I thank this question has already been asked but, did Salvatore "Turi" Guiliano really exist? I've heard that he really did.

Yes he did my son. Puzo immortalised him in The Sicilian. But changed his name from Giuliano to Guiliano so he could use his own creative license to change a few things for story telling purposes. This way the Sicilian didn't have to be a direct biography but a great story including the ficticous Michael Corleone.

yep check out http://www.giulianothebandit.tk

Escobar, that's an interesting name. May I ask what it's from?

Probably from the biggest drug lord of the 80's in the whole world - Pablo Escobar, the Colombian. Apparantly 80% of Cocaine use in the 80's was most likely his product. He was so large in his own country he either did or nearly ran for president of Colombia. He had thousands of people killed and became a hero to the poor of Colombia simply by offering them bounty's for killing cops.

However, it could be some other dude he got the name from.

I recently saw a program on Pablo Escobar, he was a columbian drug baron who, when faced with extradition to the USA offered to pay off Columbia's whole international debt out of his own pocket for immunity from extradition. When jailed the columbian courts let him design and build his own jail, it contained a cinema and an olympic size swimming pool.