Thread by @NickWhithorn

17 December 1992, a terrible year for Sicily, bloodied by dramatic murders of Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino, is coming to an end. In the main street of the town of Lucca Sicula, at 4.30 p.m., a man waits for a motorbike to pass before pulling out into the road [Thread] >> 1

The man is dressed completely in black and sports long white hair & beard but, despite his appearance, he is only 54 years old. His name is Giuseppe Borsellino. After marrying his wife Calogera at the age of 18, he has spent his life working to support her & their 3 children >> 2

He's worked as a painter, sold fruit & salame, spent several years in Germany doing various jobs, then returning to Sicily to work as a lorry driver before opening a small bar in his home town of Lucca Sicula. Then, in the late 1980s, he goes into business with his son Paolo >> 3

Paolo is ambitious & entusiastic. He takes the opportunity to buy a concrete mixing plant with help from his father, who sells his bar, and his brother Pasquale. There are lots of opportunities for construction work in the area but, from the outset, the business struggles >> 4

There are numerous public contracts out for tender but they're always awarded to the same three firms. The Borsellino family's firm "Lucca Calcestruzzi" gets nothing, not even a small subcontract. In 1991, the firm is in serious financial trouble and the mafia makes its move >> 5

The local 'boss', Stefano Radosta, offers to buy them out for 150 million lire, a pittance. Paolo refuses. A few months later the position is so desperate that he has to accept an offer from a group of local 'businessmen' to buy 50% of the firm, but that is not the end >> 6

The family starts to receive 'warnings'. Their lorries are burnt out, fruit trees on land they own are cut down, they receive requests to donate money to "friends in prison" (a common way for the mafia to demand protection money). Paolo holds firm. The outcome is inevitable >> 7

On 21 April, 3 months before his more famous namesake, Paolo Borsellino is murdered. Worried he hasn't returned home, his wife calls Giuseppe, who sets out to look for him. He finds his son's Fiat Panda on the firm's premises. Paolo is inside. He has been shot in the heart >> 8

In a situation like this, a father like Giuseppe is expected to keep quiet or to seek revenge personally, according to the rule of omertà. But Giuseppe, like his son, believes in the state, in the rule of law, and recounts the whole story to the Carabinieri and magistrates >> 9

The information that Giuseppe provides is invaluable, not just for solving Paolo's murder but also for understanding the power structure of the mafia in that part of Sicily. Despite this, and despite Giuseppe's repeated requests, he is refused police protection >> 10

Since Paolo's murder, Giuseppe has dressed completely in black, and has let his hair & beard grow long. He has visibly aged, his hair & beard have turned white. Despite his help, investigators seem to be making no progress and their inquiries seem to be superficial >> 11

On the afternoon of 17 December 1992, he drives into town to buy some cigarettes. He doesn't often go into town since Paolo's death. People know he is collaborating with investigators & he and other members of the family are shunned & socially isolated by locals >> 12

He buys cigarettes from the tobacconist next door to the bar he used to own and climbs back into his car to drive back home. He starts to pull out but, in his mirror, he sees a motorbike with driver & passenger approaching at speed so stops to let it pass >> 13

As the motorbike draws level with his car, however, it stops and the passenger opens fire with a machine gun. Giuseppe dies instantly, hit by 37 bullets.
Twenty-eight years later, the murders of Giuseppe & Paolo Borsellino remain unsolved >> 14

This programme about the case was broadcast by RAI in 1993. It features interviews with Paolo's brother & sister Pasquale and Antonella and journalist David Sassoli (now President of the European Parliament) as roving reporter from Lucca Sicula//15