Movies with 400 Close Friends

PALERMO, Sicily: Mafia boss Giovanni Brusca was arrested by four hundred police officers in his Canatello vacation home. Charged with killing of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, Brusca was taken into custody while watching a movie about Falcone's death. Brusca allegedly set off a roadside explosion which killed Falcone, his wife and three police agents as their cars sped along a highway near Palermo. He was taken to a Palermo prison amid cheering crowds of police officers. "The police were absolutely joyous last night," says TIME's Greg Burke. "A victory celebration broke out when he was brought in, especially since he had killed three of their own." Brusca is also charged with the murder of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the 11 year-old son of Santino Di Matteo, a former Mafiosi who became a government witness. Brusca allegedly first kidnapped the boy to end his father's collaboration, but when that didn't work, strangled him and threw his body in a vat of acid. "He is considered to be the most wanted of the Mafia fugitives," says Burke. "He is not at all the old type of honorable Mafia, who have rules about hurting women and children, but more of the new type of Mafioso, who are really brutal." Brusca is also accused of masterminding the 1993 car bombs that damaged the Uffizi museum in Florence, two churches in Rome and an art gallery in Milan. He planned the bombings following the arrest of Salvatero Riina, the Mafia's Boss of bosses, and Pope John Paul II's public condemnation of La Cosa Nostra. -->