Luciano was a very creative criminal since a young age and
in the 1920s he became a chief aide to crime boss Giuseppe Masseria who ran the
largest crime family in the States. Masseria was at the time involved in a prolonged
territorial dispute with rival crime boss Salvatore Marazano.
Masseria was a Mustache Pete, an old-school Mafioso who
wanted to preserve the old mafia values of honor, tradition, respect and
dignity. The Young Turks, Luciano and his contemporaries who had started their
criminal careers in America created a young and motivated group which
challenged the established order. Luciano believed that as long as money was
being made it doesn’t matter who the family deals with. This went against the
beliefs of Masseria and other Mustache Petes, who believed that anyone who was
not Sicilian or Sicilian-American could not be trusted. This belief led Luciano
to despise Masseria’s way of thinking. The old Mafioso called Luciano’s friend,
Frank Costello ‘The Dirty Calabrian’, which quite frankly shocked Luciano.
The Castellammarese War which lasted from 1928 to 1931,
resulted in the death of as many as 60 mobsters. The war was supposedly between
Maranzano and Masseria, but in reality there was a third, secret faction, made
up of Luciano and several other Young Turks from both the Masseria Maranzano
factions. This group of Young Turks included along with Luciano, Frank
Costello, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Joe Adonis, Joe Bonnano, Carlo
Gambino, Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese. Luciano had plans to
form a national crime syndicate in which the Italian, Jewish and Irish gangs
could pool their resources and turn organized crime into a rewarding business
for all. The Mustache Petes’ were an obstacle to his plan so he wanted to get
rid of them.
In 1929 Luciano suffered a terrible ordeal, he was kidnaped
by three men, stabbed by an icepick, beaten, had his throat cut and then was
dumped on Staten Island beach. He Miraculously survived the ordeal, but was
forever marked with a scar and a droopy eye. His survival plus his luck in
avoiding the police in younger days permanently marked him with the name
Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. After his abduction Meyer Lansky found out and told
Luciano that Masseria’s enemy, Salvatore Maranzano was the one who ordered the attack.
Ironically Luciano later struck a secret deal with Maranzano in which he agreed
to orchestrate Masseria’s death in return for being made Maranzano’s number
two. This agreement would end The Castellammarese War.
On April 15, 1931, Luciano invited Masseria and two other associates
to have lunch in a Coney Island restaurant. After they completed their lunch,
they decided to play a game of cards. Whilst they were playing cards Luciano
stepped into the men’s restroom. When Luciano was in the lavatory, four gunmen,
Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonis came
into the restaurant and opened fire on Masseria and the two other associates
and killed them. At this point Luciano had kept up his part of the deal and so
as Masseria was gone Luciano took charge of Masseria’s crime family.
Maranzano then made Luciano his second-in-command, and set
up the Five Families of New York. The freshly formed families were headed by
Maranzano, Luciano, Profaci, gagliano and Vincent Mangano. The five Families
were promised by Maranzano that they would all be equal and free to make money.
Although Maranzano was slightly more open minded then Masseria, at heart he was
still a Mustache Pete. His true colors were shown at a later meeting of the
crime bosses in New York, when he declared himself Capo Di Tutti Capi( Boss of
all Bosses). He also, in order to strengthen his own family whittled down the
rackets of the other families. At the time Luciano seemed to accept this, but
he was just playing along until he could get rid of Maranzano, something he had
planned all along.
Maranzano, after coming to the realization that Luciano was
a threat, hired Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll, a notoriously violent Irish Gangster,
to kill him. However, Luciano was warned by Lucchese that he was marked for
death. When Luciano and Genovese were ordered by Maranzano to come to his office,
Luciano doubted that they would come out alive. Luciano then had four Jewish
gangsters pose as government agents and show up at Maranzano’s office to take
him out. Two of the fake agents disarmed Maranzano’s bodyguards and the other
two shot Maranzano, after stabbing him multiple times.
On the Day of Maranzano’s death, several other lieutenants
of Maranzano were killed by unidentified gunmen. Samuel Monaco’s and Louis
Russo’s bodies, which showed signs of torture, were later discovered on Newark
bay. Both of them were allies of Maranzano. Throughout the rest of the year,
several Mustache Petes were taken out throughout the country, thus ending the
Castellammarese War. In Mafia dialect this series of hits came to be known as “Night
of the Sicilian Vespers”
