but always considered substantially reliable, Brusca had enjoyed for some time prison permits, sometimes suspended when he took advantage of them to violate some rules, but then always reinstated. Several times he requested house arrest, which was denied by the judges. Until the end of the sentence, which came on Monday.
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