Word: palermo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...PALERMO, Sicily: Mafia boss Giovanni Brusca was arrested by four hundred police officers in his Canatello vacation home. Charged with killing of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, Brusca was taken into custody while watching a movie about Falcone's death. Brusca allegedly set off a roadside explosion which killed Falcone, his wife and three police agents as their cars sped along a highway near Palermo. He was taken to a Palermo prison amid cheering crowds of police officers. "The police were absolutely joyous last night," says TIME's Greg Burke. "A victory celebration broke out when he was brought...
...leading postwar statesman, went on trial Tuesday, charged with trading political favors in Rome for votes supplied by the Mafia . "Is it possible that a man who represented Italy for 50 years at the same time swore allegiance to Cosa Nostra?" his defense attorney, Franco Coppi, shouted to the Palermo courtroom. The 76-year-old Andreotti, a reputed crime-fighter who served as premier seven times, is the highest Italian official ever to be tried on mob charges. "Much of the testimony against Andreotti is supplied by pentiti -- repentant Mafiosi -- and 26 are scheduled to testify against him," Greg Burke...
...exchange for guaranteed votes, Sicily's easily corruptible DC bosses, most of them allied with seven-term Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, looked the other way as the Mafia embarked on an orgy of grand theft and murder. The beautiful historic heart of Palermo was left to rot while Mafia-allied contractors put up ugly, jerry-built apartments on the capital's rim. Millions of dollars were siphoned from projects that were never completed and municipal services never rendered. Honest officials who tried to block or expose the corruption often became what Sicilians quaintly call "excellent cadavers...
Stille's dense narrative focuses on two implacably determined prosecutors, who with the help of informers managed to breach the wall of secrecy and the infamous culture of omerte (silence) that surrounded the Mafia. Childhood friends from Palermo, aloof, workaholic Giovanni Falcone and the gregarious Paolo Borsellino were, in the author's phrase, Sicilian patriots. Together they painstakingly amassed the evidence that led to the first so-called maxi-trial, of 475 Mafia conspirators, which began in Palermo on Feb. 16, 1986, and ended 22 months later with the conviction of 344 defendants. Both prosecutors eventually paid for their integrity...
...Also, we get a lot of people eating here who work at Holyoke Center," Palermo said. "I guess it's convenient...