His family, friends and political supporters insisted he had been murdered, but it was only in 1984 that investigators agreed that it was a Mafia killing.

Mr. Buscetta, who has lost 37 relatives to Mafia killings, including two sons and a brother, is being protected day and night under the Italian Government's witness protection program.

Trying to sort out the discrepancies and the contradictory paperwork, he asked Mr. Malewich, the retired detective-investigator, whether a Mafia killing would be considered an important matter around the district attorney's office.

During 1981 and 1983 there were at least 400 Mafia killings in Palermo and as many again across Sicily.

There are myriad murder cases - many involving Mafia killings - in which bodies vanished into car trunks or river bottoms, never to be seen again.

Mob Murders in L.A. - Addresses of what the L.A.P.D. said were Mafia killings from 1906 to 1951.

Francesco tells his father that he's going to go hang out with his friends, but he ends up getting involved in a Mafia killing, so he runs off to France.

Indeed, such has been Mr. Buscetta's effectiveness that he has lost 37 relatives to Mafia killings, including two sons and a brother.

As with the Mafia killing I just cited, it was supposed to be something of a public announcement.

Just as with that Mafia killing, the operation could not be so clever as to point directly to KGB.