One of the catalysts for all of this in New York was a short (5 ft 2ins), squat, fat plug of a man with beady eyes and thick, bulbous lips. His name was Joe the Boss, and he was greedy. It would lead to his downfall.
Giuseppe Masseria arrived in New York from Palermo, Siciliy in 1902. He was 23 and ready to take on the New World. Soon he was employed as an enforcer for the gang controlled by Nicholas Morello, an all-Sicilian mob specializing in Black Hand extortion rackets in Harlem and Greenwich Village. By 1929, through a combination of treachery and deceit, Masseria had laid claim to all the major rackets in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He built up a formidable team, including men who would one day be the major players in the world of organized crime.
Men such as Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Adonis and Thomas Lucchese. For his chief aide he appointed Charles Luciano, a man who would influence the destinies of many and change forever the face of the mob. Life was sweet for Joe the Boss until the late 1920�s when onto the stage strolled Salvatore Maranzano. Things would never be the same again for anyone.
Maranzanno was born in Castellammare del Golfo, forty miles west of Palermo on the island of Sicily. Educated in the local seminary, he was training to become a priest at one time in his life, but all of that desire had long since disappeared when he decided to embark on the journey to America. By that time he was a "man of honour" and a prot�g� of Don Vito Cascio Ferro, the Boss of Bosses of the Sicilian Mafia.
Maranzanno visited the U.S. a number of times, the first in 1918. By 1927, when he finally settled he was focussed on setting up an organization that would ultimately come under the command of Don Vito, with himself as chief lieutenant.
He quickly surrounded himself with men he could trust, many from his home town in Sicily or close by: men like Joseph Bonanno, Joseph Profaci, Stefano Magaddino, and Gaetano Gagliano. They would all ultimately rise to the top and become bosses in the major crime families of the Northeast.
Although technically, Maranzano was under the command of Joe the Boss, it soon became apparent that he was determined to build his own empire, and his crew were tough, dedicated gangsters. The stage was set for conflict and it was not long in coming.
It is generally believed that the killing that started what became known as the Castellammarese War occurred on February 26, 1930. At approximately 8.10 p.m. that night Gaetano (Tom) Reina, a top aide to Masseria, was shotgunned to death. It was assumed he had become the first victim of Maranzano. There are conflicting theories about his murder. One is that he was killed on the orders of his boss, Masseria. Reina controlled the huge and highly profitable ice distribution business in New York and Joe the Boss had been trying to wrestle control of it from his lieutenant. The other theory claims his death was arranged by Charles Luciano to prevent Reina from changing sides too soon and disturbing the balance of power before Luciano and his associates were ready for it. The murder of Reina would, however, ultimately unite his crew with the forces of Maranzano to turn against Masseria in the continuing struggle.
By April 1931, dozens of men had been killed and wounded as the struggle raged through the streets of New York. The watershed came with the murder of Joseph Catania, aka Joe Baker. A top aide of Joe the Boss, Catania had incurred the rage of Maranzano by hijacking his liquor trucks.
At 11:45 a.m. on February 3, 1931, Catania left a bail bondsman�s office on Crescent Avenue in the Bronx. His wife, who was with him, kissed him goodbye. As he walked away, a gunman appeared and shot him six times. The killer, an imported assassin from Chicago know only as �"Buster" was working under contract for Joe the Boss with another gangster, who one day would become world famous because he killed the wrong man. His name was Joseph Valachi.
Rushed to Fordham Hospital, Catania lingered for a few hours and died as his wife sat holding his hand. He was 29.
His funeral was perhaps the most lavish ever seen before or since in the Bronx.
The coffin cost $15,000, and more than 10,000 people turned out to watch the procession to the church. The five funeral directors who coordinated the event needed 40 automobiles just to carry the flowers, the biggest arrangement of which, stood over 15 feet high, addressed to "Our Pal."
In the weeks following Catania�s killing, the fortunes of the war shifted in Maranzano�s favor, with more and more men transferring sides and switching allegiance.
In early April, four men went to visit Maranzano. It could not have been an easy meeting. They were his enemies and he was on his guard. Along with his bodyguards, he had with him two of his trusted aides, Joseph Bonanno and Joe Profaci. The meeting was held in the Bronx Zoo late in the morning.