In turn, the war resulted in a major crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends and relatives to the fighting.

Hailing from a small rural town, the Corleonesi were often referred to as "the peasants" – i viddani in Sicilian – by other Mafia Families, especially by the powerful urbanized bosses in the capital of Palermo.

Things began to change in the 1960s as the Corleonesi grew in power and prestige under the leadership of the brutal and ambitious Luciano Liggio, who had become the Mafia boss of Corleone via the crude but effective method of simply shooting the old one, Michele Navarra.

The Corleonesi's primary rivals were Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo and Gaetano Badalamenti, bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia Families.

In 1978, Riina managed to have Badalamenti expelled from the Commission, accused of having organised the assassination of Francesco Madonia (boss of Vallelunga and ally of the Corleonesi) and subsequently exiled from the Mafia and Sicily altogether.

On September 29 of the same year, Calogero Pizzuto, another close ally of Bontade and Inzerillo, was shot dead in a crowded bar alongside two innocent bystanders.

[6] In addition there were at least 160 cases of Mafiosi and their associates who vanished, victims of what is known as lupara bianca (Sicilian for "White Shotgun"), whereby the body is completely destroyed or buried so that it is never found.

A prime example took place in late May, whereby six members of Bontade and Inzerillo's Mafia Families were invited to a meeting with one of their supposed friends.

Amongst the victims (known as "excellent cadavers") were police chiefs Emanuele Basile and Boris Giuliano, magistrates Rocco Chinnici and Cesare Terranova, and politicians Piersanti Mattarella and Pio La Torre.

In one of the most brazen hits conducted by the Mafia, general of the Italian Army Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, who was serving as Palermo's prefect at that time, was killed together with his wife and police escort Domenico Russo.

[7] Nonetheless a team of antimafia prosecutors, including Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino and Antonino Caponetto, laboured to orchestrate a concerted effort to combat the Mafia and the rising tide of violence, as well as the flow of heroin whose control was behind the war.

[8] On September 11, 1982, Buscetta's two sons from his first wife, Benedetto and Antonio, disappeared, never to be found again, which prompted his collaboration with Italian authorities.

[9] This was followed by the deaths of his brother Vincenzo, son-in-law Giuseppe Genova, brother-in-law Pietro and four of his nephews, Domenico and Benedetto Buscetta, and Orazio and Antonio D 'Amico.

[12] He was extradited to Italy on June 28, 1984,[13] where he attempted suicide by ingestion of barbiturates;[14] when that failed, he decided that he was utterly disillusioned with the Mafia.

[17] Carabinieri captains Emanuele Basile, Mario D'Aleo, Giuseppe Bommarito and Pietro Morici, as well as Marshal Giuliano Guazzelli, were either gunned down or blown up.

The Circonvallazione massacre also killed three carabinieri escorts, Salvatore Raiti, Silvano Franzolin and Luigi Di Barca.

The Corleonesi decided to dispose of key allies, starting with Rosario Riccobono, who was killed along with over twenty of his associates and friends in late 1982, and swiftly followed by Filippo Marchese, who was strangled and dissolved in acid like many of those who had died at his hands.

Further murders followed, primarily involving Ciaculli killers Giuseppe Greco, Mario Prestifilippo and Vincenzo Puccio, and Agostino Marino Mannoia, who had switched sides from Bontade's to Riina's.