The Mafia right after the prohibition era divulged into different types of illegal activities to make huge profits and there emerged several Families that took control of their respective region. However, each era saw the emergence of a different group that took the lead in crime and had its own importance.
The 1980s
The small skirmishes, which is said to have accompanied consistently till now among the different Mafia families, was said to have converted into a full-fledged battle which had erupted during the 1980s. It was during this period that Mafiosi in tends and hundreds were said to have been killed in the various gang wars which took place. The early 1980s saw major upheavals to take place with the socio-political Mafia world clime changing very fast and scales were noticed to be tilted towards its favor.
Emergence of the Corleonesi Crime Family as a powerful one
Initially, the Corleonesi Crime family had been shunned by the Mafia bosses. The different reasons cited for the same was because this family had come from very little power and also hailed from Corleone, a small rural town. The Corleonesi family had been avoided for quite a long time, until its leadership was assumed by the ruthless Luciano Leggio. It is only after his coming to power that the family started to gain support from other families around. Leggio, along with his new found power got into the habit to have rival Mafia bosses to be eliminated. As Leggio had to go into hiding to escape law, Riina, his successor followed the same policy like his predecessor and exhibited similar ruthlessness. On 23rd April, 1981, Bontade, the Corleonesi family’s rival was gunned down to death, which is a clear testament of their ruthlessness and determination to eliminate their opponents. Another rival name Inzerillo got gunned with bullets some days later.
30th November 1982 can be regarded to be an interesting day for the history books, when in twelve different incidents which took place in Palermo saw twelve Mafiosi to be murdered, with few cadavers who turned up in those faraway places. Over 500 Mafiosi were said to have been killed, while about 160+ had disappeared from 1980 onward.
Using brute, violent and powerful force, it is without doubt that the Corleonesi Crime Family had become unarguable the most violent and powerful force of the decade. When compared to the functioning standard of the Sicilian ways of murdering State authorities when there was no other choice left with the Mafia, the Corleonesi Family simply did not spare any one. State figures who were anti-Mafia also had been their target.