Tommaso Buscetta was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization.
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.
Bernardo Provenzano was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and de facto the boss of bosses. His nickname was Binnu u tratturi because, in the words of one informant, "he mows people down." Another nickname was il ragioniere due to his apparently subtle and low-key approach to running his crime empire, at least in contrast to some of his more violent predecessors.
Rocco Chinnici was a noted Italian anti-Mafia magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia.
The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 to 30 January 1992, and was held in a bunker-style courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the Ucciardone prison.
Leoluca Bagarella is an Italian criminal and member of the Sicilian Mafia. He is from the town of Corleone. Following Salvatore Riina's arrest in early 1993, Bagarella became the head of the stragist strategy faction, opposing another faction commanded by the successor designate Bernardo Provenzano, creating a real rift in Cosa Nostra. Bagarella was captured in 1995, having been a fugitive for four years, and sentenced to life imprisonment for Mafia association and multiple murders.
Michele Greco was a member of the Sicilian Mafia and a convicted murderer. Greco died in prison while serving multiple life sentences. His nickname was Il Papa due to his ability to mediate between different Mafia families. Greco was the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.
Salvatore "Totò" Cuffaro is a former Italian politician and former President of Sicily. He has served an almost 5-year jail sentence for aiding Cosa Nostra. He has earned the nickname Vasa Vasa for his tendency to kiss all and sundry; he says that he has kissed a quarter of all the people on the island.
Matteo Messina Denaro, also known as Diabolik, is a Sicilian Mafia boss from Castelvetrano. He was considered to be one of the new leaders of the Sicilian mob after the arrests of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006 and Salvatore Lo Piccolo in November 2007. The son of a Mafia boss, Denaro became known nationally on 12 April 2001 when the magazine L'Espresso put him on the cover with the headline: Ecco il nuovo capo della Mafia.
Giorgio Boris Giuliano was a police chief from Palermo, Sicily. He was the head of Palermo's Flying Squad. He was killed by the Sicilian Mafia while investigating heroin trafficking and money laundering. Not long before his death he had been one of the first Italian policemen to have attended the FBI academy at Quantico, Virginia. His son Alessandro became head of the Milan Flying Squad and arrested old guard Mafioso Gaetano Fidanzati in 2009; as part of the same operation, Gianni Nicchi was captured in Palermo.
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.
Giovanni "Gianni" Nicchi is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. Despite his young age – he is nicknamed 'u picciutteddu – he is considered to be one of the leading mafiosi of Cosa Nostra in Palermo. He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior since 2006, until his arrest on 5 December 2009.
Salvatore Riina, called Totò 'u Curtu, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.
The via D'Amelio bombing was a terrorist attack by the Sicilian Mafia, which took place in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, on 19 July 1992. It killed Paolo Borsellino, the anti-mafia Italian magistrate, and five members of his police escort: Agostino Catalano, Emanuela Loi, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina, and Claudio Traina.
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.
Pierfrancesco Diliberto, nicknamed Pif, is an Italian television host, film director, actor and writer.
The Art of Happiness is a 2013 Italian animated drama film written and directed by Alessandro Rak, at his directorial debut. It opened the International Critics' Week at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer is an Italian 2016 television series written by Pif, directed by Luca Ribuoli, produced and broadcast by RAI. Based on the homonym 2013 film, also directed by Pif, it was first aired on Rai 1 from 21 November to 20 December 2016. In the United Kingdom the series was broadcast by Channel 4.
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. In summary, the supposed cornerstone of the deal was an end to the so-called "massacre season" in return for a reduction in the detention measures provided for in Italian article 41-bis. 41-bis was the law by which the Antimafia pool led by Giovanni Falcone had condemned hundreds of mafia members to the so-called "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 supreme Court of Cassation in 2023.
