Maxi Trial - Preceding Events

Preceding Events

The existence and crimes of the Mafia had been denied or merely downplayed by many people in authority for decades, despite proof of its criminal activities dating back to the 19th century. This can be attributed in part to three particular methods used by the Mafia to provide an environment akin to near immunity - paying off key people, killing real or perceived leaks in their own organization, and threatening or even killing key people (judges, lawyers, witnesses, politicians...) were used successfully to keep many prosecution efforts at bay. In fact it was only in 1980 that it was first seriously suggested that being a member of the Mafia should be a specific criminal offence by Communist politician Pio La Torre. The law only came into effect two years later - after La Torre had been gunned down for making that very suggestion.

During the early 1980s, the Second Mafia War had raged as Corleonesi boss Salvatore Riina decimated other Mafia Families, resulting in hundreds of murders, including several high-profile authority figures such as Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, head of counter-terrorism who had arrested Red Brigades founders in 1974. The increasing public revulsion at the killing spree gave the necessary momentum for magistrates like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to try to deliver a serious blow to the far-reaching criminal organization on the island.

The groundwork for the Maxi Trial was done at the preliminary investigative phase by Palermo's Antimafia Pool, created by judge Rocco Chinnici and consisting of Falcone, Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta. After Chinnici’s murder in July 1983, his successor Antonino Caponnetto, headed the pool. The Antimafia pool was a group of investigating magistrates who closely worked together sharing information on related cases to diffuse responsibility and to prevent one person from becoming the sole institutional memory and solitary target.