![Gaetano Costa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Gaetano_Costa.jpg)
Gaetano Costa (;
Caltanissetta
Caltanissetta (; scn, Nissa or ) is a ''comune'' in the central interior of Sicily, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta. Its inhabitants are called ''Nisseni''.
In 2017, the city had a population of 62,797. It is the 14th ...
, 1 March 1916 -
Palermo, 6 August 1980) was an
Italian magistrate killed by the
Cosa Nostra
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily ...
.
Chief Prosecutor of Palermo, he was assassinated by the Mafia on 6 August 1980 while browsing books on a stall located on a sidewalk in Via Cavour in
Palermo, a few steps from his home. He was hit with three gunshots to his back by two killers on a motorcycle. The cause of that ruthless execution was the fact that he had personally signed the arrest orders against boss
Rosario Spatola and some of his men while other colleagues of his refused to sign. The crime was ordered by the Mafia clan headed by
Salvatore Inzerillo
Salvatore Inzerillo (; 20 August 1944 – 11 May 1981) was an Italian member of the Sicilian Mafia, also known as Totuccio (a diminutive for Salvatore). He rose to be a powerful boss of Palermo's Passo di Rigano family. A prolific heroin traffick ...
.
Life
Gaetano Costa was born in
Caltanissetta
Caltanissetta (; scn, Nissa or ) is a ''comune'' in the central interior of Sicily, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Caltanissetta. Its inhabitants are called ''Nisseni''.
In 2017, the city had a population of 62,797. It is the 14th ...
. He graduated in Law at the
University of Palermo
The University of Palermo ( it, Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties.
History
The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its ...
. As a boy, during the
Fascist regime
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
, he joined the then clandestine
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...
. After winning the
competitive examination
An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...
in the magistracy, he was enlisted as an officer of the
Regia Aeronautica and obtained two
War Crosses. Following the
8 September 1943, he reached the
Susa valley and joined the
Italian Resistance
The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Socia ...
. He was put into service in the Magistracy, before in the tribunal of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and then, at his request, he was transferred to the Republic Prosecutor Office of Caltanissetta where he remained from 1944 to 1978.
In the Prosecutor's Office, he spent most of his magistrate activities as a deputy prosecutor before and chief prosecutor then, always giving clear demonstrations of high professional preparation, independence and balance. Since the 1960s, as evidenced by his deposition at the first
Antimafia Commission The Italian parliamentary Antimafia Commission ( it, Commissione parlamentare antimafia) is a bicameral commission of the Italian Parliament, composed of members from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The first commission, formed in 1963, was ...
, he realized that the Mafia had undergone a radical mutation and that it had nested in the vital ganglia of public administration by controlling its procurement, recruitment and management in general. In the case of
Peppino Impastato
Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato (; January 5, 1948 – May 9, 1978), was an Italian political activist who opposed the Mafia, which ordered his murder in 1978.
Childhood
Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato was born in Cinisi, in the then province of Pa ...
, he was the first to realize that it was not terrorism or suicide but a mafia crime.
In the brief period of his administration, the Prosecutor's Office of Palermo started a series of delicate investigations in which, even with limited resources at the time, he tried to hit the Mafia's patrimonial sanctuaries.
Death
A substitute of him wrote that he was a man "of whom only death could be bought". At 19:30, on 6 August 1980, he bled to death on the sidewalk of Via Cavour in Palermo. Only a few magistrates attended his funeral. Although he was the only magistrate in Palermo to have a bullet proof car and an escort had been assigned to at the time, he did not use it as he felt that his protection would endanger others and that he was one of those who "had the duty to have courage".
No one was convicted for his death even though the tribunal of
Catania found the context identifying it in the grey area between business, politics and organized crime. His commitment was continued by
Rocco Chinnici
Rocco Chinnici (, ; 19 January 1925 – 29 July 1983) was a noted Italian anti-Mafia magistrate killed by the Sicilian Mafia.
Life
Born at Misilmeri, Chinnici graduated in law at the University of Palermo in 1947 and started working as a magist ...
, then among the few who understood and shared his intentions and action. Chinnici would later be killed as well.
[Giuseppe Casarrubea, Biografia di Gaetano Costa, casarrubea.wordpress.com]
See also
*
List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia
This list of victims of the Sicilian Mafia includes people who have been killed by the Sicilian Mafia while opposing its rule. It does not include people killed in internal conflicts of the Mafia itself.
1890s
1893
*February 1 – Emanuele N ...
*
Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
*
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying t ...
*
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
*
Ninni Cassarà
Antonino "Ninni" Cassarà (; 7 May 1947 – 6 August 1985) was an Italian policeman assassinated by the Cosa Nostra.
Life
Born in Palermo on 7 May 1947, he was Commissioner in Reggio Calabria and then in Trapani, where he learned about Giov ...
*
Il Capo dei Capi
''Il Capo dei Capi'' (''The Boss of the Bosses'') is a six-part Italian miniseries which debuted on Canale 5 between October and November 2007. It tells the story of Salvatore Riina, alias ''Totò u Curtu'' (Totò the Short), a mafioso boss f ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa, Gaetano
1916 births
1980 deaths
People murdered by the Sicilian Mafia
20th-century Italian lawyers
People from Caltanissetta
Italian anti-fascists
Italian communists
Italian resistance movement members
People murdered by the Corleonesi