1984. On 2 December 1984, he was shot dead as he left a church after attending Mass with his mother and sister. Legacy Later in 1984, Tommaso Buscetta became an informant and gave a vast amount of information on the Mafia in Sicily that subsequently backed up a lot of Vitale's own testimony. Vitale's original written testimony was used in the Maxi Trial several years later, where Magistrate Giovanni Falcone declared that "it is to be hoped that at least after his death Vitale will get the credence he deserved." According to Falcone, the Mafia understood the importance of Vitale's revelations much better than the Italian justice system at the time and killed him when the moment was most opportune. References Dickie, John (2004), Cosa Nostra. A history of the Sicilian Mafia, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, Stille, Alexander (1995). Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, New York: Vintage Biographies of Mafia bosses "L’importanza di Leonardo Vitale", by Giovanni Falcone, Antimafia duemila, June 2003. 1941 births 1984 deaths Gangsters from Palermo Pentiti Murdered Mafiosi People murdered in Italy