Over 100 murders – and now a free man

In the Sicilian dialect, he called « u Verru », the pig. Giovanni Brusca had “deserved” his nickname with the extreme brutality and ruthlessness, with which he had grown up to a feared Sicilian boss until the mid -nineties. The right hand of the former super sponsor of the Cosa Nostra, Toto Riina, had murdered well over a hundred people in his mafia career or commissioned her liquidation.

Bestial murder of a child

He doesn’t know exactly how many murders were, because at some point Brusca had stopped counting his victims. « I no longer remember everyone that I killed. It was certainly much more than a hundred, but certainly less than two hundred, » he wrote in his biography « Ho Uciso Giovanni Falcone » (« I killed Giovanni Falcone », Mondadori-Verlag).

The judge and mafia hunter Falcone had been his most prominent victim: Brusca had been who, on behalf of Toto Riina on May 23, 1992, had ignited the remote-controlled bomb on the highway to Palermo, who cheated on the judge, his wife and three men in his escort.

A few months earlier, the 68-year-old Brusca, together with his brother Enzo, committed another hideous crime: the brothers kidnapped the then twelve-year-old Giuseppe di Matteo, captured the boy for two years to then strangle him and to dissolve his body in hydrochloric acid. The little Giuseppe had to die because his father, also a mafioso, had « sung » with Carabinieri. The bestial murder had horrified the whole country at the time.

Criminal discount for confession mafiosi

The serial killer, which was arrested in 1996, was temporarily released from the Roman high -security prison Rebibbia in 2021; However, he had to consider several requirements and had to report regularly to the police. These requirements have now been lifted, with which Brusca is definitely a free man.

Originally, he had been convicted of several hundred years for his actions; However, because he started working with the judiciary after a few years in the cell, his punishment was first reduced to 30 years and later due to good leadership to 25 years. This was made possible by the so-called « Pentiti Act », the repentite mafiosi (the so-called « pentiti »), which « unpack » against the authorities, prospect of strong criminal discounts.

Brusca has lived with a new identity outside of Sicily since his release four years ago and has been under police protection. Nothing will change with the cancellation of the requirements. The definitive discharge of the former killer has triggered outrage, especially among the family members of Brusca’s victims.

Quite controversial: the penitis law

« The fact that my husband’s murderer is now a free man shows that the judiciary does not think of the victim – and that is very bitter, » emphasizes Tina Montinaro, widow of the bodyguard Antonio Montinaro, who died in Falcone. Of course, the remedy was given by law – but one should not forget that the « Pentiti » are criminals. « They do not become good people through cooperation with the judiciary, » emphasizes Tina Montinaro. Similar to them, many other family members were expressed.

The mafia expert and success author Roberto Saviano, on the other hand, defends the « Pentiti law »: Freedom for Brusca is « painful », but not a system error. The killer’s information was of the highest value for the investigators and made it possible to arrest dozens of other bosses of the Cosa Nostra.

« Discharge from Brusca in the definitive freedom is the price the state has to pay to experience the truth – and it is also the proof that the mafia is not invincible, » emphasizes Saviano to the « Corriere della Sera ». For example, Palermo, which in the 1980s with hundreds of mafia deaths was still cried out as the « shooting range of the Cosa Nostra », is now one of the most safe cities in Europe.