Salvatore Riina

Salvatore Riina took control of the Corleonesi organization in the mid-1970s after Luciano Leggio, building dominance through systematic violence that provoked police to eliminate his rivals. Already a fugitive since the late 1960s on murder charges, he broke traditional Mafia codes by targeting women, children, and uninvolved civilians to divert law enforcement. Hitman Giovanni Brusca estimated he killed 100 to 200 people on Riina's orders. The strategy neutralized internal threats but pulled the organization into open war with the state. Sentenced to life in absentia during the 1986 Maxi Trial, he remained hidden for 23 years until his 1993 capture, which triggered retaliatory bombings of churches and art galleries. He died under Article 41-bis isolation on 17 November 2017, one day after his 87th birthday, never having repented.