Hits Orchestrated by Luciano

Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” 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"

Giuseppe Masseria's Dead Body

Salvatore Maranzano

In 1931, after Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” had been murdered on Luciano’s command, Salvatore Maranzano, Masseria’s rival believed it was his turn to be the King of the American Underworld. So in a meeting of Bosses from all over the country Maranzano announced that he was now “Capo di Tutti Capi”, Boss of all Bosses. In order to remain the most powerful man in American Underworld, Maranzano had to get rid of some threats to him and his power, the biggest one being Luciano. Maranzano marked Luciano for a machine gun assassination by Irish cutthroat gangster Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll. Tommy “Three Finger Brown” Lucchese, who was a loyal associate and a good friend to Luciano got wind of this news and tipped Luciano off. Luciano knew he had to act quickly, since he had been marked for death.

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's 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

The Younk Turks,The Mustache Pete and the Castellammarese War

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”