[narrator in Italian] I was just
a boy when I was sworn into the Mafia.
They pricked my finger with a needle
and told me to wipe the blood
on an image of a saint.
Then the image was burnt
while I recited the ritual oath.
If I betray Cosa Nostra, let my flesh burn
like this sacred image.
When you are initiated it is forever.
Cosa Nostra comes before family,
friends, and country.
Once a Mafioso always a Mafioso.
[indistinct whispering]
[male reporter 1]
What makes this Mafia trial different
from any other is the cracking
of the Mafia code of silence.
[male reporter 2]
...the largest anti-Mafia operation
since World War II.
[male reporter 3 in Italian]
[male reporter 4] One man's testimony
is set to convict
over 400 members of the Mafia.
His betrayal makes him
the Mafia's most wanted man.
[male reporter 5] He is the most
significant Mafia turncoat
in criminal history.
[female reporter]
Federal investigators have landed
one of the biggest Mafia canaries
of all times.
[in Italian] Buscetta is a liar!
[in Italian] Buscetta is...
a worm.
[male reporter 6] He gave Italian
officials a 3,000-page confession
that links Mafia groups in Italy
with those in the United States.
[male reporter 7] As a result of
his testimony
it's expected
there will be many arrests there.
[indistinct chatter]
[chairman] Our next witness
will be Mr. Tommaso Buscetta.
Mr. Buscetta, for reasons
of personal safety,
has been relocated
and is now living under an assumed name
in an undisclosed location
in order to protect his identity.
He will therefore be testifying
behind a screen.
[Rudy] This man is testifying
against some of the most dangerous people
in the world.
And it is incumbent upon
the United States government
to take extraordinary security precautions
with him.
The witness can be brought in.
[woman speaking Italian]
[boy] My dad, looking at me weird.
Let's zoom into him. My dad.
Stop filming like that.
[boy speaking Italian]
You're spraying it around
like a machine gun!
-[woman speaking Italian]
-[boy] Okay, uh...
[Tommaso in Italian]
Good morning, Mr. Chairman,
and members of the subcommittee.
My name is Tommaso Buscetta.
I've spent most of my life
as a member of Sicilian Mafia.
I've seen so many changes
in the organization
that I no longer feel bound
by their code of silence or "Omerta."
They have no trials.
They have no jails.
Their only power is terror.
[siren blaring]
[Cristina] You cannot imagine,
one decision in your life
what's gonna make to you.
Once it's made, that's your destiny,
that's the life you have.
Tommaso had eight children
from three women.
I was the third woman and had two boys.
It's the first time
that I expose our life to anybody.
It-- It's now or never.
Uh... Nothing scares me, really,
but, uh, you know, there's a risk.
There's a risk.
Just a call would kill us all.
-[old man speaking Italian]
-[woman exclaims]
-[chuckles]
-[all speaking Italian]
-[Tommaso speaking Italian]
-[speaks Italian]
-[gunshot]
-[Roberto] They are there,
and killing Tommaso Buscetta's son
would be a perfect trophy.
So, if I give them the opportunity
to come and find me,
they will definitely take the shot.
-I lost two brothers.
-[shell casing clinking]
I lost uncles.
I lost a lot of family members.
And I don't want to show
my face not for fear,
but I have something to lose.
I have my children and my wife.
The danger will always be there.
The Mafia never forgets.
[Cristina] There is one thing.
One thing that I-- [stutters]
-I know-- I know. I know I'm lost.
-[Roberto chuckles] Here it comes.
-I know-- I know that there is no way out.
-[Roberto chuckles]
I don't like you and a gun together.
That's-- [stutters]
That's a bad combination, Son.
[Roberto] Look, Mom,
I earned my right to carry it,
-I fought for the right to carry it...
-Mm.
...and you know what's most beautiful
about all this? Is that I can carry it.
God bless America.
-That's right.
-Yeah, but it's dangerous.
-One day someone will push...
-Yeah, it's dangerous to--
-...your buttons.
-It's dangerous for anyone...
-Mm.
-...that would threaten you,
my children...
-Mm.
-...my wife or myself.
[Cristina] I would--
I don't know. I-- I hate guns.
[Roberto] You lost that one
before you even started.
I carry a gun at all times
because my father shook up an organization
that stood for a long time.
And there's always a safety concern,
because some of these people
are still alive
and they're still looking
for a piece of retribution.
[Tommaso] Mafioso are the romantic figures
they see in the movies.
They are men of violence.
Until the public understands
the true nature of Cosa Nostra
its power and violence will continue.
In the early 1960s, eight police officers
were killed in a car bombing.
As a result, there was a public outcry
against the Mafia.
Several arrest warrants were issued
including my own.
I left Sicily and went to Mexico
from there to Canada and to New York.
But I had to flee the US in 1971.
I was caught with a false passport.
I went to Brazil.
[Cristina] I was living in Rio
and I decided to go to the beach.
Then comes this guy...
sit very close to us
and we spoke to each other for four hours.
He said that he was in Brazil
looking for work with,
uh, planting tomatoes
that the Brazilians didn't have
at that time.
But I was totally taken by him, period.
If he said he was Jesus Christ,
maybe I would believe.
I was 20 years old and, uh, he was 42.
[bossa nova music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[Cristina] It was carnival.
We were at the beginning
of our relationship.
And there was a lady there,
she was flirting with him
and he loved the attention obviously.
But then it got on my nerves,
really got on my nerves,
because he'd stand up,
take our champagne...
and put it on the other table.
I said, now he's gonna know
the other side of me.
I stood up,
took the bottle of champagne and...
-[imitates glass shattering]
-[glass shattering]
Glass is everywhere.
I say, "Who do you think you are?
You know, I'm younger than you,
much younger than you.
What you can do,
I can do three times more."
When we got into the house,
closed the door,
he said, now you're gonna get it.
And I got it.
He grabbed me,
"Never do that again to me.
Never embarrass me in public."
When violent, he was to the extreme.
He would go berserk.
I never asked Tommaso if he was a Mafioso
or had any connections with the Mafia,
because I didn't want him to lie to me.
[Tommaso] I was one of those
who persuaded the Sicilian family bosses
to create a Mafia Commission in Palermo.
The Commission was responsible
for setting disputes between families.
The Commission would decide
if a man of honor was to be executed.
Every "man of honor"
must have killed
at least once for Cosa Nostra.
Since you joined the Mafia in 1948...
how many people have you killed?
[Tommaso speaks Italian]
Senator, I cannot answer your question.
I don't want to be disrespectful,
but Italian law forbids me
from responding to this kind of question.
[Cristina] In Mafia, he had to prove
he was a man and he did.
He said,
"Cris, I have to be sincere to you.
It was years ago, but I killed somebody."
I became very sad.
I decided that with love and care
I would change him.
But six months after Tommaso and I met...
he was arrested.
[crowd clamoring]
[in Portuguese] By chance,
I was on duty when he was arrested.
Here, he may not have committed
a serious crime,
but in Italy he had.
[Cristina] They thought they had arrested
a big Mafia boss
that obviously was there to do drugs.
Which is something my husband hated.
THE DRUGS MAFIA LINE-UP
[male reporter] Brazilian police confirm
the notorious gangster Tommaso Buscetta
has been extradited to Italy
where he faces drug trafficking charges.
[Tommaso in Italian] I was convicted
and sentenced to eight years.
Yet, I was never caught
with a single gram of drugs.
Not a gram nor 100 kilos!
[Cristina] I don't know,
I think people will judge me,
because what I was doing
with the boss of the Mafia?
But that's not the way
I saw our relationship.
When I went to the hospital
to have Roberto, Tommaso was in jail.
My idea was to let my husband
see the baby.
That's why I took pictures
and video and sent to him.
-[monitor beeping]
-[indistinct chatter]
[baby crying]
[Roberto]
My father had two distinct families,
the one that he had raised in Sicily
from his first marriage...
and then the one that he created later
with Cristina in Brazil.
My mother adopted two of those children
because they were so young
and they were on my father's heels.
There was me and Alessandra
and she could have just said,
"Well, I don't want these girls, you know.
I was going to be a stepmom, but, hey,
now he's gone, God knows for how long."
But that woman moved mountains and earth.
And she made sure she kept us,
and she flew us all to move to Italy.
You know, she says,
"I'm going to be with him."
[Cristina] It's a matter of loyalty,
you love someone...
you take this someone
the way he or she is.
[Roberto] Going to visit him in prison
was difficult, because strip search
and seeing my mom being handled around.
It just wasn't pleasant.
And every time we left, I remember
that I would hold back on my mother
and tell her, "Just wait."
And I would see this slither of an arm
stick out of a jail cell
and try to wave goodbye.
[Lisa] I don't know what he did.
I mean, I know he was a don,
which means a boss, Don Masino.
That was what he was, Don Masino this,
Don Masino that.
To me he was Papa.
You know,
I-- I don't care what anybody said,
he was my dad.
[Tommaso in Italian] Your Honor,
I spent eight years in that prison.
And I was the undisputed boss inside.
I acted as I pleased. I was in charge.
[Cristina] We married in jail.
And our witness was a gangster
100 percent.
And he was feeling secure
because with Tommaso
Mafia would not kill him.
But as soon as they changed him
to another jail, he was killed.
There were 100 stabbings.
[Tommaso in Italian]
Upon my release from prison
I began to realize
that drugs changed everything.
The family loyalties and codes of respect
that I knew as a Mafioso
were quickly becoming things of the past.
[male reporter] Mafia wars
in the streets of Palermo.
The latest infighting
has claimed hundreds of lives
as one of the Mafia's most powerful bosses
Salvatore Riina,
dubbed the Beast,
has seized on the US drugs trade
to fuel a ruthless campaign
for absolute control.
[male reporter speaking Italian]
[male reporter 2] The latest bodies
are two Mafia bosses
believed to be victims
of Toto Riina's bid for control.
They are associates
of the jailed Tommaso Buscetta
and represent part of the old guard
of the Mafia leadership.
[Cristina] Riina was a psychopath.
And this psychopath
was the man with the power.
Who has the money, commands.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator in Italian]
Now money was all that mattered.
Now it was a question
of having a seaside villa
or a place in the mountains.
All that counted now was
who could shoot the most.
Between 1981 and 1983...
there were over 400 Mafia killings
in Palermo.
Before the Mafia had nothing to do
with drugs.
Drugs brought too much attention
from authorities, too much heat.
Now drugs were the main part
of the Mafia's business.
And everyone was getting rich
because of them.
Along with drugs came more money
more greed, more violence, less honor.
[Lisa] One time, me and my brother
walking back from school
and I'm thinking I'm going, you know,
to take shower,
Mom will have dinner, you know,
we'll do homework.
Hell no! All of the sudden
in the middle of the night
we're-- we're moving.
Oh, okay, where are we moving to?
Across the ocean,
we're going back to Brazil.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[Cristina] I thought we would be safe
in Brazil.
Big mistake.
[Roberto] And I was ten,
I knew nothing of Mafia.
I knew nothing of organized crime
or-- or anything of the sort,
but... my father says, "Come with me,
we're gonna go pick up somebody."
So, we're driving around for an hour
and my father can't spot these guys.
And I turn around and go,
"There they are, right there."
If there was ever a big Mafia boss,
that was one.
And the head of the Mafia Commission
in Palermo gave me my first five dollars
for actually having picked him out
in the middle of a crowd in Copacabana
in the middle of summer.
And, uh, I had them for years,
until I realized who gave them to me.
[Tommaso in Italian]
He told me it was time to return.
I should help Cosa Nostra
get rid of Riina.
I replied, I didn't want to get involved
in a war that didn't concern me.
It wasn't my problem.
-[objects clatter]
-[Cristina sniffles]
[Cristina] That Mafia boss
was trying to convince him
to do war to the Mafia in Sicily.
My husband's saying,
"I've just had a baby.
Let me raise my child here."
[Tommaso in Italian] I told him
that I'm not interested in the Mafia war.
Since I had served so many years in jail,
I wanted to enjoy my freedom.
[Cristina] Stefano was a new beginning.
And Tommaso looked at him with such love.
From that day on Stefano was his baby.
[Tommaso in Italian]
Although I refused,
when the Mafioso returned to Sicily,
he spread the lie that I was coming back
to rise against Riina's people.
As a result, while I was in Brazil
Riina's men
began the systematic destruction
of the family I'd left behind in Sicily.
[phone ringing]
[Cristina] He implored his sons
not to get close to the Mafia.
-[ringing continues]
-"What are you doing in Palermo?
Come to Brazil."
[ringing continues]
When I came in, there was a woman
screaming on the phone.
It was his daughter-in-law.
And then she said
the day before his sons had disappeared.
And then I saw him become...
totally white.
Not a word. But he knew
he wouldn't see his children anymore.
They were already dead.
They could never tell
where their father was,
they had no idea.
They were tortured badly
to the point of no return.
Then they...
[stutters] they...
dismantled the guys in acid.
They were dissolved in acid.
[Lisa] We knew something really bad
had happened to my two brothers.
And a piece of my father
had died with that.
He blamed himself for everything.
He always tried
to keep all of us out of it.
But when he lost his two sons.
Wow. [sniffles]
You could tell.
A part of my father was gone.
And never recovered. [sniffles]
[Cristina] He internalized totally,
this loss that was tremendous.
Never made a comment, nothing.
[Lisa] We did not discuss...
nothing... ever
about the death of my brothers.
But... it totally destroyed my father.
WOE TO THE LOSERS
[sniffles]
[narrator] Yes, there was a Mafia war.
But I never imagined
that it would go so far.
And that was only the beginning
of the slaughter.
Two months later they struck again.
[male reporter in Italian]
Last night there was a massacre
at the New York Place.
Two killers ordered pizza.
They asked to see the owner
and two chefs.
Then opened fire killing all three.
[indistinct chatter]
The killers spared the woman
sitting at the till.
Felicia Buscetta is the owner's wife
but also, the daughter of Don Masino.
Buscetta is linked to clans
losing the current Mafia war.
He may have returned to Palermo
to avenge his two sons.
They have mysteriously disappeared.
[Roberto] My sister lost her husband.
He was brutally murdered in front of her.
And, uh, Toto Riina's campaign
of death and destruction went on.
[narrator] Two days later they came again.
My closest brother was Vincenzo.
He ran the family glass business.
[male reporter in Italian]
We have just received the footage
from the crime scene.
Palermo seems to have
become a slaughterhouse.
[Roberto] I played in that office
a million times.
I've broken glass
and Uncle Vincenzo told me,
"Don't worry about it,
we have a lot of glass here."
Uh... The office
where both of them were killed, uh...
that was a hangout for me.
[narrator] The hitmen caused a bloodbath.
They shot my brother in the face
as he was sitting at his desk.
My nephew ran to help his father
although he wasn't armed.
They killed him too.
[Roberto] The first time I was aware
of what was really was going on
was at the second arrest in 1983.
My father's driving me in the morning
to go to school.
-My mother's with us.
-[sirens blaring]
[man in Italian] It's nice here,
but there are lots of police around.
-[Roberto] We, uh, stop for breakfast.
-[sirens continue blaring]
The instant he stepped out of the car...
the police came from every direction.
I was whisked away with them.
And I-- I'll never forget it.
[Lisa] And I had Stefano as a baby,
my little brother in a crib
and my sister Alessandra
was also with me.
And, uh, of course,
we had to be inside the cars,
'cause all the cameras
were like all around down there
trying to get a picture.
We couldn't even go on the balcony,
there were so many paparazzi's out there,
you know.
[crowd clamoring]
I heard them talk among themselves about,
"Oh, we caught the big fish."
They're like,
"Well, I hope it's not my father."
-[crowd clamoring]
-[cameras clicking]
[in Portuguese] I had to draw up
an arrest warrant...
for conspiracy to traffic drugs
so we could be sure
of holding the whole gang.
What happened next
was a big deal in the media.
[male reporter] At last the world can
glimpse the godfather of two worlds.
These are the only public pictures
of Tommaso Buscetta,
arrested today in Sao Paulo.
[male reporter in Portuguese]
Today Buscetta seemed surprised
to face the press.
He smiled and looked ironically
at the cameras
without saying a word.
[male reporter 2 in Portuguese]
Speak! Speak!
[indistinct chatter]
[Precioso in Portuguese]
In my opinion Buscetta
wasn't involved with
narcotics here in Brazil.
But the people he was mixed up with...
they were definitely a Mafia group.
[indistinct chatter]
[Precioso in Portuguese]
He was one of the most famous wanted men.
We even received congratulations
from American police.
[indistinct chatter]
When Buscetta was discovered in Brazil...
um, I caught the case, went down to Brazil
to ask for his extradition back to the US.
Buscetta was a fugitive.
The reason the Americans
were looking for him
was charges of drug trafficking
in the United States.
We wanted to make sure
that the Brazilians knew
that the Americans wanted him.
We got there about the same time
as an Italian delegation
who was, uh, also interested
for their own reasons in Buscetta.
And I could see
when the Italian prosecutors
that-- that saw him, Judge Falcone.
It's just their body language
and the way they observed one another
and treated one another,
they were deferring to each other,
no question about it.
[narrator in Italian]
I was especially interested in this man...
because of his intelligence and manner.
He knew exactly what I meant.
Even when I spoke in the metaphors
of the language of Palermo and Sicily.
It is very hard to understand for someone
who is not born in my land.
[Giuseppe in Italian] Falcone was
undoubtedly the greatest magistrate
in the fight against Mafia.
Buscetta wouldn't talk with anyone else.
Only Giovanni Falcone.
On his return from Brazil,
Falcone tells me a strange thing happened.
During interrogation he'd asked as usual
to talk about the Mafia.
Do you know what Buscetta answered? No.
He said, Mr. Falcone, a whole night
wouldn't be enough for my answer.
I'm sorry, but now I'm very tired.
Falcone said, I think it's a sign
he wants to cooperate.
I replied,
Falcone, this is the result of jet lag.
Go and rest.
Tomorrow you'll be more clear-headed.
The conspiracy of silence was a wall.
On one side, society and the government.
On the other side, Cosa Nostra.
It was almost unthinkable
that someone from behind the wall
would knock it down
and start talking to us.
That was Omerta. The word says it all.
[Cristina]
Tommaso had left a letter in his things.
[in Italian]
"My love, once again I cause you pain,
but now I really hope
it will be the last time."
[narrator] "You never ceased loving me
as your price charming.
But your prince charming
is only your tormentor.
What a paradoxical fate!
I leave you because I love you.
[door closes]
Now I'm in this windowless cell.
I feel alone, terribly alone.
They told me I'm being sent back to Italy.
I've decided. No! I will end it here."
[male reporter in Portuguese]
Tommaso Buscetta has been admitted
to hospital in Brazilia
after taking deadly strychnine poison.
The Mafia gangster was due to be sent
to Italy tomorrow
where he faces smuggling
and narcotic charges.
Buscetta's wife Cristina arrived
at the hospital, extremely anxious.
She had no idea
why her husband would attempt suicide.
Cristina denied police accusations
of supplying strychnine to her husband.
[in Portuguese] It's easier for them
to throw their responsibilities on me.
They should be safeguarding him.
I'd never be the vehicle of death
for my husband.
I have four of his children.
I saw him really down
and, uh, when he saw Stefano...
he really cried.
I never saw my husband crying that way.
It was really bad.
"I failed again," he said.
Because he told me,
"I am a problem for you."
I said, "But I chose the problem."
We cannot undo what we did.
We got together, we liked each other,
we cannot undo that.
I love you. I'm okay.
[narrator] I've lost sons,
brothers in law, brothers, nephews.
None of them were "men of honor."
That's what tormented me most.
I'd never complain if they came after me
that would be fair game.
But not my sons.
They had nothing to do with it.
That is one of the main reasons
that prompted me to collaborate
with the state.
[in Italian over radio]
[in Italian] Wearing sunglasses
and handcuffs and covered with a blanket.
That's how Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta
arrived in Rome.
Before leaving,
the Mafioso tried to commit suicide.
A moment of weakness?
Or recognition that this time
he's unlikely ever to walk free again?
[indistinct chatter]
[Roberto] I saw the footage
with the blanket over the arms
and, uh, I remember clearly seeing
he didn't look right.
It was very different from that masculine,
muscular man
that just a couple of weeks earlier
was in front of me.
That definitely was a shock
to see him that way.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[Giuseppe in Italian]
Buscetta's collaboration can be described
as truly having historic importance.
From then on,
nothing in the fight against the Mafia
would be as before.
[Cristina] What I told him
is that no matter what you do,
I trust you. I am with you.
If you decide to open your heart,
I am with you.
Buscetta would never have cooperated
with the authorities.
But when you kill his children
and so on what do you expect?
For Buscetta the Mafioso
it was Riina who was the traitor.
A heretic
as far as the Mafia code was concerned.
Buscetta realized there was
only one path open for him.
To take revenge by talking to us.
[narrator in Italian] I met Falcone
and told him I wanted to testify.
He was a true opponent of Cosa Nostra.
For me Falcone was the state.
A man who really wanted to fight
the Mafia.
Not like the Italian state
which just pretended.
[Tommaso in Italian]
Between July and December 1984
I gave evidence to Falcone
nearly every day.
[narrator in Italian]
I wish to stress that I am not a rat.
I'm just a tired man who recognizes
all I once believed in is no more.
I want to tell what I know of this cancer
that is the Mafia.
My love!
I wish I could describe the trauma
to admit in public that I am a Mafioso.
[Cristina] For him breaking the Omerta
was really the hardest decision
of his life,
because he had this sensation
that, uh, he broke something
that was sacred.
Omerta is sacred...
in the old times.
-Today it's bullshit.
-[sirens blaring]
[male reporter] As a result
of Buscetta's testimony
hundreds of warrants have been issued
across Italy.
[male reporter 2] The arrests are being
called the largest
and the most important
anti-Mafia operations since World War II
[male reporter 3] Italian
investigators say
Buscetta has also named Mafia members
in the United States.
[Giuseppe in Italian] The Americans
asked us to give them Buscetta
once we'd finished with him
as they needed him too.
We couldn't believe our luck.
From a security point of view,
Buscetta was extremely problematic.
They sent him to the United States
because Italy had no infrastructure
to protect him.
The DEA chief told me,
"The only thing he wanted
was you and the children...
in the United States,
under protection, that's all he wants."
[Roberto] One day she comes home
and starts packing bags.
"We're going to the United States."
And, oh, man.
Anyone who hasn't been
to the United States.
"We're going to Disney?
This is great, you know.
When do we leave?"
[sirens blaring]
[Rudy] Last evening,
on December 20, 1984 Tommaso Buscetta
was returned to the United States.
For the next several months
he will be kept in secret...
hopefully under very,
very extreme security conditions,
because this man is in jeopardy
and he is offering information
against some of the most dangerous people
in the world.
And it is incumbent upon
the United States government
to take extraordinary security precautions
with him.
[John] The first safe house was located
in the suburbs, um, in New Jersey.
We lived with him for 24 hours a day
on shifts.
And there were eight or nine of us.
You can get to know a person well
under those circumstances.
My first impression of, uh,
of Buscetta was that he was,
uh, just as cool as could be
under these, uh,
under these circumstances.
Resigned to where he was,
uh, resigned to, uh,
going through the process to the end,
whatever that, uh, end might be,
but absolutely confident carrying out
what he had promised to do.
[narrator] My guardian
angels jump at the slightest noise.
I am never allowed to leave the house.
The only people who can come near me
are the agents who guard me.
My days are long.
Not least because I don't speak
a word of English.
They're trying to assign me someone
who speaks Italian.
He-- he was a member of the Mafia.
He was a criminal.
That's the bottom line.
However, I had a good relation.
So, we would walk in the backyard
of the safe house.
And, uh, he-- he--
he mentioned one time that, uh,
members of his family were killed
by Toto Riina.
But, uh, usually he didn't like
to talk about his past.
[John] It has to be understood
that during that period
Buscetta was the most important,
most wanted,
and most endangered witness
in American criminal history.
It didn't make security sense
to have anyone,
but a fewest number of people
to know where he was.
[Alfredo] Prosecutors were not allowed
to know the address of the safe house.
Someone would pick them up
from the courthouse in Manhattan
and an FBI agent brought them
with, uh, a suburban van
with the dark windows to the safe house.
Because even without knowing,
they might disclose the address.
[narrator] They stop
my wife telling me where she lives.
And I'm not allowed to tell her
where I am.
They tell me I have to accept it.
It's for her safety.
[Roberto] Finally the time had come
that we could go and see Tommaso.
And there was agents there
waiting to pick us up.
Got put into one of their vehicles.
Then we were driven
to this beautiful countryside.
I hadn't seen him,
I believe it was for two years.
And when we arrived there,
it was a surreal scene because...
here's this bunch of DEA agents
armed to their teeth, you know,
and... having a plate of pasta.
He was a good cook.
I loved-- loved the way he cooked.
And, uh... in the morning
he gave us, uh, the ingredients
we were supposed to buy.
We went out to buy the ingredients
and at night he was cooking
the ingredients and we loved it.
We were living like, uh, roommates.
[John] I like to cook.
I like Italian food.
From time to time
he and I would talk about cooking.
The recipe that Mr. Buscetta
wrote out for me
on a piece of legal pad
was for pasta puttanesca
It's a good, good tomato sauce.
And he would make that from time to time,
using this recipe.
And I still use it at home, yes.
I've had it now for, what, 30 years.
Buscetta, we thought,
was in a unique position
having been in the United States before.
He could testify in an upcoming case
about heroin trafficking in New York.
[narrator]
It is a huge investigation.
I have to listen to thousands of wiretaps.
And translate everything
that Americans can't understand.
[Alfredo] For instance, when they said,
"I sent you 12 and a half chocolate."
So, chocolate is sweet and money is sweet.
That means they were sending money.
And for instance,
"I sent you... five white shirts,"
that means cocaine.
It's white and they were sending cocaine.
That's some of the points, uh,
Tommaso Buscetta was clearing up for us.
[man in Italian]
I met the guy with the shirts.
But there's a problem.
Another guy has shirts
that are 10% acrylic.
[John] I traveled to Italy
with him once to testify.
He didn't think
he was going to make it alive.
He thought that he would be assassinated.
I remember we ourselves werent confident
that he would come back, uh,
and nor were we confident
that we would come back.
It's just that Buscetta
was such an important witness
at that time that anybody
associated with him would be in danger.
[Giovanni in Italian]
Even now after 32 years
I can't make peace with Buscetta.
-[bell tolling]
-[siren blaring]
[Giovanni in Italian]
The wound is too deep.
It was December 7th, 1984.
In the evening we closed the factory.
I got into my car and I drove home.
Then from the distance I saw
a group of people, some commotion.
As I got closer, I saw police.
I tried to peer over to see what happened.
Just out of curiosity.
I saw a man on the ground.
He was covered with a table cloth.
The feet were the only thing
you could see of the body.
A pair of brown shoes
and light blue socks.
Those were my dad's socks.
[male reporter in Italian]
The victim, Pietro Buscetta was aged 62.
He was married to Serafina Buscetta
a sister of Tommaso Buscetta.
He was shot three times
in the head last night.
Pietro Buscetta had no links to the Mafia.
This suggests that the Mafia
wants to punish
Tommaso Buscetta "the Boss of Two Worlds".
It has already killed two of his sons
a brother and three nephews in Palermo.
[Tommaso in Italian] They took out
my brother in law
a harmless and defenseless man.
That's how Mafia codes are changing.
Before we settled scores
amongst ourselves. It was personal.
If you Tommaso Buscetta failed, you paid.
Now the innocent pay the price.
[Giovanni in Italian]
Buscetta's impact on my life
has been devastating like a grenade.
After dad's death, we were living
in a fear beyond words.
We were given round the clock protection.
But having police guards
outside our factory all day
was catastrophic for business.
"I consider morally void
our sibling relationship
and I don't deem him my brother anymore."
That's what my mother wrote
three weeks after my dad's murder.
DON'T CALL ME BUSCETTA ANYMORE
Don't call me Buscetta anymore.
He wrote asking for her forgiveness.
But I didn't allow her
to forgive her brother.
He didn't deserve it.
Then Mom got ill.
When I saw her in her dying days.
I came close and asked,
"Mom, how are you feeling?"
She smiled, though in her state,
she may not have intended to.
But she said: "Masino it's nothing."
"Mom, it's Giovanni, not Masino!
Who are you calling?"
"Masino, mattarusa suio."
When they were little and played together
she was often naughty.
He'd say to her, "Mattarusa sei."
In Sicilian that means
"You're a wild child,
a horrid little girl."
I return to Mom dumbfounded.
I say, "Mom, it's Giovanni, your son."
And she replies,
"Masino, matterusa suio
and I forgive you."
[sighs]
I felt like scum.
I hadn't allowed my mother to express
what she felt in her heart.
[helicopter whirring]
[male reporter] What makes
this Mafia trial different
from any other is the cracking
of the Mafia code of silence.
The court, it's known as the bunker
and it's a symbol
of the state's determination
finally to tackle the Mafia
on its home ground.
A great bullet proof glass screen
lines the perimeter
behind a tall steel fence,
which is massive, bomb proof,
an apt and ugly stage
for the litany of death,
which is to be recounted
within its walls.
[Giuseppe in Italian]
It was the most important trial
against Cosa Nostra.
Not just because of the huge number
of defendants.
There were 475.
But because it was the first
to present in court
a comprehensive vision of Cosa Nostra.
It seems unbelievable today
but remember the context of the time.
Some people in Sicily were still claiming
the Mafia didn't exist.
That it was just a bunch of criminals
like anywhere in the world.
This is the Maxi Trial.
[crowd clamoring]
[men speaking Italian]
[speaks Italian]
[woman speaking Italian]
If they're "men of honor"
why did they kill my son?
-[woman speaking Italian]
-[crowd clamoring]
[man speaking Italian]
One morning, Buscetta's lawyer
gets up to address the court.
[in Italian] I can announce
that Tommaso Buscetta is ready
to appear in person.
He'll offer his testimony
at the court's convenience.
[Giuseppe] Buscetta enters...
like His Majesty arriving. Total silence.
[Cristina] I know
what was going through his mind.
I think he was decided.
He had a resolve, he had no doubt there.
And I could say finally.
[Tommaso in Italian]
I am not someone who repents.
I have nothing to repent.
The man I was, I still am.
But I no longer feel part
of the organization I once belonged to.
Since the 1970s this organization
known as Cosa Nostra...
has subverted its ideals.
Law abiding people
may have considered them dirty...
but to us members,
they were once beautiful.
[Giuseppe] Falcone wrote it word for word.
"As a Mafioso, I have nothing to repent."
It is the people I will speak about.
It is they who have betrayed the Mafia.
They are traitors.
While I defend the real Mafia.
He put it in those terms;
we couldn't care less.
[coughs] The main thing for us was that
he told us the things he did.
The Commission is made up
of leading figures
chosen from all the families.
[man in Italian] Are there other ranks
within the families?
Yes: soldier, deputy
chief and commander.
If the head of a family is killed
without the Commission knowing
it would mean war breaks out.
[Giuseppe] We had the pieces of mosaic
but didn't know how they fit together.
Buscetta gave us the design.
[Lisa] For him to be able to break
that the code of silence,
it must have totally destroyed him.
I could see it in his face.
My father had changed.
My father was in pain.
His whole aura had changed
going through that.
[Giuseppe] Attempts were made
to discredit Buscetta in court.
[speaks Italian]
[Giuseppe] In particular there was
an important defendant named Calo.
A former close friend.
He wanted to speak directly
to Buscetta face to face.
Listen, Buscetta--
[Tommaso] Don't call me Buscetta.
-What do you want me to call you?
-[Tommaso speaking Italian]
Use another name! Because you trampled
over those caressed.
Buscetta! Excuse me, Your Honor.
He knows I was on good terms
with his brother.
Right? You know about this relationship
I had with your brother?
[Tommaso]
Go on! Continue. I'll answer in a minute.
[scoffs] Very well.
So I would talk with his brother Vincenzo.
And with tears in his eyes he'd say to me,
"Do you know what Tommaso
has done this time?
He's run off again!
Leaving one son in jail
and the other on drugs."
That's what I mean when I ask
"What is this Tommaso Buscetta
capable of?"
[Tommaso] I'm angry with this man.
Don't get angry. Anger is for dogs.
[Tommaso] Because not once
in 400 pages of testimony
do I ever mention
anyone's family problems.
It's strange for a man of honor like him
to talk about my private family matters.
The only true thing he's saying
in this courtroom
is that he and my brother were close.
But at the same time,
he sat with the Mafia Commission
to pronounce a death sentence
against that same brother.
And my nephew.
He should not talk about my family!
Really?
Your son, a clean young man?
[Tommaso] Yes, you crook!
Calling me a crook?
You're the liar Buscetta!
[spectators clamoring]
[Tommaso] You slaughtered half my family!
-Why didn't you have me killed?
-Don't you worry!
[Tommaso] You couldn't find me?
I'm well protected now
so you can't get me killed.
You'll have to wait a few years.
Calo, you're a hypocrite
and a lying mafioso!
[overlapping chatter]
Buscetta, quite skillfully used
an emotional approach.
He reminded Calo of a crime.
Even Buscetta may have
forgotten it previously.
He said, "You killed Giannuzzo Lallicata
with your own hands."
I still remember the name.
[Tommaso] Giannuzzo Lallicata.
You did him with your own hands!
Calo's expression at that moment.
I saw he was crushed.
But looking at him from ten meters away...
I saw he was crushed.
For Calo it was carnage.
And he got his life imprisonment.
They all did.
Life sentences for everyone
at the top of Cosa Nostra.
From then on, his life was hanging
by a thread.
[Cristina] He wasn't afraid,
but he was afraid
of the consequences to his family.
And they were all in the United States,
thank God.
[male reporter] Since Tommaso Buscetta
betrayed Cosa Nostra,
the Mafia in Italy and the United States
has sought to hit back.
Palermo yesterday was the scene
of the biggest Mafia massacre
in the city's history.
Eight men were brutally murdered
while meeting in a stable.
Even for Palermo,
a city that has recently witnessed
hundreds of killings,
yesterday's massacre was shocking.
Experts say the killings were carried out
as a warning to any men of honor
thinking of following Buscetta's example.
BUSCETTA ALREADY ON HIS WAY TO NEW YORK
[male reporter 2] It's 44 degrees
with clear skies
tonight in midtown Manhattan.
Tomorrow in federal court
Tommaso Buscetta,
the mob boss they call the Godfather
of the Two Worlds,
will betray the Mafia.
Federal investigators have landed
one of the biggest Mafia canaries
of all times.
[male reporter 3] This trial is known
as the Pizza Connection Case,
because the prosecution says the Mafia
ran the heroin ring out of pizza places
across the country.
[male reporter 4] Millions of dollars
in drug money
were passing through these pizzerias,
dirty money that had to be laundered.
The pizza men just carried it to the bank.
[male reporter 5]
The first witness in the case,
Tommaso Buscetta, a member
of the Sicilian Mafia,
now breaking his code of Omerta.
[man 1] What he was able to do for us
is demonstrate and explain
to us the connections
between the Sicilian Mafia
and the American Mafia.
[man 2] What kind of illegal activities
do they coordinate on if any?
[Tommaso] What activities? Drugs.
Would you say that drugs now represent
the chief source of income
for the Cosa Nostra
here in the United States?
[Tommaso] Yes.
I saw large quantities of heroin
being shipped from Sicily to US.
It would be impossible to sell it
without the authorization
of the local Mafia.
You've use the word "men of honor"
repeatedly throughout your statement.
Do you now agree that...
there is nothing honorable
about being an assassin?
[Tommaso] I agree with that.
I only used the term "men of honor"
as this is what they call themselves.
But that no longer applies to me.
I am a traitor.
[indistinct chatter]
[Roberto] Something remind you
of something?
[Cristina] You know,
remember the movie Miami Vice?
-[woman] Yeah.
-[Roberto] What more do they got,
-you know?
-[Tommaso] An American favela!
[narrator in Italian] Finally, after three
years apart, I went back to my family.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] We were so happy
that first evening we didn't even eat.
[Roberto] Do you see Italian?
That's where the market is.
[Cristina] That's the street?
-[Roberto] We still got a bit.
-[Cristina laughs]
[Tommaso speaking Italian]
[Cristina] He thought he would be Daddy,
the head of the family again.
-[Roberto] Oh, got you guys, eh?
-[Stefano shouts]
Yeah, Stefano.
[Cristina] But for years
the kids were used to me.
And they would go
straight through him and say,
"Mom, can I do this, can I do that?"
Like he didn't exist.
-And he grew very disappointed.
-[Roberto speaking indistinctly]
[Lisa speaking Italian]
So, Daddy was very strong
about keeping the Italian tradition.
[speaks foreign language]
[Lisa] I think
that Daddy was afraid about us
becoming too Americanized.
[Roberto] Tommaso's adaptation
to the United States
-was incredibly difficult.
-[woman speaking Italian]
He was Sicilian through and through,
from the prosciutto and the mozzarella...
-[Cristina in Italian] How's life?
-Great.
Even better with this mozzarella!
[Roberto] The sitting down on Sunday,
the full table, the family.
-[woman speaking Italian]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Cristina] He lost his identity.
He didn't know what to do
with his life anymore.
He wasn't allowed to work.
He wasn't allowed to meet Italians.
He wasn't allowed anything.
Because of security.
He said, "I'm here like a nobody
and my wife is going to work.
This is killing me."
I say, "Thank God I can get jobs."
[chuckles]
My very first job in America
was selling funerals.
[chuckles] It's not a nice job.
There was a funerary,
say we need people, so I went there.
I am the worst sales person
you can imagine in your life.
"No, you are perfect."
I say, "Okay, what am I going to do?"
And then she taught me how many types
of funerals,
uh, the catalog of coffins.
This is not me.
[chuckles] Nothing to do with me,
but I need the money.
-So, I went door to door.
-[doorbell rings]
But my husband Tommaso...
[chuckles] ...that was his disgrace.
He feel like a gigolo.
[Roberto] It's the working man again!
All right, here he is!
There's the working man, say hello.
-Hello.
-All right.
I'm going to work.
[Roberto] Here is a guy
who's in the prime of his life
all of the sudden not being able
to generate cash.
Whoa, the working man again!
Oh, it's him, it's him!
-[chuckles] Okay.
-All right, time to work.
-Stop, stop.
-Okay.
[in Italian] I have to do everything
by myself.
[Roberto] Oh, whoops,
I guess that's my cue to go and help.
[in Italian] The foundation of the family!
I'm just the bottom of this family.
[Cristina speaking Italian]
All week I hear, "It's a holiday"
Everyone comes, eats and leaves.
-And no one helps!
-[Cristina speaking Italian]
So, I might as well cook myself,
that's it!
-[sirens blaring]
-[horns honking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Roberto] It's the 4th of July.
We're all narrating here.
Who do we got here?
We got Dad going out to cook.
Look at that bum.
[woman speaks indistinctly]
[Roberto] Today, I understand,
he was going through a lot
of psychological issues at the time.
-He felt that he was... no longer anybody.
-[indistinct chatter]
[narrator in Italian]
Today I have a new identity.
I've had many
and probably it won't be the last.
My children look at me and ask,
"Daddy what's my name?"
They're forced to move
from city to city with me.
Of course, this creates mistrust
in the family.
[Stefano] Oh, look at them,
they're fighting.
-[indistinct conversation]
-[Stefano] Look at my mom.
Blow a kiss, Mom.
[speaks Italian]
You don't like all this?
[Tony] With Tommaso and his family
I probably spent ten years total.
Looking out for his protection,
travelling with him to Italy,
travelling with him to different
parts of the United States, uh,
travelling with him to Washington,
where they wanted his testimony.
The agency always wanted somebody
with him.
Buscetta has to stay away
from the night clubs,
the-- the big city,
he has to keep himself secluded basically.
Whether he'll be able
to do that or whether his family
will allow him to do that, I don't know.
I personally don't think so.
I think somewhere down the line,
whether it's five, six, ten years along,
something will probably happen to him.
When the trial was completed,
I moved him to another safe house.
That was for the first
time where now he was with his family...
and we were not in the house.
Uh... We actually rented
the house next door.
They could not move unless we said so.
-I moved him one, two, three times.
-[Roberto speaking indistinctly]
-Hey, oh. Here is your moving supplies.
-[Roberto] Hey, man, that's a big roll.
Hold on there's more.
-[Roberto] Oh, my God!
-Just for you.
[Tony] Where should I leave this stuff?
Hey, man, just take right out to the back.
In case none of you know, we're moving.
-It never ends.
-[Roberto] It never ends.
I tell you.
[Roberto]
This is where we're sleeping tonight.
[Cristina] If they found us in America,
they would kill him.
That's for sure, so we were very cautious.
[Roberto] I think the first time
I knew he had a gun,
I must have been already 15-16 years old.
And, uh,
we were doing some reconstruction
-at this house that we lived in.
-[indistinct chatter]
And I dropped the box
that belonged to his room.
And, uh, his gun fell out.
And didn't think twice.
You grab it, you put it back in,
you close the box. It never happened.
Look at all these trees down there.
Look at that.
This is the house, right here.
[groans] U-Hauls.
Ah, I don't wanna drive
those things anymore.
But we made it here safe,
we made it here yesterday at midnight...
and... here we go.
[Cristina] This house...
were one of the happiest places we lived.
And for-- for the entire year,
no problem. It was always good things.
Good neighbors, good life,
good everything.
[chuckles] Yeah.
I-- I miss the time I lived here.
-[Roberto] It's beautiful.
-[Lisa] Just go, go on out.
-[Roberto] Oh my God.
-[Lisa] Go outside.
[Cristina] What's going on?
Santa Claus is here.
[Tommaso] Santa Claus is here.
[Cristina] Security was the main concern.
Here he went under the radar, absolutely.
Because he was like every other Latino.
He looks like Mexican
when he puts his mustache doesn't he?
Where's Lisa?
-Lisa...
-Oh!
...your butt is pretty,
but your face I should prefer.
-Mom, I need the scissors.
-Who cares?
[Lisa] The Buscetta name never came up.
I was never allowed to say that one.
Buscetta. Never until today.
I-- I won't speak the name out.
Not because I'm embarrassed of it,
but only because I've been told
that name is not to be brought up
for the safety of the family.
So, if you go look at my school records
with my real name, I never went to school.
[chuckles] Because every time I went
to school, it was with a different name.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[Lisa] So there's still a danger.
So, to me to say that name right now
is still uncomfortable
-[indistinct chatter]
-[cheering]
[boy] Right there, Grandpa, Grandpa!
Right there.
-[screaming]
-[all laughing]
[Cristina] Stefano. Stefano, say hi, babe.
-[indistinct chatter]
-Hi.
[Roberto] He always had Stefano's back.
Because Stefano was the only child
that he saw from birth
until he was a teenager.
He drove him to school,
he took him to swimming lessons.
That's when he was in his element.
My father was happy then.
That was the only time.
So, it was a different kind of treatment.
There was never any jealousy on my part.
I just never understood
why he behaved in a certain way
with my brother...
and in a certain way with me.
[indistinct chatter]
[Cristina] He fed his heart with this...
love that his children had for him.
Particularly with Stefano.
Stefano was a little boy,
he never knew anything
about the Mafia and the Cosa Nostra.
Everybody cheered
As they watched him go
They drive on the road
Went just like a broom
- Yeah
-[audience applauding]
[Cristina] What I told everybody...
[chuckles]
...when he started making friends
with the neighbors,
I say he is a consultant
for the Italian government.
-Because in a certain way he was.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[man] Hit it!
-[all cheering]
[Roberto] I hated having to explain
to people little common questions of life.
"So, what does your dad do?"
"Oh, here we go again with this question."
It was all the time.
He was, uh, an investor from overseas,
he was a consultant,
uh, he, uh, worked with glass, uh,
construction foreman, you name it,
You know, whatever was convenient
for the time.
-[kid] Papa.
-[Roberto] First neighbors.
First ones to come up and say something.
Say bye. Say bye. Tell him bye.
-[indistinct chatter]
-Bye. Oops.
[Roberto] Bye.
It was constant disruption.
You know, you go to school,
you make some friends,
you tell the lies, they all work fine
and then it all falls.
And it happened over and over,
and over again.
I can tell you...
that I've never lived in a house
more than three years and I'm 43 now.
The grand rules were you never say
who you are.
You never trust anybody
no matter how friendly they become to you,
no matter how close, how bonded, how tied,
because the Mafia doesn't forget.
Somebody is gonna know somebody,
who knows somebody.
And they're gonna come and get you.
[male reporter]
Buscetta's unprecedented confessions
have led to over 500 arrests...
[Cristina] And all of a sudden
he pops up on television.
[male reporter] At last the world can
glimpse the Godfather of Two Worlds.
[Cristina] It was a program
about Cosa Nostra
and Stefano was sitting
in front of the TV.
-[speaking indistinctly on TV]
-[Roberto] He was eight at the time
and, uh, he recognized the hands,
he recognized the voice,
he could see the outline in the shadow.
And, uh, I remember he kinda had
this really startled look in his face.
[Cristina] And Stefano got really mad.
He had no idea who his father was.
He looked at me and said,
"Mommy, Daddy killed people?"
I said, "No.
No."
I lied because I wanted to protect my son.
His father killed somebody
is too much for a nine years old.
[Roberto]
We could call it the end of innocence.
He truly saw the veil fall.
He had an image of his father
that was one way.
And all of the sudden
his whole world crumbled.
[Cristina] Tommaso, he was devastated
that his son learnt that way.
And I told him, "It's time to you
to get the boys together and tell them."
"I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed.
-I can't talk to them."
-[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Today I live a life
that no longer belongs to me.
Every day, every evening
every minute, I live in shame.
I did something that was supposed
to bring good to my family.
But the price was my dignity
the highest price of all.
[Roberto] Papa. [speaks Italian]
His persona became dark.
He became more reserved than ever.
Distant, even from the ones he loved.
That's where it got violent.
[Cristina] Punches and kicks,
and I said, "He's your son,
he's not your cellmate."
-[speaks Italian]
-[Roberto] Ciao.
What have I done
not to be your favorite?
Why are you so angry with me all the time?
Why is it that you feel need
to discipline just me?
I hated him when he did that.
Were so gallantly gleaming
And the rocket's red glare...
My father was a different father to me
than he was to Roberto.
Roberto got a lot of the punches.
-[audience applauding]
-[Roberto] My father decided
that we were gonna go
for an all-out celebration.
He sat like always
with his back towards the wall.
He liked to see what was coming.
[Cristina] We chose our food
and I told him, "Something is wrong.
That guy is looking at you
a little too much."
And then he said,
"We cannot just jump and go."
Then he came with the-- the singer.
[narrator] The owner
starts singing Toto Cutugno's song.
The one that goes, "I am a true Italian."
But he changes the lyrics.
He sings,
I am proud of being a true Sicilian.
He stares at me.
[Cristina] Tommaso was very cool
to hide any emotion.
[Roberto] And he turned to me
and he goes go get the car.
He knew that if he stayed
in that restaurant,
somebody was gonna be waiting
out front when we walked out.
-[engine revving]
-[Cristina] And then we split real fast.
[car accelerating]
[Lisa] You talk about parents going out,
you make a plan
if a fire goes in the house.
Well, we had a different plan, you know.
It was my dad's plan
of what would happen,
so we knew when he looked at us,
time to go, don't ask questions, just go.
Uh... We have a mindset,
if the same type of contract
was taken out in the United States,
as time goes on, it dissipates.
But the Sicilian's thinking is--
it's always the same.
Threat from the Sicilians
is a threat that lasts forever.
[phone ringing]
[Roberto] I received that phone call
and he wasn't home at that time,
he had gone to go get his newspaper.
And, uh, he came into the house
and astute like a fox,
he knew something was wrong immediately.
"What's the matter?" He asked.
And I said, "Dad...
Giovanni Falcone has just been killed.
[indistinct chatter]
[male reporter] As a magistrate,
Falcone put dozens of mobsters behind bars
before he, his wife
and three police guards
were killed on this highway
in a bomb explosion.
A revenge attack,
according to anti-Mafia experts
by Salvatore Riina,
the mobster known as The Beast.
[Roberto]
My father's reaction was incredible
because he couldn't hold it.
There was a total disillusion in his face.
Everything that he--
he had been working for was falling apart.
I saw terror in his eyes.
[Cristina] He was disappointed
with the family.
One day he told me, "Nobody understood,
I didn't get out of the Mafia for me.
I did for them.
For you, for my kids.
To not live this nightmare anymore.
And nobody cares."
[thunder rumbling]
[Roberto] This would be a Florida rain.
[speaks Italian]
[news anchor] A few hours ago our reporter
spoke to Buscetta on the phone in the US
where he still lives under protection
by the FBI.
-[speaks Italian]
-[male reporter] Tommaso, can you hear me?
Yes.
Riina's been arrested, what do you think?
I think it's the first miracle of 1993.
A very beautiful thing.
He is my great enemy.
Although I don't know
who exactly killed half my family,
I know for sure he gave his approval
for their destruction.
Who would commit a murder
without first turning to him?
Do you think they killed my sons,
and made them vanish
without him knowing about it?
Absurd!
[Cristina] There are my boys.
24th of December,
going for breakfast.
[indistinct chatter]
[Cristina] He told me, "Let's go to Italy.
We are safe there now."
He said, "I love that country.
There I was truly me, just me."
[waitress]
I don't normally serve breakfast...
-Uh-huh.
-...after we serve dinner...
I want-- I want... [speaks Italian]
-[Roberto] The bar.
-The bar.
[waitress] Okay.
We're going to pack our things
and get ready to travel.
[indistinct chatter]
[Roberto] Okay, folks,
this is where I live,
beautiful city of Miami.
Big wide streets,
something I'm gonna miss in Italy.
Our last day in Miami
after ten years of life in America.
We start a new phase.
I hope it will be better.
[all] Ciao.
[Roberto] Ciao
[Cristina] Stefano arrived here
as a tiny three-year-old.
Now we're going to live in Europe, right?
Stefano simply hated
this constant moving.
And, "Mom, I--
As soon as I make friends, I lose them."
He didn't like at all.
He never liked it, never.
But, uh, my husband was tough.
He wanted to keep them close to him.
I think he thought
America was more dangerous.
[airplane roaring]
[indistinct chatter in Italian]
[Cristina] Daddy's here!
The house may be empty
but now daddy's here!
-[Stefano speaks indistinctly]
-[Cristina] Oh, yes.
Living in Rome was a happy time for us,
like we were normal.
But it wasn't normal at all.
[Roberto] While we were in Italy,
we always had a shadow.
They were always there.
At lunch, they are there.
Christmas, they're there.
The bodyguards, they were always there.
And even when they didn't need
to be there, they were there.
And, uh, it was just funny
to watch the interaction.
I mean, here's a Mafioso
and a bunch of federal agents.
And they were hanging out
like they were little kids
at the ball park,
I mean, it was ridiculous.
I've never seen a guy
have so many uncles like I did.
In the beginning
there were the Mafia uncles.
And then in the later years
there were all the DEA guys, the FBI guys.
Man, did I have a lot of uncles.
[Cristina] He enjoyed Italy,
because he was surrounded all the time
by about six guys.
He didn't feel they were protecting him.
They were his best friends.
He was a man in need of being loved.
[waves crashing]
[Cristina] And then when we came,
he had a surprise for us.
He said, "Let's go on a cruise."
[Tommaso] The date is August 13th, 1995.
[Cristina] And this is Naples.
He was so happy
that, uh, he could give me something.
At that time, I thought, "Can you change
your hair color or do something?"
He said, "No, no, no, don't worry,
don't worry." So, we went.
[Roberto] My father asked me
if I wanted to go on a cruise for her.
Again, this is always for my mother.
"Your brother's coming,
do you wanna to come?"
And I said, "No, Dad, it's okay.
And if that means that I'm going to be
out of your protection, then so be it."
My father and I argued, and I told him,
I said, "This is not your choice to make.
That time is finished."
And basically, that's the way it stuck.
And I got my freedom.
[ship horn blowing]
[Cristina] It was in the Mediterranean,
the Greek Islands.
It was really, really, really nice
for a teenager.
[speaking in foreign language]
And, uh, the group of teenagers,
they were all on their own.
So, Stefano was happy.
[indistinct chatter]
And this guy started taking pictures
of us all the time,
uh, really bugging us a lot.
[Cristina speaking indistinctly]
He did what a journalist does.
-He-- He recognized Tommaso right away.
-[Stefano speaking Italian]
[in Italian] Good evening. We open
our bulletin with the Buscetta case.
The story broke
when a weekly magazine photographed
the Mafia's most important turncoat
on a Mediterranean cruise.
The news immediately set off fears
for Buscetta's security
and for the safety
of the other passengers.
[Roberto] The reporters
exposed my younger brother
who had never ever been seen.
Now he had become a target.
[Cristina] They stopped the cruise
because the fact
that he got into a confined space
with a lot of Italians was very risky.
And then Stefano, he was ashamed.
His friends said, "Stefano, Stefano,
your dad is in the newspapers."
They called the coastal guard
and they took us away.
This changed our life completely.
Because of the danger,
because of the Mafia,
we had to leave Italy.
-[music playing]
-[helicopter whirring]
You're reaching deep inside you...
Go!
Things you've never known
[Roberto]
Every time something had to happen,
it was because of my father
or my mother.
So, I knew that the only solution
was to start my own life.
[man on TV]
...than most people do all day.
I joined the military
because of hiding, because of lying,
because of always not being
who you were meant to be.
I served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And it's sad because...
I went to a bunch of grunts
and a bunch of degenerates
to get the love that I couldn't get...
because of the life that I had.
Who am I?
I am the son of a Mafia gangster
who turned sides.
[sniffles] You know, who am I?
What have I done? Nothing.
And I've earned no respect from anyone.
That's not how I want to live.
[guests applauding]
There's risk for me still.
Thirty years later I'm still a trophy.
I carry the name Buscetta.
And '97 proved it. I lost another cousin.
[sirens blaring]
[male reporter] Another dramatic day
in Sicily.
Once again, the Mafia strikes in Palermo.
Domenico Buscetta,
nephew of Tommaso has been killed.
[narrator in Italian]
His only crime was being related to me.
And sharing the name of a Mafia turncoat.
Even though I hoped to save my relatives
from this bloodbath
I'll continue to give evidence
against these thugs.
[male reporter] Riina,
who already has nine life sentences,
is back on trial
for the murder of Judge Falcone.
Today in court
he faces one of his greatest enemies
Tommaso Buscetta, the Mafia turncoat,
whose relatives he had ordered killed.
But Riina refuses to talk to him.
[in Italian]
You don't talk directly with Buscetta...
because you say he had many mistresses.
Is that right?
-[in Italian] I said, "many wives."
-But that's the essence of it?
When I talk about morality
I think of my family.
In our village
we live in a morally sound way.
Uh...
[in Italian] No one can force you
to respond to Buscetta.
So, your honor, there's no point
in you insisting!
I don't want to speak to him.
And I've the right to refuse.
[Tommaso] Your Honor, may I speak?
He talks of morals, with me,
because of women
How can such a person talk about morals?
When he's responsible
for the death of my loved ones
and so many other innocent people?
He talks about morality with me!
Where are his morals? Riina.
Show them to us!
Let us see them.
Where are your morals? Where are they?
The Mafia is finished
when a Mafioso speaks out.
Riina, the Mafia is finished.
[Cristina] He was proud
that he finally said
what he wanted to say to Riina.
But seeing the killer of his sons,
he was very somber, very quiet.
[indistinct chatter]
[Roberto] The house in North Miami is, uh,
the last house that Tommaso lived in.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[laughter]
[Cristina] No, no, no, wrong.
There you go.
[indistinct chatter]
[children speaking indistinctly]
[Cristina speaks indistinctly]
[in Italian] See how elegant she is!
[Cristina] Oh, yes.
Looks like she's stabbing it.
[all laughing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Cristina] He thought he would die...
killed by somebody.
But, uh, when he got the cancer,
no, that was a surprise for him.
He said, "I thought everything,
but not dying of cancer."
[indistinct chatter]
-[Stefano] Look, Mommy.
-[indistinct chatter]
-Ah.
-[Roberto] Ah.
-Ah.
-[boy] Ah.
[woman] See, beautiful shirt.
-Ma...
-[all laughing]
-[woman] I think it's other.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[in English] Good.
-[woman chuckles]
-Tell Lisa.
-[woman] Do we have your approval?
[Lisa] It's okay? [chuckles]
[in Italian] Beautiful shirt,
but I don't think I'll wear it.
-[Lisa] That's nice!
-[speaks Italian]
I'm nearly 70
and you buy me shirts like these?
[Roberto] We left one morning
to the hospital...
and unfortunately
he never recovered from the surgery.
Cancer took hold
and he passed away three days later.
[Lisa] My father was the glue
of the family. He kept us all together.
[Roberto] The binding force had passed
and we all broke apart.
Uh... We don't celebrate
holidays together anymore.
There's a distance.
Honestly, he would have come down
with a wrath of God and said,
"What is this?
What have I sacrificed everything for?"
He would have been disgusted.
He would have rolled in his grave.
[Cristina] He would feel very bad...
very bad.
Because family was everything for him,
everything.
[Lisa] Cristina, my mom, is living alone.
It would break his heart.
[Roberto] December 23rd, 2007,
Stefano passed away
in a-- a motorcycle accident.
I'm glad my father
wasn't alive to see that.
[Cristina] My son is here,
my husband is here.
[sobs]
[sniffles]
I should be there, not my son. [sobs]
Not my son.
[sniffles]
And I'm still here.
I'm still here. [sniffles]
[sniffles]
[narrator in Italian]
I never regret giving evidence.
My only regret is joining the Mafia
in the first place.
The final tally.
I lost two sons, a brother
a brother-in-law
a son-in-law and four nephews.
They should have killed me instead.
Rather than condemn me
to end up as a traitor.
That would have been the right thing
to do.