Joe Masseria
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria (January 17, 1886 – April 15, 1931) was an early Mafia
don in the United States
. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family
, one of the New York
Mafia's Five Families
, from 1922 to 1931.
, Sicily
. His father Giuseppe Masseria Sr. was a tailor. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Marsala. After emigrating to the United States in 1903 to avoid murder charges in Sicily, Masseria became an enforcer for the Morello Gang in the Lower East Side
of New York City.
After the death of Nick Morello in 1916, he became the leader of one of several splinter groups who fought a "civil war" for control of the gang. In this struggle Masseria is said to have had the backing of Salvatore D'Aquila
, the leader of a Brooklyn-based crime family. (D'Aquila's group was the ancestor to the Gambino crime family
). After the death of Nick Morello, D'Aquilla came to be regarded as "capo consigliere
" or "senior adviser" among the New York Mafia families. This means that, because of his perceived wisdom, he was considered first among equals and consulted by the other leaders on important matters. However this does not mean that he had any direct control over the other gangs or that they had to pay him any financial tribute
. Some later chroniclers have erroneously equated his position with that of "Capo di Tutti Capi
", a title to which Joe Masseria was later to aspire.
, which like many cars of the era had running board
s along the sides. The gunmen jumped on the running boards and the car sped west on E. 5th Street towards the Bowery
, guns blazing.
A Ladies Garment Industry Union meeting had just ended, and dozens of laborers were milling in the street. When they heard the shots and saw the speeding Cruiser coming down the street, they tried to stop them. The gunmen then plowed through the crowd and shot randomly at the blockade
, hitting six and killing two (plus a horse).
Masseria survived the point-blank hit attempt unscathed and was found by police in his upstairs bedroom shell-shocked. He was sitting up in his bed dazed, his ears were ringing from the proximity of the weapon fire, and there were two bullet holes through his straw hat
, which he was still wearing on his head.
This incident gained Masseria new respect among superstitious Italian gangsters as "the man who can dodge bullets".
Everyone went for their guns and started shooting. Two of Valenti's men went down and he made a run for it. The Masseria men gave chase but their aim was poor, and the next casualties were a street cleaner and an eight-year-old girl. Valenti jumped onto the running board of a passing taxi and began to return fire. Seeing their quarry about to escape, one of the pursuers took careful aim and dropped Valenti dead in the street. This gunman was always rumored to be Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Masseria now became head of the Morello family with Peter Morello as his number two. This may have fit in well with Peter Morello's desire to avoid attracting undue police attention. He was safer taking on a secondary role as a form of consiglieri, or senior adviser, behind the overt leader.
One of the favorite Masseria family hangouts was Venezia Restaurant on East 116th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan.
in July 1928 appears to have been the catalyst for Joe Masseria's ambition to become overall leader of all the Mafia gangs of New York.
In October 1928, Toto D'Aquilla, the Mafia leader in Brooklyn, was killed by Peter Morello and others. D'Aquilla was accosted in the street by three men after his regular visit to the doctor. The discussion became heated and one of the men drew a gun and shot D'Aquilla dead. There was known to be bad blood between D'Aquilla and the Morello gang, possibly arising out of resentment over D'Aquilla's rise to the position of "capo consigliere" within the New York Mafia, which had coincided with the decline in the fortunes of the Morello family. Alfred Mineo
and his enforcer Steve Ferrigno
, allies of Joe Masseria, then took over leadership of the D'Aquilla family.
In June 1929, Ciro Terranova
was questioned in connection with the murder of Frankie Marlow. Marlow was last seen having dinner with Terranova the night he was shot to death. As a fellow Sicilian, Marlow may have been approached, on behalf of the new Unione Siciliane
president, with requests that he pay tribute or otherwise comply with the wishes of Joe Masseria. Frankie Marlow was a leading figure in the New York crime scene, he would certainly have dismissed any such advances. Perhaps he was guilty of under-rating the seriousness of the threat posed by the "old fashioned" Morello's and paid the ultimate price. Ballistics evidence has shown that the bullets that killed Marlow were fired by a submachine gun
owned by Al Capone
's Chicago Outfit
, and that the same weapon was also used in the killing of Yale and for the Saint Valentine's Day massacre. The weapon eventually came into the hands of the authorities after the arrest of Fred “Killer” Burke
, a St. Louis, Missouri
gunman who participated in the St. Valentine's Day plot.
Masseria then moved in on what had been Yale's organization and Anthony Carfano
, 'Little Augie Pisano' became head of the Yale family. Carfano's group retained control of Yale's gambling and bootlegging interests, however it may have been at this time that the Waterfront racket was reallocated and came under the control of the D'Aquilla family, headed by Mineo.
Joe Masseria was now "Joe the Boss," head of the largest Mafia grouping in New York. Other Sicilian gangsters who were not yet part of his empire, such as Ice racketeer and Bronx Mafia boss Gaetano "Tom" Reina
, took note of what had happened to D'Aquilla and Marlow and soon began to pay homage.
However, this does not mean to say that Joe the Boss was now in control of all organised crime across New York, or even that he was the single most powerful gangster in the city. The labour union extortion kings Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro
and bootleggers like Waxey Gordon
and Owney Madden
were making more money, commanded equally powerful gangs and had better political connections. There were also others on the rise who did not recognise his authority such as Dutch Schultz
and the Broadway Mob. The Mafia at this time was still largely centered around the exploitation of their fellow Italians.
The imperial gaze of Joe the Boss now fell upon "the Broadway Mob" and he identified Charles "Lucky" Luciano as the logical recipient of his demands for homage and tribute. This was because Luciano was the only Sicilian member of that group - Frank Costello
and Albert Anastasia
were Calabrian
, Joe Adonis
and Vito Genovese
were from Naples
, and Meyer Lansky
and Bugsy Siegel
were Jewish. Luciano had little interest in the rites and rituals of secret societies, and he initially found the attentions of the traditional Mafiosi irritating. However, it was an irritation he could not afford to ignore. Eventually he would come to see the accident of his birthplace as a stroke of good fortune: the Mafia were the most exclusionist of the major ethnic crime groupings, and it added to his value amongst his allies that he could wield authority over them by virtue of being seen as one of them, while his other friends would always be seen as inferior outsiders.
Instead, his place as leader was taken by Salvatore Maranzano
. Maranzano was sent with several other men from Sicily in 1927 to gain control of the American Mafia for Don Vito Cascio Ferro
. Masseria issued a decree ordering the death of Maranzano. This event marks the formal beginning of the Castellamarese War.
, Gangland legend has it that Masseria dined with Charles "Lucky" Luciano before his death. While they played cards, Luciano excused himself to the bathroom, when Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
, Vito Genovese
, Albert Anastasia
and Joe Adonis
rushed in and shot Masseria to death, his four bodyguards having mysteriously disappeared. The New York Daily News
reported that the boss died "with the ace of spades, the death card, clutched in a bejeweled paw."
However, both the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune
paint a different picture. Neither newspaper mentions Luciano being present, although Luciano was brought in for questioning by the police. The Herald Tribune reported that Masseria arrived at the restaurant in his armoured steel car in the company of three other men shortly before 3pm. Scarpato’s mother-in-law, Anna Tammaro, waited while they played cards. According to two eyewitnesses, two well-dressed young men drove up and parked their car at the curb. They strolled leisurely into the place, and the shooting began immediately. Some 20 shots were fired. Then the two gunmen came out without any visible signs of haste, entered their automobile and drove away. Masseria was hit with four bullets in the back and one in the back of the head, identified as .32 and .38 caliber, and in an alley next to the restaurant, police recovered two revolvers.
The 2010 book "New York City Gangland" offers an eyewitness account of events surrounding Masseria's murder which also involves the restaurant's owner, Gerardo Scarpato. Scarpato was allegedly extorting money from a small businessman who unexpectedly arrived by car at the Villa Tammaro on April 15, 1931. "As soon as I reached the place", wrote the frightened entrepreneur to the Brooklyn District Attorney, "Scarpato ran over and asked me what I was doing there. Scarpato told me to leave right away and not mention to anyone I had been there that day. I left. Late that night, I read that Joe Masseria had been shot at the Villa Tammaro. This was my first taste of what these men were capable of."
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
don in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family
Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
, one of the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Mafia's Five Families
Five Families
The Five Families are the five original Italian-American Mafia crime families which have dominated organized crime in America since 1931. The Five Families in New York remain as the powerhouse of the Italian Mafia in the United States.-History:...
, from 1922 to 1931.
Early days
Masseria was born in MenfiMenfi
Menfi is a comune in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 km southwest of Palermo and about 60 km northwest of Agrigento....
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. His father Giuseppe Masseria Sr. was a tailor. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Marsala. After emigrating to the United States in 1903 to avoid murder charges in Sicily, Masseria became an enforcer for the Morello Gang in the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of New York City.
After the death of Nick Morello in 1916, he became the leader of one of several splinter groups who fought a "civil war" for control of the gang. In this struggle Masseria is said to have had the backing of Salvatore D'Aquila
Salvatore D'Aquila
Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila was a New York City mobster from the Mustache Pete-era and the first boss of the Gambino crime family....
, the leader of a Brooklyn-based crime family. (D'Aquila's group was the ancestor to the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
). After the death of Nick Morello, D'Aquilla came to be regarded as "capo consigliere
Consigliere
Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...
" or "senior adviser" among the New York Mafia families. This means that, because of his perceived wisdom, he was considered first among equals and consulted by the other leaders on important matters. However this does not mean that he had any direct control over the other gangs or that they had to pay him any financial tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
. Some later chroniclers have erroneously equated his position with that of "Capo di Tutti Capi
Capo di tutti capi
Capo di tutti capi or capo dei capi is Italian for "boss of all bosses" or "boss of bosses". It is a phrase used mainly by the media, public and the law enforcement community to indicate a supremely powerful crime boss in the Sicilian or American Mafia who holds great influence over the whole...
", a title to which Joe Masseria was later to aspire.
"The Man Who Can Dodge Bullets"
On August 9, 1922, Masseria walked out of his apartment at 80 2nd Avenue, and was rushed by two men who drew fire on him. Masseria ducked into a store at 82 2nd Avenue with the gunmen in pursuit. They shot out the front window and shot up the inside of the store, but then ran out of bullets. The gunmen fled across 2nd Avenue to a getaway car idling just around the corner on E. 5th Street. The car was a Hudson CruiserHudson Motor Car Company
The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...
, which like many cars of the era had running board
Running board
A running board is a car or truck accessory part, a narrow step fitted under the side doors of the vehicle. It aids entry, especially into high vehicles. Typical of vintage cars which had much higher ground clearances than today's cars, it is also used as a fashion statement on vehicles that would...
s along the sides. The gunmen jumped on the running boards and the car sped west on E. 5th Street towards the Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
, guns blazing.
A Ladies Garment Industry Union meeting had just ended, and dozens of laborers were milling in the street. When they heard the shots and saw the speeding Cruiser coming down the street, they tried to stop them. The gunmen then plowed through the crowd and shot randomly at the blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
, hitting six and killing two (plus a horse).
Masseria survived the point-blank hit attempt unscathed and was found by police in his upstairs bedroom shell-shocked. He was sitting up in his bed dazed, his ears were ringing from the proximity of the weapon fire, and there were two bullet holes through his straw hat
Straw hat
A straw hat is a brimmed hat that is woven out of straw or reeds. The hat is designed to protect the head from the sun and against heatstroke, but straw hats were also used in fashion and as a decorative element of a uniform.- Manufacture :...
, which he was still wearing on his head.
This incident gained Masseria new respect among superstitious Italian gangsters as "the man who can dodge bullets".
Morello leadership
The following month, Masseria arranged for a peace meeting with Umberto Valenti and former Morello leader Peter Morello, hinting that he was prepared to give up his aspirations to being the Boss. Valenti and three of his supporters arrived at the restaurant and were met by three of Masseria's men. The men chatted amiably for some time until Valenti realized that it was a set-up, Masseria was not coming, that Masseria and Morello had reached some sort of deal and he was the odd man out.Everyone went for their guns and started shooting. Two of Valenti's men went down and he made a run for it. The Masseria men gave chase but their aim was poor, and the next casualties were a street cleaner and an eight-year-old girl. Valenti jumped onto the running board of a passing taxi and began to return fire. Seeing their quarry about to escape, one of the pursuers took careful aim and dropped Valenti dead in the street. This gunman was always rumored to be Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Masseria now became head of the Morello family with Peter Morello as his number two. This may have fit in well with Peter Morello's desire to avoid attracting undue police attention. He was safer taking on a secondary role as a form of consiglieri, or senior adviser, behind the overt leader.
One of the favorite Masseria family hangouts was Venezia Restaurant on East 116th Street in East Harlem, Manhattan.
Joe the Boss
The death of Frankie YaleFrankie Yale
Francesco Ioele , better known as Frankie Uale or Frankie Yale, was a Brooklyn gangster and original employer of Al Capone before the latter moved to Chicago...
in July 1928 appears to have been the catalyst for Joe Masseria's ambition to become overall leader of all the Mafia gangs of New York.
In October 1928, Toto D'Aquilla, the Mafia leader in Brooklyn, was killed by Peter Morello and others. D'Aquilla was accosted in the street by three men after his regular visit to the doctor. The discussion became heated and one of the men drew a gun and shot D'Aquilla dead. There was known to be bad blood between D'Aquilla and the Morello gang, possibly arising out of resentment over D'Aquilla's rise to the position of "capo consigliere" within the New York Mafia, which had coincided with the decline in the fortunes of the Morello family. Alfred Mineo
Alfred Mineo
Alfredo "Al Mineo" Manfredi was a Brooklyn based New York mobster, who headed a strong American Mafia crime family during the Castellammarese War. Mineo's organization would eventually become the present-day Gambino crime family....
and his enforcer Steve Ferrigno
Steve Ferrigno
Stefano "Steve" Ferrigno was a New York mobster of Sicilian origin who led an important Italian criminal gang in the 1920s. Ferrigno was assassinated along with Alfred Mineo during the so-called Castellammarese War....
, allies of Joe Masseria, then took over leadership of the D'Aquilla family.
In June 1929, Ciro Terranova
Ciro Terranova
Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova was a New York City gangster and one time underboss of the Morello crime family.-Early life:Ciro Terranova was born in the town of Corleone, Sicily...
was questioned in connection with the murder of Frankie Marlow. Marlow was last seen having dinner with Terranova the night he was shot to death. As a fellow Sicilian, Marlow may have been approached, on behalf of the new Unione Siciliane
Unione Siciliane
The Unione Siciliana was a Sicilian-American fraternal organization which eventually was rumored to have controlled much of the Italian American vote within the United States during the early twentieth century...
president, with requests that he pay tribute or otherwise comply with the wishes of Joe Masseria. Frankie Marlow was a leading figure in the New York crime scene, he would certainly have dismissed any such advances. Perhaps he was guilty of under-rating the seriousness of the threat posed by the "old fashioned" Morello's and paid the ultimate price. Ballistics evidence has shown that the bullets that killed Marlow were fired by a submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
owned by Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
's Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
, and that the same weapon was also used in the killing of Yale and for the Saint Valentine's Day massacre. The weapon eventually came into the hands of the authorities after the arrest of Fred “Killer” Burke
Fred “Killer” Burke
Fred "Killer" Burke was a Midwestern armed robber and contract killer responsible for many crimes during the Prohibition era. He is considered a prime suspect in the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929-Early life:...
, a St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
gunman who participated in the St. Valentine's Day plot.
Masseria then moved in on what had been Yale's organization and Anthony Carfano
Anthony Carfano
Anthony Carfano , also known as "Little Augie Pisano", was a New York gangster who became a caporegime, or group leader, in the Luciano crime family under mob bosses Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello....
, 'Little Augie Pisano' became head of the Yale family. Carfano's group retained control of Yale's gambling and bootlegging interests, however it may have been at this time that the Waterfront racket was reallocated and came under the control of the D'Aquilla family, headed by Mineo.
Joe Masseria was now "Joe the Boss," head of the largest Mafia grouping in New York. Other Sicilian gangsters who were not yet part of his empire, such as Ice racketeer and Bronx Mafia boss Gaetano "Tom" Reina
Gaetano Reina
Gaetano "Tommy" Reina was the first Boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City.-Early years:Gaetano Reina was born in September 1889 in Corleone, Sicily to Giacomo Reina and Carmela Runmore. In the early 1900s the Reina family moved to New York City and settled on 107th Street in East Harlem...
, took note of what had happened to D'Aquilla and Marlow and soon began to pay homage.
However, this does not mean to say that Joe the Boss was now in control of all organised crime across New York, or even that he was the single most powerful gangster in the city. The labour union extortion kings Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
Louis Buchalter
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. After Dutch Schultz' request of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill his enemy, U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey, the Commission decided to kill Schultz in order to prevent the hit...
and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro
Jacob Shapiro
Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro was a New York mobster who, with his partner Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, controlled industrial labor racketeering in New York for two decades and established the Murder, Inc. organization.-Early years:...
and bootleggers like Waxey Gordon
Waxey Gordon
Waxey Gordon was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition he was caught up in a power struggle following his death...
and Owney Madden
Owney Madden
Owney "The Killer" Madden was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.-Early life:Owen Vincent Madden was born at 25 Somerset Street, in...
were making more money, commanded equally powerful gangs and had better political connections. There were also others on the rise who did not recognise his authority such as Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
and the Broadway Mob. The Mafia at this time was still largely centered around the exploitation of their fellow Italians.
The imperial gaze of Joe the Boss now fell upon "the Broadway Mob" and he identified Charles "Lucky" Luciano as the logical recipient of his demands for homage and tribute. This was because Luciano was the only Sicilian member of that group - Frank Costello
Frank Costello
Frank Costello was an Italian New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.Nicknamed the "Prime Minister of the Underworld", he became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia...
and Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia was boss of what is now called the Gambino crime family, one of New York City's Five Families, from 1951-1957. He also ran a gang of contract killers called Murder Inc. which enforced the decisions of the Commission, the ruling council of the American Mafia...
were Calabrian
Calabrian
Calabrian may refer to:* Calabrian languages, the languages and dialects spoken in Calabria* Calabrians, the people of Calabria, southern Italy...
, Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis , also known as "Joey A", "Joe Adone", "Joe Arosa", "James Arosa", and "Joe DiMeo", was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families.-Early years:Adonis was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano,...
and Vito Genovese
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese was an Italian mafioso who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family. Genovese served as mentor to future mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante...
were from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, and Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
and Bugsy Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
were Jewish. Luciano had little interest in the rites and rituals of secret societies, and he initially found the attentions of the traditional Mafiosi irritating. However, it was an irritation he could not afford to ignore. Eventually he would come to see the accident of his birthplace as a stroke of good fortune: the Mafia were the most exclusionist of the major ethnic crime groupings, and it added to his value amongst his allies that he could wield authority over them by virtue of being seen as one of them, while his other friends would always be seen as inferior outsiders.
The Castellamarese War
Masseria next began to put pressure on a Mafia family known as the Castellamarese from Sicily. Nicola "Cola" Schiro, the groups official leader, turned out to be a weak man, nothing more than the avatar of more senior men elsewhere. He paid Masseria $10,000 and then "went into hiding", although in fact he was never heard from again. After the disappearance of Cola Schiro, Joe the Boss attempted to install his own candidate as the new leader, as he had with the other families. He supported Joe Parrino; however, Parrino was soon shot to death in a restaurant.Instead, his place as leader was taken by Salvatore Maranzano
Salvatore Maranzano
Salvatore Maranzano was an organized crime figure from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss in the United States. He instigated the Castellammarese War to seize control of the American Mafia operations, and briefly became the Mafia's "Boss of Bosses"...
. Maranzano was sent with several other men from Sicily in 1927 to gain control of the American Mafia for Don Vito Cascio Ferro
Vito Cascio Ferro
Vito Cascioferro or Vito Cascio Ferro , also known as Don Vito, was a prominent member of the Sicilian Mafia. He also operated for several years in the United States...
. Masseria issued a decree ordering the death of Maranzano. This event marks the formal beginning of the Castellamarese War.
Murder victim
On April 15, 1931, Joe Masseria was assassinated at one of his favorite restaurants, Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney IslandConey Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, Gangland legend has it that Masseria dined with Charles "Lucky" Luciano before his death. While they played cards, Luciano excused himself to the bathroom, when Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
, Vito Genovese
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese was an Italian mafioso who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family. Genovese served as mentor to future mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante...
, Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia was boss of what is now called the Gambino crime family, one of New York City's Five Families, from 1951-1957. He also ran a gang of contract killers called Murder Inc. which enforced the decisions of the Commission, the ruling council of the American Mafia...
and Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis , also known as "Joey A", "Joe Adone", "Joe Arosa", "James Arosa", and "Joe DiMeo", was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families.-Early years:Adonis was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano,...
rushed in and shot Masseria to death, his four bodyguards having mysteriously disappeared. The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
reported that the boss died "with the ace of spades, the death card, clutched in a bejeweled paw."
However, both the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
paint a different picture. Neither newspaper mentions Luciano being present, although Luciano was brought in for questioning by the police. The Herald Tribune reported that Masseria arrived at the restaurant in his armoured steel car in the company of three other men shortly before 3pm. Scarpato’s mother-in-law, Anna Tammaro, waited while they played cards. According to two eyewitnesses, two well-dressed young men drove up and parked their car at the curb. They strolled leisurely into the place, and the shooting began immediately. Some 20 shots were fired. Then the two gunmen came out without any visible signs of haste, entered their automobile and drove away. Masseria was hit with four bullets in the back and one in the back of the head, identified as .32 and .38 caliber, and in an alley next to the restaurant, police recovered two revolvers.
The 2010 book "New York City Gangland" offers an eyewitness account of events surrounding Masseria's murder which also involves the restaurant's owner, Gerardo Scarpato. Scarpato was allegedly extorting money from a small businessman who unexpectedly arrived by car at the Villa Tammaro on April 15, 1931. "As soon as I reached the place", wrote the frightened entrepreneur to the Brooklyn District Attorney, "Scarpato ran over and asked me what I was doing there. Scarpato told me to leave right away and not mention to anyone I had been there that day. I left. Late that night, I read that Joe Masseria had been shot at the Villa Tammaro. This was my first taste of what these men were capable of."
Further reading
- Nash, Arthur. New York City Gangland 2010. ISBN 9780738573144.
- Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
America. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55849-345-X - Bonanno, JosephJoseph BonannoJoseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
. A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. ISBN 0-312-97923-1 - Capeci, JerryJerry CapeciGerald "Jerry" Capeci is an American journalist and author who specializes in coverage of the Five Mafia crime families of New York City. Capeci has been described by news organizations, such as CNN and BBC, as an expert on the American Mafia.-Gang Land:Capeci writes a column called Gang Land...
. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2 - Critchley, David. The Origin of Organized Crime: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. New York, Routledge, 2008.
- Dash, MikeMike DashMike Dash is a Welsh writer, historian and researcher. He is best known for his books and articles looking at unusual historical events, anomalous phenomena, and strange beliefs.-Biography:...
. The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. London, Simon & Schuster, 2009. - Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-016357-7
- Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
- Mannion, James. 101 Things You Didn't Know About The Mafia: The Lowdown on Dons, Wiseguys, Squealers and Backstabbers. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2005. ISBN 1-59337-267-1
- Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-7091-3966-7
- Milhorn, H. Thomas. Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1-58112-489-9
- Peterson, Robert W. Crime & the American Response. New York: Facts on File, 1973. ISBN 0-87196-227-6
- Ferrara, Eric. Gangsters, Murderers & Weirdos of the Lower East Side; A self-guided walking tour 2008
- Tom Papania, a Mafia enforcer who worked for the Gambino and Castellano headships is the grandson of Masseria.
External links
- New York City Gangland by Arthur Nash
- The American "Mafia": Who was Who ? - Giuseppe Masseria
- Gangrule.com Biography & autopsy details
- Spartacus Educational
- Joe Masseria at Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
- Tom Papania video clip detailing Masseria heritage