Paolo Borsellino

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Lore & Background

Paolo Borsellino was a Sicilian judge and prosecuting magistrate who dedicated his career to dismantling the Sicilian Mafia from his office in Palermo’s Palace of Justice. He was born in the Kalsa neighbourhood, a middle-class area of central Palermo that suffered heavy bombing during the Allied invasion of 1943. His father was a pharmacist, and his mother ran the family pharmacy. As a boy, Borsellino played football on the Piazza Magione with his close friend Giovanni Falcone, who also became a magistrate; many of their childhood classmates later became mafiosi. Borsellino studied law at the University of Palermo, graduating with honours in 1962. After his father’s death, he passed the judiciary exam in 1963 and worked in several Sicilian cities before transferring to Palermo in 1975. He became part of the Antimafia Pool, a group of investigating magistrates—including Falcone, Rocco Chinnici, Giuseppe Di Lello, and Leonardo Guarnotta—who shared information to prevent any one person from becoming a solitary target. Borsellino’s defining characteristics included his relentless pursuit of Mafia figures, his arrest of six members in 1980, and his role in the Maxi Trial that began in 1986, which indicted 475 mafiosi and judicially confirmed the existence of Cosa Nostra. He was killed by a car bomb on 19 July 1992 near his mother’s house in Palermo.

Reader's Guide

Borsellino’s professional life was defined by his work as a prosecuting magistrate in Palermo, where he focused on dismantling the Sicilian Mafia. Alongside his close friend Giovanni Falcone, he was part of the Antimafia Pool, a group of investigating magistrates created by Rocco Chinnici that shared information to prevent any single person from becoming the sole target. This collaboration led to the Maxi Trial, which indicted hundreds of mafiosi and, for the first time, judicially confirmed the existence of Cosa Nostra. Borsellino’s early career included the arrest of several Mafia members, including a relative of a top boss, and he was assigned police protection after signing a warrant for a Mafia figure. His investigations extended across western Sicily, and he became head of the Public Prosecution Office in Marsala. The Mafia killed him with a car bomb near his mother’s home in Palermo, weeks after Falcone’s assassination. His death, alongside Falcone’s, underscored the mortal dangers anti-Mafia magistrates faced and sparked ongoing scrutiny of state-Mafia relations. Both men were awarded the Gold Medal for Civil Valor and named heroes in a major magazine.

Did You Know?

• Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone played football together as boys on the Piazza Magione in Palermo.
• He was a member of the right-wing university organization FUAN, while Falcone drifted towards communism.
• Five police officers died alongside Borsellino in the Via D'Amelio bombing; the driver was the only survivor.