Editing Tommaso Buscetta (section)

==''Pentito''==
[[Image:Tommaso Buscetta.jpg|left|thumb|Buscetta (in sunglasses) is led into court at the [[Maxi Trial]], circa 1986.]]

Buscetta revealed information to Falcone for 45 days,<ref name="death"/> explaining the inner workings and hierarchical structures of [[Cosa Nostra]] including the [[Sicilian Mafia Commission]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archivio.lastampa.it/LaStampaArchivio/main/History/tmpl_viewObj.jsp?objid=894340 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2019-09-23 |archive-date=2013-04-03 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20130403031311/http://archivio.lastampa.it/LaStampaArchivio/main/History/tmpl_viewObj.jsp?objid=894340 |url-status=dead }}</ref> that, until then, were unclear because of the strict [[Omertà|code of silence]]. This became known as the "Buscetta theorem".<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]]}}</ref> He also revealed [[Mafia initiation ritual]]s.<ref name="Lubasch, Arnold H 1985">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/30/nyregion/admitted-member-of-mafia-tells-of-oath-and-deadly-punishment.html|author=Lubasch, Arnold H.|title=Admitted Member of Mafia Tells of Oath and Deadly Punishment.|work=The New York Times|date=October 30, 1985}}</ref> Buscetta refused to speak with Falcone of the political ties of Cosa Nostra because, in his opinion, the state was not ready for statements of that magnitude, and proved to be quite general on that subject.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1992/10/22/in-nome-di-falcone-buscetta-ha.html|title=E IN NOME DI FALCONE BUSCETTA HA ROTTO IL SILENZIO SUI POLITICI - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=22 October 1992 |language=it}}</ref>

In December 1984, he was extradited to the United States where he received a new identity from the government and American citizenship and was placed in the [[United States Federal Witness Protection Program|Witness Protection Program]] in exchange for new revelations against the [[American Mafia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1992/05/26/buscetta-onore-al-grande-ex-nemico.html|title=BUSCETTA: ' ONORE AL GRANDE EX NEMICO' - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=26 May 1992 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1985/11/15/cittadinanza-americana-al-pentito-buscetta.html|title=CITTADINANZA AMERICANA AL PENTITO BUSCETTA - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=15 November 1985 |language=it}}</ref> He testified in the [[Pizza Connection Trial]], which took place in 1985 in New York and saw defendants [[Gaetano Badalamenti]] and other Sicilian-American mafiosi accused of drug trafficking.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1987/03/04/la-fine-di-pizza-connection.html|title=LA FINE DI ' PIZZA CONNECTION' - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=4 March 1987 }}</ref> He also testified in 1986 at the largest trial against the Mafia in history, the [[Maxi Trial]] in Palermo, arising from the statements made to Falcone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1986/02/08/vecchi-nuovi-pezzi-da-novanta.html|title=VECCHI E NUOVI PEZZI DA NOVANTA - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=8 February 1986 |language=it}}</ref> Buscetta helped judges Falcone and [[Paolo Borsellino]] achieve significant success in the fight against [[organized crime]], which led to 475 Mafia members indicted and 338 convicted; those sentences were upheld in 1992.<ref name=theorem/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1987/12/17/giudici-hanno-creduto-buscetta.html|title=I GIUDICI HANNO CREDUTO A BUSCETTA|publisher=repubblica.it|date=17 December 1987|language=Italian}}</ref>

In mid-1992, following the bomb attacks in which Falcone and Borsellino were killed, Buscetta began to speak of the political ties of the Cosa Nostra with magistrates, accusing [[Salvo Lima]], killed a few months earlier, and [[Giulio Andreotti]] of being the main political referents of the organization; in particular, he reported that he had known Lima personally since the late 1950s, and had met him last in 1980, and also reported that he had learned that the murder of the journalist [[Mino Pecorelli]] in 1979 would have been carried out in Andreotti's interest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1995/04/25/la-verita-di-buscetta-lima-gli.html|title=- la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://legxiv.camera.it/_dati/leg14/lavori/documentiparlamentari/indiceetesti/023/016t02_RS/00000056.pdf|title=Senato della Repubblica XIV LEGISLATURA Documenti|access-date=2019-01-23|archive-date=2013-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313021321/http://legxiv.camera.it/_dati/leg14/lavori/documentiparlamentari/indiceetesti/023/016t02_RS/00000056.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Buscetta was one of the main witnesses of the trials against Andreotti for mafia association and for the Pecorelli murder.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1996/09/08/buscetta-al-processo-pecorelli.html|title=BUSCETTA AL PROCESSO PECORELLI - la Repubblica.it|website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it|date=8 September 1996 |language=it}}</ref> Andreotti was eventually acquitted in 1999 of the charge of having commissioned the assassination of Pecorelli.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/25/world/ex-premier-andreotti-acquitted-of-mafia-murder-conspiracy.html |title=Ex-Premier Andreotti Acquitted of Mafia Murder Conspiracy |first=Alessandra |last=Stanley |date=25 September 1999 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> In court, Buscetta also elaborated in great detail the hidden exchanges that linked politicians and the Mafia. He stated: 
<blockquote>It is not Cosa Nostra that contacts the politician; instead a member of the Cosa Nostra says, that president is mine (è cosa mia), and if you need a favor, you must go through me. In other words, the Cosa Nostra figure maintains a sort of monopoly on that politician. Every family head in the Mafia selects a man whose characteristics already make him look approachable. Forget the idea that some pact is reached first. On the contrary, one goes to that candidate and says, "Onorevole, I can do this and that for you now, and we hope that when you are elected you will remember us". The candidate wins and he has to pay something back. You tell him, "We need this, will you do it or not?". The politician understands immediately and acts always.<ref name="Vannucci">[[Donatella Della Porta]], Alberto Vannucci, ''Corrupt Exchanges'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=M0dy9Vi0JSEC&pg=PA222&dq=Carmine+Alfieri&ei=aDGoSKymCIGgsgPFmdXiAQ&sig=ACfU3U2ms92JGLMXM7npJtsO8o50iAGzzQ#PPA221,M1, Google Print, p. 221].</ref></blockquote>

During a trial in 1993, the Mafia member [[Salvatore Cancemi]] confessed to Buscetta that he had [[strangled]] two of Buscetta's sons to death. After the trial, Buscetta embraced Cancemi and said: "You could not refuse the order. I forgive you because I know what it means to be in Cosa Nostra."<ref name=dickie1>Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', pp. 416-17</ref>