29 July 1983, Judge Rocco Chinicci, who created the antimafia pool in Palermo, bringing in Giovanni Falcone (in photo, young Falcone with Chinnici) and Paolo Borsellino, is killed by Cosa Nostra in a car bomb attack in front of the building where he lives [Thread] >> 1
Chinnici becomes Chief Investigating Magistrate in 1979, when the man designated to take up the post, Cesare Terranova, is assassinated by the mafia before he is even appointed. Chinnici is the first to realise that a coordinated effort is needed to fight the mafia >> 2
He creates the so-called "antimafia pool" in Palermo, a group of magistrates specialising in mafia investigations, developing the necessary experience & expertise, an initiative unpopular with traditionalists. Giovanni Falcone & Paolo Borsellino are brought into the pool >> 3
He is a great believer in education as an arm against the mafia & often visits schools to give talks: "talking to young people, telling them who mafiosi are & how they get rich ... is one of a judge's duties. Without changing consciences, we will never succeed on our own" >> 4
Of the mafia he says, "the mafia has always been reactionary, conservative, defensive & dedicated to the accumalation of wealth..." Knowing he is at risk of being killed at any moment, he hopes nothing will happen to his protection officers. Sadly, that is not to be the case >> 5
At 8 a.m. on 29 July 1983, as he comes out of the front door of his building to get into his car and go to work, a bomb planted in a Fiat 126 parked right opposite is detonated by Antonino Madonia. The effects of the explosion are devastating >> 6
As well as Chinnici, 2 Carabinieri assigned to protect him, Mario Trapassi (left) & Salvatore Bartolotta (right), are killed, as is the caretaker of the building, Stefano Li Sacchi. Among the first to arrive on the scene are Chinnici's children, Elvira (24) & Giovanni (19) >> 7
Chinnici is the first Judge killed by Cosa Nostra in such a dramatic manner, with a car bomb attack, underlining the threat he represented to them. Both Falcone & Borsellino will suffer a similar fate in 1992 (photo, Borsellino pall-bearer at Chinnici's funeral) >> 8
Rocco Chinnici's eldest daughter, Caterina, followed in his footsteps with a career as a Judge in Sicily. Since 2014, she has been a Member of the European Parliament, elected in Sicily >> 9
Rocco Chinnici
b. 19 January 1925, Misilmeri
d. 29 July 1983, Palermo
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To celebrate 25 April, this is a slightly revised version of my thread from a few years ago, recounting events surrounding the flight, capture & execution of Mussolini (Photo: last known photo of Mussolini alive, as he leaves Milan on the evening of 25 April 1945) [Thread] >> 1
Around 4 p.m. on 25 April 1945, a meeting is organised between heads of the Fascist 'Repubblica Sociale Italiana" (RSI) & representatives of partisans of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN), with the Archbishop of Milan, Ildefonso Schuster (photo), as mediator >> 2
At this point German forces in Italy are negotiating their surrender to the Allies, who have never dealt directly with Mussolini & the RSI, so the CLN, from a strong position, demands an unconditional surrender from the fascist government >> 3
4April 1945, Italian partisan & Red Cross nurse Cecilia Deganutti (codename 'Joan of Arc') is burnt alive in the crematorium at the Risiera di San Sabba concentration camp in Trieste [Thread] >> 1
Cecilia Deganutti is a nurse working with the Red Cross in her home city of Udine. After Italy's surrender in September 1943, she is assigned to the Red Cross unit at the city's railway station >> 2
Trains carrying Italian soldiers, political prisoners and Jews being deported to German concentration camps pass through this station and Cecilia is often required to provide medical assistance. Whenever possible, she tries to help deportees escape >> 3
On 11 February 2004, Attilio Manca, a 34 year old urologist from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (Sicily), dies in his flat in Viterbo in mysterious circumstances. It is suspected he unknowingly operated Bernardo Provenzano & was killed because he recognised his patient [Thread] >> 1
Investigators have ascertained that Bernardo Provenzano underwent a prostrate operation in a private clinic near Marseilles in October 2003. In the same period Attilio Manca tells his family he is in the Marseilles area to examine a patient in preparation for surgery >> 2
Despite his young age, Manca is considered a leader in his field (laparoscopic prostrate surgery). His body is found in his flat on 12 February. The ambulance crew that attends reports that his nose is broken, his face covered in blood and his body heavily bruised all over >> 3
18 January 1994, Democrazia Cristiana, the governing party in Italy for 50 years, is dissolved, Berlusconi founds his party Forza Italia & 'ndrangheta murders two Carabinieri on the A3 motorway, near Scilla in Calabria. These 3 events are closely tied [Thread] >> 1
Most of the information in this thread has been established in the judgment handed down by the Reggio Calabria Corte d'Assise in July 2020, sentencing Giuseppe Graviano (photo) & Rocco Santo Filippone to life imprisonment for ordering the murders & other attacks >> 2
This judgment has been confirmed by the Reggio Calabria Court of Appeal (25 March 1993). Judgment of the Supreme Court of Cassation is pending. Other information has been confirmed by other court judgments. Anything not established by court judgments is indicated as such >> 3
5.20 a.m. Monday 28 December 1908, the prosperous Sicilian port city of Messina is mostly asleep. The evening before saw the inauguration of the city's new public lighting system & a Christmas performance of Verdi's "Aida" at the Vittorio Emanuele Theatre (photo) [Thread] >> 1
The port is crowded with ships, as usual, in the early morning of 28 December. Along the port stands the imposing Palazzata (photo), rebuilt after the destructive earthquake of 1783, along with most other buildings in the city >> 2
At 5:20:27 an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale strikes Messina and the city of Reggio Calabria on the other side of the Strait. It lasts 37 interminable seconds. When it ends, hardly a building is standing intact in either city >> 3
12 December 1985, at 8p.m. in the Sicilian town of Villafranca Tirrena, near Messina, 17-year-old Graziella Campagna leaves the "Regina" laundry, where she works to help support her parents & 7 siblings, to take a bus home to the village of Saponara. She never arrives [Thread] >>
Investigators quickly establish that Graziella didn't board the bus, as neither the driver nor any of the passengers remember seeing her, even though she is a regular user of the service and known to many of them >> 1
A hairdresser, Maria Bisazia, who works in a salon adjacent to the bus stop, reports hearing a scream around the time of Graziella's disappearance but, when she looks out onto the street, she sees nothing, just passing cars >> 2