The article that sent Travaglio into a rage, about Lavitola, Ranucci and the dinners that Falcone allegedly did not attend, according to Ayala, Grasso and Violante

To the dismay of Falcone’s family and the, all things considered, measured comments of former magistrates such as Luciano Violante, Pietro Grasso and Giuseppe Ayala – who observed that “Falcone would not have dined with Lavitola” – Marco Travaglio, editor-in-chief of Il Fatto, retorted with a quip that Falcone would have done worse, given that “he worked exclusively with the Andreotti government”.

In an interview with Il Foglio, former Senate President Pietro Grasso – an associate judge in the Maxiprocesso trial against the Cosa Nostra and former chief prosecutor in Palermo – commented on the post in which Sigfrido Ranucci compared himself to historical figures such as Aldo Moro, Piersanti Mattarella, Paolo Borsellino and, indeed, Giovanni Falcone. “There will always be those who use those names as a shield.” According to the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Luciano Violante – a former magistrate and chair of the parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission – “Moro, Mattarella, Falcone and Borsellino would not have gone to dinner with Lavitola”. 

Travaglio’s words left Maria Falcone, the magistrate’s sister, “deeply embittered”, she commented. The journalist’s remark “is a statement I find unworthy, an example of bad journalism, built on a soundbite rather than on the truth of the facts. “My brother,” pointed out the sister of the magistrate murdered by the Mafia, “did not work for Giulio Andreotti’s government. Giovanni Falcone worked for the Italian state. When, in 1991, Giovanni accepted the post of Director-General of Criminal Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, he did not leave Palermo to get closer to politics: it was Palermo, in a way, that forced him to leave.” Falcone, his sister recalled, "had been progressively isolated, discredited and obstructed, not only due to fears arising from their various friendships and collusions, but also because of widespread envy, precisely whilst he was waging the most difficult battle against Cosa Nostra. Contributing to his discrediting were certain political circles, shoddy journalism – which even then, as now, preferred suspicion to the truth of the facts – and, painfully, even a section of the judiciary itself and several of his colleagues. Giovanni did not abandon the fight against the Mafia: he took it to the very heart of the state,” she concluded. 

As we noted here, Falcone was Director of Criminal Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, and in that role he promoted the establishment of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office. Falcone worked for the state to strengthen and reorganise the state’s anti-Mafia efforts more efficiently, only to pay for his commitment with his life in the Capaci massacre.