2nd Mafia War

Obviously the 2nd Mafia war in Sicily in the early 80s was a slaughter of the Palermitan families by the Corleonesi. Buscetta and a few others turned states witness against the Corleonesi but we're any of Riinas allies or associates ever gunned down by the Palermitan families at that time? There seems to be no evidence of the Palermitan even getting a shot off at any of them.

Yes however history could have been very different.

At the beginning of 1981 Stefano Bontate gave the order to eliminate Salvatore Riina. The bosses Stefano Bontate, Salvatore Inzerillo, Rosario Spatola, Nicolazzo Greco, Piddu Panno and the entire mafia "old guard" met repeatedly to organize a plan to kill Totò Riina. According to Francesco Di Carlo , the original plan consisted in Stefano Bontate and Nicola Greco killing not only Riina himself but also Michele Greco and Pino Greco known as "Scarpuzzedda" [9] . But the leader of the Corleonesi, having learned of the plan following a tip-off from Michele Greco, made the Casteldaccia boss Giuseppe "Piddu" Panno disappear on 11 March . Giuseppe Panno was an old family head from Casteldaccia , closely linked to Bontate, and an old-fashioned "man of honour" who, disgusted by the turn events and the barbarization of Cosa Nostra had taken, had refused to return to the fold Commission the position he had at the time of " cicchitteddu "; it is clear that his authoritative presence would have constituted a serious obstacle to the plan of the Corleonesi and their allies to eliminate their adversaries. In particular, in the month of March there was the murder of Giovanni Ambrogio and that of the representative of the province of Agrigento Giuseppe Settecasi, which occurred in the provincial capital on 23 March 1981.

Everything can be said about Riina except that she didn't know how to organize a massacre.
For years he saw who was loyal to him and who was with the "old cosche", he created an army and amassed weapons.
So when Bontade and the others thought they could kill him he unleashed hell, anyone who didn't side with him was killed and if he ran away his relatives were killed. Nobody had the power to try to defence and even Contorno that fled Sicily to find money and weapon for kill Riina understood that if the Bontade loyalists was killed,the other mobsters switched sides and even try to kill a Corleoneses is a suicide,the only way to damage Riina was to cooperate with the State! And use the Italian State for his revenge.

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.

Bontade, Badalamenti and Inzerillo became very rich also with international drug trafficking (heroin) and Riina knew it and he wanted to cut their connections, he even asked the Caruana-Cuntrera's a percentage of their earnings

In the history of organised crime there has never been a group more ferocious than the Corleonesi but it is seldom commented on in this forum. I find that whole period fascinating.

The Corleonesi created a torture chamber in Palermo where torture and get rid of the bodies with the acid. The old style mafiosi should not compete with this madness. Giuseppe Greco aka Scarpuzzedra (little shoe) used those torture chamber and was the best killer for Riina that at some point was afraid of his charisma (Riina never had a bit of it) among the other killer and ordered to kill him with the lupara bianca.

Riina was paranoic he wanted to kill everyone even spoke badly of him, he wanted even to kill John Gotti lol Pablo Escobar was similar

Or like Nicky Scarfo sr.