Salvatore Maranzano's Murder

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.

Salvatore Maranzano

Salvatore Maranzano Dead Body

 

The Murder of Masseria

In 1931, after the Castellammarese War had been going on eighteen months, Luciano, who was one of Masseria's top lieutenants at the time decided to double-cross Masseria. At a meeting with Maranzano Luciano proposed to end the bloodshed. Luciano offered to get rid of Masseria and take control of his gang. In exchange he wanted Maranzano to call of his gun men, accept him as an equal boss and keep peace between the two factions. 

On April 15, 1931, Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria was invited to one of his favorite restaurants, the Nuova Villa Tammaro, located in Coney Island by Lucky Luciano. The meeting was supposedly to find a way to ambush Maranzano, but Luciano had his own agenda for the meeting, he had made arrangements to get rid of Masseria at this meeting. Masseria arrived at the meeting, with three bodyguards, in his personal armored car, which had one-inch think bulletproof windows. The mobsters had a extravagant lobster lunch, played a card game and conferred over how to get rid of Maranzano. At 3 pm, an hour after Masseria had arrived at the restaurant and just before desert arrived, Luciano left for the toilet, Masseria’s bodyguards vanished from the restaurant and four of Luciano’s gunmen appeared in the restaurant and pumped Masseria full with an array of bullets. The New York Daily News reported melodramatically that Masseria died “with the ace of spades, the death card, clutched in a bejeweled paw"

The police found the dead racketeer in a pool of his own blood in Nuova Villa Tammaro. Two bullets had struck him in the head and one had pierced his heart. Police officers from Captain Ray Honan’s homicide squad reported that; arriving at the crime scene they could not find anyone who could give a clear description of Masseria’s shooters or the men who were at lunch with Masseria. Even though the police could not get a description of the shooters, they did find some clues. In an alley beside the restaurant, the police found four overcoats, three hats and two pistols. Three revolvers were also found in an abandoned car, a few blocks from the crime scene.

On April 16, 1931, a day after Masseria was slain, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reported that the police feared a gang war as a result of Masseria’s death. The police believed that Masseria’s murder could lead to the worst gang war New York City ever saw. However, what the police did not know was that Masseria had been set up by his own man, Lucky Luciano and his death would actually end the gang war, known as the Castellammarese war.

Joe the Boss was taken home on the night of April 16^th, 1931. He was taken home in a bronze casket, costing fifteen thousand dollars, it had silk cushions, on which Masseria’s head rested and engraved was “Giuseppe Masseria” on the cover of the casket. Joe was buried at Cavalry Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Giuseppe Masseria

Giuseppe Masseria dead

Giuseppe Masseria Mausoleoum