Giovanni Falcone

"Even in the most heinous of criminals, I must see the man."

"You confuse independence with arbitrariness, that's the problem: those who are independent must always be accountable. Lawyer Alfredo Galasso: “Magistrates are not.” Giovanni Falcone: Oh no? How come? There is a wonderful law on civil liability and you say no?"

"It's all theater. [Falcone was referring to the sirens blaring and the heavily armed police officers protecting him during his meeting with Spanish writer Juan Arias.] When the Mafia decides to do it, they'll kill me anyway."

"I believe we need to realize that this is not a personal battle between us and the mafia. If we understood that this must be a commitment—extraordinary in its ordinariness—by everyone to combat a phenomenon that is unworthy of a civilized country, things would certainly be much better."

"The important thing is not to determine whether one has fear or not, but to know how to live with one's fear and not be influenced by it. That's what courage is, otherwise it's no longer courage, it's recklessness."

"The mafia [...] has long served as a model for organized crime. It follows that this substantial uniformity of organizational structure allows the term mafia to be used in a broad sense for all major criminal organizations."

"The Mafia is by no means invincible. It is a human phenomenon and, like all human phenomena, it has a beginning and it will also have an end. Rather, we must realize that it is a terribly serious and very grave phenomenon and that it can be defeated not by demanding heroism from defenseless citizens, but by committing all the best forces of the institutions to this battle."

"Orlando now needs the “temperature” to rise even higher. He will be forced to make bigger and bigger claims every day. To achieve this, he and his friends are ready to do anything, even walk over their parents' dead bodies."

"Interviewer: But why would they do that? Giovani Falcone: Only the spirit of service."

"This is the happy country where, if someone plants a bomb under your house and it doesn't explode, it's your fault for not detonating it."

"(About Antonio Agostino) I owe my life to that boy."

"It is difficult to dispute that mafia organizations (the Sicily Cosa Nostra and the Calabria Ndrangheta) are probably much more closely linked than is officially acknowledged, and that they not only have a thorough understanding of how the State apparatus works, but also have no qualms about targeting anyone they deem appropriate."

"Of course, we will still have to deal with organized crime of a mafia nature for a long time to come. For a long time, but not forever: because the mafia is a human phenomenon and, like all human phenomena, it has a beginning, an evolution, and therefore it will also have an end."

"I believe that the Mafia is involved in all the important events in Sicilian life, starting with the Allied landing in Sicily during World War II and the appointment of Mafia mayors after the Liberation. I do not presume to venture into political analysis, but I will not be made to believe that certain political groups are not allied with Cosa Nostra—due to an obvious convergence of interests—in an attempt to influence our still immature democracy by eliminating figures who are inconvenient for both. (p. 170)"

"Joining the Mafia is like converting to a religion. You never stop being a priest. Or a Mafioso."

"The realistic picture of the State's commitment to fighting organized crime. Emotional, episodic, fluctuating. Motivated only by the impression made by a particular crime or the effect that a particular government initiative may have on public opinion."

"The mafia, I repeat once again, is not a cancer that has proliferated by chance on healthy tissue. It lives in perfect symbiosis with the myriad of protectors, accomplices, informants, debtors of all kinds, big and small masters, intimidated or blackmailed people who belong to all strata of society. This is the breeding ground for the Mafia, with all that this entails in terms of direct or indirect implications, conscious or not, voluntary or forced, which often enjoy the consent of the population."

"The same mechanism of expulsion, in practice, is found among the Eskimos and other peoples who abandon the elderly, the seriously ill, and the wounded because they hinder their progress in a hostile land, endangering the survival of all. In a group such as the Mafia, which must defend itself from enemies, those who are weak or sick must be eliminated."

"In moments of melancholy, I allow myself to think about the fate of men of honor: why are men like any other, some with genuine intellectual qualities, forced to invent a criminal activity in order to survive with dignity? (chap. II)"

"Why do I recall this episode? Because it demonstrates once again how skilled, determined, and intelligent mafiosi are, and how much ability and professionalism is needed to combat mafia violence. My great concern is that the mafia always manages to maintain an advantage over us."

"For twenty years, Italy was ruled by a Fascist regime in which all democratic debate was abolished. Subsequently, a single party, the Christian Democrats, monopolized power, especially in Sicily, albeit with occasional allies, from the day of Liberation onwards. For its part, the opposition, even in the fight against the mafia, has not always proved equal to the task, confusing the political struggle against Christian Democracy with the judicial proceedings against Cosa Nostra affiliates, or feeding on prejudices: “Nothing can be done against the mafia as long as this government with these men is in power.”"

"We can always do something: a maxim that should be carved on the bench of every magistrate and every police officer."

"People generally die because they are alone or because they have entered into a game that is too big. They often die because they do not have the necessary alliances, because they lack support. In Sicily, the Mafia strikes at the servants of the State whom the latter has failed to protect."

"I fear that the judiciary will return to its old routine: mafiosi doing their job on one side, magistrates doing theirs more or less well on the other, and, when all is said and done, the palpable inefficiency of the State."

"It pains me to say this, but if the institutions continue their short-sighted policy towards the mafia, I fear that their absolute lack of prestige in the lands where organized crime thrives will only further favor Cosa Nostra."

"The awareness is slowly gaining ground that the regulation of the functions and careers of public prosecutors cannot be identical to that of judges, as their functions are different and, therefore, so are the aptitudes, mental habits, and professional skills required to perform such different tasks: the public prosecutor is an investigator in all respects, while the judge is the arbiter of the dispute. We must move in this direction, setting aside the specter of the prosecutor's dependence on the executive and the discretion of criminal prosecution, which is regularly touted whenever the differentiation of careers is discussed. To deny the specificity of prosecutorial functions as opposed to judicial ones, in an anachronistic attempt to continue to consider the judiciary as a single entity, paradoxically amounts to guaranteeing less independence and autonomy for the judiciary itself."

"Giovanni was prevented from conducting mafia trials in his city. So he chose the only possible route, the Ministry of Justice, to ensure that his project would be realized: a unified structure against the mafia. And it was a revolution."

"[During the commemoration of Falcone in the main hall of the Palace of Justice in Milan] You killed Giovanni Falcone. With your indifference. With your criticism... You slandered him. You distrusted him. And now some of you even have the nerve to attend his funeral."

"We followed Falcone closely; he was feared and admired by the mafia. He had the courage of his convictions. He was different from everyone else."

"Maierovitch, a man with a soft voice and owl-like features, became a prominent figure in the early 1980s when he collaborated with Giovanni Falcone in his successful efforts to track down fugitive mafia members. Together, the two convinced Tommaso Buscetta to return to Italy and become a state witness in the so-called maxi-trial of the Sicilian mafia leadership. In January 1992, thanks to his testimony, some 350 mafia bosses were convicted. Falcone and his colleague, magistrate Paolo Borsellino, are the titans of the anti-mafia struggle worldwide. They were assassinated in Sicily two months apart in 1992, shortly after the maxi-trial verdict was confirmed, and their deaths shook and ultimately dismantled the Italian political system. Both had (rightly) assumed that the most important figures in the Sicilian mafia enjoyed the protection of the highest political hierarchies in Rome. Maierovitch tells me about his dinners with Falcone and how they worked to protect the great turncoat Buscetta from possible murder or suicide. (He almost succeeded in attempting suicide while under the protection of the Brazilian judge.) At first, Maierovitch smiles as he remembers his Italian friend, but after a while he begins to shed silent tears: a fitting tribute to Falcone (after whom Maierovitch named his Institute for the Fight Against Crime), whose charisma and commitment to justice, in the face of Rome's corrupt ruling class, made him a popular hero throughout Italy and among all those who fight crime around the world."

"The vultures and hyenas that Giovanni knew, and that I also know, pounced on Falcone's corpse."

"He only talked about the Mafia. He never showed the slightest interest in my life. He never asked me where I came from, what I had studied, nothing at all. He was single-minded, which is where his proverbial efficiency and professionalism came from."

"Bruno [Trentin] said to me, “Let's invite Giovanni to dinner, we have to celebrate.” He accepted. We talked about current political events, South Tyrolean irredentism, Mahler, who had had a house there, and Giovanni shrank into his chair: he was bored. At one point, I mentioned a news story about Stefano Bontate's son, and at that moment he suddenly perked up, sitting up straight in his chair."

"Falcone is praised without being studied. Anyone who talks about the Mafia mentions him, often inappropriately. When he was alive, he was very lonely. The magistrates who supported him could be counted on the fingers of one hand, while most criticized him for his alleged media protagonism."