“I Ragazzi delle Escorts” broadcast on RaiPlay and Rai3 to remember the mafia massacres of 1992

“The Stock Boys” broadcast on RaiPlay and Rai3 to remember the mafia massacres of 1992.

A docuseries co-produced by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - National Anniversaries and National and International Sports Events Mission Structure and by the Ministry of the Interior - Department of Public Security to remember the police officers Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani, Rocco Dicillo, Emanuela Loi , Eddie Walter Cosina, Claudio Traina, Vincenzo Li Muli and Agostino Catalano who lost their lives in the Capaci and Via D'Amelio massacres together with the judges Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and Francesca Morvillo. An invitation to memory as reflection, but also rediscovery and solicitation for civil commitment.

«In Palermo in those years everything seemed normal, but it wasn't normal. It wasn't normal to hear all these sirens, the escort cars, and even before that the dead... it seemed like a city used to all this. I found myself married to a policeman who at the age of 24 decided to escort the most at-risk man in Italy, Giovanni Falcone" it begins like this The guys from the escorts – the Quarto Savona 15 with the story of Tina Montinaro, wife of the police officer Antonio Montinaro who died in Capaci on 23 May 1992 while on board the Quarto Savona 15, together with his colleagues Vito Schifani and Rocco Dicillo, he was escorting his magistrate.

The guys from the escorts – the Quarto Savona 15, the second episode of the docuseries co-produced by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers - National Anniversaries Mission Structure and National and International Sports Events and by the Ministry of the Interior - Department of Public Security with 42°Parallelo, will be online from 23 May on RaiPlay and on 25 May it will be broadcast on Rai 3 in prime time together with the first episode of the series The escort boys – 1992, Capaci and Via D'Amelio starring Rosaria Costa, widow of agent Vito Schifani.

The preview of The guys from the escorts – the Quarto Savona 15 will be held tomorrow, May 23, 2023 in Palermo, at the Lungaro barracks (Via Catalano Agostino, 118), historic headquarters of the escort department of the Palermo Police Headquarters as part of the celebrations for the anniversary of the Capaci massacre.

Present at the event were the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi and the Chief of Police - Director General of Public Security Prefect Vittorio Pisani following his inauguration.

The story told in the documentary film is that of Antonio Montinaro, Falcone's escort leader. Bringing us back into those difficult and crucial years are the words of Antonio's wife, Tina Montinaro, and of his colleague and friend Dario Falvo, also working in the supplies department. «In those years in Palermo – says Tina – there was a lot of police, all the police forces were in Palermo because many kids from all over Italy, young policemen, when they heard that the maxi trial was starting, got together in Palermo . The city was therefore full of these very young boys who had decided to give their contribution to the fight against the mafia. Antonio was one of them." Like Antonio, Dario also asks for a transfer and arrives from Rimini to Palermo. «As soon as I arrived at the escort office in Palermo – says police officer Dario – my first service was obviously to a judge involved in the maxi-trial ter. And suddenly you feel catapulted into the reality that you had previously seen on television. Bulletproof vest, machine gun in hand, in the car, flashing light on, siren, speeding through Palermo. I was only 23 years old." What emerges in the documentary film is a cross-section of the history of our country, the season of the maxi-trial and the massacres, seen through the intimate gaze of those who were only boys at the time. After that tragic May 1992 in which Antonio lost his life, both Dario and Tina reacted to the massacre by deciding to stay: Dario chose to stay in the police and continue the work that Antonio had taught him, Tina chose not to abandon Palermo, because that was the city ​​where she and Antonio had built their family. Tina's goal becomes not only raising her children, but also remembering Antonio, putting the Quarto Savona 15 back on the road and starting to make it clock up kilometers again. «In Quarto Savona 15 – explains Tina Montinaro in the film – there are the remains of three boys, the bodies of Antonio, Vito and Rocco: there are three lives, three families, three hopes. It's all there in that car. Even if it was reduced to a pile of sheet metal, that car had to be taken around all over Italy, because that car had to become a symbol and because we had to demonstrate to everyone that those three guys basically hadn't stopped them." On May 23, 1992 the QS15's odometer stopped at 100.287, but today, thanks to the tenacity of Tina Montinaro and the commitment of the State Police, it continues to travel the streets of all of Italy.

The docufilm was written by Giorgia Furlan and Alessia Arcolaci and directed by Gabriele Ciances, and is an original production by 42° PARALLELO

THE PLOT OF THE FIRST EPISODE (available on Rai Play)

 The escort boys – 1992, Capaci and via D'Amelio

 More than thirty years after the mafia massacres of Capaci and via D'Amelio, Rosaria Costa, widow of the agent Vito Schifani, and Salvatore Lopresti, employed in the Stock Department of the Palermo Police Headquarters, retrace the tragic events that marked and changed their lives forever. Rosaria, at just 22 years old, is left alone to raise a four-month-old son and sees the dreams and plans made with Vito shattered. Salvatore sees his colleagues and friends die one after the other in the two attacks. In addition to Vito: Antonio Montinaro, Rocco Dicillo, Emanuela Loi, Eddie Walter Cosina, Claudio Traina, Vincenzo Li Muli, Agostino Catalano. Even today, however, Rosaria and Salvatore's desire for full light to be shed on what happened does not subside. In the hope that the affirmation of the truth will be able to put an end to that stench of TNT and burnt flesh that they still feel when they think of those two bombs that overwhelmed their lives.