"A scrupulous account of a century of violence and intimidation at the hands of the most sinister of human organisations" - Norman Lewis, Mail on Sunday

Judge Liliana Ferraro is one of a group they called The Walking Dead - a pool of courageous law enforcers who vowed to strike at the very heart of the Mafia. They almost succeeded, but at enormous cost. One by one, they have paid with their lives; horrifically, clinically executed, falling to bombs and bullets of merciless assassins until only one remained: Judge Liliana herself.

In researching this account, John Parker spent many months in Italy and time with Judge Ferraro herself who is now protected day and night by an army of security guards and lives in bunker-like conditions, surrounded and constantly protected. From his personal observations, Parker looks at the Mafia hunters and the gangsters they fight with true perspective. It is a tragic yet enthralling documentary, rich in first-hand accounts and previously unpublished material gleaned from exclusive interviews with Judge Ferraro, unequivocal and hugely researched. No longer fighting swarthy gangsters and cut-throats in sunglasses who look like players in a Hollywood B-movie, today they are pitting themselves against a Mafia that is equal to a financial conglomerate so large it requires whiz-kids with Harvard-type business degrees to manage the incalculable assets.

Armani-suited chieftains, dripping gold and whisked around in chauffeur-driven Mercedes' control personal fortunes that outstrip many of the world's legally most wealthy people. The Mafia Cupola, its ruling body, has responded with a chilling policy decision. Using Kalashnikov and Semtex technology, it would sweep from its path all those prepared to stand up to them.

The Mafia hunters meanwhile, were lonely, vulnerable men and women whose lives can be snuffed out with the flick of a finger; often under-resourced and hampered by political shenanigans, they still see the Italian crime tsars as their greatest enemy. Gradually the names and the portraits of the fight-back heroes have been moved into another gallery of acclaim - as The Illustrious Corpses. Judges, politicians, magistrates, policemen, journalists, priests and even innocent children have fallen victim in a seemingly endless succession of horrific murders. This is their story, told with the help and cooperation of the woman who became Italy's number one Mafia hunter, Judge Liliana Ferraro. It is a story set to demystify its audience against the incredible panoply of political corruption and appalling gangland violence from which Mafia chieftains have often emerged through fiction and film as romanticised Robin Hood figures.

John Parker began writing about the Mafia in the mid-sixties, when he was working for Life magazine on a series of major articles exposing the infiltration of gangsters into casinos in the Bahamas and London, resulting in the deportation of major crime figures from both countries. His work was praised in Life editorial and by its editor who recalled: 'We relied upon Parker's investigation for our most crucial allegations'.

Copyright © John Parker 2004
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