Giovanni Brusca | |
|---|---|
 Mafia boss Giovanni Brusca | |
| Born | Giovanni Brusca 20 February 1957 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | 'U verru ("The Pig") 'U scannacristiani ("The People-Slayer") |
| Occupation | Mobster |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Allegiance | Corleonesi |
| Conviction(s) | Mafia association Multiple murder |
| Criminal charge | Mafia association Multiple murder |
| Penalty | Life imprisonment later reduced to 26 years |
Giovanni Brusca (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni ˈbruska]; born 20 February 1957) is an Italian mobster and former member of the Corleonesi clan of the Sicilian Mafia. He had a major role in the 1992 murders of Antimafia Commission prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and businessman Ignazio Salvo, and once stated that he had committed between 100 and 200 murders.[1] Brusca had been sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for Mafia association and multiple murder. He was captured in 1996, turned pentito, and his sentence reduced to 26 years in prison. In 2021, Brusca was released from prison.
A pudgy, bearded, and unkempt mafioso, Brusca was known in Mafia circles as 'u verru (in Sicilian), il porco or il maiale (in Italian; "the pig", "the swine"), and 'u scannacristiani ("the people-slayer"; in the Sicilian language, the word cristianu means both "Christian" and "human being"). Tommaso Buscetta, the Mafia turncoat who had cooperated with Falcone's investigations, remembered Giovanni Brusca as "a wild stallion but a great leader".[2]
- ^ "Dalla strage di Capaci all'uccisione del piccolo Giuseppe Di Matteo: ecco chi è Giovanni Brusca" (in Italian). corriere.it. 7 October 2019.
- ^ "'The Pig" is Penned", Time International, 3 June 1996.