It's been 31 years ("25" in the original text) from the Via d'Amelio massacre in Palermo in which Paolo Borsellino and five of the six members of his escort lost their lives: Agostino Catalano, Walter Eddie Cosina, Emanuela Loi, Claudio Traina and Vincenzo Fabio Li Muli. The five officers were accompanying the judge to visit his mother's house.
Agnese Borsellino's words reveal the affection that the judge and his wife felt for these men and women: “They were people who were part of our family. We shared their anxieties and their projects. It was a relationship not only of humanity and friendship, but also of respect for their service. My husband told me 'when they decide to kill me they will be the first to die', to prevent this from happening, he often went out alone to buy the newspaper and cigarettes as if to send a message to his executioners to kill him when he was alone and not in the company of his guardian angels”.
They were all awarded the Gold Medal of Civil Valor for having carried out their duties with great courage and absolute dedication to duty while being aware of the serious risks to which they were exposed due to the resurgence of attacks against representatives of the judiciary and the Police. Furthermore, the State has honored the sacrifice of the victims, with the recognition granted in favor of their family members, who formed a civil party in the process, by the Solidarity Committee for the victims of mafia-type crimes referred to in law n. 512/99.
AUGUSTINE CATALAN
Chief assistant escort Agostino Catalano was 43 years old and had been married to Maria Pace but had been widowed three years earlier. His wife had died of cancer, leaving him alone with their three children, Emanuele, Emilia and Rosalinda. In 1991 he married Maria Fontana. To meet the economic needs of the family he had begun to serve as an escort agent and was usually assigned to the escort of Father Bartolomeo Sorge. On the day of the massacre in via d'Amelio he was on vacation, but due to a tragic fate he had been called in order to reach a sufficient number to escort Judge Borsellino. Just a few weeks earlier he had saved a child who was about to drown in the sea off Mondello beach.
WALTER EDDIE COSINA
The chosen agent Walter Eddie Cosina was born in Norwood, Australia, from a family of Trieste origins who emigrated after the war. In the mid-1960s the family returned to Italy, to Muggia. Orphaned of his father at the age of 21, he is forced to give up the training course to become a judicial police operator. In 1983 he joined the Digos, from 1990 he was part of the anti-kidnapping unit and later took up service in the anti-crime division. After the Capaci massacre, escort agents were requested throughout Italy and Cosina agreed to move from Trieste to Palermo. In May 1992, he applied to join the anti-mafia investigation department. On the day of the massacre, by a cruel fate, he lets a colleague who was supposed to relieve him rest and decides to take his place as an escort agent for judge Paolo Borsellino. He leaves his wife Monica.
CLAUDIO TRAIN
After completing his military service in the air force, Claudio Traina decides to join the police at a very young age. After attending the training course at the Police School in Alessandria, he joined the flying squad in Milan and then was transferred, at his request, to Palermo. It was 1990 when he decided to be assigned to the stock department. He was only 27 years old and was married and the father of an eleven-month-old boy, Dario, who now lives in Brazil. His brother Luciano, an agent of the Palermo Flying Squad, now retired, was part of the pool of policemen who captured the boss Giovanni Brusca after the massacre.
EMANUELA LOI
Agent Emanuela Loi was the first policewoman to die in a mafia massacre. You joined the State Police in 1989 and attended the 119th course at the Allievi Agenti School in Trieste. She was transferred to Palermo two years later. Among her various tasks, she was entrusted with the picketing at Villa Pajno at the home of the then parliamentarian Sergio Mattarella, the escort to Senator Pina Maisano (widow of Libero Grassi) and the picketing of the boss Francesco Madonia. After the Capaci massacre, in June 1992 she was entrusted to the magistrate Paolo Borsellino. She was only 24 when she fell in the line of duty, she was a sunny girl, always smiling with a cheeky and carefree air. She dreamed of returning soon to her Cagliari, for this very reason she had requested to be transferred there. She left behind her parents, a sister and brother, and the fiancé with whom she hoped soon to marry. She loved her work very much, even though she was aware of the danger she was in every day.
VINCENZO LI MULI
Vincenzo loved motorbikes and racing cars but his dream has always been to become a policeman. He succeeded in 1990, and in the spring of 1992 he was assigned to the Palermo Police Headquarters. He was engaged to Vittoria, his great love, with whom he wanted to marry and build a family. Watching the images of the Capaci massacre on television, he wept bitterly in front of the cowardice of those who chose TNT and did not allow themselves to defend themselves and fight. It was at that moment that he made his decision and despite the risks he knew he was running, he was assigned to the escort of Judge Borsellino. He was only 22 and the youngest in the team.
The only survivor of that day is the agent Antonino Vullo, who tells the nightmare of that day like this: “The judge got out of the car and lit a cigarette. The boys fanned around him to protect him, as always. They entered the door, then… I got out of the wrecked car. I walked and walked. I was desperate, I wandered. I was shouting. I felt something under my shoe. I bent over. It was a piece of foot. I woke up in the hospital. Every time, when the anniversary falls, I feel terrible”.
