CALTANISSETTA -- The court of Caltanissetta has convicted four Cosa nostra mobsters on charges of murdering the crimefighter Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and their police escort, during the May 1992 Capaci massacre, and has sentenced them to life imprisonment. 

  Salvo Madonia, Giorgio Pizzo, Cosimo Lo Nigro and Lorenzo Tinnirello were all sentenced to life imprisonment for their involvement in the murders, on the demand of the Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor’s Office. A fifth defendant, Vittorio Tutino, however, was acquitted of all charges.

 Magistrates Giovanni Falcone, an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate who spent much of his professional life trying to overthrow the Cosa Nostra, and Francesca Morvillo were killed in the attack, as well as state police officers Vito Schifani, Rocco Dicillo, and Antonio Montinaro.

 The new inquiries were triggered by the 'repentance' of a former member of the Brancaccio mafia gang, Gaspare Spatuzza, who recently revealed new details of the massacre to the Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor’s Office, highlighting in particular his own former gang’s involvement in preparations for the massacre.

 According to the Caltanissetta prosecutors, the leaders of the Palermo Mafia gang, Brancaccio, wanted Falcone dead, as he was considered one of the Cosa Nostra’s number one enemies at the time.  

 Madonia was reportedly mainly responsible for the execution of the massacre, whilst the other defendants helped with the preparation and removal of explosives which were placed under motorway tunnels on the Palermo-Mazara del Vallo route at Capaci.

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