Maxi Trial - The Trial

The Trial

After several years of investigating by the Antimafia pool, the trial began on February 10, 1986. The presiding judge was Alfonso Giordano, flanked by two other judges who were 'alternates', should anything fatal happen to Giordano before the end of what was going to be lengthy trial. The charges faced by the defendants included 120 murders, drug trafficking, extortion and, of course, the new law that made it an offence to be a member of the Mafia, the first time that law would be put to the test.

Judge Giordano won a lot of praise for remaining patient and fair during such a mammoth case with so many defendants. Some of the defendants indulged in disruptive and rather alarming behaviour, such as one who literally stapled his mouth shut to signify his refusal to talk, another who feigned madness by frequently screaming and fighting with guards even when he was in a straitjacket and one who threatened to cut his own throat if a statement of his was not read out to the court.

Most of the crucial evidence came from Tommaso Buscetta a Mafioso captured in 1982 in Brazil, where he had fled two-years previously after escaping while on day release during a prison sentence for double-murder. He had lost many relatives during the Mafia war, including two sons, as well as many Mafiosi allies such as Stefano Bontade and Salvatore Inzerillo, and so had decided to cooperate with the Sicilian magistrates. The Corleonesi continued its vendetta against Buscetta by killing several more of his relatives. Testifying against the Corleonesi was the only way he had left of avenging his murdered family and friends.

Some evidence was also presented posthumously from Leonardo Vitale. Although Buscetta is widely regarded as the first of the pentiti (and was certainly the first to be taken seriously), back in 1973, 32-year-old Leonardo Vitale had turned himself in at a Palermo police station and confessed to being in the Mafia. He said he had committed many crimes for them, including two murders. He said he had been having a 'spiritual crisis' and felt remorse. However, his information was largely ignored because his unusual behaviour, such as self mutilation as a form of personal penitence, lead to many to regard him as being mentally ill and his detailed confessions therefore unworthy of being taken seriously. The only Mafiosi convicted by his testimony were Vitale himself and his Uncle. Vitale was held in a mental asylum then released in June 1984; six-months later he was shot dead.

There were many critics of the Maxi Trial. Some implied that the defendants were being victimized as part of some sort of vendetta of the magistrates. The Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia said that: "There is nothing better for getting ahead in the magistracy than taking part in Mafia trials." Cardinal Pappalardo of the Catholic Church gave a controversial interview where he said that the Maxi Trial was "an oppressive show" and stated that abortion killed more people than the Mafia.

Other critics suggested that the word of informants - primarily Buscetta - was not the ideal way to judge other people, as even an informant who has truly repented is still a former criminal, liar and murderer and may still have a vested interest in modifying their testimony to suit their needs or even settle vendettas. It was also said that such a huge trial with so many defendants was not making allowances for the individuals, an attempt to "deliver justice in bulk" as one journalist put it.

The information that Buscetta gave judges Falcone and Borsellino was highly important, and was termed 'The Buscetta Theorem', in that the believability of his claims of the existence of the Mafia was central to the case. Buscetta gave a new understanding to how the Mafia functioned and how the clandestine groups of hierarchy in the Sicilian Cupola (the Sicilian Mafia Commission) actually agreed on policy and business. For the first time the Mafia had been prosecuted as an entity rather than a collection of individual crimes.