GIOVANNI FALCONE
Giovanni Falcone was born in Palermo in 1939 his father was Arturo Falcone a director of a Chemical business, his mother was Luisa Falcone (Nee Bentivegna). Giovanni was brought up in the Magione district, he was well educated and went on to study at for a short time at the Naval Academy based in Livorno. He went on to study law and graduated in 1961. He became a lawyer and in 1964 his ability as a lawyer saw him appointed to the position of Judge. In the Italian system Judges are appointed based on qualifications and passing a stringent series of exams. Judges are never elected in the Italian system. He was a magistrate for a time in Lentini and Trapani.
Falcone began to see his work become more and more involved with organized crime cases. In the 1970's Falcone had initiated the ground breaking move of de-glorifying the Mafiosi and the aura of mystic the men from that secret society held among the population. He persuaded many high ranking and influential mafia men to talk for the first time about the inner structure of the Mafia and it's many illegal businesses. He cultivated his own informers, one of which was the high ranking mafia member Tomasso Buscetta. He also forged alliances with American authorities knowing that the Mafia had a long reach and was very much an international organization. Falcone's efforts meant that many Sicilian Mafia members who had previously been able to move around freely in the USA without being traced by either the Italian authorities or recognized by the Americans as Mafia members were now being closely observed by both. US authorities later armed with information gleaned from Buscetta by Falcone in Italy allowed them to bring about many arrests and convictions on what became known as the "Pizza Connection" trial.
The 1980's was a devastating era for the Italian judicial system. In Palermo many law enforcement officers, government officials and judges were blown up by bombs or gunned down in the streets by Mafia hit squads. Rocco Chinnici, Cesare Terranova, Guiseppe Montana were among the many assassinated.
475 alleged Mafia members stood trial in Palermo, Italy in what was to become known as the "Maxi Trial" in 1986/87 the trial was presided over by Falcone and other prominent judges. The trial brought interest from all over the world, for the first time the Sicilian Mafia were brought out in the open and on display for all to see. 338 were subsequently convicted but the sentences handed out were little more than token gestures of punishment. Michele Greco and Salvatore Riina two of the most powerful Mafia men were among those convicted Greco the head of the Mafia and Riina the man who was to replace him as boss some time later.
Facone continued his crusade against the Mafia long after the Maxi Trial had ended, he was pretty much a lone voice against them. There were some high ranking officials both in the judiciary and in government who were anxious to call Falcone over zealous in his attempts to bring to the fore and therefor the public domain all levels of corruption and illegality that had served the Mafia well for many years corruption that infested deep into the very belly of government. Of course some of these outspoken critics of Falcone's efforts had much to fear by his continued march against the Mafia and his unwillingness to be side-tracked or threatened. There was every possibility their own connection and unscrupulous dealings with the Mafia would be uncovered by Falcone if his efforts continued to uncover and highlight Mafiosi with connections to and within political and governmental office. Falcone who was now finding help within the government becoming less and less forthcoming was still regarded by the common towns folk as a hero, because of his stance and his doggedness in hunting and prosecuting Mafia members. He traveled between Rome and Palermo extensively as Italy's main prosecutor of Mafia cases.

GIAVANNI BUSCA
Palermo airport is quite some distance from the actual city of Palermo, Falcone's speeding police escorted car could regularly make the trip in twenty minutes flat. Falcone was making the same journey to the airport along the autostrada on May 23rd 1992 in the car with him was his wife Fransesca Morvilio, she to was a magistrate. As the car and it's police escort approached the small town of Capaci a package containing plastic explosive which had been placed in a small underpass exploded. The vehicles were completely destroyed, Falcone and his wife were both killed, also dead were members of the police escort, officers Vito Schifani, Antonio Montinaro and Rocco Di Cillo.
On May 20 1996 a thirty-nine year old Giovanni Brusca was arrested while eating dinner with his girlfriend and their son, his brother Vincent, his sister-in-law and their two children in a small farmhouse near Agrigento. Brusca had been sentenced to life a year earlier in his absence. He would subsequently be convicted of the murder of Falcone, his wife and the three police officers. In the trial that followed his arrest Brusca would admit to detonating the bomb. He had used a remote control device and watched Falcone's convoy from a nearby hillside through high-powered binoculars, as the cars reached the point where the bombs were planted Brusca calmly struck the detonating device.
Falcone's efforts may never stop the mafia as a criminal entity from existing, but he did show the good people of Sicily and further afield that the Mafia were not an invincible force and that they could be convicted and found guilty of the crimes they commited. The work started by Falcone continues today as law enforcement agencies around the world chip away at the myth and mystic surrounding the Mafia. Today, largely due to Giovanni Falcone's perserverance and unflinching commitment even in the face of great danger,  huge inroads are being made toward weakening the Mafia's influence and power within Italy's economic, social and political structure.