The Maxi Trials Of Palermo

Never before in the history of the Mafia has so many men of honour faced trial at the same time. The Maxi trials were the culmination of years of hard work, judges Giovanni Falcone and Paulo Borselino were just two of the many magistrates that helped put the huge history making, ground breaking trial the Maxi-prochesso together as four hundred and seventy Mafiosi stood trial. The Maxi trial took place next to the ucciardone (the Palermo prison) in a bunker specially designed to try four hundred and seventy defendant Most of the crucial evidence came from Tomasso Buscetta the old school Mafiosi captured in Brazil, and extradited back to Italy to face trial for his own crimes. Disturbing events made Tomasso Buscetta defect and cooperate with the Sicilian magistrates. Both of Buscettas sons had been murdered and the Corleonesi continued its vendetta against Buscetta by killing several more of his relatives. So in fear for his own life the only way to save the family that he had left, was to cooperate, and testify against the men to whom he once swore his fidelity.

On trial were some of the really high-ranking members of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. Bosses like Pipo Calo, Michele Greco and many many more caporegimes, consiglieri's, underbosses, solders and associates from all across the Island of Sicily. The magistrature had done a wonderful job in putting the case together and collecting the evidence in order to deliver a crippling blow to the Mafia. For many of the Mafiosi the final nail in the coffin was the testimony of Tomasso Buscetta. Buscetta knew so many of the bosses from the old Mafia, and here for the first time was a man willing to testify who had spent a lifetime inside the Mafia.

The Information that Buscetta gave judges Falcone and Borselino was absolutely priceless. He gave a new understanding to how the Mafia functioned and how the clandestine groups of hierarchy in the Sicilian Cupola (the Sicilian version of the commission) actually agreed on policy and business.For the first time the Mafia had been prosecuted as an entity rather than a collection of individual crimes. The case took longer to complete than first estimated it was expected to finish some time late 86, but it wasn't until November 87 when the convictions came down. 344 defendants were found guilty and sentence to a total of 2'665 years. Michele Greco, Franchesco Madonia were both sentenced to life in prison as were Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano who were both on the run, even though they never left Palermo, an example of the kind of power that the Corleonesi had risen to under the leadership of Riina and his top Lieutenant Bernardo Provenzano.

The remaining defendants escaped judgment due to a lack of evidence, 18 of which were murdered by the Mafia. But despite this the Maxi-prochesso was hailed a huge success and paved the way for further Maxi trials although not as big as this one. The Maxi trial signified a possible turning point in the fight against the Mafia for many Sicilians and gave hope at a time when hope is all that many of the native Sicilians had left.

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