Excellent Cadavers


Excellent Cadavers is a 1995 non-fiction book by American author Alexander Stille about the Sicilian Mafia, concentrating on magistrate Giovanni Falcone's fight against the Mafia and his 1992 assassination.

Book title

The name of the book comes from the phrase "excellent cadavers" or "illustrious corpses", used in Italy when referring to high-profile victims of the Mafia such as politicians, judges and police chiefs.

Adaptations and related works

Stille's 1995 book Excellent Cadavers was made into a television movie in 1999, starring Chazz Palminteri as Giovanni Falcone and F. Murray Abraham as informant Tommaso Buscetta.
In 2005, a documentary of the same name was released in the US, directed by Marco Turco. Produced in Italy, where the work is known as In un altro paese, the documentary is based on, and to some extent updates, Stille's book. Stille, one of the script writers, serves as narrator and tour guide on the scenes of crimes and explains their causes and consequences. Letizia Battaglia, a photojournalist and anti-Mafia activist, plays the role of survivor and passionate eyewitness.