ABSTRACT: While in Palermo the "great trial" (the so-called "maxi-trial" of the Mafia, ed.) is opening, Sciascia underscores something that happened during the trial going on in the second section of the Court of Assizes, a short distance away. In this courtroom, during his deposition, the Carabinieri Marshal Vincenzo Bucca was asked to give the name of a "noted and influential" person of Collesano. He named the first presiding judge of the Palermo Appeals Court, Giovanni Pizzillo. On the following day, however, the Marshal furnished a toned-down version of the magistrate's involvement in the publics affairs...

"Perturbing the statement on the 12th" - Sciascia feels - "and still more disquieting the »corrected aim on the following day".

(CORRIERE DELLA SERA, February 16, 1986)

The great trial gets off to a slow start. It will take at least a month to get to the heart of things and still many months before the examination turns into a debate. Meanwhile the newspaper correspondents don't know what to do to put some life into their reports, to make them colourful, to give them the vivacity that their readers expect. And yet there would be something more interesting to do: it would suffice, for instance, to move from the great hall in which the maxi-trial is taking place, to the one in the palace of justice where, in the second section of the Court of Assizes, ten members (presumed members, of course) of the so-called "Collesano Mafia" are on trial. Among the accused is the town veterinary and the son of the ex mayor.

During the hearing on the 12th amazing remarks were made there. The Carabinieri Marshal Vincenzo Bucca gave testimony. The attorney Angelo Bonfiglio, ex president of the Region of Sicily and presently a deputy in Parliament who that "noted and influential" personage was at whose death the equilibrium of the Collesano Mafia was shattered and open war began between the clans.

The marshal, who had written this in his report, calmly replied that the man was "his honour Giovanni Pizzillo, ex presiding judge of the Palermo Appeals Court".

The reporter noted the silence and embarrassment, the exchange of glances between judges and lawyers. Then attorney Bonfiglio asked the Public Prosecutor to take note of the declaration and consequently to call the Dr. Pizzillo to the witness stand. "It cannot be done", replied the Public Prosecutor, "the high magistrate has been dead for three years." That he was dead had already been stated in the marshal's report: nor could attorney Bonfiglio have been ignorant of this, just as we are not.

The next day, called to give details on his statement, the marshal declared: Dr. Pizzillo was very fond of Collesano, his home town, and was anxious that nothing bad should happen... As long as the high magistrate was alive, nobody ever permitted himself to commit a criminal act... His fellow townsmen had particular regard for him, to the point of avoiding to commit criminal acts which might have offended his honour."

The »Giornale di Sicilia put this headline on its report of the hearing: "The marshal corrects his aim: Pizzillo was just and loved."

Perturbing the statement made on the 12th. Even more disquieting "the corrected aim" of the next day.