The repentant Mutolo: “In the last interrogation Borsellino was very worried”

“I saw Paolo Borsellino for the last time on the night of July 17, two days before he was killed in the Via D’Amelio massacre. He was very worried. I remember him perfectly. And he was also worried about his daughter Fiammetta, on vacation. in Indonesia, which he had not heard for several hours. That was the last interrogation. ” To remember the judge Paolo Borsellino, 29 years after his killing, in an exclusive interview with Adnkronos, is the repentant Gaspare Mutolo, former drug trafficker and right arm of Totò Riina. An eventful life, that of Mutolo. In 1965 he ends up in prison at the Ucciardone in Palermo, where he meets Totò Riina, he will become one of the most faithful to the dogma of the Corleonese mafia. From the beginning of the 1970s until 1985 it was the most important heroin ‘broker’ on the planet. “It was my wife who enlightened my brain, when the Corleonese made the massacres – she tells from the secret place where she lives and paints – She told me: ‘You’re crazy, that’s enough’. She was a guide for me. Now she is dead .. . “. “That evening of July 17 – recalls Mutolo – what I was able to conceive, speaking with the judge, was his great concern. Never like that evening”. And he also tells another anecdote: “He was also worried about his daughter Fiammetta, who was far away, traveling with family friends. And I reassured him, telling him that I also had a daughter who often went to dance and who did not make herself heard. . I was very struck by that infinite love for children. A visceral love. He was really worried. When he talked about it he had a very sweet smile. But worried. ” And he reiterates: “Of course he was also worried about himself”. And he remembers that “after the Capaci massacre, he insisted that he wanted to be heard by the Prosecutor of Caltanissetta. That was the period of Tinebra in Caltanissetta, of Giammanco in Palermo. And then there was Contrada. They were characters who did not fall in Borsellino, like Arnaldo La Barbera. I only wanted to talk to him and Borsellino knew it. ” ‘On July 1st he questioned me and was very nervous after the visit to the Viminale’ “After Borsellino’s death, Judge Gioacchino Natoli came to see me at the Dia. He was worried and said to me: ‘Gaspare, what are you going to do now? ? ‘ And I said: ‘Now I have one more reason to cooperate’. Judge Falcone was dead and Borsellino too. I no longer cared who to talk to and I kept that promise. I continued talking to the magistrates “. On July 1, 1992, 18 days before the via D’Amelio massacre, Mutolo was interrogated again by Borsellino. That day, the anti-Mafia judge had to interrupt the interview to go to the Viminale, where the then new Minister of the Interior, Nicola Mancino, settled. “I remember that the judge received a phone call from the Interior Ministry – he says – and had to go away. That day we recorded several things, but not everything. He did not write the most important things. I told him: ‘Mr. Judge, I want to see the mafia arrested and then we talk about politicians and state personalities “. When asked what Judge Borsellino did not write, Gaspare Mutolo replies:” Something he could see beyond “. “I made comparisons – he says – In Palermo, for example, we had the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, count Arturo Cassina had the number one card, who had done many jobs in the city. And does his trustworthy know who he was? Giovanni Teresi, the sub-head of the family of the boss Bontade “. “Borsellino never got to put in writing what he meant …”. “On July 1st, it was like a joke – says Mutolo – there was this secret meeting, even if very tired, very troubled. I don’t know why, someone didn’t want me to talk to Borsellino. I understood it after they had found some files on Giovanni Falcone’s computer, with whom I had already spoken, explaining something to him. I had started collaborating in ways other than Buscetta or Contorno, I wanted to cut this umbilical cord. There was the mafia and politics, but also the world entrepreneurial “. “I said to Falcone: ‘I don’t move from Italy, so when the judges want to see me, I have to be close at hand.’ So we had the first interview with Dr. Borsellino, thanks to De Gennaro (former Chief of Police Ed), who organized the meeting at Dia. But it had to be secret. Instead everyone knew it. At the Viminale they knew it, Contrada knew it “. And he remembers what he had already said in some trials: “After talking to Mancino and Contrada, he was so agitated that he even had a cigarette in his mouth and lit another. I pointed this out to him, he was so thoughtful. After that day we met several other times “.” I said to him ‘Doctor, the mafia has a potential that you cannot even imagine. And he was logically thrilled – says Mutolo – It seemed an exaggeration, I told him if we have to get along first we have to put in jail all the mafia. And he said to me: ‘I agree with you’, but he was also anxious because he knew that deep down there was someone who was working in a different way from how he worked “. “I know, because at that time there were some mafiosi who met – he adds – some had agreed on what was called ‘negotiation’. There was a contrast between some characters and Borsellino understood it. There had already been some signals “. ‘Within the state there were three currents’ And Gaspare Mutolo reiterates that” within the state there were three currents: some people who attacked themselves out of fear, others who tried to remedy, and others who wanted to fight. I, thanking God, am among those people who intended to fight. ” The justice collaborator says he is convinced that “even today the misdirection of the Via D’Amelio massacre continues”. “In the center percent,” he explains. “As well as the negotiation between the state and the mafia, it still continues, but”. But who is misleading? “This is a malicious question – says Mutolo – those people who, after the massacres, had an interest in making them, because the negotiations still continue today”. He is also keen to explain that the release of Giovanni Brusca, after 25 years in prison, despite the dozens of murders, including that of Giovanni Falcone and little Giuseppe Di Matteo, “must be accepted”. “Brusca did a horrible thing – he says – he killed that child and the judge dearest to all of us. But, Brusca, he broke a gear, a system. That was a period in which the mafia were also willing to kill their own children, brothers, wife “. “There are people who went to jail at 25 and are 60, at least Brusca collaborated and had people arrested, while there are people who did more murders than Brusca and the law wants to put them out. This is not a negotiation?”. Mutolo speaks of the impedimental life sentence. “The government should say, ‘You’re crazy, these people shouldn’t go out. Never.’ “Unless they collaborate – he says – then it would be right”. And take the opportunity to “launch an appeal to the mafia”. “Repent – he says – because they would have so many things to say”. Who? “For example the Madonia, Nino and Salvuccio, important characters who have never collaborated. I know them as kids, they know everything. Everything”. And the Graviano? “More than what they have said, what else should they say? Those who do not want to understand do not understand. They cannot say more because it would create dislikes.” But from whom? “I can’t tell you because there are trials going on …”. And about his life he says: “I have opened the way for all collaborators. My life is now painting, I am a widower, the only regret I have is that I have not been able to give what my wife deserved. It was she who he guided me and enlightened me “. (by Elvira Terranova)