Giovanni Brusca

Giovanni Brusca (born c1957) is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia. He once boasted that he had committed at least a hundred murders.

A short and chubby man, he was nicknamed Il Porco - "The Pig" - whilst others referred to him with the more ominous title of Il Macellaio - "The Butcher" - due to his savagery. One of his crimes was the murder of an 11-year-old boy, whose father had become an informant. Brusca kidnapped the child and held him for over a year, torturing him and sending photographs of the injuries to the boy's father and telling him to stop co-operating with the police. Brusca eventually strangled the boy and flung his body into a vat of acid.

Brusca was a member of the Corleonisi Mafia Family, from the town of Corleone and his mentor was Salvatore Riina.

On May 20, 1996, then aged thirty-nine, Brusca was arrested at a restaurant where he was dining with his girlfriend and their young son. Brusca had received a life sentence the previous year after being convicted in absentia of murder and he was subsequently convicted of the bomb attack that killed the Anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

In 2004, it was reported that Busca was allowed out of prison once a week every forty-five days to see his family, a reward for his good behaviour as well as becoming an informant and co-operating with the authorities. Relatives of his many victims were understandably angry at such soft treatment for a multiple-killer.

Also See

Archived 1996 article from Time on Brusca's crimes and arrest

The (London) Times report on Brusca's prison priveleges