The thirtieth anniversary of the mafia massacres of 1993: remember it “The night of the bombs” by Maria Grazia Mazzola, broadcast on Sunday 21 May 2023 at midnight on Rai 1 for Speciale TG1.
A truck with a thousand kilos of explosives left Palermo in 1993 and crossed Italy undisturbed. At the wheel, the mafioso Pietro Carra transported the cargo to Rome, Florence and Milan. From the bomb in via Fauro in Rome, on 14 May, to kill the journalist Maurizio Costanzo, in via dei Georgofili in Florence, thirteen days later, until 27 July in via Palestro in Milan and simultaneously in San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giorgio at the Velabro, Cosa Nostra tried to overturn the democratic fate of Italy, aiming at the heart of the State in a subversive and terrorist way up to attempting to destroy its historical and artistic heritage. Maria Grazia Mazzola’s investigation aims at reconstructing the facts ascertained by six definitive sentences and at unresolved questions. What was the role of the main protagonists of the massacres, the bosses Matteo Messina Denaro and the Graviano brothers? They are the custodians of the secrets of the mafia organization, now in prison under the 41 bis law. And it was precisely to Matteo Messina Denaro that the father of a girl who was left invalid by the bombs made a heartfelt appeal: “Make a gesture of kindness, you are near to live, tell the truth about the massacres of ’93”.
Who suggested hitting the Uffizi and the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan? “Communications at Palazzo Chigi were interrupted – the Deputy Prosecutor of Florence Luca Tescaroli, owner of the investigations into external mandates, told Speciale TG1 – and for the first time a coup d’état was touched”.
“With the bombs of ’93 the bosses tried to stop the anti-mafia legislation and the 41 bis, the hard prison”, testifies Francesco Messina, Central Anti-Crime Director of the State Police, among the investigators who collaborated with the magistrates Gabriele Chelazzi and Pierluigi Vigna, up to the convictions of bosses and followers.
Also speaking on Speciale TG1 are the magistrate Sergio Lari, the witnesses, the families of the victims, the survivors of the mafia massacres of 1993, the Director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt, the former Director Petrioli Tofani, the Director of the Milan Gam Paola Zatti . The historic-artistic heritage has been rebuilt with love and sacrifice in over twenty years of commitment: the cameras of Speciale TG1 have entered the Uffizi and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna. A journey-investigation that also documented the places in Sicily where the massacre bosses met and decided on the strategy to attack the state. Ten victims and hundreds injured: in Florence the Nencioni family died in the explosion of the car bomb – mother Angela, father Fabrizio, 9-year-old Nadia, Caterina just 50 days old – and the 22-year-old architecture student Dario Capolicchio. In Milan in via Palestro, the mafia explosion killed three firefighters, Carlo La Catena, Sergio Pasotto, Stefano Picerno, the municipal police officer Alessandro Ferrari, who with their intervention saved the citizens, and an immigrant Driss Moussafir who was sleeping on a bench.