Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic

A study of the relationship between the mafia and the Italian government exposes the hidden alliances that have shaped Italian politics since World War II and details the investigations that revealed them

In Sicialian mafia parlance, the phrase excellent cadavers denotes the corpses of distinguished citizens, and in this notable history, Stille (Benevolence and Betrayal) chronicles the accumulation of a great number of them, concentrating on the last quarter century. He focuses on Sicilians Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who prosecuted the so-called maxi-trials of the '80s, the first of which involved 465 mafiosi. The two were assassinated in 1992. Yet, as more and more gangsters became informants, an even more sinister pattern began to emerge. There was no doubt that various levels of the Italian government had tried to undermine the investigations of Falcone and Borsellino, and it became clear that the mob had ties to the Christian Democratic Party and particularly to Giulio Andreotti, who has many times served as Italy's prime minister. Bribery scandals unfolded, implicating Bettino Craxi, leader of the Socialist Party and a former prime minister; Andreotti and Craxi are currently under criminal indictment. Stille's prodigious research encompasses not only factional fights within the mafia but also the range of national corruption uncovered by the heroic investigations by Falcone and Borsellino.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In Sicily, "excellent cadavers" are Mafia victims who also happen to be government officials. Excellent Cadavers is full of them, notably the courageous and tenacious prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Throughout the 1980s, Falcone and Borsellino brought down more heat on the "men of honor" than anyone since Mussolini's handpicked "Iron Prefect." The two not only sent hundreds of gangsters to jail, they also exposed Mafia corruption of national political leaders that led to the indictments of two of Italy's best-known politicians, Bettino Craxi and Guilio Adreotti. The success of their investigations brought on reprisals by corrupt politicians designed to weaken police and prosecutors alike and ultimately led to their deaths. Falcone and Borsellino were assassinated by bombs in 1992, but their work brought to light revelations that are rattling the current Berlusconi administration. Stille has crafted an excellent book, deftly weaving complex threads of information about Italian, Sicilian, and Mafia history, Italian politics, and Italian jurisprudence into a highly readable narrative. Readers who enjoy books about the American Mafia will enjoy picking out the differences and similarities between the Sicilian original and its American version. Thomas Gaughan