Thread by @NickWhithorn

18 July 1992, Saturday, the day before his murder, Paolo Borsellino spends the morning in his office at Palermo Courthouse. The last 56 days of his life, since his close friend & colleague Giovanni Falcone perished in the Capaci bombing, have been a frenzy of work [Thread] >> 1

In the last week, in particular, his wife has found it almost impossible to speak to him. He is always nervous & tells her, "I can't talk. I have to work hard. I'm watching the mafia act in real time. I'm in a race against time." >> 2

He has already confided in close friends that he is deliberately distancing himself from his family (as well as his wife, he has two daughters & a son) in an attempt to soften the shock of what he considers to be his inevitable fate >> 3

On Monday 13 July, he learns from Carabinieri ROS that explosives to kill him have arrived in Palermo. That afternoon, one of his protection officers, seeing his expression, asks him what's wrong. Borsellino tells him he is concerned about the safety of his protection team >> 4

On Thursday 16 July, Borsellino is in Rome to interview Gaspare Mutolo, a mafia "pentito", who is providing key evidence to investigators. The questioning of Mutolo has been the subject of tension between Borsellino & the Chief Prosecutor in Palermo, Pietro Giammanco (photo) >> 5

Mutolo (photo) agreed to collaborate with the authorities on condition that Giovanni Falcone handle his testimony. Now, that Falcone is dead, the only other judge he trusts is Paolo Borsellino. Giammanco, however, gives the job to Borsellino's colleague, Vittorio Aliquò >> 6

Only after considerable pressure does Giammanco finally give in and assign Borsellino to interrogating Mutolo, but "in coordination with Aliquò". During Borsellino's questioning on 16 July, Mutolo makes serious accusations against Bruno Contrada & Domenico Signorino >> 7

Contrada (photo, left) is an agent of Italian Secret Service (SISDE) in Palermo, while Signorino (photo, right) is one of the two magistrates who represented the prosecution at the Palermo maxi-trial in 1986-87 >> 8

On the morning of Friday 17 July, Borsellino meets Chief of Police Vincenzo Parisi (photo) in Rome to make representations on behalf of his protection officers who were promised new equipment & reorganisation following the Capaci bombing in which 3 officers died >> 9

Borsellino flies back to Palermo in the afternoon empty-handed & frustrated. He stops off at the courthouse to place documents regarding Mutolo in the safe. He returns home in the late afternoon in a car driven by a Carabiniere >> 10

The Carabiniere hears him make a phone call to Giovanni Tinebra, Chief Public Prosecutor in Caltanissetta, responsible for the investigation into the Capaci bombing (judges cannot investigate cases involving judges in their own district, whether suspects or victims) >> 11

Incredibly, Borsellino, Falcone's closest friend & colleague, who has asked repeatedly to give evidence on the Capaci bombing, about which he has specific information, has not yet been asked to testify. His anger with Tinebra is plain & he is distraught when the call ends >> 12

In the evening he says to his wife, "let's go to Villagrazia di Carini (where they have a summer house), I need some air, but on our own, without the protection officers." His wife understands his tension & need to talk away from other people >> 13

Borsellino is silent. Only after insistence from his wife does he open up. He tells her Mutolo has made extremely grave allegations about people who are above all suspicion. Borsellino found the revelations so traumatic he was physically sick at the end of the interview >> 14

Borsellino also tells his wife, "Today, Agnese, I looked the mafia in the face." He is deeply perturbed. Presumably, he is referring to somebody he saw while in Rome, but who? He does not elaborate any further and his wife does not want to cause him any distress >> 15

Next day, Saturday 18 July, as we said at the start of the thread, Borsellino spends the morning in his office at the courthouse (photo - the offices used by Borsellino & Falcone are now open to the public). In the afternoon, he goes to his mother's flat in via D'Amelio >> 16

Borsellino's friend, Dr. Pietro Di Pasquale, a cardiologist, has promised to come to the flat to examine his mother but phones to say he has a problem with his car and can't make it. They agree that Borsellino will accompany his mother to the doctor's house the next day >> 17

Later, Borsellino goes for a walk with his wife Agnese on the seafront at Carini. Agnese says, "Paolo told me he wasn't afraid of the mafia, that it wouldn't be the mafia that decided to kill him. It would be his colleagues & others that allowed him to be killed" >> 18

Borsellino decides that the next day, Sunday 19 July 1992, he won't work but spend the day at the family's beach house before picking up his mother at 5 p.m. It will be his first free Sunday for months. He even worked on Sunday 24 May, the day after Falcone was killed (tbc) >> 19

Sunday 19 July 1992. Paolo Borsellino gets up at 5 a.m. as he does every day. The phone rings. Knowing his habits, his daughter Fiammetta is calling from Thailand, where she is on holiday with friends, to check how things are going >> 20

When the call is over, Borsellino sits at his desk & writes a letter to a teacher from a school in Padova. She has written an angry letter to him because he hasn't responded to an invitation to visit her school. Borsellino explains that the invitation never reached him >> 21

He answers ten questions that her students have asked him & says, "...I'm optimistic because...young Sicilians have a very different attitude to the mafia to the indifference of the past. When they are adults they'll have greater strength to react than my generation did." >> 22

Sunday 19 July, 7 a.m. Paolo Borsellino receives his second phone call of the morning. His wife Agnese is woken by his angry voice & the sound of him slamming down the receiver and gets up to see what is wrong >> 23

Borsellino is furious. "Do you know who that was. Giammanco. He says he didn't sleep all night thinking about the responsibility for questioning Mutolo. He has decided to give it entirely to me. He wants to see me tomorrow morning before I go to Germany to sign the papers" >> 24

Borsellino has been waiting for this for months but, instead of being pleased, he is furious and paces around the flat. "Do you know what he said. He said now the question is settled. I told him it isn't. Giammanco will have to respond for his behaviour" >> 25

Giammanco's behaviour towards Borsellino has always been ambiguous. On 28 June, returning from questioning Mutolo, Borsellino meets Defence Minister Salvo Andò by chance at Rome airport & learns of a Carabinieri intelligence report indicating them both as mafia targets >> 26

Giammanco has been in possession of this report for a long time but has failed to inform Borsellino. The next day, back in Palermo, Borsellino confronts Giammanco in his office and is so furious he injures his hand when banging his fist on the Chief Prosecutor's desk >> 27

Back to 19 July & Borsellino notices his daughter Lucia is now up & he starts to plan the day. First to the beach house at Villagrazia, then he & Lucia will accompany his mother to the doctor's. Lucia, however, insists on staying home all day as she has an exam to study for >> 28

Not even his son Manfredi wants to go to Villagrazia so early. He was out till late the night before & wants to lie in. He will join his parents later in the morning. Agnese sets off first with a relative, then Paolo Borsellino joins her at around 10 a.m. >> 29

Borsellino's son Manfredi arrives at Villagrazia around 11 a.m. Outside the house, the police protection officers tell him that his father has gone out in a boat with his friend Vincenzo Barone for a swim. When he returns, the family goes for lunch with neighbours >> 30

The neighbours are Pippo & Mariella Tricomi, old family friends. They eat fish and 'panelle e crocchette'. Borsellino confides with Pippo Tricomi, "the explosives for me have arrived". He receives a call confirming the details of his trip to Germany the next day >> 31

Borsellino is travelling to Mannheim to question another "pentito", Gioacchino Schembri. He has already been there on 7-8 July to establish an initial rapport with the new collaborator. He was accompanied by his colleague Teresa Principato & Carabiniere Lt. Carmelo Canale >> 32

Hearing Schembri had not been able to see his wife, Borsellino insisted she be allowed to visit & this happened the same day. He knew how to gain the trust of "pentiti". On leaving, Borsellino left a packet of cigarettes on the table. Schembri smiled & said, "see you soon" >> 33

One thing everybody agrees on: Borsellino is a different person when outside Palermo. His wife says he only feels safe when he is not in Palermo. Those who accompany him to Germany see him relaxed, cracking jokes, all of his tension disappearing >> 34

After lunch on Sunday 19 July 1992, Borsellino watches that day's stage of the Tour de France on TV, then goes for a lie down. His wife later finds from the butts in the ashtray that, in an hour's 'rest', he smoked five cigarettes >> 35

At 4.30 p.m. Paolo Borsellino returns to the others, puts his papers, his packet of cigarettes and his inseparable personal red diary into his briefcase, and says goodbye to everyone as he is going to pick up his mother to take her to her doctor's appointment >> 36

Borsellino's mother's flat is in via D'Amelio. While security around Borsellino's own house has been tightened, as well as around the Church of Santa Luisa, which he frequents assiduously, the area around his mother's flat has not even been subject to parking restrictions >> 37

It is a residential street, not very wide, with large numbers of parked cars, making it difficult for Borsellino's protection team to manouevre their cars at times. Today, Sunday 19 July 1992, his team consists of six protection officers from the Polizia di Stato >> 38

Agostino Catalano (43) is a widower with 3 children, recently remarried. He joined the protection service to earn more money to support his family. Normally, he's assigned to protect Fr. Bartolomeo Sorge & is officially on leave but is called to cover for an absent colleague >>39

Walter Eddie Cosina (30) is born into an Italian family in Australia. His family returns to Trieste & he becomes a police officer. After Falcone's murder, he volunteers for a transfer to Palermo in the protection service. On 19 July he is not on duty but replaces a colleague>> 40

Claudio Traina (27) is from Palermo. After National Service in the Air Force, he decides to follow his older brother's career in the Police. After a period of service in Milan, he's transferred to his home city. In 1990, he requests assignment to the protection service >> 41

Vincenzo Li Muli (22), from Palermo, is the youngest member of the team. He only qualified as an officer in 1992. Shocked by the Capaci bombing in which Giovanni Falcone died, he specifically requests to be assigned to protecting Paolo Borsellino >> 42

Emanuela Loi (24) is from Cagliari (Sardinia). She wants to be a teacher but takes the police entrance exam to help her sister study for it. She passes but her sister doesn't. In Palermo, she is assigned to protect Senator Sergio Mattarella (now President) before Borsellino >> 43

Antonio Vullo (32) is from Palermo and is the only member of Borsellino's protection team that will survive the bomb attack that day in via D'Amelio (recent photo) >> 44

At 4.58 p.m. on Sunday 19 July 1992, Paolo Borsellino gets out of his car in via D'Amelio, accompanied by police protection officers Agostino Catalano, Walter Eddie Cosina, Vincenzo Li Muli, Emanuela Loi & Claudio Traina & calls his mother on the entryphone of her building >> 45

At this moment 100kg of explosives packed into a stolen Fiat 126 parked in front of the building detonate, killing all six of them instantly. Antonio Vullo, who remains on board one of the armour-plated cars is the only member of the team to survive >> 46

The scene after the explosion can accurately be described as carnage. Body parts are found hanging in a tree & on the balconies of upper floors of the building. The explosion is heard all over Palermo & a plume of black smoke hangs over the scene >> 47

To get an idea of the scene, watch the 36-minute video linked here, made by the Fire Brigade. As well as Fire Brigade, ambulance, Police & Carabinieri personnel, there are also more sinister figures from the Secret Service present >> 48

Misdirection & mystification of investigations into this heinous crime began within minutes of it occurring. After 29 years & four trials, the last of which still ongoing, we don't know the whole truth. Borsellino was treated shamefully before his death & has been ever since >>49

The most symbolic photo of the immediate aftermath of the via D'Amelio bombing comes to light in 2005. It shows Carabinieri Captain Giovanni Arcangioli walking away from the scene, with cars still burning, carrying Paolo Borsellino's briefcase >> 50

This bag and, most importantly, Borsellino's personal red diary, which was certainly inside as he took it everywhere with him, mysteriously disappear. We can only imagine what kind of information it contained and, almost certainly, we will never know >> 51

When questioned about his actions, Arcangioli says that he was asked by a judge present at the scene, either Giuseppe Ayala or Vittorio Teresi, more probably the former, to look in Borsellino's car & recover the briefcase. He did so & then brought it to the judge >> 52

The judge opened the bag but there was nothing of significance, just papers. Arcangioli then gave the bag to one of his men (he doesn't remember who) to put in the judge's car. His story is largely confirmed by his superior Col. Minicucci. Neither of them writes a report >> 53

Ayala gives a different version saying he only briefly held the bag, never opened it & handed it to a Carabinieri officer in uniform, so not Arcangioli. Other police officers on the scene recount that the bag was removed by plain clothes officers with Secret Service badges >> 54

Whenever I think of the via D'Amelio bombing, I always come back to this photo. It was not enough to eliminate Paolo Borsellino physically. By making his red diary disappear, they succeeded in destroying part of his legacy as well. May they rot in hell. // 55