Paolo
Borsellino
"I didn’t like Palermo, which is why I learned to love it. Because true love consists in loving what we don’t like in order to change it."
It Happened at a Time When Italy Was Recovering from the Devastations of War
On a football field in Kalsa, Palermo, two teenagers met: one, Paolo—slight and quiet; the other, Giovanni—exuberant and charismatic. Faces, names. Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone met this way, playing. Their bond was always a solid and sincere friendship based on mutual respect.
Paolo’s destiny was to become a magistrate: he achieved this at the age of twenty-three. Borsellino was religious and conservative. In his youth, he was a member of the Fronte Universitario d'Azione Nazionale, a right-wing university organization affiliated with the neo-fascist MSI. In 1965, he began his internship as a judicial auditor, completing it the same year with an assignment to the Civil Section of the Enna court. In 1967, he was appointed magistrate in Mazara del Vallo, where he met Emanuele Basile.
In 1968, he married Agnese Piraino Leto, daughter of the president of the Palermo Court, and over the next five years, their children Lucia, Manfredi, and Fiammetta were born. In 1975, he joined the Office for Criminal Affairs, led by investigating judge Rocco Chinnici.
In 1980, he arrested his first mafiosi—members of the San Giuseppe Jato faction—but it became evident that the case also involved the Corleonesi. These arrests were the result of an investigation carried out by Basile and Borsellino. On May 4, 1980, at the age of thirty, Emanuele Basile was murdered by the Mafia.
For Borsellino, the time had come for constant police protection, and shortly after, he decided to join the anti-Mafia pool created by Rocco Chinnici—a group of investigative judges exclusively dedicated to Mafia cases, working together and sharing vital information.
The members of the pool became human targets for the Mafia. Borsellino and Falcone, along with their families, were relocated to Asinara, where they wrote the 8,000-page indictment that led to the prosecution of 475 defendants based on prior investigations.
In 1987, the Maxi Trial concluded in the Ucciardone bunker courtroom with 342 convictions. Despite controversies and unprecedented personal attacks, Borsellino requested and obtained a transfer to the Prosecutor’s Office of Marsala, where he assumed the role of Chief Prosecutor.
That same year, Antonino Caponnetto stepped down from leading the anti-Mafia pool due to health reasons. Giovanni Falcone was the natural successor, but the CSM (Superior Council of the Judiciary) thought otherwise, appointing Antonino Meli instead. This decision severely weakened the effectiveness of the anti-Mafia pool, making their work significantly more difficult.
In response, Paolo Borsellino requested and obtained a transfer to the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office, where he served as Deputy Prosecutor and later as the official coordinator of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate.
"Destiny." A grand word used to describe something that cannot be changed—this is how one could sum up 1992.
On May 23, Giovanni Falcone, who had since become super-prosecutor, was assassinated in the Capaci massacre.
Convinced that he was now a dead man walking, Paolo Borsellino tirelessly investigated the Capaci bombing, while also meeting with students, citizens, and journalists, spreading his message of justice and legality, and condemning the horrors of the Mafia system.
Then came July 19, 1992.
It was a scorching afternoon in Via D’Amelio, a narrow, dead-end street in Palermo, where Borsellino’s mother lived. Hidden inside an old stolen Fiat 126, parked near the building, were 50 kilograms of TNT—waiting.
Borsellino arrived, as he had done countless times before, stepping out of the car with his five bodyguards.
At exactly 4:58 PM, the bomb was detonated remotely.
A massacre.
The explosion tore apart Paolo Borsellino, Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Cosina, and Claudio Traina.
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Paolo Borsellino
