Inzerillo was a close ally of Stefano Bontade and Gaetano Badalamenti and a relative of the New York City Mafia boss Carlo Gambino.

Salvatore Inzerillo ordered the killing of prosecuting judge Gaetano Costa who signed the 53 arrest warrants against the Spatola-Inzerillo-Gambino clan and their heroin-trafficking network in May 1980.

Inzerillo acted without asking permission from the Mafia Commission to prove he could commit a murder in rival territory (that of Giuseppe Calò) just as the Corleonesi.

[8] The deaths of these two bosses started the Second Mafia War that lasted three years and saw hundreds of mafiosi killed as Toto Riina and the Corleonesi decimated their rivals in order to take over Cosa Nostra by sheer brute force.

At Inzerillo's funeral, his teenage son Giuseppe vowed to avenge his father, and not long after, most probably in June 1981, the boy was kidnapped, tortured and killed.