Hundreds Of Deaths At The Hands Of Bloodthirsty Mafia Giovanni Brusca

Giovanni Brusca at the time of his arrest (Source: National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement)

JAKARTA - If given the choice of a gun or a harness, Giovanni Brusca would probably choose a harness. The rope would be tied to a rock that he sank to the bottom of the river, dragging someone's body, drowning the body to death. Or whatever the most sadistic way for Giovanni to take someone's life. Giovanni Brusca was a mobster as well as the coldest assassin of his time.

His name is well known. Throughout his life, Giovanni has taken two hundred lives. In mafia circles, he is a mainstay. Giovanni was like a bribed angel of life. Not at the command of God the angel served, but for bills.

Giovanni was born in San Giuseppe Jato, Palermo, Italy on February 20, 1957. Born into a mafia family made Giovanni familiar with violence. His father, Bernando Brusca is a mobster who was sentenced to life for various cases of premeditated murder.

Being confined by his father in iron bars means that Giovanni has to make a living on his own. He started his death career at the age of 20 years. At that time, Giovanni worked as a driver for a mobster named Bernando Provenzano. Giovanni's career continued by joining a network of assassins called Corleonesi. Giovanni experienced the beating there. The forging that formed his killing instinct.

Of the hundreds, there is one murder that is most closely related to the name Giovanni. The victim was a legendary judge from Sicily named Giovanni Falcone. As a judge, Falcone had a brilliant career. With guts - which few other judges at that time had, Falcone overthrew Salvatore Riina, the most respected mafia leader at the time.

Feeling threatened by Falcone's activities, Riina hires Giovanni's services. Falcone was killed in a crazy way. Giovanni placed a thousand pounds of TNT in a tunnel under the highway that Falcone was to run from the airport outside Palero. At that time, Falcone had just landed from a flight to Rome.

Notorious murder

Giovanni Falcone (center) (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

On 23 May 1992, Giovanni and three of his conspirators waited on a mountain outside Palermo. They're monitoring Falcone. On seeing Falcone approaching the tunnel, Giovanni and his gang detonate the bomb that has been installed. Falcone, along with his driver and three policemen who were guarding him were killed.

The explosion also injured 20 other people who were around the scene. The murder of Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutor has stirred up news in Italy and has sparked public outrage. Very reasonable. Falcone is a law enforcement figure admired by many Italians. A big loss.

The police are aggressively looking for Giovanni's whereabouts. However, Giovanni fled for four years. On his escape, Giovanni did not stop. He committed another sadistic murder. Still in the Falcone murder series. This time, Giovanni's target is a 13-year-old boy named Giuseppe Di Matteo, a member of the Cosa Nostra mafia. The boy was kidnapped and then killed by being strangled and immersed in an acid solution.

Quoted from the book Born Out Law by Eddward S.Kennedy, the beginning of the disaster for Giuseppe Di Matteo was when his father, Santino Di Matteo was arrested in 1992. At that time, his father was willing to work with law enforcement to uncover the murder case of two judges who were tough against the mafia. , namely Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

The conspiracy was discovered by Salvatore Riina. He immediately hired Giovanni's services to finish off Santino Di Matteo. Santino, who at that time was the key figure in uncovering the case, was under close guard so that it was difficult to kill him. This condition makes Brusca intend to kidnap Santino's child.

Giuseppe Di Matteo was kidnapped by Giovanni and his men who were posing as police officers and told Giuseppe that he would be escorted to visit his father in prison. The child is excited. Without thinking he joined Giovanni's gang. Giovanni beat the little boy many times. Photos of bruises from torture were sent to Santino. The goal is for him to stop speaking out and collaborating with the police.

The length of time of the detention did not produce results. Negotiations between Brusca and Santino were tough. Until finally Giovanni's patience ran out. Santino's children who were taken prisoners were brutally murdered.

The arrest of Giovanni Brusca

Years in hiding, Giovanni was finally arrested on May 20, 1996. He was arrested while hiding in a house in southwest Sicily. Just then Giovanni was about to have dinner and turned on the television to watch a film about Falcone's death.

In the midst of the spectacle, dozens of police suddenly arrived and arrested him and his brother, Vincenzo. Officers cheer on their success in catching the sadistic assassin. In fact, he was so furious that a policeman punched Giovanni's face until he bled.

The arrest of Giovanni Brusca (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

While in prison, Giovanni was nicknamed "Pig" because of his unkempt appearance or "The Butcher" for his cruelty as a hit man. Giovanni received a 26-year sentence after a reduced sentence because Giovanni agreed to "sing" on the witness stand.

His testimony helped law enforcement punish several high-ranking Mafia officials. In 1999, Giovanni released a prison diary, in which he claimed to be the ultimate mafia hitman. Giovanni was involved in more than a hundred gang attacks, including the 1983 car bomb death in Palermo that killed Falcone and Giuseppe.

"I killed Giovanni Falcone," he wrote. But it's not the first time. "I have used car bombs to kill judge Rocco Chinnici and his bodyguards. I am responsible for the kidnapping and death of Giuseppe Di Matteo who was 13 when he was kidnapped and 15 when he was killed," Giovanni said.

"I have committed. And personally ordered more than 150 crimes. In fact, today I cannot remember each person, one by one, the names of those I killed. Over a hundred, of course less than two hundred."

In October 2019, Giovanni, who had served 23 years in prison, insisted he had "repented" and rejected the life of the Mafia. He asked the Italian federal authorities to let him spend the last three years of his term under house arrest.

However, a national court judge rejected the request. The 62-year-old killer will not be jailed for much longer, if he is alive. He is scheduled to be released from prison in 2021.