Editing Giovanni Falcone (section)

== Early life ==

Falcone was born in 1939 to a middle-class family in the Via Castrofilippo near the seaport district [[Kalsa|La Kalsa]], a neighbourhood of central Palermo that suffered extensive destruction by aerial attacks during the [[Allied invasion of Sicily]] in 1943. His father, Arturo Falcone, the director of a provincial chemical laboratory, was married to Luisa Bentivegna. Giovanni had two older sisters, Anna and Maria.<ref name=stille22/><ref name="licata23">La Licata, ''Storia di Giovanni Falcone'', p. 23, 83</ref> Falcone's parents emphasised the importance of hard work, bravery and patriotism; he later said they 'expected the maximum' from him. At school Falcone would get into fights with larger children if he thought his friends were being picked on.<ref name="follain8">Follain, ''Vendetta'', pp. 8–9</ref>

The Mafia was present in the area but quiescent; [[Tommaso Spadaro]], a boy with whom he played ping-pong in the neighbourhood [[Catholic Action]] recreation centre, would later become a notorious Mafia smuggler and killer, but mafiosi were not a major presence in his childhood. As boys, Falcone and Borsellino, who were born in the same neighbourhood, played soccer together on the Piazza Magione. Both had classmates who ended up as mafiosi.<ref name=stille22/><ref name="schneiders">[http://members.multimania.co.uk/ocnewsletter/SGOC0502/Schneiders.html Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and the Procura of Palermo] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021092210/http://members.multimania.co.uk/ocnewsletter/SGOC0502/Schneiders.html |date=21 October 2012 }}, Peter Schneider & Jane Schneider, May 2002, essay is based on excerpts from Chapter Six of Jane Schneider and Peter Schneider, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=f52WqN8pR14C Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428104813/https://books.google.com/books?id=f52WqN8pR14C |date=28 April 2016 }}'', Berkeley: University of California Press</ref><ref name=indobit>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-paolo-borsellino-1534572.html Obituary: Paolo Borsellino] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612204827/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-paolo-borsellino-1534572.html |date=12 June 2018 }}, [[The Independent]], 21 July 1992</ref> Falcone grew up at a time when [[Sicilians]] did not acknowledge the existence of the Mafia as a coherent organised group; assertions to the contrary by other Italians were often seen as 'attacks from the north'.<ref name=follain8/>

After a classical education, Falcone studied law at the [[University of Palermo]] following a brief period of study at [[Accademia Navale di Livorno|Livorno's naval academy]]. Falcone and Borsellino met again at Palermo University. While Falcone drifted away from his parents' middle-class [[Catholic Church in Italy|conservative Catholicism]] towards [[communism]], Borsellino was religious and conservative; in his youth, he had been a member of the ''{{ill|Fronte Universitario d'Azione Nazionale|it}}'' (FUAN), a right-wing university organisation affiliated with the neo-fascist MSI ([[Movimento Sociale Italiano]]). However, neither ever joined a political party, and although the ideologies of their political movements were diametrically opposed, they shared a history of opposing the Mafia. Their different political leanings did not thwart their friendship. Falcone wanted a [[Italian Navy|naval career]] but his father thought him too independent-minded for the armed forces, and sent him to study law.<ref name=stille22/><ref name=follain8/>

After graduating in 1961, Falcone began to practice law before being appointed a judge in 1964. Falcone eventually gravitated toward [[penal law]] after serving as a district magistrate. He was assigned to the [[Prosecutor#Italy|prosecutor's office]] in [[Trapani]] and [[Marsala]], and then in 1978 to the bankruptcy court in Palermo.<ref name=schneiders/><ref name=bof0402>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160126145626/http://bestofsicily.info/mag/art48.htm Remembering Judge Falcone]}}, ''Best of Sicily magazine'', April 2002</ref>