Thirty years after the Capaci massacre. The memory of the reporters who arrived first on the spot: "We didn't understand, it looked like an airplane bomb"

Thirty years have passed since the massacres of '92. On 23 May 1992, at 5:43 pm, judge Giovanni Falcone and his wife Francesca Morvillo landed at Punta Raisi airport after leaving Rome. Upon their arrival in Palermo , they are greeted by three escort cars .

Falcone climbs at the helm of the Croma Bianca. His wife sits next to him and the judicial driver, Giuseppe Costanza , in the back seat. The three cars head towards Palermo.

The Croma Marrone that opens the parade is led by agents Antonio Montinaro , Vito Schifani and Rocco Dicillo . The Croma Blu, on the other hand, is led by agents Angelo Corbo , Paolo Capuzza and Gaspare Cervello . At 5:58 pm, the A29 motorway , near Capaci, was completely gutted by 400 kg of explosives , placed inside a drainage channel.

"But who us misiru, a bumma atomica ci misiru?" exclaimed someone who arrived at the scene shortly after the explosion.

In the attack die: Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and the heroes of the escort Vito Schifani, Rocco Dicillo and Antonio Montinaro. Agents Corbo, Capuzza and Cervello will manage to survive and get out of the machines.
“I don't remember anything about that day, I don't remember anything until 6pm. From 6pm onwards I remember everything as if it were yesterday. I was at the Mediterranean fair, a sample collection was inaugurated, one of the usual ones. Bored, I took some pictures. I remember that the newspaper "L'Ora", the newspaper I worked for, closed on May 9th. I used to work for national agencies ”tells us Franco Lannino , journalist and photojournalist, one of the first to arrive on site. “That day, I remember that a policeman took me by the arm and told me to run to Capaci because something serious had happened. I did not make me say it twice and I ran like a madman, trying to reach the place indicated to me as soon as possible. At Tommaso Natale, however, I had a nasty surprise: the highway had been closed, the traffic police blocked it, no one was passing. So I thought of going on foot, since I am a news photographer ”. And he adds: “ Franco Nuccio , then a young reporter for Ansa, arrived there with a beautiful motorcycle. I jumped on the rear seat and we arrived on the spot by side streets. We were faced with a war scene. We arrived while they were taking out what remained of the bodies of the three escort officers Montinaro, Dicillo and Schifani. Out of the corner of my eye I realized that there was no longer the highway but in its place a great chasm ”.

Arriving at the site of the massacre, Lannino remembers that moment in this way: “I found myself on the edge of that huge crater. In fact, I, shocked, did not understand how such a thing could happen. I was naively thinking of a plane bomb. I took pictures, I did it automatically. After about half an hour, three quarters of an hour, I returned to Palermo riding a boy's 'Ciao'. There I went back to the studio and developed the films and transmitted the first photo that went around the world, the one that the mafia had managed to do on May 23, 1992 in Capaci ”.

Angelo Barraco