Striking the right balance was a tricky business. Bontade's family, for instance, probably paid the price for being excessively accommodating; the size of its membership, which in the course of the 1970s increased from 50 to over 160 (see Chapter 5), was certainly among the causes of the mafia war of the early 1980s.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 647