Life sentence for mafia boss Madonia for the murders of Agostino and his wife

Murder of Officer Agostino and his Wife: Boss Antonio Madonia Sentenced to Life Imprisonment, Scotto and a Friend of the Murdered Policeman on Trial.

Thirty-two years after the double homicide, the GUP of the Palermo Court, Alfredo Montalto, sentenced Madonia to life imprisonment and sent Gaetano Scotto to trial as an accomplice to the crime and Francesco Paolo Rizzuto for personal aiding and abetting the first two.

On the evening of August 5, 1989, State Police officer Antonino Agostino and his young wife Giovanna Ida Castelluccio were shot dead in front of the entrance to the Agostino family's summer home in Villagrazia di Carini in the province of Palermo. The shooters were two killers who arrived on a high-powered motorcycle, which was later found partially burned not far from the site of the massacre. Mrs. Castelluccio was pregnant.

The investigations immediately proved to be particularly complex, mainly due to some evident anomalies. First of all, there was no plausible motive. From the first investigations and especially from the statements of his 'superiors', Antonino Agostino was an agent assigned to the 'flying' service of the Palermo - San Lorenzo Police Station, who had never carried out investigative activity nor, much less, held sensitive positions. During the investigations there were also some dehostages in fact some of Agostino's manuscripts found during a search carried out after the double crime were destroyed.

The truth about the double homicide was also hindered by the initial reticence of various individuals informed of Agostino's secret operations within an intelligence structure, as well as by the absence of statements from collaborators of justice, indicative of the regime of secrecy that had characterized the victim's life and the reasons for his killing that had to remain hidden even within Cosa Nostra.

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In the complex reconstruction of the Attorney General's Office of Palermo, based on investigations conducted by the DIA and on unpublished statements by collaborators of justice, informed persons, on wiretaps and on investigative findings acquired in the context of a coordination activity with other Public Prosecutor's Offices, it emerged that the agent Agostino also carried out 'covert duties', together with leading figures of the Security Services and apparently aimed at finding mafia fugitives.

In particular, statements were acquired from some collaborators of justice on the material perpetrators of the crime, indicated as Gaetano Scotto and Antonino Madonia, as well as on the motive, which proved to be particularly complex, since it was set in the murky terrain of opaque relationships between elite members of Cosa Nostra and some unfaithful exponents of the Institutions.

It has emerged, in the reconstruction of the Attorney General's Office now being examined by the investigating judge, that Agostino was part, together with Piazza Emanuele, Aiello Giovanni (the so-called monster), Paolilli Guido (also an Agent of the State Police and mentor of Agostino himself, who he had recruited), and other members of the then top Security Services, of an intelligence structure that, during the recruitment phase, was represented with the purpose of recruiting such as searching for fugitives, but which in reality was concerned with managing complex relationships of shared interests between some disloyal members of the Institutions and the Cosa Nostra criminal organization. It also emerged from multiple pieces of evidence that Agostino had, in the last part of his life, understood the real aims of the structure to which he belonged (to which he had offered a very serious lead – linked to his wife's family – to lead to the capture of Salvatore Riina in San Giuseppe Jato), and had distanced himself from it shortly before his marriage, a fact which had been the reason for the decision to kill him and his wife.

In particular, the investigation has been completed on the relationships of members of the Institutions with Madonia, the undisputed head of the Resuttana district, and Scotto, also belonging to the same district and always indicated as a link with members of the Security Services. The evidence collected concerns not only statements from collaborators of proven faith (such as Vito Galatolo, Giovanni Brusca, Francesco Marino Mannoia, Francesco Di Carlo, Giuseppe Marchese, Francesco Onorato) but also from witnesses close to Agostino, such as colleagues and family members. Further confirmations have emerged from telephone interceptions, which have demonstrated the involvement of the structure in some important cover-ups.

From the investigations conducted by the Palermo DDA and acquired by the Attorney General's Office, Agostino's relationships with Giovanni Falcone also emerged during the phase in which the latter was conducting very delicate investigations into the 'black trail' for the murder of the President of the Sicilian Region Piersanti Mattarella. In the context of the new investigations, the figure of Francesco Paolo Rizzuto, known as 'Paolotto', emerged, still a minor in 1989, a personal friend of Antonino Agostino. Rizzuto, at the time of the double homicide, was on site and the previous night had taken part in a fishing trip with Antonino. Subsequently, the two had slept at the Agostinos' summer residence in Villagrazia di Carini. The next morning, Agostino went to the office, while Rizzuto lingered at the Agostinos'.

In this regard, it was thanks to the tenacious investigations conducted by the DIA of Palermo that it was possible to collect evidence, through confidential technical activities, which are now being examined by the preliminary hearing judge, on the fact that Rizzuto, on several occasions, made false, contradictory and reticent statements regarding what happened on the day and in the place where the crime was committed and, in general, about what he knew (this is the accusation of the Attorney General). Through wiretaps, it appears that he himself declared to a relative that he had seen Agostino on the ground bleeding and that he had dirtied the T-shirt he was wearing by bending over the lifeless body of his friend, and then fled, throwing the garment away, specifying that he had never reported this circumstance when he was interviewed, shortly after the murder, by the investigating authorities. For this reason, Francesco Paolo Rizzuto was registered by the judicial authorities for aggravated aiding and abetting.