Joe Masseria †Giuseppe Morello †Lucky Luciano Al CaponeAlbert AnastasiaVito GenoveseManfredi Mineo †Willie MorettiJoe AdonisFrank CostelloCarlo Gambino Salvatore MaranzanoJoseph BonannoVito Bonventre †Stefano MagaddinoJoe ProfaciJoe Aiello †Gaetano Reina †Tommy GaglianoTommy LuccheseNicolo Schiro The Castellammarese War (Italian pronunciation: [kaˌstɛllammaˈreːze, -eːse]) was a bloody power struggle for control of the American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano that took place in New York City from February 26, 1930, until April 15, 1931.
However, Maranzano was murdered in September 1931 on orders of Lucky Luciano, who established a power-sharing arrangement through a governing body called the Commission, giving equal stature to all Mafia families to avoid such feuds in the future.
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, Calabria (the 'Ndrangheta) and Campania (the Camorra) in southern Italy.
Masseria's faction included Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Alfred Mineo, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis and Frank Costello.
Led by Luciano, the aim of this group was to end the feud as soon as possible in order to resume their businesses, viewing the conflict as unnecessary.
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.
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.
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.
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.
[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.
[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.
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.
"[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.