Editing Giovanni Falcone (section)

== Maxi Trial ==
{{main article| Maxi Trial}}
The Antimafia pool laid the groundwork for the [[Maxi Trial]] against the [[Sicilian Mafia]] at the preliminary investigative phase. Following Chinnici's murder in July 1983, [[Antonino Caponnetto]] headed the pool. Falcone's friend Antonio Cassara (who headed the police squad hunting fugitives) was murdered in 1985. Falcone led the prosecution for the trial, which began 10 February 1986, and ended on 16 December 1987. Of the 475 defendants—both those present and those tried ''in absentia''—338 were convicted. A total of 2,665 years of prison sentences was shared out between the guilty, not including the [[life imprisonment|life sentences]] handed to the 19 leading Mafia bosses and killers, including [[Michele Greco]], [[Giuseppe Marchese]] and—''in absentia''—[[Salvatore Riina]], [[Giuseppe Lucchese]] and [[Bernardo Provenzano]].<ref name=theorem>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/17/world/338-guilty-in-sicily-in-a-mafia-trial-19-get-life-terms.html|title=338 GUILTY IN SICILY IN A MAFIA TRIAL; 19 GET LIFE TERMS|date=17 December 1987|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=29 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922175547/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/17/world/338-guilty-in-sicily-in-a-mafia-trial-19-get-life-terms.html|archive-date=22 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

One of the most important factors in the trial was the testimony of [[Tommaso Buscetta]], the first-ever Sicilian Mafiosi boss to become an informant ([[pentito]]). His assertion that the Mafia was not a collection of separate gangs but a single organisation led some magistrates and detectives to question his credibility. After an interview, Falcone became convinced that Buscetta was genuine and treated him with respect. Buscetta's key revelation was that a governing council, known as the [[Sicilian Mafia Commission|Commission]] or ''Cupula'' headed a collective structure, thereby establishing that the top tier of Mafia members were complicit in all the organisation's crimes. This premise became known as the Buscetta theorem.<ref>Follain, p.19-21</ref>