It was more a massacre than a war. Riina outsmarted them all. He was very manipulative he had people loyal to him all around Palermo. When old families realized what he was doing, it was too late to stop him.
The old guard mafiosi was the mafiosi that become rich with the white collar crimes in 1950s-1960s accustomed to parties and frequenting high society while the Corleonesis represented the most isolated, peasant and poor Sicily where it was easy to find young people ready to kill and die for Riina and attracted by the millionaire earnings from heroin trafficking. They had no escape and the smartest ones preferred to change sides.
