In her book Elements of Italy Lisa St Aubin De Teran devotes a short chapter to two Italian’s, Givovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and their contribution to ending Mafia control in Sicily. The facts are worth repeating. The history of the Mafia probably dates to Giuseppe Garibaldi’s efforts to unite Italy when his red shirts arrived in Palermo in 1860. Young peasant supporters hid in caves called "maha" in Arabic which is believed to be the source of the name "Mafia." For over twenty five hundred years Sicily had been the point at which foreign invasions had occurred and it had been occupied by countless foreign rulers from different areas. The "Mafia" were involved in driving out these occupiers as part of Garibaldi’s group. However, after accomplishing that goal, they began to extort a living from the people through crime and corruption in the form of a drug trade, money laundering, political corruption and "pizzo" (protection money).

Over the many years the Mafia became more out of control. As an example, in November of 1990 some eight people were killed and seven other wounded in four different Mafia hits in the small Sicilian city of Gela in just a twenty four hour period. Fighting between different local clans had killed more then a hundred in the previous three years in this same city. This and other public acts of crime and violence by the Mafia resulted in these two men, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to decide enough was enough. Both judges were appointed to head the anti-mafia task force. Under the Italian justice system, once an allegation of a crime is made, magistrates have the duty to investigate and bring charges. They became the leaders of investigation into Mafia organized crime and both were put under police protection. As early as 1980 one of Borsellino’s colleagues, carabinieri Captain Emanuuele Basile, was murdered by the Mafia and as a result he was assigned police protection. Falcone, Borsellino and Rocco Chinnici, another magistrate were aware of the danger. In 1983 Chinnici was killed by a bomb inside his car.

As Sicilian magistrates the two were able to penetrate the Mafia secrecy. They learned the real mafiosi call themselves simply "men of  honor" and that the organization as a whole is known as the Casa Nostra. They finally got Tommaso Buscetta, a leading long time Mafia insider to cooperate which was a major accomplishment and breakthrough. They obtained names, facts and evidence to charge a large number of defendants. As a result, in 1986 & 1987 "Maxi trials" of some 475 Mafiosi drew international attention by bringing Mafia secrets out into the open. Falcone knew the consequences of successfully convicting the Mafia defendants and after the trial said "I am a dead man."

On May 23, 1992 fifty three year old Judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca (herself a magistrate) and body guards were driving to Rome where his wife had business. Falcone decided to drive the bulletproof Fiat Croma himself so Francesca got in the passenger side and Giuseppe Constanze, a body guard in the back. Three police cars with seven body guards were in the column with them as the drove down the highway to Rome.

None were aware of the activity earlier that day next to the highway near the Sicilian town of Capaci a short distance from the airport where they had started. That morning a team of "men of honor" dressed as construction workers had buried a huge amount of plastic explosives they put in a metal drain pipe and inserted it under the highway. That evening as the Falconne and the others approached, the men were a hundred yards back from the highway with a remote control detonator watching the traffic. When the motorcade arrived at the spot where the bomb was hidden there was an enormous explosion which tore up the entire highway for a quarter of a mile and destroyed all three cars, killing the occupants.

The Italian parliament called for a day of mourning and the funeral was on national television. There was public outrage. Housewives began hanging bed sheets out of windows in Sicily with slogans painted on in red, as if with Falcone’s blood: "Down with the Mafia!’ ‘Truth and Justice!’ ‘Falcone lives!’" with slogans like "Get the mafiosi out of government."

Paolo Borsellino, who worked with Falcone knew it was only a matter of time for him. Less then two months after the death of his friend Falcone, on Sunday July 19, 1992, Borsellino and his six body guards drove into Palermo to see his mother. The three car escort arrived a little after 5:00 pm. Borsellino and five body guards got out. A sixth remained at the wheel of the car. As they approached the gate of the apartment building, with the body guards surrounding Borsellino, a huge explosion from a car parked nearby broke windows all the way to the eleventh floor of the building. It was so huge that apartments facing the street for the first four floors were destroyed.

Instead of intimidating further prosecution of the Mafia as was intended by the killings, the two assassinations had the opposite effect. The entire country became enraged with the Mafia. Witnesses began to agree to cooperate with the police. In short order, Salvatore Riina was arrested and convicted of organizing the killing of Falcone and Borsellino. He was sentenced to life in prison. Also convicted was Giovanni Brusca who admitted to being the one who detonated the explosives. Further arrests contrinued over the next years. The killings were the catalyst that resulted in the loss of influence of the Mafia and a reduction of Mafia crime even though the organization exists today. The courage of these two men in doing what was right should be applauded by everyone.