You're completely right. Gerlandino was 14 in 1986 when he first killed, and that was because his father was just killed that June, 1986, by the Grassonelli clan. I think the very first person killed that started those wars was Antonino Messina who was married to a Caruana woman. That's one way the Caruana-[BadWord] families tied into the Messina families. Then he caused the black out in Porto Empedocle, yes.
Maybe it was his brother Salvatore I was thinking of with the age of 19.

Riina wanted one police officer or prison guard killed in each town, that's how Messina ended up killing that officer. He was tremendously loyal to Riina and did anything for him.

As far as the hitmen..well when you give teenage boys jobs to go do hits...they tend to make mistakes acting like cowboys.

You're also correct about Pasquale Salemi. He was caught substituting names to protect their family. That's why he was kicked out of witness protection in Italy. Then he was thrown in jail, and later was released.