Giovanni Brusca

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November 24, 2014 Judge Giovanni Falcone, killed by the Mafia in the Capaci massacre on May 23, 1992, was at the top of the list of enemies that Cosa Nostra had intended to eliminate since the 1980s. This was revealed by the repentant, Giovanni Brusca, former boss of the town of San Giuseppe Jato, a few kilometers from Palermo, during his deposition at the second trial in progress for the A29 highway massacre. Falcone and his wife, having arrived from Rome to Palermo, blew up along with the three agents of the escort while they were traveling along the highway that connects the airport of Palermo with the Sicilian capital.

For what our Giovanni Falcone "was the number one" in the list of personalities to kill. This is what was stated by the collaborator of justice, Giovanni Brusca, at the trial on the Capaci massacre, away in the bunker hall of Rebibbia prison.

No stranger to Cosa Nostra for the Capaci massacre
"On the Capaci massacre - excuse me the presumption - I was the dominus". This was stated by Brusca, deposing before the Court of Assizes of Caltanissetta. The collaborator, answering the questions of the Pm Onelio Dodero, focused on the initial and executive phases of the preparation of the explosive to be used for the Capaci massacre, most of which took place in the villa of Antonino Troia.
"In the villa of Antonino Troia, there were only men of Cosa Nostra. There were no strangers, I took them to work. There were no people beyond Cosa Nostra", the pentito claimed. In the house 13 bins of explosives have been loaded. "Initially - added Brusca - we had a few bins at our disposal. There were only a few, they weren't enough. Ferrante then went to buy more. In the villa of Troia, explosive operations were carried out". The commando also measured the length of the drainage channel of the tunnel beneath the highway from where Judge Falcone would pass. "We measured it through a rope. It was very simple." The collaborator also said that he went to the villa in Troia in the company of Antonino Gioè and Gioacchino La Barbera.

The "Cosa Nostra" meeting in Christmas 1991
Brusca told of mafia vendettas against politicians and magistrates for the outcome of the Maxi trial at a Christmas meeting in 1991. The penitent recalled that "there was no need to name names" of the list of personalities to be killed , because "it was understood that Giovanni Falcone was the number one and the cats also knew that we had to kill him. I myself followed him since 1981 and for me, as for all the others, it was taken for granted". The former boss of San Giuseppe Jato, then, continued: "In that meeting there was talk of political strategy, of what was to do Cosa Nostra".

The various plans to kill Falcone
Our goal was the killing of Giovanni Falcone "already after the massacre in Via Pipitone Federico in July 1983", in which the investigating judge Rocco Chinnici lost his life in Palermo. "In that year - said Brusca - I tracked Falcone and started to study his habits, but then the project was suspended". The repentant also revealed that one of the options being examined by the bosses for the elimination of the magistrate "was that of stuffing a triton vespone to be blown up by the court at the passage of Falcone. Then I learned, in 1987, of a project to hit Falcone, a bazooka had been prepared, Di Maggio told me, but the idea was not completed ".

After Maxiprocesso two commands to kill Falcone, one in Rome and the other in Palermo
After the final sentence on the Maxiprocess, pronounced by the Cassation in January 1992, Cosa Nostra had set up two 'teams' to execute the murder of Giovanni Falcone: one in Rome and another in Palermo. Brusca explained that "for Falcone there was a team that was moving to Rome and that it had to kill him with conventional weapons". According to Brusca, the operational commando in the capital would have included, among others, "Matteo Messina Denaro and Vincenzo Sinacori. This - the repentant specified - I learned from Riina, as well as the existence of another team that he planned to kill Falcone in Palermo, with a car bomb. Salvatore Biondino, Raffaele Ganci and Salvatore Cancemi were part of this second group. "

Brusca, explosive Capaci came from Brancaccio
According to the surveys, first conducted by the Dda of Naples and then transferred to Florence due to territorial jurisdiction, the explosive (including TNT and dynamite) was taken from a warehouse in the Giambascio district in San Giuseppe Jato, in the province of Palermo, controlled by Giovanni Brusca.
"Toto Riina told me that the explosive used for the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres came from the 'picciotti' of Brancaccio and that it had been obtained from the remnants of war. Salvatore Biondino handed it to me personally, I never saw Giuseppe Graviano bring me the TNT ".
Part of that explosive, Brusca said, had already been used in '83 to kill Judge Rocco Chinnici and it would have also served to threaten the life of Pietro Grasso, then prosecutor of Palermo, even if the plan was not followed.
"We decided to prepare the attack on Giovanni Falcone in Capaci, on the highway because doing it in Palermo could have led to the risk of killing innocent victims". Initially, as an alternative to the pedestrian overpass on the highway, it was decided to carry out the attack by putting the explosive in some garbage bins near the magistrate's house ".

Brusca's memories of the attack
"Together with Antonino Gioè - Brusca said again - I was lurking on the mountain waiting for the procession of escort cars to pass. At a certain point Gioe ', who had binoculars, said to me:' Go, go go ', Antonino me he said three times that I could press the remote control when the procession arrived with the judge Giovanni Falcone "I don't know why but I didn't immediately press the remote control. There was something that told me not to do it" - Brusca recalled - "Immediately after the explosion came to take me Gioacchino La Barbera. He told me that we had done a cruelty, hearing the comments of the people. We had killed the judge Giovanni Falcone ". Responding to a question from the prosecutor, Onelio Dodero, Brusca ruled out that the massacre could fail: "Based on the tests we did, we were sure of the success of the attack. There was no surprise". Falcone, having just landed at Punta Raisi airport on his way back from Rome, was driving along the A29 motorway towards Palermo when Brusca operated the remote control that blew up both roadways.