Castellammarese

War

The Castellammarese War (Italian

pronunciation: [kaˌstɛllammaˈreːze, -eːse])
was a bloody power struggle for control of
the Italian-American Mafia that took place
in New York City, New York, from February
26, 1930 until April 15, 1931, between
partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and
those of Salvatore Maranzano. The war
was named after the Sicilian town of
Castellammare del Golfo, the birthplace of
Maranzano.[1] Maranzano's faction won
and divided New York's crime families into
the Five Families; Maranzano declared
himself capo di tutti i capi ("boss of all
bosses"). However, Maranzano was
murdered in September 1931 on orders of
Lucky Luciano, who established a power-
sharing arrangement called the
Commission, a group of Mafia families of
equal stature, to avoid such wars in the
future.
 Castellammarese War
Date February 26, 1930 –
April 15, 1931
Location New York City, New
York, U.S.
Caused by Crime syndicate
control dispute
Resulted in Maranzano's faction's
victory:
Creation of the Five
Families
Maranzano
Profaci
Mangano
Luciano
Gagliano
Salvatore
Maranzano
declares himself
Capo di tutti i capi
 Parties

Masseria's faction Maranzano's faction

Lead figures

Joe Masseria † Salvatore Maranzano

Giuseppe Morello † Joseph Bonanno
Lucky Luciano Vito Bonventre †
Al Capone Stefano Magaddino
Albert Anastasia Joe Profaci
Vito Genovese Joe Aiello †
Manfredi Mineo † Gaetano Reina †
Willie Moretti Tommy Gagliano
Joe Adonis Tommy Lucchese
Frank Costello Nicolo Schiro
Carlo Gambino

Background
In the 1920s, Mafia operations in the
United States were controlled by Giuseppe
"Joe The Boss" Masseria, whose faction
consisted mainly of gangsters from Sicily,
along with Calabria (the 'Ndrangheta) and
Campania (the Camorra) regions of
southern Italy. Masseria's faction included
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Albert "Mad
Hatter" Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Alfred
Mineo, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, and
Frank Costello. However, powerful Sicilian
Don Vito Ferro decided to make a bid for
control of Mafia operations. He sent
Salvatore Maranzano from his base in
Castellammare del Golfo to seize
control.[2] The Castellammarese faction in
the U.S. included Joseph "Joe Bananas"
Bonanno, Stefano "The Undertaker"
Magaddino, Joseph Profaci, and Joe
Aiello.[3] As it became more and more
evident that the two factions would clash
for leadership of the Mafia, they each
sought to recruit more followers to
support them.[4]

Outwardly, the Castellammarese War was

between the forces of Masseria and
Maranzano.[5] Underneath, however, there
was also a generational conflict between
the old guard Sicilian leadership – known
as the "Mustache Petes" for their long
mustaches and old-world ways, such as
refusing to do business with non-Italians –
and the "Young Turks", a younger and more
diverse Italian-American group who, unlike
the "Mustache Petes", had grown up in the
U.S., were more forward-thinking, and were
willing to work with non-Italians. This
approach led Masseria's followers to
question whether he was even capable of
making the Mafia prosper in the world of
the 1930s. Led by Luciano, the aim of this
group was to end the war as soon as
possible in order to resume their
businesses, viewing the conflict as
unnecessary. Luciano's objective was to
modernize the mob and do away with
unnecessary orthodox norms.[6] This was
a vision that enabled Luciano to attract
followers, who had seen the inadequacies
of Masseria's traditionalist leadership.
Therefore, both factions were fluid, with
many mobsters switching sides or killing
their own allies during the war.[7][8]
Tensions between the Maranzano and
Masseria factions were evident as far
back as 1928, with one side frequently
hijacking the other's alcohol trucks
(alcohol production being illegal in the U.S.
at that time due to Prohibition).

Hostilities begin
As the war became more violent, gunmen
clashed on the streets of New York City.
According to Bonanno, in February 1930
Masseria ordered the death of Gaspar
Milazzo, a Castellemmarese native who
was the president of Detroit's chapter of
Unione Siciliana. Masseria had reportedly
been humiliated by Milazzo's refusal to
support him in a Unione Siciliana dispute
involving the Chicago Outfit and Al
Capone.[9]

The opening salvo in the war was fired

within the Masseria faction when, on
February 26, 1930, Masseria ordered the
murder of an ally, Gaetano Reina.[10]
Masseria gave the job to a young
Genovese, who killed Reina with a
shotgun.[11] Masseria's intent was to
protect his secret allies Tommy Gagliano,
Tommy Lucchese, and Dominick "The Gap"
Petrilli. Later his treachery would come
back to haunt him, as the Reina family then
threw its support behind Maranzano. Vito
Bonventre also became a target, as
Castellammarese-born members of Nicolo
Schiro's gang began to threaten Masseria's
domination over Mafia gangs. Masseria
forced Schiro to pay him US$10,000
(approximately US$170,000 in 2022) and
step down as boss of the gang.[12] On July
15, 1930, Bonventre was gunned down
outside his garage.[13][14]

Trading blows
On August 15, 1930, Castellammerese
loyalists executed a key Masseria
enforcer, Giuseppe Morello, at Morello's
East Harlem office (a visitor, Giuseppe
Peraino, was also killed).[15] Two weeks
later, Masseria suffered another blow.
After Reina's murder, Masseria had
appointed Joseph Pinzolo to take over the
ice-distribution racket.[10] However, on
September 9, the Reina family shot and
killed Pinzolo at a Times Square office
rented by Lucchese. After these two
murders, the Reina crew formally joined
forces with the Castellammarese.[16]

Masseria soon struck back. On October

23, 1930, Castellammarese ally Joe Aiello,
president of the Chicago Unione Siciliane,
was murdered in Chicago.[9]

The tide turns

Following the murder of Aiello, the tide of
war rapidly turned in favor of the
Castellammarese. On November 5, 1930,
Mineo and a key member of Masseria's
gang, Steve Ferrigno, were murdered.[17]
Francesco Scalice inherited control of
Mineo's gang and subsequently defected
to the Maranzano faction. At this point,
many other members of Masseria's gang
also began defecting to Maranzano,
rendering the original battle lines of the
conflict (Castellammarese versus non-
Castellammarese) meaningless. On
February 3, 1931, another important
Masseria lieutenant, Joseph Catania, was
gunned down, dying two days later.[18]

Given the worsened situation, Masseria

allies Luciano and Genovese started
communicating with Castellammarese
leader Maranzano. The two men agreed to
betray Masseria if Maranzano would end
the war. A deal was struck, based on which
Luciano would arrange for Masseria to be
murdered and Maranzano would bring the
Castellammarese War to an end.[19] On
April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at
Nuova Villa Tammaro, a restaurant in
Coney Island, Brooklyn. While they played
cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself
to the bathroom, with the gunmen
reportedly being Anastasia, Genovese, Joe
Adonis, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel;[20]
Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove
the getaway car, but legend has it that he
was too shaken up to drive away and had
to be shoved out of the driver's seat by
Siegel.[21][22]
However, according to The New York
Times, "[A]fter that, the police have been
unable to learn definitely [what happened]".
Reputedly Masseria was "seated at a table
playing cards with two or three unknown
men" when he was fired upon from behind.
He died from gunshot wounds to his head,
back, and chest.[18] Masseria's autopsy
report shows that he died on an empty
stomach.[23] No witnesses came forward,
though "two or three" men were observed
leaving the restaurant and getting into a
stolen car.[24] No one was convicted in
Masseria's murder as there were no
witnesses and Luciano had an alibi.
The new Mafia structure
With the death of Masseria, the war ended.
Maranzano organized the Mafia in New
York City using a clear structure and
hierarchy by dividing the main Italian gangs
in New York into Five Families.[7] Each
family had a boss, underboss, consigliere,
capos, soldiers, and associates. While
associates could come from any
background, the higher ranks had to be
"made men", required in most eras to be
full-blooded Italian Americans.[25][26][7]
Shortly after Masseria's death, Maranzano
announced that the Five Families would be
led by Luciano, Joe Bonanno, Joseph
Profaci, Vincent Mangano and Thomas
Gagliano.[27]

Except for New York City, the major urban

areas in the Northeast and Midwest were
organized into one family per city by
Maranzano; due to the size of organized
crime in New York, it was organized into
five separate families. The bosses of the
Five Families of New York were to be
Luciano (now the Genovese crime family),
Profaci (now the Colombo crime family),
Gagliano (now the Lucchese crime family),
Maranzano (now the Bonanno crime
family), and Frank Scalice (now the
Gambino crime family). Maranzano called
a meeting of crime bosses in Wappingers
Falls, New York, where he declared himself
capo di tutti capi ("boss of all
bosses").[7][25]

Each crime family was to be headed by a

boss, who was assisted by an underboss
(the third-ranking position of consigliere
was added somewhat later). Below the
underboss, the family was divided into
crews, each headed by a caporegime, or
capo, and staffed by soldiers. The soldiers
would often be assisted by associates,
who were not yet members. Associates
could also include non-Italians who
worked with the family, and would include
Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy"
Siegel.[7]

Death of Maranzano
Maranzano's reign as capo di tutti capi was
short-lived. Although Maranzano was
slightly more forward-thinking than
Masseria, Luciano had come to believe
that Maranzano was even more greedy
and hidebound than Masseria had
been.[19][28][29] On September 10, 1931, he
was shot and stabbed to death in his
Manhattan office by a team of Jewish
triggermen (recruited by Lansky), which
included Samuel "Red" Levine, Bo
Weinberg, and Bugsy Siegel.[7][30]

With both Maranzano and Masseria out of

the way, it was easier for the Young Turks,
led by Luciano, to assume control of the
way things functioned in New York City.
The first agenda on the table was the
reformation and restructuring of the
American Mafia. Luciano envisioned the
future of the American Mafia in the form of
a major corporation. He believed that this
would increase cooperation, reduce
conflict and ensure plain sailing
governance by the Mafia as a whole. Since
Maranzano had formed a basic structure
that was in the process of being put into
effect, Luciano decided to retain the
concept to a large extent. Owing to his
clear disregard for orthodox ideologies
that did not have any profitable
consequences, Luciano allowed for more
flexibility in the structure, allowing for the
inclusion of other societal groups like the
Jews to involve themselves with the
families. In Joe Bonanno's autobiography A
Man of Honor, he states: "We revised the
old custom of looking toward one man,
one supreme leader for advice and the
settling of disputes. We replaced
leadership by one man with leadership by
committee. We opted for a parliamentary
arrangement whereby a group of the most
important men in our world would assume
the function formerly performed by one
man."[31]

In the aftermath of the Maranzano hit,

there was believed to have been a massive
purge of "old-timer" mafiosi, the so-called
"Night of the Sicilian Vespers". These
rumors were seemingly confirmed by the
testimony of Joseph Valachi, but a later
study found no signs of such massive
violence occurring.[32][33] Luciano formed
"The Commission" to oversee all Mafia
activities in the United States and serve to
mediate conflicts between families,
eliminating the capo di tutti capi
position.[34][31]

In the end, both of the traditional factions

in the New York Mafia lost the war. The
real winners were the younger and more
ruthless generation of mobsters, headed
by Luciano. With their ascension to power,
organized crime was poised to expand into
a truly national and multi-ethnic
combination.[25][35]

Popular culture
The 1981 movie Gangster Wars and the
1991 Mobsters are partly fictionalized
accounts of the Castellammarese War,
while 1981's The Gangster Chronicles TV
miniseries covers the war over a few of
its thirteen episodes. All of these cover
events from the point of view of Luciano.
Events from the war (most notably the
assassination of Maranzano) are
fictionalized in Mario Puzo's novel The
Godfather.
The 1973 Charles Bronson movie The
Stone Killer is a fictionalized story of a
complicated plot to assassinate the
heads of organized crime families using
Vietnam veterans. The plot is the
brainchild of an elderly mafioso who has
been obsessed since 1931 with
 avenging the "Night of the Sicilian
Vespers" murders, supposedly
orchestrated by Lucky Luciano.
The war is one of the main plot elements
of the final season of Boardwalk Empire.
AMC's The Making of the Mob: New York
also covers the war.

See also
Sicilian Mafia

References
Notes

1. Critchley, David (2008). The Origin of

Organized Crime in America. New York:
 Routledge. p. 165. ISBN 978-0415990301.
2. Sifakis, Carl (2005). The Mafia
Encyclopedia (https://archive.org/details/m
afiaencyclopedi00sifa_0/page/56) . New
York: Checkmark Books. p. 56. ISBN 978-
0816056958.
3. Sifakis, (2005). pp. 56–57
4. Marc, Mappen (2013). Prohibition
Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad
Generation. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers
University Press. ISBN 978-0813561158.
OCLC 852899302 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/852899302) .
5. Critchley, (2008). p. 165
 6. Nate, Hendley (2010). American Gangsters,
Then and Now: An Encyclopedia. Santa
Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-
0313354519. OCLC 727948429 (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/oclc/727948429) .
7. Raab, Selwyn (2006). Five Families: The
Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's
Most Powerful Mafia Empires (https://archi
ve.org/details/unset0000unse_s8f3/page/
22) . St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 22–35 (https://
archive.org/details/unset0000unse_s8f3/p
age/22) . ISBN 978-0312361815.
8. Sifakis, (2005). p. 323
9. Critchley, (2008). p. 172
10. Critchley, (2008). p. 175
11. Sifakis, (2005). p. 277
12. Hortis, C. Alexander (2014). The Mob and
the City: The Hidden History of How the
Mafia Captured New York (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=DHV-AgAAQBAJ) .
Amherst, New York: Prometheus. p. 81.
ISBN 9781616149246. Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20200413105237/http
s://books.google.com/books?id=DHV-AgA
AQBAJ&printsec=frontcover) from the
original on 2020-04-13. Retrieved
2019-12-14.
13. Critchley, David (2009). The Origin of
Organized Crime in America (https://books.
google.com/books?id=2eCPAgAAQBAJ) .
New York: Routledge. pp. 178, 180, 215–
223. ISBN 9781135854935. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2020041310530
1/https://books.google.com/books?id=2eC
PAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover) from
the original on 2020-04-13. Retrieved
2019-12-14.
14. "Wealthy Baker Slain; Police Hint at Mafia: 2
Men Seen Running From Place" (https://ww
w.newspapers.com/image/57395348/) .
Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 15 July 1930.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
61028151555/https://www.newspapers.co
m/image/57395348/) from the original on
28 October 2016. Retrieved 26 February
2016 – via Newspapers.com.
15. Dash, Mike (2010). The First Family: Terror,
Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of
the American Mafia. New York: Ballantine
Books. p. 376. ISBN 978-0345523570.
16. Critchley, (2008). p. 181
17. Critchley, (2008). pp. 182–183
18. Critchley, (2008). p. 185
19. Selwyn Raab (2005). Five Families (https://
books.google.com/books?id=5nAt6N8iQnY
C&q=maranzano) . Thomas Dunne Books.
ISBN 9781429907989.
20. Pollak, Michael (June 29, 2012). "Coney
Island's Big Hit" (https://www.nytimes.com/
2012/07/01/nyregion/answer-to-a-questio
n-about-a-mobsters-death-in-coney-island.h
tml?_r=0) . The New York Times. Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/2018111602
3517/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/0
1/nyregion/answer-to-a-question-about-a-
mobsters-death-in-coney-island.html?_r=0)
from the original on 16 November 2018.
Retrieved 31 October 2012.
21. Sifakis, (2005). pp. 87–88
22. Martin A. Gosch; Richard Hammer; Lucky
Luciano (1975). The Last Testament of
Lucky Luciano (https://archive.org/details/l
asttestamentofl00gosc/page/130) . Little,
Brown. pp. 130–132 (https://archive.org/de
tails/lasttestamentofl00gosc/page/130) .
ISBN 978-0-316-32140-2.
23. "Giuseppe Masseria" (http://www.gangrule.
com/biographies/giuseppe-masseria) .
New York Mafia 1900-1920. GangRule.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
21212041615/http://www.gangrule.com/bi
ographies/giuseppe-masseria) from the
original on 12 December 2012. Retrieved
21 November 2012.
24. Critchley, (2008). p. 186
25. "A Chronicle of Bloodletting" (https://archiv
e.today/20130204191146/http://www.tim
e.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,90
2999-1,00.html) . Time. July 12, 1971.
Archived from the original (http://www.tim
e.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,90
2999-1,00.html) on February 4, 2013.
Retrieved 31 October 2012.
26. Dash, Mike (2010). The First Family: Terror,
Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of
the American Mafia. New York: Ballantine
Books. pp. 384–386. ISBN 978-
0345523570.
27. Lupo, Salvatore (2015). The Two Mafias: A
Transatlantic History, 1888-2008. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 123.
ISBN 978-1-137-49135-0.
28. Raab, pp. 28-29
29. Sifakis, Carl (1987). The Mafia
Encyclopedia (https://archive.org/details/m
afiaencyclopedi00sifa) . New York City:
Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-1856-1.
30. Dennis Eisenberg; Uri Dan; Eli Landau
(1979). Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob.
Paddington Press: distributed Grosset &
Dunlap. pp. 140–141. ISBN 978-0-448-
22206-6.
31. "The Commission's Origins" (https://www.n
ytimes.com/1986/11/20/nyregion/the-com
mission-s-origins.html) . The New York
Times. 1986. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20200413102922/https://www.ny
times.com/1986/11/20/nyregion/the-com
mission-s-origins.html) from the original
on 13 April 2020. Retrieved 22 February
2017.
32. Raab, (2005). p. 137
33. Maas, Peter (1968). The Valachi Papers
(1986 Pocket Books ed.). New York: Simon
and Schuster. p. 83. ISBN 067163173X.
34. Capeci, Jerry (2004). The complete idiot's
guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha
Books. pp. 31–46. ISBN 978-1-59257-305-
9. OCLC 57428053 (https://www.worldcat.o
rg/oclc/57428053) .
35. Critchley, (2008). p. 197

Sources
Sifakis, Carl (2005). The Mafia
Encyclopedia (https://archive.org/detail
s/mafiaencyclopedi00sifa_0) . New
York: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-
0816056958.
Raab, Selwyn (2006). Five Families: The
Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of
America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
 (https://archive.org/details/unset0000u
nse_s8f3) . St. Martin's Griffin.
ISBN 978-0312361815.
Critchley, David (2008). The Origin of
Organized Crime in America: The New
York City Mafia, 1891-1931. New York:
Routledge. ISBN 978-0415990301.
Dash, Mike (2010). The First Family:
Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and
The Birth of the American Mafia. New
York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-
0345523570.

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