SBU Center for Italian Studies Examines the Assassination and Legacy of Anti-Mafia Magistrate Giovanni Falcone and its Enduring Intrigue 20 Years Later
STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY, NY – On Saturday, December 1, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, the Center for Italian Studies at Stony Brook University is hosting a one day conference entitled, “Giovanni Falcone, Italian Hero:
Giovanni Falcone
To Die for Justice” at the Simons Center. The conference will explore the events of 1992 when anti-Mafia magistrates, Judge Giovanni Falcone and Judge Paolo Borsellino, were assassinated by the Mafia in two separate explosions just 57 days apart. Judge Falcone’s wife and three bodyguards, as well as five members of Judge Borsellino’s police escort were also killed in the attacks.
About the Conference:
Former Mafia boss Salvatore Riina, who ordered the attacks on the two anti-Mafia magistrates, was arrested months later and is serving a life sentence. Other members of the Mafia involved in the assassinations have been brought to justice. In the meantime, however, allegations of complicity on the part of politicians and members of the Italian Secret Service have arisen. Mystery and suspicion still surround the assassinations of Falcone and Borsellino. Journalists and prosecutors have been investigating a possible plot with "state complicity" to eliminate the two judges; their inquiries were regarded by some as having a "destabilizing" effect on the power system of the Italian Republic. Regardless, the triumphs of Falcone and Borsellino against the Mafia, the crime-fighting strategies and methods they pioneered, and their heroic sacrifices have had a profound and lasting impact in Italy and beyond.
Presenters and guests include:
Natalia Quintavalle: Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General of Italy in New York
Hon. Gail Prudenti, Chief Administrative Justice, State of NY
Hon. Thomas Di Napoli, New York State Comptroller
SBU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD
Sebastian Rotella, Author and Senior Reporter for ProPublica
Pietro Grasso: Chief Prosecutor National Anti-Mafia Bureau:Falcone Vive (Falcone Lives)
Stefano Dambruoso: Deputy Chief of Staff, Ministry for the Environment, Rome: Transnational Judiciary Cooperation and Giovanni Falcone’s Commitment
Stefano Mogini: Italy’s Justice Attaché to the United Nations: Falcone: A Driving Force in the United States-Italy and International Cooperation to Fight Organized Crime
Salvatore Rotella, Chancellor Emeritus, Riverside College, California
Carmine F. Russo: Former FBI Special Agent:A Sicilian-Born FBI Agent and Giovanni Falcone: An Extraordinary Symbiosis
Thomas A. Repetto: Author and Former Head of the New York Crime Commission: The American Mafia and Italy
Stefano Vaccara Journalist and Lecturer at Lehman College, CUNY: The Mafia Illustrious Corpses from the Kennedys to Falcone and Borsellino
Marcello Saija Professor, University of Palermo, Italy: Mafia, Politics and the Massacres of 1992: Historical Considerations
