Editing Giovanni Falcone

{{Short description|Italian judge (1939–1992)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Expand Italian|topic=bio|Giovanni Falcone|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Giovanni Falcone
| image              = Giovanni Falcone 2.jpg
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1939|05|18|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Palermo]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1992|05|23|1939|05|18|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Capaci]], Italy
| death_cause        = Assassinated by the [[Sicilian Mafia]]
| nationality        = Italian
| other_names        = 
| alma_mater         = [[University of Palermo]]
| occupation         = Magistrate
| known_for          = {{Nowrap|Investigations into the Mafia}}
| spouse             = {{Marriage|[[Francesca Morvillo]]|1986}}
| signature          = Giovanni Falcone signature.svg
}}

'''Giovanni Falcone''' ({{IPA|it|dʒoˈvanni falˈkoːne|lang}}; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting [[magistrate]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/mafia/character6.html|title=Mafia|website=interactive.aljazeera.com|access-date=9 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820101837/https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/mafia/character6.html|archive-date=20 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qaS0CwAAQBAJ&q=giovanni+falcone+italian+judge&pg=PA78|title=Drug Politics: Dirty Money and Democracies|first=David C.|last=Jordan|date=22 January 2016|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=9780806172217|access-date=9 September 2018|via=Google Books|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726104201/https://books.google.it/books?id=qaS0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=giovanni+falcone+italian+judge&source=bl&ots=CWpUoLtw-O&sig=U1ltEVfmFM5uC5q8tHfGnok2OLw&hl=it&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGzeub693ZAhXDBSwKHSDKB2s4ChDoAQhLMAo#v=onepage&q=giovanni+falcone+italian+judge&f=false|archive-date=26 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> From his office in the Palace of Justice in [[Palermo]], [[Sicily]], he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the [[Sicilian Mafia]]. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the [[Maxi Trial]] in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the [[Corleonesi Mafia clan|Corleonesi Mafia]] in the [[Capaci bombing]], on the [[Autostrada A29 (Italy)|A29 motorway]] near the town of [[Capaci]].

His life parallels that of his close friend [[Paolo Borsellino]]. They both spent their early years in the same neighbourhood in Palermo. Though many of their childhood friends grew up in an environment in which the Mafia had a strong presence, both men fought against organised crime as prosecuting magistrates.<ref name="stille22">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 22–27</ref> They were both killed in 1992, a few weeks apart. In recognition of their tireless effort and sacrifice during the anti-mafia trials, they were both awarded the [[Gold Medal for Civil Valor]] and were acknowledged as martyrs of the [[Catholic Church]]. They were also named as heroes of the last 60 years in the 13 November 2006 issue of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.<ref name=timeheroes>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1549798,00.html|title=Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino|first=JEFF|last=ISRAELY|magazine=Time|date=24 October 2006|access-date=9 September 2018|via=content.time.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829095322/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1549798,00.html|archive-date=29 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

== 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>

== First trial against the Mafia ==

[[File:Giovanni Falcone.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Antimafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in a drawing]]
In early 1980, Falcone joined the ‘Office of Instruction’ (Ufficio istruzione), the investigative branch of the Prosecution Office of Palermo. He started to work at a particularly tense moment. Judge [[Cesare Terranova]], a former parliamentary deputy and Antimafia reformer who had been the main prosecutor of the Mafia in the 1960s, was to have headed this office, but he was killed on 25 September 1979. Only two months earlier, on 21 July 1979, [[Boris Giuliano]] had been assassinated; he headed the police investigation squad investigating heroin trafficking by the Mafia headed by [[:it:Rosario Spatola (1940)|Rosario Spatola]] and [[Salvatore Inzerillo]]. Taking Terranova's place was [[Rocco Chinnici]], who was murdered by the Mafia in July 1983.<ref name=schneiders/><ref name="stille30">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 30–31</ref>

On 5 May 1980, Giuliano's successor in investigating the heroin network, Carabinieri captain [[Emanuele Basile]], was killed. The next day, the prosecuting judge [[Gaetano Costa]] signed 55 arrest warrants against the heroin-trafficking network of the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino clan. From Sicily, heroin was moved to the [[Gambino crime family]] in New York, who were related to the Inzerillos. Chinnici appointed Falcone to investigate the case, one of the biggest Antimafia operations in more than a decade.<ref name="stille31">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 31–32</ref> Costa signed the indictments after virtually all of the other prosecutors in his office had declined to do so – a fact that leaked out of the office and eventually cost him his life: he was murdered on 6 August 1980, on the orders of Inzerillo.<ref name=schneiders/> Falcone was given bodyguards the next day.<ref name="follain33">Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 33</ref>

In this tense atmosphere, Falcone introduced an innovative investigative technique in the Spatola investigation, seizing bank records to follow "the money trail" created by heroin deals to build his case, applying the skills he had learned unravelling bankruptcies.<ref name=schneiders/> He was probably among the first Sicilian magistrates to establish working relationships with colleagues from other countries, thus developing an early understanding of the global dimensions of heroin trafficking, while enhancing the meagre investigative resources of his office.<ref name=schneiders/> A colleague was astonished to discover that Falcone, who had no computers at his disposal, was personally recording the details listed on printouts of transactions that he had requisitioned from every bank in Palermo province.<ref name="follain10">Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 10</ref>

He learned that the chemists of the [[French Connection]] had moved clandestine labs for refining heroin from [[Marseille]] to Sicily. At the end of 1980, he visited the United States and started to work with the [[U.S. Justice Department]], resulting in "some of the biggest international law enforcement operations in history", such as the [[Pizza Connection Trial|Pizza Connection]]. The inquiries extended to Turkey, an important stopover on the route of [[morphine]] base; to Switzerland, where bank secrecy laws facilitated [[money laundering]]; and to Naples, where [[cigarette smuggling]] rings were being reconfigured as heroin operations.<ref name=schneiders/> At the end of 1981, Falcone finalised the Spatola case for trial, which enabled the prosecution to win 74 convictions, based on Falcone's "web of solid evidence, bank and travel records, seized heroin shipments, fingerprint and handwriting analyses, wiretapped conversations and firsthand testimony" that proved that "Sicily had replaced France as the principal gateway for refining and exporting heroin to the United States".<ref name=schneiders/><ref name="stille46">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 46</ref>

== Antimafia pool ==
{{main article|Antimafia Pool}}
[[Image:Sheet Falcone Borsellino.jpg|thumb|Sheets exposed in solidarity with Giovanni Falcone and [[Paolo Borsellino]]. They read: "You did not kill them: their ideas walk on our legs".]]
[[File:Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.jpg|thumb|right|Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in March 1992. This image of the two assassinated judges, seen on posters and articles after their deaths, has since become an icon in the [[Direzione Investigativa Antimafia|struggle against the Mafia]].]]

Falcone was plagued by a chronic lack of resources in his capacity as magistrate. A law to create a new offence of Mafia conspiracy and to confiscate Mafia assets was introduced by [[Pio La Torre]], but it had been stalled in parliament for two years before La Torre was murdered on 30 April 1982. In May 1982, the Italian government sent [[Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa]], a general of the Italian [[Carabinieri]], to Sicily with orders to crush the Mafia. However, not long after arriving, on 3 September 1982, the General was gunned down in the city centre, his young wife by his side. Sicilians rose up in outrage. Outside the church, the politicians who attended were jeered and spat on, and blamed by Sicilians for tolerating the Mafia for so long. In response, the Italian government finally offered investigators the backing they needed, and [[Pio La Torre]]'s law was passed 10 days later.<ref name="Inside The Mafia">[http://www.1channel.ch/watch-757991-National-Geographic-Inside-The-Mafia Inside The Mafia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726042322/http://www.1channel.ch/watch-757991-National-Geographic-Inside-The-Mafia |date=26 July 2019 }}, National Geographic Channel, June 2005.</ref>

Falcone's responsibilities as a magistrate put tremendous strain on his personal life. In May 1986, he married his fiancée, [[Francesca Morvillo]]; Falcone had Mayor [[Leoluca Orlando]] himself conduct the private ceremony.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OlWUVtNXFsC&q=francesca+1986|title=Giovanni Falcone un eroe solo|year=2012|author1=Maria Falcone|author2=Francesca Barra|publisher=Rizzoli |isbn=9788858625309}}</ref>

He became part of Palermo's informal [[Antimafia Pool]], created by Judge [[Rocco Chinnici]]. This was a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information and developing new investigative and prosecutorial strategies.  Most important, they assumed collective responsibility for carrying Mafia prosecutions forward: all the members of the pool signed prosecutorial orders to avoid exposing any one of them to particular risk, such as the one that had cost judge Gaetano Costa his life. Along with Falcone, the group included [[Paolo Borsellino]], {{Interlanguage link multi|Giuseppe Di Lello|it|3=Giuseppe Di Lello Finuoli}} and {{Interlanguage link multi|Leonardo Guarnotta|it}}.<ref name=schneiders/>

== 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>

== Setback ==

When Falcone's record of success and high profile led to resentment from some quarters, he was not given the job he coveted as chief prosecutor in Palermo. The new incumbent did not accept that the hierarchical Mafia structure revealed by the Maxi Trial actually existed, and he attempted to force Falcone to work on cases of wife beating and car theft. Falcone became so frustrated that he spoke of resigning. During 1988 Falcone collaborated with [[Rudolph Giuliani]], at the time [[U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York]], in operations against the [[Gambino crime family|Gambino]] and [[Salvatore Inzerillo|Inzerillo]] families. Rumours impugning his integrity deeply troubled Falcone during this period.<ref name="follain45">Follain, ''Vendetta'', p.45</ref>

On 20 June 1989, a sack filled with dynamite sticks was discovered near a beach house Falcone had rented in the town of [[Addaura]] by policeman Nino Agostino. Although Falcone had been threatened before, this failed attempt bothered him to the extreme because it had all the signs of an inside job. At the time, he was meeting Swiss prosecutors [[Carla Del Ponte]] and [[Claudio Lehman]] from Lugano who were helping to investigate the Mafia's financial holdings in Switzerland. Falcone believed that the assassination attempt not only involved the Mafia but some people in government as well.<ref name="stille280">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 280–83</ref> During the investigations into the money laundering networks of the Mafia, it became clear that former Palermo police chief [[Bruno Contrada]], who had moved to the intelligence service [[SISDE]], had warned a suspect about his impending arrest so that he could escape in time.<ref name="stille286">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 286</ref><ref name=travaglio>[http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/2010/05/passionate_mafiosi_one_and_all_1.html Passionate Mafiosi one and all] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728144108/http://www.beppegrillo.it/en/2010/05/passionate_mafiosi_one_and_all_1.html |date=28 July 2012 }}, [[Marco Travaglio]], on [[Beppe Grillo]]’s blog, May 2010</ref>

Falcone received an effusive congratulatory phone call from [[Giulio Andreotti]] after the narrow escape. Falcone privately thought it odd that Andreotti, who he had never spoken to, would suddenly contact him, and he mused about the significance of the incident to a friend.<ref name="follain44">Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 44</ref> Unknown to Falcone the efforts to kill him were suspended while the Maxi trial verdicts went through the appeals process that had often set convicted Mafia members free.<ref>Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 55</ref> Later investigations into the murders of two police officers, Antonino Agostino and Emanuele Piazza, who worked for the secret service, revealed that they had secretly defused the bombs that had been placed by a Mafia commando aided by other secret service men. Agostino and his wife were killed on 5 August 1989 outside their home, and Piazza on 15 March 1990.<ref name=travaglio/><ref name=rep>{{in lang|it}} [http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/05/07/news/inchiesta_italiana_7_maggio-3876272/ Addaura, nuova verità sull'attentato a Falcone] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130708111843/http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/05/07/news/inchiesta_italiana_7_maggio-3876272/ |date=8 July 2013 }}, by Attilio Bolzoni, La Repubblica, 7 May 2010</ref>

== Transfer to Rome ==

Exhausted and frustrated by the antagonism in Palermo, Falcone accepted a post in the Ministry of Justice in Rome offered to him by [[Claudio Martelli]], the new minister of Justice in a new government of [[Giulio Andreotti]] in March 1991. The transfer was initially seen as a capitulation by Falcone, but he himself thought of it as a tactical move to better fight the Mafia. His first action was to prepare a decree to repair the disastrous sentence by Supreme Court judge [[Corrado Carnevale]], known as the “sentence-killer”, that allowed most of the remaining defendants of the Maxi Trial to walk free from prison. The Martelli decree led to the immediate re-arrest of the Mafia bosses.<ref name="stille332">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 332–36</ref>

While in Rome he started to restructure the Italian prosecution system, creating district offices to fight the Mafia and a national office to fight organised crime.<ref name=stille332/> Next was his move to prevent Carnevale from reviewing the sentence of the Maxi Trial. In a blow to the Mafia, the Maxi Trial convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court in January 1992.<ref name="schneiders"/> To the surprise of many, Falcone's move to Rome was very successful. He achieved a genuine revolution in the judiciary. The Mafia began to realize that Falcone was even more dangerous in Rome than he had been in Palermo.<ref name="stille348">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 348–49</ref>

== Death ==
{{main|Capaci bombing}}
[[File:Falcone Denkmal.jpg|thumb|Giovanni Falcone Monument in Capaci]]
[[File:Maria Falcone and Robert Swan Mueller.jpg|thumb|[[Robert Mueller]] presents Maria Falcone with a smaller version of a plaque that honours the life of her brother and will hang in the newly dedicated [[Giovanni Falcone Gallery]] at [[FBI]] Headquarters.]]
[[File:Giovanni Falcone Peschiera.jpg|thumb|A monument in commemoration of Falcone in [[Peschiera del Garda]], representing the mangled car in which he was [[Capaci bombing|assassinated]] by the Mafia.]]

The Maxi trial sentences being upheld by the Supreme Court were a blow to the Mafia's prestige. The council of top bosses headed by Riina reacted by ordering the assassination of [[Salvatore Lima]] (on the grounds that he was an ally of [[Giulio Andreotti]]), and Falcone. Lima was shot dead on 12 March 1992.

[[Giovanni Brusca]] was tasked with killing Falcone. Riina wanted the murder carried out in Sicily in a demonstration of Mafia power; he instructed that the attack should be on [[Autostrada A29 (Italy)|Highway A29]], which Falcone had to use to get from the airport to his home on his weekly visits.<ref>Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 58-60</ref> Four hundred kilograms (881 lbs.) of explosives were placed in a [[culvert]] under the highway between [[Palermo International Airport]] and the city of [[Palermo]], near the town of [[Capaci]]. Brusca's men carried out test drives, using flashbulbs to simulate detonating the blast on a speeding car, and a concrete structure was specially created and destroyed in an experimental explosion to see if the bomb would be powerful enough. [[Leoluca Bagarella]] assisted at the scene during preparations.<ref>Follain, ''Vendetta'', p. 74</ref>

Brusca detonated the device by remote control from a small outbuilding on a hill to the right of the highway on 23 May 1992. Giovanni Falcone, his wife [[Francesca Morvillo]] and police officers Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro and Vito Schifani were killed in the blast. The explosion was so powerful that it registered on local earthquake monitors. Riina reportedly threw a party, toasting Falcone's death with [[champagne]], according to the [[pentito]] [[Salvatore Cancemi]].<ref name="stille">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 404–05</ref>

Thousands gathered at the [[San Domenico, Palermo|Church of Saint Dominic]] for the funerals which were broadcast live on national TV. All regular television programs were suspended. Parliament declared a day of mourning.<ref name="Inside The Mafia" /> His colleague [[Paolo Borsellino]] was killed in [[Massacre of Via D'Amelio|another bombing]] 57 days later, along with five police officers: Agostino Catalano, Walter Cosina, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, and Claudio Traina.<ref name="stille372">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 372</ref>

In the major crackdown against the Mafia following Falcone and Borsellino's deaths, Riina was arrested on 15 January 1993, and was serving a life sentence, until his death in 2017, for sanctioning the murders of both magistrates as well as many other crimes.<ref name=nyt>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02EFDF143AF934A1575AC0A961958260  "24 Top Mafia Figures Get Life Sentences in Sicily"], The New York Times, 27 September 1997</ref> Brusca, also known as ''lo scannacristiani'' (the people slaughterer), was convicted of Falcone's murder. He was one of Riina's associates and admitted to detonating the explosives.<ref name=gua141004>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/14/italy.johnhooper Sicilian mafia killer's days out of jail provoke fury] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118035925/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/14/italy.johnhooper |date=18 January 2017 }}, The Guardian, 14 October 2004</ref> Dozens of mafiosi were sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in Falcone's murder.<ref name=erg>{{Cite web |url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1997/09/27/strage-di-capaci-24-ergastoli.html?ref=search |title=STRAGE DI CAPACI, 24 ERGASTOLI - La Repubblica.it<!-- Titolo generato automaticamente --> |date=27 September 1997 |access-date=2017-07-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304133658/http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1997/09/27/strage-di-capaci-24-ergastoli.html?ref=search |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Reports in May 2019 indicated that a Cosa Nostra insider revealed that [[John Gotti]] of the [[Gambino crime family]] had sent one of their explosives experts to Sicily to work with the [[Corleonesi Mafia clan]] to help plan the bombing that would kill Falcone.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/22/american-mafia-sent-explosives-expert-help-sicilian-mob-assassinate/|title=American mafia 'sent explosives expert' to help Sicilian mob assassinate crusading investigator|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=22 May 2019|access-date=22 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522164959/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/22/american-mafia-sent-explosives-expert-help-sicilian-mob-assassinate/|archive-date=22 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Legacy ===

[[Palermo Airport|Palermo International Airport]] has been named ''Falcone-Borsellino Airport'' in honour of the two judges and hosts a memorial of the pair by the local [[sculpture|sculptor]] [[Tommaso Geraci]]. Monuments commemorating Falcone and the other victims of the [[Capaci bombing]] were placed around Italy, including in [[Peschiera del Garda]]. Falcone was posthumously awarded the [[Train Foundation]]'s [[Civil Courage Prize]], which recognises "extraordinary heroes of conscience".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civilcourageprize.org/honorees.htm |title=Honorees |year=2010 |publisher=Civil Courage Prize |access-date=26 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213021844/http://www.civilcourageprize.org/honorees.htm |archive-date=13 February 2012 }}</ref> A monument to Falcone stands also at the FBI's National Academy in Virginia to honour his contributions to the "Pizza Connection" case.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/may/falcone_051706|title=A Partnership is Born|year=2006|publisher=[[FBI]]|access-date=22 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128071417/http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2006/may/falcone_051706|archive-date=28 January 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
{{unref|section|date=May 2020}}

* ''[[Giovanni Falcone (film)|Giovanni Falcone]]'' (1993), starring [[Michele Placido]] as Falcone;
* ''[[Excellent Cadavers (film)|Excellent Cadavers]]'' (1999), with [[Chazz Palminteri]] in the role of Falcone;
* ''[[Il Capo dei Capi]]'' (2007), with [[Andrea Tidona]] in the role of Falcone;
* ''Vi perdono ma inginocchiatevi'', a 2012 TV movie that tells the story of the men of the escort of Giovanni Falcone;
* ''[[Era d'estate]]'' (2016), starring [[Massimo Popolizio]] in the role of Falcone;
* ''[[The Traitor (2019 film)|The Traitor]]'' (2019), with Fausto Russo Alesi in the role of Falcone.

== See also ==
* [[Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa]]
* [[List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia]]
* [[Mani pulite]]
* [[Rovshan Aliyev]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==

* [[John Dickie (historian)|Dickie, John]] (2004). ''[https://archive.org/details/cosanostra00john Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia]'', London: Coronet, {{ISBN|0-340-82435-2}} ([http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1148236,00.html Review] in the Observer, 15 February 2004)
* Follain, John (2012). ''Vendetta: The Mafia, Judge Falcone and the Quest for Justice'', London: Hodder & Stoughton, {{ISBN|978-1-444-71411-1}}
* Jamieson, Alison (2000). ''The Antimafia: Italy’s fight against organized crime'', London: Macmillan, {{ISBN|0-333-80158-X}}.
* La Licata, Francesco (1993), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=3DvxqVPSwekC Storia di Giovanni Falcone]'', Milan: Rizzoli
* Lodato, Saverio (1999), ''Ho ucciso Giovanni Falcone: la confessione di Giovanni Brusca'', Milan: Mondadori
* Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider (2003). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=f52WqN8pR14C Reversible Destiny: Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo]'', Berkeley: University of California Press {{ISBN|0-520-23609-2}}
* [[Alexander Stille|Stille, Alexander]] (1995). ''[[Excellent Cadavers|Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic]]'', New York: Vintage {{ISBN|0-09-959491-9}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}

* [http://www.fondazionefalcone.it/index.php?id_area=1 Giovanni and Francesca Falcone Foundation]

{{Mafia}}
{{Civil Courage Prize laureates}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:20th-century Italian judges]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian lawyers]]
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:1992 murders in Italy]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Antimafia]]
[[Category:Burials at San Domenico, Palermo]]
[[Category:Deaths by car bomb in Italy]]
[[Category:Italian prosecutors]]
[[Category:Judges murdered by the Corleonesi]]
[[Category:Jurists from Palermo]]
[[Category:People murdered by the Sicilian Mafia]]
[[Category:People murdered in Italy]]
[[Category:People murdered by the Corleonesi]]
[[Category:Assassinated judges]]