Piero Luigi Vigna (1 August 1933 - 28 September 2012) was an Italian magistrate. From 1997 to 2005 he was Chief of the Procura Nazionale Antimafia (National Antimafia Prosecution Office).
He was born at Borgo San Lorenzo and became a magistrate in 1959. He was initially pretore in Florence and Milan, returning to his native city's prosecution office in 1965. In 1991 he became Chief Prosecutor: his investigations included those on right-wing terrorism, the Train 904 bombing and the so-called Monster of Florence, as well as on the presence of mafia in Tuscany. From 1992, he also acted as district antimafia prosecutor.
On 14 January 1997, Vigna was appointed National Antimafia Prosecutor, a position he held until reaching retirement age in 2005. He was succeeded by Piero Grasso. Until his death he remained honorary president of Magistratura Indipendente, a magistrates' association.
Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 19 July 1992, Borsellino was killed by a car bomb in Via D'Amelio, near his mother's house in Palermo.
Rocco Chinnici was an Italian anti-Mafia magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia.
Luciano Violante is an Italian judge and politician.
Piersanti Mattarella was an Italian politician who was assassinated by the Mafia while he held the position of President of the Regional Government of Sicily. A member of Christian Democracy, he was the older brother of Sergio Mattarella, who has been President of Italy since 2015.
Pietro Aglieri is a Sicilian mafioso from the Guadagna neighbourhood of Palermo. He is known as 'u Signurinu for his relatively sophisticated education and refined manners. He had a classical education and studied Greek, Latin, philosophy, history and literature to a level that guaranteed him entry to university. Instead he chose for a career in Cosa Nostra. The British newspaper The Guardian listed him as the emerging man of the year 1995 in Italy.
Cesare Terranova was an Italian judge and politician from Sicily, notable for his anti-Mafia stance. From 1958 until 1971 Terranova was an examining magistrate at the Palermo prosecuting office. He was one of the first to seriously investigate the Mafia and the financial operations of Cosa Nostra. He was killed by the Mafia in 1979.
The Antimafia Commission is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The first commission, formed in 1963, was established as a body of inquiry tasked with investigating the "phenomenon of the [Sicilian] Mafia". Subsequent commissions expanded their scope to investigate all "organized crime of the Mafia type", which included other major criminal organizations in Italy, such as the Camorra, the 'Ndrangheta, and the Sacra Corona Unita.
Antonino Caponnetto was an Italian Antimafia magistrate.
Pietro Scaglione was an Italian magistrate and Chief Prosecutor of Palermo, Sicily. He was killed by the Mafia in 1971.
The Train 904 bombing was a terror attack which occurred on 23 December 1984, in the Apennine Base Tunnel. A bomb on the 904 express train from Naples to Milan was detonated, killing 16 and wounding 266. The bombing location was near the location of the Italicus Express bombing ten years previously.
The Ministry of Justice of Italy is a department of the government of Italy. Headquartered in Rome, headed by the political official who serve as Minister of Justice.
Benedetto "Nitto" Francesco Palma is an Italian politician and magistrate. From July to November 2011 he served as Minister of Justice in the Berlusconi fourth government.
Giuliano Mignini is an Italian magistrate. He retired as a public prosecutor in Perugia, Umbria, in 2020.
The Antimafia Pool was a group of investigating magistrates at the Prosecuting Office of Palermo, Sicily, who closely worked together sharing information and developing new investigative and prosecutorial strategies against the Sicilian Mafia. An informal pool was created by Judge Rocco Chinnici in the early 1980s following the example of anti-terrorism judges in Northern Italy in the 1970s.
Pietro Grasso, also known as Piero Grasso, is an Italian anti-mafia magistrate and politician who served as President of the Senate from 2013 to 2018.
The Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA), also known as the Anti-Mafia Investigation Division, is an Italian multi-force investigation body under the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior. Its main task is the fight against the mafia-related organized crime in Italy.
The term State-Mafia Pact describes an alleged series of negotiations between important Italian government officials and Cosa Nostra members that began after the period of the 1992 and 1993 terror attacks by the Sicilian Mafia with the aim to reach a deal to stop the attacks; according to other sources and hypotheses, it began even earlier. In summary, the supposed cornerstone of the deal was an end to "the Massacre Season" in return for a reduction in the detention measures provided for Italy's Article 41-bis prison regime. 41-bis was the law by which the Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone had condemned hundreds of mafia members to the "hard prison regime". The negotiation hypothesis has been the subject of long investigations, both by the courts and in the media. In 2021, the Court of Appeal of Palermo acquitted a close associate of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, while upholding the sentences of the mafia bosses. This ruling was confirmed by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in 2023.
Gaetano Costa was an Italian magistrate killed by the Cosa Nostra.