>>23550966 LB

After Chinnici was killed, Giovanni Falcone took over as head of the Antimafia Pool. In his new position, Falcone was given unprecedented powers to crack down on the Mafia. Between February 1986 and January 1992, more than 300 Mafiosi were given life sentences (including Riina, although he had fled and thus received his sentence in absentia).

But by 1990, many of the Mafiosi brought down by Falcone had appealed and were released on technicalities. Meanwhile, some in the government tried to cut a deal with the Mafia to stop prosecutions in order to halt the bloodshed. But in January, Falcone and fellow Antimafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino had many of the appeals thrown out and some of the previously successful ones overturned.

Now more than ever, Falcone and Borsellino had targets on their backs — and both were ultimately killed by car bombs two months apart from each other in 1992. Giovanni Brusca later admitted to detonating the bomb that killed Falcone, his wife, and two Sicilian special anti-terrorist agents.

With Falcone’s assassination on May 23, 1992, the Mafia launched an unprecedented war against the state.