KILLER CANARY

He Had a Child Dissolved in Acid. Now He’s Free.

The former Mafia boss confessed to more than 100 slayings—then turned informant.

The list of Giovanni Brusca’s crimes is as long as it is fearsome. The former Sicilian mob boss once had a rival’s 12-year-old son kidnapped, tortured, and dissolved in acid. He blew up a road to kill an anti-Mafia prosecutor, his wife, and three bodyguards. And he confessed to being involved in dozens and dozens of other murders after he was arrested in 1996. But Brusca also turned informant and helped put away other organized crime figures—so after 25 years in prison he’s been released from prison, outraging his victims’ loved ones. The murdered boy’s father called him “the scum of humanity” in an interview with Corriere della Sera, adding, “The law cannot be the same for these people.”