The Castellemmarese War (1928 - 1931)
New York's underworld in the 1920's was run by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, one of the original members of the New York Mafia. He held all non-Sicilians in contempt, especially the Irish and Jewish mobs that wanted to take over his rackets. Despite all the coaxing of his younger, more ambitious gang members to form an allegiance with these other mobs, Joe the Boss believed in only associating himself with Sicilians. The younger generations not only questioned this solidarity but also questioned why these old school mafiosi were so willing to wage war over vendettas and power struggles with other immigrant gangs and even other Sicilians and Neapolitans.
In 1928, Salvatore Maranzano began to threaten the workings of Joe the Boss's organization by hijacking his bootlegging trucks. Maranzano was one of several men from the town of Castellemmarese del Gulfo, a neighboring town to Palermo in Sicily, and soon had a large following of young men who had also come from there. After Maranzano's raid on Masseria's trucks, Joe the Boss declared all out war, filling the streets with gunmen out to do away with Maranzano and his faction.
On the side of Maranzano were:
On the side of Masseria:
It can be argued that Masseria definitely had the better talent on his side, but Maranzano was younger and smarter than Masseria and knew what it would take to win the war, he had to do two things: first win over Luciano who was Masseria's number one man; second would be to kill Masseria. Maranzano set out to win Luciano over, but when Luciano refused, Maranzano had him beaten and even cut up, leaving Luciano with his famous scar along the left side of his face. Luciano was left for dead by Maranzano's men, figuring they would leave him as an example as to what would happen to the other followers of Masseria. But, Luciano survived the near-death beating, gaining the reputation of being incredibly lucky to still be alive. That is where Luciano got the nickname of "Lucky," one that would stay with him the rest of his life.
By this time, The Castellemmarese War had claimed numerous lives across the country, especially in New York City. 50 murders are believed attributed to the war, but it could be more, since the police were not always able to determine if a dead body was a result of the war, or if it was could be attributed to some other organized crime faction of the time.
After the beating, Luciano decided it was time to end the war once and for all. There had been too much killing, and that was hurting the bootlegging and rackets that both sides were involved in. And after all, they were all in business for money, not for killing. Conspiring with Meyer Lansky, his longtime friend from childhood, and Vito Genovese, Luciano waited until he was healthy once again and made his move. He would make peace with Maranzano and become a part of his organization. To Maranzano, the only thing standing between him and absolute power now was Joe the Boss Masseria. Luciano told Maranzano that he would take care of that for him. Not soon after, on April 15, 1931, Joe the Boss Masseria was executed in a Coney Island restaurant by four gunmen (Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia and Bugsy Siegel).
Luciano had set up his old time friend and sponsor by asking him out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Nuova Villa Tammaro. Masseria, it is well documented, more than liked to eat, in fact some called him "Chinaman" due to his bulging cheeks and squinty eyes. Luciano knew of his bosses gluttonous way, and by bringing him to his favorite restaurant, he knew that Masseria would be unguarded and unaware.
After the meal, Luciano ordered a deck of cards so that Masseria and he could play, again, to lower Masseria's defenses. (By this time, the restaurant was empty, so there was no need to worry about potential witnesses.) After the cards came, Luciano then excused himself from the table and went to the bathroom. As he did so, the four gunmen entered the restaurant and landed six shots into Masseria's stuffed body. It was reported that Albert Anastasia gained great recognition for this particular hit since his was the final shot that killed Masseria, walking up to the almost-dead Don and firing a bullet through the back of Masseria's large head. The four gunmen then walked out the door, got into their car and left. Luciano reappeared from the bathroom to find Masseria face down on the table, cards spread out before him.
Maranzano, hearing of Masseria's death, quickly became the number one boss in all of New York, but his plans were to become the Boss of all Bosses, the "Capo di tutti Capi." He called for a meeting of all the heads of families across the country to New York. Reportedly, there were over 500 gangsters that appeared at this meeting. At this meeting, Maranzano declared himself the supreme ruler over organized crime in the U.S. and devised a plan that would set up five families, or regimes, who all had their own capo that would answer directly to Maranzano. These capos were:
It was not long that after Maranzano laid down the laws of this new organization that Luciano and his followers began to plot against Maranzano who had himself began to plot an extermination of many of the young turks. It was found out that Maranzano had created a list of individuals were to be killed by a hired gunman, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. When Luciano discovered this (some say that Louis Lepke was the one who brought it to Luciano's attention saying that Maranzano was becoming just like Joe the Boss Masseria, but only worse, helping to convince Luciano to do away with Maranzano), he took action.
Luciano, through Tom Lucchese (Luciano's spy in Maranzano's office) found out that Maranzano was expecting to be audited by the IRS on September 10, 1931, the same day that Maranzano had planned to have Luciano rubbed out as well. Luciano sent four of his own men, including Lucchese to help finger Maranzano, over to the Boss's "Real Estate" office posing as these agents. The four gunmen disarmed the body guards that were outside Maranzano's office, by calling themselves police officers and lining the body guards up against the wall. Then, two of the gunmen walked into Maranzano's office, where Maranzano sat unguarded and unaware that these two men were not IRS agents. They proceeded to shoot and stab him to death. When the police arrived, there were no witnesses, since most of Maranzano's bodyguards either fled when they found out what happened or were hiding when the hit took place so that they wouldn't be killed as well.
Along with Maranzano, forty other crime figures were killed that same day across the country. By killing Maranzano, Luciano ended the Castellemmarese War, along with wiping out the old regime of Mustache Petes.