The Italian mafia once held regular meetings to decide which public figure needed to be assassinated.

Some decisions were because of long-held grudges by these Sicilian "men of honour".

Other killings were about stopping someone from challenging the mafia's power in southern Italy.

For Sicilian magistrate Cesare Terranova, both of those reasons made him the target of the notorious Cosa Nostra.

This is the first in a two-part series about mafia assassinations in Italy.

• Host: Aslan Pahari
• Producer: Hannah Jose
• Audio Engineer: Tegan Nicholls
• Video Producers: Dylan Behan, Tejas Bhat
• Special thanks: Michael Osmond for archives research
• Supervising Producer: Kyla Slaven
• Executive Producers: Joel Werner, Eric George, Jessica Radburn

To binge even more great episodes of ASSASSINS with Aslan Pahari go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find more stories of the world's most shocking assassinations — from the lone wolf hitman to the professional assassin, you'll hear how famous figures like Abraham Lincoln, Benazir Bhutto, Ramses III, Tupac and Gandhi met their end.