Salvatore Lima: Killed On This Day in 1992, Aged 64

On this day in 1992 Italian Politician Salvatore Lima was gunned down by the Sicilian Mafia, most notably by a gunman on a motorbike who shot out his chauffeur driven car tyres, and then proceeded to approach the car that had ground to halt. Lima tried to flee the scene but the hitman ran over and fired a shot into his back followed by one to the neck before hopping back onto his bike and speeding away.

On the morning of 12th March 1992, Salvatore Lima, one of Italy's most powerful and controversial politicians, was assassinated in Palermo in a killing that sent shockwaves through both the Italian government and the upper echelons of the Sicilian Mafia. Though the date of his death is observed on this day, the execution-style murder marked the violent end of a career that had long been defined by a dangerous dance between political ambition and organised crime.

Lima had served as a member of the European Parliament and was widely regarded as the most influential Christian Democrat politician in Sicily, acting as the island's key political broker for the faction led by former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. For decades, Lima had been the crucial link between the Sicilian Mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, and the corridors of power in Rome. He was, in the eyes of many investigators, the ultimate political protector — a man who ensured that favours flowed in both directions, shielding mafia bosses from prosecution in exchange for the delivery of votes and political loyalty.

The assassination was carried out with clinical precision. Gunmen on a motorbike intercepted Lima's chauffeur-driven car, shooting out the tyres and bringing the vehicle to a grinding halt. Lima attempted to flee on foot, but there was no escaping what Cosa Nostra had decided. The hitman gave chase, catching up with the fleeing politician before firing a shot into his back and delivering a final, fatal bullet to the neck. He was dead before any help could arrive.

The motive, it is widely believed, was betrayal. The Sicilian Mafia had long relied on Lima to use his considerable influence to have convictions overturned through the Italian appeals process. When the Italian Supreme Court upheld the mass convictions handed down in the landmark Maxi Trial — a sweeping prosecution of nearly 500 Cosa Nostra members — the bosses blamed Lima for failing to deliver on his promises. For the mafia, the penalty for such failure was death. The killing bore all the hallmarks of orders sanctioned by Salvatore Riina, the fearsome Corleonesi boss who was at that time waging a bloody war against both rival clans and the Italian state.

Lima's murder remains one of the most stark illustrations of what happens when politics and organised crime become fatally intertwined. It helped accelerate the Mani Pulite corruption investigations that would ultimately destabilise the entire Italian political establishment throughout the 1990s.