Riina and Bagarella were brutal but the brains was Bernardo Provenzano. Messina Denaro is a Provenzano guy.
How much did mafiosi like Provenzano and Denaro model themselves after the entrepreneurial model that American LCN set? We have said many times on here that the Italian Americans were once the ones enjoying the riches while the Italians were seen as farmers who did not make money nor had political connections.
I think a lot, after Riina's war against the State and the hardliners in jail Provenzano and later Denaro proposed a new, less violent strategy. Coexistence with state institutions similar to how LCN operates. Salvatore Lo Piccolo did the same in Palermo.
