Falcone Killed by Mafia Bomb: Italy Reckons with Organized Crime
Anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo, and three police escorts were killed on May 23, 1992, when a half-ton of TNT hidden in a drainage pipe beneath the A29 motorway near Capaci, Sicily, detonated as their motorcade passed. The explosion created a 30-foot crater and was heard 10 miles away. Falcone had spent his career prosecuting the Sicilian Mafia, culminating in the Maxi Trial of 1986-87 that convicted 360 mafia members. His colleague Paolo Borsellino was assassinated by car bomb 57 days later. The double murders provoked national outrage that overcame decades of political accommodation with organized crime. Italy passed unprecedented anti-mafia legislation, deployed the army to Sicily, and arrested the Corleonesi boss Salvatore Riina in 1993.
May 23, 1992
34 years ago
Key Figures & Places
1992
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Sicily
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Paolo Borsellino
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Giovanni Falcone
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Corleonesi
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Capaci
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Italian Mafia
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Giovanni Falcone
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Corleonesi Mafia clan
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Capaci
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Sicily
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Paolo Borsellino
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Sicilian Mafia
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Italy
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Mafia
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Austria-Hungary
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World War I
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Anexo:Fallecidos en 1992
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cable car falls
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Téléphérique Stresa-Alpino-Mottarone
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Matteo Renzi
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Landeshauptmann
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Arno Kompatscher
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Autostrada A29
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Allies of World War I
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Treaty of London
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