In early 1931, after the Castellammarese
War had been going on for eighteen months, Lucky Luciano, who at the time was
working for Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria decided to double-cross his boss and
join alliances with Salvatore Maranzano, Masseria’s enemy. Luciano and
Maranzano came to an understanding, Luciano would dispose of Masseria and take
charge of Masseria’s gang and in return Maranzano would call of his hit men and
accept Luciano as an equal boss.
On April 15, 1931, Masseria was
taken out by Luciano’s gunmen. Luciano kept his part of the deal and then acquired
control of Masseria’s gang. Maranzano accepted Luciano as boss and also gave
his blessings to leaders of three other smaller families. But later Maranzano reneged
on his deal with Luciano. Maranzano summoned Al Capone and other Mafia leaders
to a resort in Wappinger Falls for a meeting. At this meeting Maranzano crowned
himself the “Capo di tutti Capi”, the boss of all bosses and soon he started
changing things in New York, thinking he was the King of the Mafia, this
provoked and infuriated Luciano.
Luciano soon got more troubling
news from his trusted friend Tommy Lucchese, who had cozied up to Maranzano and
his most trusted men. Lucchese learned that Luciano had been marked by
Maranzano for a machine gun assassination by Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll, an Irish
cutthroat gangster. After finding out that he was marked for death Luciano knew
he had to act quickly.
After naming himself Boss of the
Bosses, Maranzano moved his headquarter to a suite of offices at Grand Central.
Luciano got wind of some tax troubles Maranzano was having through Lucchese. He
found out that he was expecting a visit from the IRS, and for that reason he
told his bodyguards to be unarmed. Luciano decided to capitalize on this opportunity.
On September 10, 1931, Lucchese paid
Maranzano a surprise visit at his office. Minutes after Lucchese arrived, a
group of men came in stating they were IRS agents. The men were actually
Luciano’s hit men but none of them were Sicilian or Italian. Neither Maranzano
nor his bodyguards had any clue that they were hit men and none of them even
suspected that the men were not IRS agents. The hit men pulled their guns out
and lined everyone up against the wall. Lucchese identified Maranzano with a
head movement and one of the gunmen forced Maranzano into his private office.
Sounds which came from the office indicated Maranzano initially put up a struggle,
but was ultimately killed with a volley of gun fire. Maranzano’s body was full
of bullets and stab wounds.
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| Salvatore Maranzano |
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| Salvatore Maranzano Dead Body |
