Giovanni Brusca

Giovanni Brusca (born 1957 in San Giuseppe Jato) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He once stated that he had committed at least a hundred murders, but was honestly unable to remember the exact number.

Related Topics:
1957 - San Giuseppe Jato - Sicilian - Mafia

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A short and chubby man, he was nicknamed lo scannacristiani which translates as The Man who cuts Christians' Throats. In Sicily, a 'Christian' means a human being. One of his crimes was the murder of the 11-year-old boy Giuseppe Di Matteo, whose father Santino had become an informant. Brusca kidnapped the child and held him for over a year, torturing him and sending photographs of the injuries to the boy's father and telling him to stop co-operating with the police. Brusca eventually strangled the boy and flung his body into a vat of acid.

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Brusca was a member of the Corleonisi Mafia Family, from the town of Corleone and his mentor was the then Superboss Salvatore Riina. He was part of a Corleonesi death squad which reported directly to the Boss of Bosses.

Related Topics:
Corleone - Salvatore Riina

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On May 20, 1996, then aged thirty-nine, Brusca was arrested in a small house in the Sicilian countryside near Agrigento, where he was dining with his girlfriend and their young son. Brusca had received a life sentence the previous year after being convicted in absentia of murder and he was subsequently convicted of the bomb attack that killed the Anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in the highway that connect the town of Palermo with Punta Raisi Airport, now called Falcone-Borsellino Airport.

Related Topics:
May 20 - 1996 - Agrigento - In absentia - Giovanni Falcone - Punta Raisi Airport - Falcone-Borsellino Airport

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In 2004, it was reported that Busca was allowed out of prison once a week every forty-five days to see his family, a reward for his good behaviour as well as becoming an informant and co-operating with the authorities. Relatives of his many victims were understandably angry at such soft treatment for a multiple-killer.

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