Don Tommaso Buscetta escaped the vengeance

One may wonder why Don Tommaso Buscetta, infamous Mafia supergrass, decided to flee to Crazzy Town, after being chased by almost entire mafia world. After all, does anybody can really ‘hide’ in this loony town where everybody looks for everybody … everybody watches everything? But he was right. In Crazzy Town, it’s easy to get caught and easier to hide, if you really know how to do it. And Don Tommaso did try his best. Plastic surgeon gave him a new face, police gave him a new identity, he got a new home somewhere in the town and got pension. The picture you are looking at is taken before he got his face changed. And after that … nobody knows how he looks like.
But what happened that a man like Don Tommaso had to flee for his life? Judge Giovanni Falcone may know the reasons. The root lies in Brazil, in 1984, when Don Tommaso Buscetta was serving time on drug smuggling charges. ‘Regular routine’, one may say. But Judge Giovanni Falcone, the mastermind Mafia investigator, had different plans. He was determined to convince Don Tomasso to break the fearsome Mafia code of silence, Omerta. But is it really possible! To convince a Mafia to break Omerta! May be it is … at least for Judge Falcone. I don’t know how he managed to do it, but he did convince Tomasso. Don Tommaso decided to throw in the towel, the first former Mafia boss ever to reveal the secrets of organized crime.
One may recall ‘Frank Pentangeli’ from some famous Hollywood classic and what really happened to him. But that was not the case for Don Tommaso Buscetta. Mafia tried everything to take their revenge. Nine members of Buscetta‘s family were killed, including two of his sons. Judge Falcone was murdered, along with a colleague and members of their police escort. But Don Tommaso escaped. He escaped to Crazzy Town. He changed his face, changed his name, changed his identity and at last managed to die a non violent death at the age of 71. He managed to escape the Mafia vengeance.
The underworld of Crazzy Town knew Tomasso was coming. After all this was not the first time one betraying the organized crime. At least ten years before Tomasso, a man called Leonardo Vitale tried to do the same. One night he walked in to the dusky police station of Crazzy Town and confessed. But ironically nobody believed his words and admitted him into a mental institution thinking he will be ‘safe’ in there. Don’t know why people trust these ‘institutions’ of Crazzy Town. Leonardo Vitale was killed within three days. Killing him they proved he had been telling the truth. Later Tommaso Buscetta confirmed Vitale as former mafia member.
But what is the point of all these … all these betrayal and vengeance. The criminal world of Crazzy Town has its undying nature. 7,000 soldiers were sent by the state to try to show the presence of law on the streets of Crazzy Town after the murder of Judge Giovanni Falcone. Nothing happened. The criminal organization refuses to die. It only has metamorphosed itself from drugs into new lucrative fields of crime, smuggling people, international money laundering with Russian crime gangs, good old-fashioned business extortion. Only a few days ago, 15 people were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court for a series of 25 murders carried out during years of vendetta between rival Mafia families for controlling their territories. It is still there, you like it or not. Now, when I am typing these last few words, the sun is about to set. Another bleak night is about to fall, with new incidents to take place on the streets of this erratic town. It’s a sad time. In this solemn afternoon, Crazzy Town, is looking sad.