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PALERMO 19 JULY 1992, 4:58 PM.

Ninety kilos of explosive have just blown up inside a FIAT 126

parked in Via D'Amelio.

The explosion killed Judge Paolo Borsellino

and agents Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Claudio Traina,

Agostino Catalano, and Walter Cosina.

I'm the only one alive, the only agent of Borsellino's escort

who wasn't torn apart by the explosion.

My name is Antonio Vullo.

I found myself… in hell.

I couldn't see anything. Everything was dark, everything was on fire.

The cars were exploding as well as the bullets of the guns.

I believed my colleagues survived, too.

I went towards the end of Via D'Amelio holding my gun.

And then I was blocked by the first responders. They knew me.

They stopped me.

When they stopped me, I was standing on a severed foot.

A colleague's foot.

It was when I realised that there had been nothing to do for them.

PALERMO, VIA D'AMELIO 19 JULY 1992, 5:30 PM.

Not two months after the Capaci bombing,

in a new massacre Cosa Nostra eliminated

the other great enemy they have, Judge Paolo Borsellino,

torn apart with a car bomb together with five agents of his escort.

We were close and we heard a terrible blow.

A terrible blow. We looked around and it was a disaster.

Our colleagues were on the ground, shattered.

Expect for one of them, Vullo, who we immediately took to the hospital.

A question always comes up, "Why me and not the others?"

I didn't look for it, I didn't pray, I didn't hide. It just happened.

It could have happened to someone else.

Living as the only survivor of this story is very hard.

PALERMO 31 MAY 1992

Almost two months had passed since the day I started working

as an escort agent in Palermo

and I was assigned to Judge Borsellino's protection.

-Are you okay? -So-so.

He only gets mad if you waste his time.

Claudio, if he says no it will hurt my feelings.

Here he comes.

Judge, agent Antonio Vullo is on duty from today, if you wish.

Paolo had a beautiful relationship with his escort, a domestic one.

It was a professional relationship, because it had to be that way,

but a family relationship was born

and I had the privilege to have many boys from his escorts

telling me episodes and anecdotes of this familiarity.

With some agents of the escort even a relationship

of real friendship is established.

TG1 INTERVIEW 1 JUNE 1992

A friendship that lives…

life circumstances that are always tragic.

Always…

nagging, both for the magistrate

and the man of the escort.

-Why did you become a policeman? -Because of Boris Giuliano.

-Did you know him? -When I was 14,

he usually came to refuel at the petrol station where I worked at.

I used to think that I would have liked being a policeman like him.

When they killed him, I realised that I wanted to be a policeman.

Do you know that those around me risk as much as I do?

I joined the Police to change things. I have no fear.

-What does your wife say? -My wife? She gave up.

-We also have a six-month-old baby. -Let me see.

Children are our future.

-Everything we do is for them. -Yes.

But I would love they'd remember the past, too.

I film home videos for him. So he can watch them when he's older.

One day, you'll show them to me, too.

Now, let's go. It's late.

-Traina. -Yes.

Let's go, they're waiting for us in Marsala.

Vullo?

Welcome.

Antonino, he is Vincenzo Li Muli. He's younger, but more experienced.

-You passed the exam, Vullo. -I thought he lived in a bunker.

A bunker? Let's go.

I was baffled, because outside of Judge Borsellino's house

there was no fixed garrison.

Just an escort car.

At times, we had an unarmoured car.

Borsellino was the main target.

Then, it came the news that he officially was.

The commissioner and the prefect didn't care about it.

Everyone said that after Falcone would have been Borsellino's turn.

We didn't expect an action that was so fast

and so easy in its planning, compared to what

we lived with the Capaci bombing.

Reconstruction of the explosion from the Capaci bombing trial

CAPACI 23 MAY 1992

A week before I took service with Judge Borsellino,

the Capaci bombing took place.

I was one of the first to arrive there.

Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo

had just been taken to the hospital in critical conditions.

They would've died shortly after.

In the armoured car thrown at 100 m from the explosion,

there was what remained of the body of Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro,

and Vito Schifani. They were his escort agents.

In a car, there was a dear friend of mine, Vito Schifani.

We lived in the same building.

Seeing what had remained inside the armoured Croma

made me really sick.

A scene that I can't forget to this day.

PALERMO CIVIC HOSPITAL 23 MAY 1992, 8:30 PM.

The moment Giovanni Falcone died in his arms

at Palermo Hospital,

Paolo understands

that he now had few days left.

PALERMO 25 MAY 1992

At Falcone's funeral we were all crying.

It was raining hard. It was a truly dramatic day.

For all of us present here, so that by celebrating the Lord's Passover

we die to the sin and resurrect to the new life. Let us pray.

Lord, hear us.

Paolo was distraught.

He was grieving, really distraught.

It was like he had entered a different dimension.

I remember a crowd I had never seen before.

It was impressive. The participation of Palermo citizens,

of trade unions, and people was unanimous.

I'm sorry, Agnese. May I stay a few minutes alone, please?

Alright.

Let's go.

After Giovanni's death, that he considered a shield,

he always said, "I'm in a race against the clock.

"In life, I have always been second,

and I'll be second also in death."

It's my turn, now.

I remember something Borsellino said

before the coffins of Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and the agents:

"Those of you who want to go, go ahead.

Those of you who stay need to know that this is the future for us."

One day, I asked him, "How will you find your enthusiasm back?"

Since Paolo worked with enthusiasm.

He said, "I don't know if I will find it, but I surely have to. I will."

-Who's the one with the Judge? -Rino Germanà from Criminalpol.

The Judge says he's his favourite cop.

Sure.

The Chief Prosecutor?

He's sorry but I won't have the mandate to investigate in Palermo.

Only in Trapani and Marsala. It seems Giammanco doesn't like how I work.

Just like he didn't like how Falcone worked.

And if I'd become chief super-prosecutor, I'd be the first to say

that I'm using Giovanni's death to climb the ladder.

-Palermo is a nest of vipers. -In Rome, you could continue

Falcone's work.

I'll continue Giovanni's work here in Sicily, not in Rome.

I requested the ROS Carabinieri the report on mafia and tenders

that Giovanni talked me about before he died.

Do you think the Capaci bombing was made for this very investigation?

The Caltanissetta Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating on this.

What I know is that we need to take Giovanni's insights forward.

The mafia-tenders inquiry is one of those.

After Falcone's death, Paolo Borsellino tried

to take up the investigations that Falcone was conducting

and that, according to Borsellino, could explain

why Cosa Nostra had decided to kill Giovanni Falcone

in the month of May of 1992.

I was 26 when the fortified courtroom was built.

The declarations of mafia repentant Buscetta

allowed Judges Falcone and Borsellino to drag to that courtroom

more than 400 Mafiosi.

It was the first time that a Court acknowledged the existence of Cosa Nostra.

When the Maxi Trial allows to enforce the life sentences

that the various Riina and mafia bosses were able to avoid

with acquittals, this triggers a reaction.

ORIGINAL TESTIMONY OF ANTONINO GIUFFRÉ COOPERATIVE WITNESS

It was the meeting that took place in December 1991.

That meeting stuck in my mind as the more horrible I ever took part in.

Where the day of reckoning was set forth.

That is, where Salvatore Riina declared war.

We'll kill them all, these sons of bitches.

He declared war to Falcone and Borsellino,

he declared war to the politicians, Lima and many others…

Those who acted

too harshly with Cosa Nostra must pay.

And who do we slaughter first?

I'll tell you.

PALERMO 12 MARCH 1992

Salvo Lima was killed just a few metres from his house in Mondello.

In Sicily and in all of Italy,

Salvo Lima was the political point of reference for the Mafia.

Falcone explicitly told me,

"Now, anything can happen."

First, Salvo Lima was killed. Then, with Falcone's killing,

Paolo Borsellino became totally aware

that the next obstacle Cosa Nostra had

on its path was him, Paolo Borsellino.

In my family, I paid quite dearly

my dedication to this job

and the condition of constant danger that comes with it.

I deluded myself into thinking that I had guaranteed

a nearly normal existence to my children, at least from their point of view.

I don't believe that anymore, after…

the bombing that killed Falcone,

his wife and the agents of the escort, because…

some reactions I had from inside my family,

from my kids, made me realise

that, sadly, these youngsters pay dearly these kind of situations.

Perhaps not so much in terms of their social life,

but in terms of their psychological growth.

Come on, Mum, leave him alone.

-Manfredi, so? -I'm studying, Mum.

-What's going on? -What do you think?

I fear for Dad and it bothers me that you're pretending everything's normal.

He doesn't need the burden of our concerns.

At least here, at home, he needs to feel serene.

Here I am.

-Are you going? -Yes.

I'm not sure when I'll be back. I have a dinner organised by the Carabinieri.

-Alright. -I'll call you from the office.

-Bye, Dad. -Bye, Manfredi.

-Will you talk to her? -Fine.

-Hello? -Come on, Dad!

What you're listening to must be important.

Much more important than these.

Didn't you have an exam?

I can't study. Nothing seems to stick.

-Try and focus a bit more. -How am I supposed to focus more?

All I think about is Francesca and Giovanni

and the risk that now you're taking.

I'm in a race against the clock. It's me against them.

I can't back out.

I understand that, but why it has to be you?

Why don't you to relocate to Rome or wherever you want?

Because how things end up isn't what matters.

What matters is always doing one's duty.

And I know you understand that, right?

Come here, sweetheart.

I saw a person really devoted to his family.

He acted normally with us, too.

He didn't make us feel the burden of his status.

A magistrate and his escort.

He treated us like we were his children.

-What about them? -They're telling you what, Judge.

Judge Borsellino.

I'm speaking on behalf of the colleagues of the corps and the Police who are here.

We respectfully request to be recommended as men of your escort.

We won't leave you alone.

Guys, your sense of duty does you credit.

But there are too many people who risk for me.

Besides, do you want to leave them unemployed?

Thank you.

Thank you.

He told us, "That's crazy!

They came to me asking to be part of my escort.

Don't they know what it means?"

And then he said, "They sure do, and they still do it."

How old are you?

-I'm 22. -Twenty-two. Good boy.

When Borsellino went by,

many people put pieces of paper in his jacket.

These notes contained information from ordinary citizens,

who claimed to have hints or know details

that could have helped recreate what happened in Capaci.

However, some of those notes contained telephone numbers of Police agents,

Carabinieri or Guardia di Finanza officers who wanted to escort Borsellino.

TERRASINI, PALERMO 5 JUNE 1992

Even in those difficult days,

the Judge like to have dinner with his closest collaborators.

Rumour has it that you're going to Rome.

I have no intention of leaving Sicily

until we'll find out who killed Giovanni Falcone and why.

You know that everyone in the Cupola wanted him dead.

-Totò Riina first. -Yes, but why did it happen now?

What made his elimination so urgent?

I'm sorry to bother you. Our cook would like to meet you.

Excuse me.

-Please. -Thank you, Judge. This way.

-My compliments. Everything was tasty. -Thank you, Judge Borsellino.

Judge Borsellino.

-Judge Borsellino… -No, but why?

Come with me.

Can you tell me why the cook was crying?

-I was about to cry, too. -Why? What did he tell you?

He's ashamed for this tormented land.

But that family men, workers,

and the honest people of Palermo are on our side.

I was moved.

Gentlemen, allow me to make one last toast before leaving.

To the honest people.

The Judge always remembered that night.

He called it "the honest people dinner".

It was maybe the last time I saw him serene.

After Falcone's killing, Paolo was still there.

The State, the fair State was still there

and it was represented by Paolo.

People still had something to believe in.

PALERMO, 23 JUNE 1992 REMEMBRANCE OF THE CAPACI BOMBING

The vigil was in San Domenico.

I wanted Paolo to take the floor,

so as to give further advice

and further comfort,

and also an incentive, an encouragement to young people.

Because Giovanni didn't escape.

For love. His life was an act of love

towards this city of his, this land that gave birth to him.

Loving Palermo and its people

has had and still has the meaning of giving to this land

everything that it was and is possible to give

of our moral, intellectual and professional strengths.

It was so emotional hearing him uttering those words

with that power, that passion.

They were the right interlocutors.

He had the need to pass those strong messages in that speech.

Giovanni thought that the fight against Mafia

wasn't only meant to be a detached repressive work,

but a cultural movement involving all of us.

Especially the youngsters.

A cultural movement that would accustom everyone

to feeling the beauty of the fresh scent of freedom

that goes against the stink of moral compromise,

indifference, proximity and therefore complicity."

I felt actively involved like a young boy scout.

I think I've always thought about those words.

Still today, in all my meetings with the youngsters,

I make them listen to this message by Paolo.

"We need to make sense to the deaths of Giovanni…

of sweet, sweet Francesca…

of Vito, Rocco, Antonio.

They all died for us. We owe a great debt to them.

And we need to pay it cheerfully, by carrying their work on.

By doing our duty, respecting the law,

even those that impose a sacrifice.

By denying the benefits that could derive

from the mafia system.

Even the aid, the intercessions, the jobs.

By cooperating with the judicial process,

by testifying the values we believe in.

By fully accepting this unpleasant and beautiful legacy,

by showing to ourselves and the whole world that Falcone is alive!"

He transmitted some values to us:

the deep sense of State, of dedication.

These are things we need to rediscover, to savour,

to regain and bring back up.

I remember Paolo Borsellino's speech for the 30th-day celebration very well.

It was made with the heart, but also with the head.

It actually felt like Paolo Borsellino

had read his own funeral oration.

At last, thanks to my colleagues' insistence,

in those days the Judge's protection was increased.

A fixed garrison where he lives with his family was provided for,

along with a second armoured car with three more men on board.

The Judge continued relentlessly with his investigation.

We need to sift through all of the companies who won a contract

since when Riina became the Boss of the Bosses.

Let's forget the small fish. I want the great sharks.

We need to follow the money, as Falcone said.

"Follow the money and you'll find the mafia."

And I'm sure the Corleonesi money don't stop in Sicily.

They reach the North of Italy, too.

We could exchange information about tenders with the other prosecutors.

In Milan, Di Pietro is really shaking things up with Mani Pulite.

No. What we're doing needs to stay between us.

I'm afraid that some so-called colleagues we'll tell everything to the papers.

Where do we start?

From where Giovanni had started,

the ROS notices.

They contain heavy names.

Entrepreneurs, politicians, listed companies.

We'll study them one by one.

There's a recurring name in here, that of Angelo Siino.

He was considered Cosa Nostra minister of public works,

until we arrested him.

He made deals with all the cement factories in Sicily.

We need to find a boss who did business with him and is willing to cooperate.

Perhaps, not everyone agreed to the Capaci bombing.

Someone could give in. I'll make you talk with the Penitentiary Police.

But let's be careful. I don't know who can be trusted.

Not even in law enforcement.

Borsellino learns that there are

some emissaries of the Carabinieri Special Units,

the ROS, meet former mafioso mayor Vito Ciancimino,

who is under house arrest in a place behind Piazza di Spagna, in Rome,

and start a relationship to apprehend Totò Riina.

ORIGINAL TESTIMONY OF CLAUDIO MARTELLI MINISTER FOR JUSTICE FROM 1991 TO 1993

Towards the end of June,

the director of Judicial Affairs of the Department of Justice, Ms. Ferraro,

informed me that Captain De Donno, of the ROS Carabinieri, paid her a visit,

telling her they had hooked Vito Ciancimino

and they aimed to obtain useful contributions

for the purposes of the investigation

related to the Capaci bombing.

Useful to the investigation in order to avoid new massacres.

I told her: "You need to inform immediately Paolo Borsellino."

And she said, "I've already done it."

Paolo Borsellino would never have given

the dignity of the interlocutor to Cosa Nostra.

He could never have accepted the idea

that a State representative sat down and made a pact with Cosa Nostra.

What are you writing in that diary, Judge? You hold it all the time.

-Are you writing a novel? -Sort of.

Let's just say that I'm keeping notes of all the things I learn

that I can't make official in the investigation.

It's a reminder for the future.

According to what his family and close friends said,

he didn't use the red diary to mark his appointments,

but to take notes of the important things he would have probably wanted to tell

to the Magistrates of Caltanissetta, who never listened to him.

Many times Paolo Borsellino said, both publicly and privately,

that he was waiting for the Magistrates of Caltanissetta to summon him

to record everything he knew

about Giovanni Falcone's work and what he had confided him.

25 JUNE 1992 PALERMO CITY LIBRARY

Besides being a magistrate…

I am a witness.

I am a witness because I have lived for a long time

my work experience next to Giovanni Falcone

and I gathered all the things he confided me.

Before I can speak in public,

first and foremost, I need to take these elements that I keep inside

and report them to the judicial authority, the only one capable to evaluate

how much these things I know

could be useful in recreating

the event that ended

Giovanni Falcone's life.

In his last speech, Paolo explicitly asked,

loudly and in the court of public opinion,

to go and testify in Caltanissetta.

So, what Paolo had to say would have surely been really important.

The fact they didn't listen to Borsellino in those 57 days,

in hindsight, is something puzzling.

Why not listen to Paolo, of all people?

Even after the insistence and all the conflicts we know have happened.

Then, there must be something no one can know.

Why that face?

They're transferring me to Mazara del Vallo.

They're punishing you because of your good job with me?

I need you in Palermo, Rino.

I'm flattered, Judge, but there's nothing I can do.

Our investigation is clearly bothering someone, as you said.

But I've got good news. Leonardo Messina wants to cooperate.

Since when Judge Falcone died, he only wants to speak with you.

This is good. Messina can open a new path

on the mafia-tenders inquiry.

Thank you, Rino. Thank you.

We were afraid,

also because seeing how

the Judge escort was organised,

generated moments of concern and fear.

We tried to disguise it, to hide it a bit.

But the symptom was there.

Didn't our colleagues see who parked this here?

Apparently no.

They must have parked it during the shift change.

Anyway, there's nothing outside the van.

-Should we open it? -Are you crazy?

If it's filled with explosive, we blow up.

Any news on the plate from the station?

Not yet. They said, "Do you think they place a bomb like this?"

When the Judge arrives, we tell him to wait for the bomb squad.

No, leave it. He's already nervous.

Actually, get out of here now. Let's go.

PALERMO 30 JUNE 1992, 7:00 AM.

Judge, if I may,

wouldn't it be safer to postpone it and wait for the bomb squad?

Look, my flight to Rome leaves in an hour. If you wish, you can wait.

-No, of course. -Eh… good boy.

Can you check if my hair turned white?

Everything's good, Traina. We got scared over nothing.

-You alright, Antonino? -Yes.

In Rome, that day, the Judge met Leonardo Messina, called "Narduzzo",

a boss from Caltanissetta who managed drug trafficking for the Madonia family.

Messina told he had repented

after hearing on TV the words of my friend Schifani's widow

at the funeral of Falcone and his escort.

I, Rosaria Costa,

first of all request that justice is done, now.

I'm speaking to the Mafia men who I'm sure are now here with us

but who definitely are not Christians.

Know that even for you there's a chance of forgiveness.

I forgive you, but you need to kneel down

if you have the courage to change. But they won't change!

They don't want to change. They don't change.

The Corleonesi created a perfect system.

They launder money in public tenders and make more money

because Cosa Nostra always win the contracts.

How do they know they'll win?

There's always some official, some politician, who's willing to help

by fixing the assignments. And if a competitor is too persistent,

someone makes them understand it's better to stop, the easy way or the hard way.

Aren't we talking just about Sicily, are we?

I know that Riina is very interested in the biggest Italian cement plant.

He has friends in the Board of Directors and Riina ordered

the purchase of all the quarries in Sicily and the one in the Apuan Alps.

So, are you telling us that Riina wants to become the greatest contractor in Italy?

Just like you are the greatest judge in Italy.

One afternoon, Paolo Borsellino met at the airport

the Minister of Defence Salvo Andò.

Andò informed him he had learned

about a notice of the ROS Carabinieri

talking about a serious death threat against Borsellino and Andò himself.

Paolo Borsellino knew nothing about this threat.

He gets mad and shows before Minister Andò

all his indignation for not having been warned.

The day after, he goes to his boss at the Palermo Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutor Giammanco is inside?

-Yes, but… -You two wait here.

Paolo, I care about your safety, but there are certain procedures

and you know I can't reveal everything.

The ROS sent a notice about me.

It was your moral duty to inform me immediately about it!

Do you know how many notices I get and maybe they're based on nothing?

Cut the bullshit!

They want to kill me!

And it's up to me whether to consider this threat real or imaginary. To me!

One day, you'll be accountable for all of this.

-Did you hurt yourself, Judge? -No.

What really hurts me is that I realised I have too little time.

In that period, the Judge often went to Rome

to meet the repentants who wanted to talk to him only after Falcone's death.

Gaspare Mutolo was one of those.

He was aware of the importance of these questionings.

He wanted to run them himself, even if there were harsh conflicts

about it with the Prosecutor who, at first,

didn't assign cooperative witness Mutolo to him.

Then, he was convinced that it was not only appropriate

but also inevitable that Paolo Borsellino handled that cooperation.

I'm not a rat, Judge.

But this war Riina is carrying on needs to end, for everyone's sake.

Pasqualino, it's people like you who made him the Boss of the Bosses.

Are you realising it now?

I want to know who's covering Riina up, who his friends are.

There are many friends! He's got plenty of friends, Judge.

I want those who help him inside the institutions.

Riina knows who to rely on, right?

-Am I wrong? -No, you're not.

It's that sometimes walls have ears… everywhere.

Guys, can you please leave us for a moment?

I'm listening.

There's a colleague of yours who was at the Maxi Trial.

It's Judge Domenico Signorino.

He has many gambling debts.

And Totò 'u curtu can twist his nibs around his little finger.

We're going to verify that.

But I don't think he's the only one.

There's another friend of Riina. We call him "The Telltale".

The Telltale. Who is he?

He's a big shot. He works in the secret services.

This upsets a man like Paolo Borsellino,

a man of the institutions

who believed that those institutions need to be and actually are loyal.

This inner drama tormented him in that period.

A discovery he needed to answer to with some validation,

because he knew that statements alone weren't enough.

I'm not lying about the names I gave you.

It's that I'm still not ready to make it official.

-How long do you want to keep me waiting? -Let me speak with my lawyer.

Hello?

Right now?

Can't we do this another time?

During his questioning to Mutolo, he receives a phone call.

Alright.

According to Mutolo, Paolo says: "The Minister called me."

He doesn't say: "They called me from the Ministry."

He says: "The Minister called me. I'll be back in two hours."

He goes to the Ministry of Interior,

where an encounter upsets Paolo Borsellino a lot.

The Minister will see you in a few minutes, Judge Borsellino.

Thank you.

Judge, do you remember me?

Paolo Borsellino was astounded

in seeing Mr Contrada, who told him:

"I know you've met Gaspare Mutolo."

The cooperation with Gaspare Mutolo had just started.

At the time, Mr Contrada acted

as number 3 of the Intelligence and Democratic Security Service.

The fact that quite naturally he told him,

"I know you've met Gaspare Mutolo.

If you need anything, please come to me,"

made him fly into a rage.

Paolo realises that his questioning with Mutolo isn't a secret.

Paolo Borsellino starts to be aware

of what is moving against him,

not just in criminal terms.

Agnese?

Yes, I'm here.

-Antonio, good morning. -Good morning, Ma'am.

I forgot my phone charger in the car.

-Could you please take it? -Sure, Judge.

We are going to Villagrazia, you and me alone, without the escort.

-Has something happened? -I need some air.

I'm so sorry I wasn't always there for you in this period.

Since when Giovanni died, you never stopped.

Maybe you could do it for a few days.

Not now that I've seen the other face of the Mafia.

What do you mean?

That repentant I met in Rome

gave me pretty important information.

Things you didn't expect?

I suspected, but such precise validation leave no doubts.

He's not giving me names of Mafiosi,

but of men of State, who should fight the Mafia

and instead make deals with them, do business with them.

Do you know what this means?

That this land has no hope

and that our children won't see the end of these killings.

This is why you need to keep going.

You need to continue the work you started with Giovanni.

Right.

Until they'll let me.

Why? You're only trying to do justice.

Because the country we live in isn't ready to accept the truth.

You're scaring me.

In the last days, we noticed that the Judge had changed.

He was more distant to us.

He was more worried for us members of the escort and his family

and maybe not so much for himself.

Judge, this is our new purchase.

-She is officer Emanuela Loi. -It's an honour to me.

Are we sure you're going to protect me and not the opposite?

Don't be deceived by appearances. I'll do whatever I need to.

Welcome.

Emanuela Loi was the first woman to be accepted as a member of an escort

and would have also been the first to get killed.

She was 24.

-Hello, Judge? It's Germanà. -Hi, Rino. Are you in Mazara?

Unfortunately yes, but I've got something to tell you.

I've researched the company in the North of Italy that Messina told you about.

Tell me everything.

It seems they bought a 40% share of a company owned by Antonio Buscemi,

capomandamento of Boccadifalco.

-Are we sure about it? -Sure, but it was a fake purchase

made to avoid requisition and launder dirty money.

They are silent partners.

This means that Leonardo Messina is a reliable source.

It's great news, Rino.

When you're in Palermo, bring me the papers.

-Alright, Judge. -Bye, Germanà.

Has something happened?

Sometimes the investigation leads to good results.

Except not everybody will like this one.

For sure, Cosa Nostra sped up

the decision to kill Paolo Borsellino

that had been formally made at the end of 1991.

Riina expressly said

that they should hurry and it had to be done immediately.

Was it due to the fact that the negotiation was at a standstill?

We cannot answer this question here.

Paolo wasn't scared.

His concern was his family.

What his family could have suffered.

His children,

who he loved immensely. He once told me,

"I'm admiring them."

He tried to grow away from my children,

who wanted to hug him, kiss him and he rejected them,

as if he wanted them to grow away from their father.

-We're at the table. Come. -I need to work. You can eat without me.

Paolo, the kids would love spending some time with you.

-And I would, too. -I told you I need to work.

The kids will see me tomorrow.

Alright.

I think that this will to stay away from his family

originated from the fact the burden of knowing that his wife and his kids

were going to be without him,

without a person who could give what Paolo was capable of giving.

This was his biggest pain.

He was afraid that someone who had nothing to do with all of it

could have been involved in his potential violent death.

This really impressed me.

PALERMO 17 JULY 1992

Paolo, this notice just came in.

Is everything okay?

I've just been informed that a load of TNT arrived in Palermo.

And it's not to be used for the feast of Santa Rosalia.

There's my name on it.

Paolo, why don't you go on vacation? It's July.

To spend time with Agnese and your kids.

We are the State and the State doesn't go on vacation.

When it has to, it replies and fights.

-That's why we're here. -And we're with you, you know it.

We still have lots of things to do and we need to be quick.

Thank you, Franco.

He told me: "Many friends of mine suggest me to leave it,

because the explosive is already here for me,

but I can't fall short of honest citizens' expectations. I must stay."

I clearly felt he was fully aware

that he was headed to his own death.

This thought still gives me shivers.

That day, he was waiting for me in the public prosecutor's office.

We talked about many things and then,

when I was going to say goodbye, Paolo said to me, "Please, stop."

I asked him why and he told me, "I need you to confess me.

So that I can be ready."

Ready?

In his heart, he was getting ready to separate

from this reality of ours.

Then, he told me, "I entrust you with my children."

I committed to always pray for his children and I always did.

Approximately at 1:45 PM,

someone knocked on my door and Paolo Borsellino entered the room.

I thought he wanted to ask me something, but he just came by to say hello.

We hugged and…

we agreed we would have met on Monday.

Hello, Paolo.

-Hello. -Are you leaving?

Yes, I'm leaving.

He had never done that. Besides, the hall to the left

wasn't his usual path to leave the building.

He took the longest hall on purpose

around the building to come and say goodbye to some of us.

I've never understood that choice,

but I'll be eternally grateful to him for it.

PALERMO 19 JULY 1992, 4:30 PM.

-I'm afraid it's sick. -Did you try with the fertiliser?

Sure, but it's like it decided to die.

-Do you know I have to thank you? -For what?

For sticking with me all these years

and the way you raised our children.

When you're here, our children should be home with us.

You spoke only 5 minutes over the phone with Fiammetta

just to discover she doesn't want to come back from Thailand.

She's on vacation, she's young. What does she have to do in Palermo?

And Lucia need to study at a friend's house on a Sunday?

She has an exam tomorrow.

-Dad! -Here's our lawyer.

You might need this.

What is it?

Nothing, sweetheart. You remember me at your age.

However, dad, there's only one Judge Borsellino.

Son, I wish you'll have an easier life than mine.

Why don't you understand that I like the life you do?

-Bye, my son. -Bye. See you tonight.

-Bye. -Bye.

-We're ready, Judge. -We're going to my mother in Via D'Amelio.

-I don't know the way. -I do.

I play five-a-side there.

We'll drive the convoy, then. Let's move.

-Hello? -Paolo, we made it.

-To do what? -I got you the mandate for Palermo.

So you can stop saying I'm sabotaging your work.

-The game is over. -Over? The game is up!

It's totally up!

That 19 of July was a beautiful day, but what's strange

is that Traina and I both felt like

the more we were getting close to Palermo, to the destination of Via D'Amelio,

the more the day… became dark.

PALERMO, VIA D'AMELIO 19 JULY 1992, 4:58 PM.

-What should we do? -I don't know.

There were too many cars in Via D'Amelio and I didn't know how to proceed.

Go, go!

The Judge overtook me and I followed him.

It's been months since the lead escorts requested a parking ban

and a fixed garrison on that road, but no one cared.

It's me.

I saw the Judge smoking his last cigarette.

Judge, we can pass.

There were two entry phones.

Once beyond the first, the group entered a garden

leading to the second one. Now, I couldn't see them anymore.

I'm moving the car.

So, I decided to move the car, getting ready to exit that road.

RECREATION OF THE FIAT 126 EXPLOSION FROM THE BORSELLINO QUATER TRIAL

Command Centre, I'm Inspector Lo Presti, I arrived here first with other colleagues

and I'm limiting the area,

trying to put order in this disorder. Over.

Everyone is probably dead, even the magistrate.

All the colleagues are dead for sure. Except for Vullo.

I believe every single Italian citizen remembers that day.

Palermo is again shocked by this afternoon's attack

where Judge Paolo Borsellino and five agents of his escort have died.

The car bomb explodes near Borsellino's mother's house.

The car filled with explosive was parked in due time

in front of Borsellino's mother's house

where the Judge often went. A boom, torn-apart bodies.

The devastation we witnessed in that place

was truly lacerating.

Infernal.

The smell of fuel oil mixed with the smell of explosive

and burnt tyres.

The only thing I remember of all of this

is, sadly, the image "printed" on the building

of one of the members of Paolo Borsellino's escort

that is still ingrained in my mind.

Manfredi, don't go.

Mum, I need to go seeing what happened.

Come on. Go!

I wanted to see Paolo's body

to have the visual perception of the realness of what happened.

Everyone knew me,

since I was a member of that escort, and they let us through.

I was with his daughter Lucia and I tried to bring her closer

so that she could see her dad.

As soon as Lucia saw her dad in those conditions,

she burst into tears and we just left.

It was already dark when I arrived.

I stood there for hours, looking

at the pieces of wall that collapsed and all that massacre

that you could still see even in the dark.

Images that are still vivid in my mind and in my heart

and that will never go away.

A huge sense of emptiness, of absence.

What I do remember the most is this sense of absence.

I was trying to understand what Paolo been gone meant

but I couldn't. I just felt this sense of emptiness.

JUDGE BORSELLINO BURIAL CHAMBER

When I got out of the hospital a few days later,

I decided to pay my last respects to the Judge.

Paolo had a profound faith. He lived in imitation of Christ.

He knew he had to die in order for his dream to come true.

He died in imitation of Christ, sacrificing his life

for what he believed in.

PALERMO, 21 JULY 1992 FUNERAL OF THE ESCORT AGENTS

It was a tragic moment for the institutions

because the lingering feeling

was that the State had been subdued by Cosa Nostra.

They're scared of letting everyone see that this city hates this power!

Some people said, "I left my job to be here

and testify with my presence, and you're not letting me."

Eventually, the crowd was so strong that it broke the police cordons

and did participate.

I have the right to participate. I'm a citizen like you.

The guys of the escort were terrified,

and most of all they didn't trust their superiors.

That is, they didn't trust the State.

Mr President, the dead are here. They're here!

These guys knew they were like cannon fodder

sent to slaughter since ever, not only that summer of 1992.

The feeling everyone had in Palermo

is a hard one to understand,

one that evolved in that violent reaction.

It's not so usual to see a Head of State who has to flee like that.

It could have ended badly.

The President of the Republic is held in a grip.

The Commissioner of Police is struggling to hold the agents back.

At that moment, the State seemed broken.

Seemed… it was broken.

And thank goodness for that anger.

It would have been a disaster without that reaction, that anger

showed with such determination and from so many people together.

We want the instigators, not those who killed him!

We want the laws!

They have had enough. Paolo Borsellino's friends believed

that too much had been done to isolate Paolo Borsellino

but too little to stop his brutal killing.

A good part of them distrusted their boss,

which was and still is not so usual in a Public Prosecutor's Office.

The Higher Judicial Council intervened, the prosecutor was transferred

and that was it.

PALERMO, 24 JULY 1992 FUNERAL OF PAOLO BORSELLINO

The Borsellino family didn't want a State funeral.

Agnese, Lucia and Manfredi opted for a private ceremony,

held when Fiammetta came back from Thailand.

The Judge's relatives asked the politicians not to come,

not to participate in the ceremony.

Paolo! Paolo!

There was a procession of people who were crying and calling him "Paolo".

Two sides of a crowd who called Paolo.

At first, I'm almost embarrassed to say this, it upset me

because I said: "Why are they here? Paolo is mine, he's ours."

It was me, my mother, my brothers.

But then I thought:

"If Paolo was able to provoke this in these strangers,

what's going on here?"

It really was as if Paolo was everyone's brother,

of each one of us.

People's ideas and actions won't stop in front of barbarity

After Falcone and Paolo Borsellino,

it was a bit like part of my life had ended, too.

However, it also originated…

In addition to the citizen's protests,

that we felt really close, the comeback started.

PALERMO, END OF JULY 1992 OPERATION "SICILIAN VESPERS"

A huge anti-mafia commitment followed the emotional wave of the massacres.

The chance of using sophisticated electronic surveillance

and telephone tapping,

the cooperative witness rules system, the "hard prison regime"

are tools that place Italy in a leading position in the West.

PALERMO SEPTEMBER 1992

I had a big desire for justice, too,

so I tried to fight in the front row to achieve it.

I wanted to join the investigation team dealing with the massacres.

Yes, everything looks pretty good to me.

I passed all the physical and psychological test, Mr La Barbera.

-I took them more than once. -I'm very happy for you.

But?

Vullo, I can't take you in the "Falcone-Borsellino" team.

You understand that, right? You're too involved.

If you need me to work 24/7, I can do that.

Yes, I'm involved, but you won't find a policeman more driven than me.

I am the first wanting to find those who killed my colleagues and the Judge.

Try me, please.

Thank you, Vullo.

It felt like my whole world was crumbling because I…

couldn't be the policeman I wanted to be and I kind of let myself go.

I saw myself parked in the office

and I grew more and more indolent…

MAZARA DEL VALLO, TRAPANI 14 SEPTEMBER 1992

Meanwhile, the Mafia still craved for blood.

They wanted to eliminate Judge Borsellino's closest collaborators, too.

Rino Germanà returns fire saving himself.

In that car, there were three of the most dangerous Cosa Nostra killers,

Giovanni Brusca, Matteo Messina Denaro and Leoluca Bagarella.

FLORENCE, VIA DEI GEORGOFILI 27 MAY 1993

Let's remember that the attack

to the State continued in 1993.

After the capture of Riina, Bagarella, Brusca and most of all the Gravianos,

they decided to bring the war against the State in Italy,

across the Strait of Messina which was an important transition

leading to a greater determination of the State against Cosa Nostra.

PALERMO POLICE HEADQUARTERS JANUARY 1993

All this time to give it back to us?

-Where's the red diary? -I'm sorry, red diary?

-My father's. -Everyone saw him putting it in the bag.

He must have taken it out before, since it never arrived here.

Or maybe you made it disappear.

You're either talking nonsense or you're still worn out.

You may need to take your daughter to a good psychologist.

Don't you dare speak to my daughter like this! Let's go, Lucia.

His wife and kids have always affirmed that Paolo Borsellino

had become inseparable from that red diary.

The fact that it was never found opens up to the mystery we all know about

about who and why took that red diary away from Paolo Borsellino's bag.

It's certain that a red diary was inside the bag.

The bag inside Borsellino's car

is picked up in the first place and then delivered to individuals

belonging to the Carabinieri.

It travels a stretch of road,

goes outside the area delimited by the investigation

and then comes back and it's put inside the car,

a car that was burning.

And so the diary ended up in the flames.

Then the firefighters intervene

and are able to put out the fire that broke out in the automobile.

At that point, they took the bag

that ends up in the Quaestor's room

and stays there for five months without anyone taking care of it.

One of the members of the command that set up the car bomb

that massacred Borsellino and the five members of the escort

is a 27-year-old with a criminal record, Vincenzo Scarantino.

Trivial criminal record but remarkable kinship,

leading directly to the most powerful and bloodthirsty Mafia families,

the military arm of Totò Riina's Corleonesi.

Scarantino wasn't convincing under any aspect,

not even under the one of his affinity with Cosa Nostra.

The willingness to solve the case

giving a solution to the public opinion

it surely isn't commendable.

Guiltily, two or three of us who knew the situation didn't…

On that occasion, we didn't do our job to the core

because it was evident that he was a character

built in a cop laboratory.

Scarantino tells that he stole the Fiat 126 used to carry out the attack.

He claims that the theft was ordered by Pietro Aglieri,

boss of the Guadagna mandamento.

Scarantino gives many names,

names of people who declare themselves innocent.

-Antonio. -Mrs. Borsellino, how are you?

-Hi, Manfredi. -Hi.

How are you?

-It hurts me if you don't call. -I don't want to bother, Ma'am.

Bother? You're family.

-May I ask you something? -Sure.

What do you think about Scarantino's confession?

What should I think, Manfredi? How can anyone believe that?

-Right. -All lies, and they know it.

They know it and pretend they don't. So they can leave the massacre

and my husband's investigation behind.

Antonio, the truth is that we're surrounded by wolves.

This is the worst moment, since they killed him.

Don't tell me about it, Ma'am. I sometimes feel like escaping the Police.

But my sense of duty tells me I have to do whatever I can to find the truth.

They will all be against us. All of them, Antonio.

I couldn't care less, Ma'am.

I am a man of the State.

Years lost investigating false statements by false repentants.

Those of us involved in the massacre

felt embittered, disappointed and a bit betrayed, too.

That surely offended

the sacrifice of Via D'Amelio martyrs.

I don't think that these 15 years have been unnecessarily lost,

in that, they conveniently wanted to lose them. In that…

Because more than a mafioso explained to the magistrates,

to the investigators, that Scarantino wasn't part of Cosa Nostra,

that he knew nothing, that he was lying. They wanted to believe it.

The victims' families, who were already suffering, were given false hopes,

gifting them, out of the goodness of the Courts, with a truth,

that was a false truth.

And other surely innocent individuals

served more than 15 years of prison under 41-bis on the island prisons.

-Who do you want to amuse, key-turning? -I am marked for life.

I am the one who killed Borsellino, but it wasn't me.

I've never killed anyone in my life.

Everyone claims they're innocent in here, but I believe you.

But why?

Because the one who killed Paolo Borsellino…

it's me.

Gaspare Spatuzza start cooperating with the judicial process

at the end of June 2008.

He self-accuses of a portion of Via D'Amelio massacre

that coincides with what Scarantino self-accused of,

saying that he stole the car used for the attack.

On the orders of Giuseppe Graviano,

Vittorio Tutino and I stole a Fiat 126.

When I was ordered of stealing the car,

I immediately thought about magistrate Chinnici.

Because also for Chinnici it was used a Fiat 126,

so I thought about a massacre.

Of course, Spatuzza's statements

allowed us to hope that the right moment had arrived,

the moment to obtain the truth we've been looking for 25 years now.

On 18 July, they told me to bring the stolen car

in a garage near Via D'Amelio.

I had two cars in front of me, so I avoided two roadblocks.

We arrived in a building near Via D'Amelio, I went down the ramp,

entered a box they had open, and there I met

Lorenzo Tinnirello, Francesco Tagliavia, and a third person I didn't know.

I told them to wipe off the fingerprints,

to erase any trace, and I left.

Whereas they stayed in the box

to prepare the primer and the explosive they put in the Fiat 126.

After 25 years, the Courts did what they could.

Maybe they could have analysed better some investigative cues.

But I think the Courts did what they had to.

But I think that we Italians still don't know the whole truth about the massacre.

In the period of the Mafia massacres, Brancaccio's family and I

had a role. I was always doubtful

because I thought that Falcone was Cosa Nostra's enemy.

Paolo Borsellino was Cosa Nostra's enemy,

but the attacks in Florence, Milan and Rome

took place on another playing field. Because when children die,

when innocent people die, you're no man of honour anymore,

you become a terrorist. And I said this to Giuseppe Graviano.

He told me that these deaths would have woken the State up

and that if everything would've gone well, everyone would've benefited from it.

Then I realised this was political.

In the past, Cosa Nostra never attacked the State.

In the past, they tried to make deals with the authorities

in order to get results and profits.

This changed strategy doesn't belong to Cosa Nostra.

If there were external contacts,

low-level Cosa Nostra repentants like Spatuzza can't know them.

Someone says we would need a State repentant. Maybe we do,

in order to let emerge a more complete truth about what happened

in Italy 25 years ago.

Caltanissetta Assize Court finds Madonia Salvatore Mario,

Cutino Vittorio, Andreotta Francesco, Pulci Calogero

guilty of their ascribed crimes.

It sentences Madonia Salvatore Mario to life imprisonment

with solitary confinement during daytime for one year.

For the first time, in this country I saw a glimmer of truth,

a glimmer of justice. They made me hope something that I didn't hope to see

not even in the few years I've left to live,

seeing a glimmer of justice.

Strong doubts still remain about the identification of the instigators,

about the identification of those who wanted, conceived and planned

the massacre itself.

And when I say "wanted", I'm referring to people

who are not strictly members of Cosa Nostra.

Once, during a meeting with the students,

answering a boy's question Paolo said something heavy:

"I've never believed to the real will of politics of defeating the Mafia."

However, we have to believe it, because many things have changed.

Now, generations of youngsters reached an awareness that wasn't there before.

I often go to Via D'Amelio.

I prefer going when no one's there.

I feel a lot freer when I'm alone with them.

I've got that sense of relief for being able to stay with my friends,

since I lost a bit of my life in Via D'Amelio.

And it remained there with them.

I always think about my colleagues, about the Judge.

I still have that happy image of when we were in Villagrazia di Carini.

The image of when they lit their cigarettes in Via D'Amelio.

Those images are still…

vivid in my mind.

The last images of those people still alive.

These memories make me feel like this.

Those few minutes I spend there

release me from this worry I carry inside of me.

I physically came out myself from the armoured Croma,

but I have the feeling I was helped out by those colleagues of mine

who were killed in the explosion.

They saw I was trapped and the car was on fire

and wanted me to avoid a brutal death like the one they suffered.

I'm convinced they got me out.

Those who are afraid die every day,

those who are not afraid die only once.

Paolo Borsellino

Special thanks to Manfredi Borsellino for his valuable cooperation

Subtitle translation by: Eva Marano