The Castellammarese War: The Real-Life Rise of the Godfathers

“Now you come to me and you say - ‘Don Corleone, give me justice.’ But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather.” Such are the words of Don Vito Corleone, Marlon Brando’s iconic character in Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather, and in the Francis Ford Coppola films of the same name. Written as an amalgamation of real-life figures within the New York Mafia, Vito Corleone represented the head of his fictional crime family, and a powerful player within the shadowy underbelly of the American 1940s and 1950s. But even the austere, elderly Vito Corleone would have represented a new breed within the Italian Mafia—had he been a real person, of course. A crime family like Corleone’s was just part of a broader crime syndicate in New York, one that only took its modern shape in the 1930s, after a very real series of events turned the Mafia’s traditions and customs on its head. In the Castellammarese War of 1930 and 1931, two Sicilian mob bosses would wage war across New York City in a violent struggle for dominance. The one that emerged victorious would become the Capo di Tutti i Capi, the boss of all bosses, before becoming victim to the next generation of mobsters rising from the ashes that the boss of all bosses had left in his wake.

Key Takeaways

• The 18th Amendment and Prohibition created a massive black market that transformed the Sicilian Mafia from small-time operations into organized criminal enterprises requiring lawyers, recruiters, and hierarchical leadership.
• Giuseppe ‘Joe the Boss’ Masseria’s killing of ally Gaetano Reina in late February 1930 triggered the Castellammarese War by driving the Reina crime family to Maranzano’s side.
• Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese secretly negotiated with Maranzano and arranged Joe the Boss’ assassination on April 15, 1931, at a Coney Island restaurant during a card game.
• Salvatore Maranzano created the Five Families structure dividing New York among the Luciano, Profaci, Gagliano, Maranzano, and Scalice families, each with a boss, underboss, consigliere, and capos.
• Maranzano’s declaration of himself as Capo di Tutti i Capi led directly to his assassination on September 10, 1931, by a team from the Jewish Mafia that included Bugsy Siegel.
• Lucky Luciano replaced singular Mafia leadership with the Commission, a ruling committee that modeled the Mafia after a major corporation and opened partnerships with non-Italian criminal organizations.

Prohibition, Masseria, Maranzano, and Mafioso Factionalism

On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed into law. The item it regulated: alcohol, and with a policy of complete and total prohibition on the sale of it for human consumption. Although it was known in its time as the “Noble Experiment,” Prohibition’s attempt to outlaw the drink was in reality a very simple fix to a series of very complex problems. Simply banning alcohol doesn’t make people stop wanting to drink it. What it does do is create a black market, and the American black market of this time was more than ready to add another trade to its portfolio. In the early 1920s, the Sicilian Mafia had gained a controlling share of the market on illegal business in many parts of the United States. In New York, the group’s influence had only continued to swell, and a wave of immigration from Sicily, brought on by the rise of Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party in Italy, swelled the Mafia’s ranks with new recruits. This was perfectly timed to coincide with growing demand in the illegal alcohol market, and the Mafia’s ranks of foot soldiers stepped right in to meet the public’s needs, where legitimate business fell away. With its ubiquitous role in American society both before and since, alcohol sales and bootlegging was a much bigger business than prostitution, gambling, protection, or any of the other traditional services the Mafia provided, and the factions that made the most of their new situation were able to far eclipse the growth of their competitors. With dominant factions and new enlistments came a level of organization that the American underground hadn’t seen before. The Mafia couldn’t just consist of one halfway-decent gangster and a half-dozen thugs per operation; they needed lawyers, they needed recruiters, they needed men to transport and protect their product. They needed not just bosses, but underbosses, and leaders on the street who could be trusted to make their own decisions with a valuable enterprise. The groups that were able to organize then gained another competitive edge, and could force their competitors to join, or waste away on the small sliver of profit they could access by themselves. During the Prohibition era, the Italian Mafia in the United States was largely under control of one man: Joe the Boss. Born Giuseppe Masseria, his enterprise consisted mostly of Sicilians like himself, with other recruits from the Calabria and Campania regions of Italy. With the help of a wide cast of characters, including Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Masseria rose to the top of New York’s crime scene. However, Joe the Boss was not universally loved within the crime world, nor was he a particularly effective crime boss or a particularly pleasant person to get along with. He also didn’t totally represent Sicily’s own will in the US, and with a less-than-iron grip on his position, senior gangsters within Sicily began to eye Joe the Boss’ mob structure in New York with a somewhat hungrier gaze.

Don Ferro Sends Maranzano to Challenge Joe the Boss

The first to make a move was Don Vito Ferro, a Sicilian with a base of operations in the town of Castellammare del Golfo, on the part of Sicily’s coast that lies closest to the Atlantic. But Don Ferro didn’t come to America himself to challenge Joe the Boss Masseria; instead, he sent a young, trusted associate, a Sicilian named Salvatore Maranzano, to intervene on his behalf. Maranzano was everything Masseria wasn’t: an authoritative presence in the underworld, a student of historical leaders like Julius Caesar, and a man who had carefully positioned himself inside the American legitimate and illegitimate business sectors at once, using a legitimate real estate company as a front for his bootlegging and other illegal acts. Maranzano leveraged his own network of underbosses and enforcers, who had often run up against Joe the Boss’ operation in their time sharing the bootlegging market. It wasn’t uncommon for various Mafia factions to go to war in the streets, hijacking each other’s alcohol shipments and killing off each other’s muscle. While this was a short-term gain for whichever gangster was stealing the other’s product, it was a distraction from the broader goal of collective enrichment, and frankly, it was bad for business. Maranzano was Don Ferro’s choice to take over the market, and funnel profits in a single direction.

Masseria versus Maranzano: The War Erupts

By 1930, the hostilities between Masseria’s entrenched leadership and Maranzano’s faction began to boil over. Early in 1930, tensions between both sides escalated with more and more frequent violence in the streets. Frustrated by his sense that his authority within the underground was diminishing, Joe the Boss had begun to lash outward, ordering the death of a Detroit mobster who had humiliated him. But it wasn’t Joe the Boss’ first high-profile assassination order that year, but his second, that would get him into hot water. In late February, he ordered the killing of Gaetano Reina, head of his own crime family in the Bronx and East Harlem. Reina was a powerful player in the city—he leveraged a total monopoly on the sale and distribution of ice boxes in the Bronx. Reina had been an ally of Joe the Boss for years, but after losing faith in his leadership, Reina went over to Maranzano’s side. In return for his betrayal, Joe the Boss had him killed, which ended up being an excellent indicator to the Reina crime family that they were right to leave Joe the Boss behind. This raised tensions between Joe the Boss and Maranzano to a boiling point, and when Joe the Boss took out his frustrations on another ally of the Maranzano syndicate, Maranzano struck back. In August of 1930, the Castellammerese faction under Maranzano executed one of Joe the Boss’ key enforcers. Two weeks later, the Reina family killed the man who had taken over Gaetano Reina’s ice-box monopoly, who had also been installed by Joe the Boss. These two killings brought the Castellammerese gangsters and the Reina family together for good, and never one to leave a killing unanswered, Joe the Boss ordered the death of an ally of Maranzano, this time a prominent Sicilian from Chicago. Both sides had escalated to a point of no return. Maranzano took control of the situation in short order, with the murders of a family leader, Alfred Mineo, and a deputy of Joe the Boss named Steve Ferrigno. Alfred Mineo’s replacement brought his crime family over to Maranzano’s authority, and so did a number of high-level members of Joe the Boss’ outfit who could see where the tide was turning. As winter dragged on into 1931, another lieutenant of Joe the Boss was gunned down, and two of his highest-ranking supporters, Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, began back-channeling communications with Maranzano. Luciano and Genovese weren’t necessarily interested in supporting Maranzano indefinitely, but both understood that an end to the war was more important than the continued survival of Joe the Boss. They reached a deal with Maranzano: Lucky Luciano would arrange for Joe the Boss to be killed, and in return, Maranzano would bring the violence to a close. The hit took place on April 15, 1931, during a card game between Joe the Boss, Lucky Luciano, and a few others at a restaurant in Coney Island. At a predetermined time, Luciano stepped away to use the restroom, and a team led by Vito Genovese gunned Joe the Boss down from behind. Nobody would be convicted for the murder, and with Joe the Boss’ death, the Castellammarese War came to an end.

Mustache Petes versus Young Turks: The Generational Divide

Maranzano assumed control of the Mafia across New York, and Joe the Boss’ loyalists were made an offer they couldn’t refuse. But the settlement did not pan out as planned, for two key reasons. The first was a choice by Maranzano himself, to grant control of each of the New York boroughs to a different crime family within the Mafia. These became known as the Five Families, the structure that still dictates the New York Mafia to this day: Lucky Luciano’s family, now the modern Genovese crime family; the Profaci family, now the Colombo family; the Gaglianos, now the Luccheses; the Maranzanos, now the Bonannos; and the Scalice family, now the Gambino family. Each family would be run by a crime boss, supported by an underboss—a direct subordinate—and a consigliere, an advisor. The underboss would oversee capos, or captains, who would run street crews of full-blooded Italian-American soldiers, assisted by so-called associates, from any background. This was an intentional choice by Maranzano both to make the Mafia more survivable in the long run, and to stratify control across New York, along with a number of other crime families he chose to run other cities and regions in America. The second reason was also because of Maranzano, but not intentionally. The war between Maranzano and Joe the Boss had been between two of the Mafia’s older generation, known as “Mustache Petes”—old-world businessmen from Sicily, distinguished by their long mustaches and their strong preference not to do business with anyone except other Italians. Maranzano and Joe the Boss might have had their differences on how the Mafia should be run, but they were in agreement about what it was, what the core essence of their syndicate should be. That was in stark contrast to the so-called Young Turks, the generation of mobsters who had been born or raised in the United States. These mobsters were far more forward-thinking, diverse in their own backgrounds, and willing to work with a diverse array of partners, rather than treating Irish or Jewish or other ethnic Mafias as enemies by default. Unlike Maranzano, Lucky Luciano was very much a Young Turk, and this critical difference is central to the story. From Luciano’s perspective, the entire Castellammarese War had been a waste of time and money, a distraction from the broader objective to run America’s black market. Luciano and the Young Turks had been alright with the removal of Joe the Boss, but that was because Joe the Boss had been bad for business, and Maranzano, despite being a far better strategist, was bad for business in all the same ways. As Lucky Luciano and the other new-generation leaders saw it, orthodoxy and traditionalism stood in the way of profit, rather than enhancing it as Maranzano and Joe the Boss had believed.

The Rise of the Five Families and the Commission

This became a problem when Maranzano instituted his second change to the Mafia’s structure: declaring himself the Capo di Tutti i Capi, the Boss of all Bosses. As Maranzano saw it, his hostile takeover of the New York Mafia meant that its business ran through him, no matter which regions or industries were controlled by each family. He declared himself Boss of all Bosses at a meeting between the crime families in upstate New York, a declaration which Lucky Luciano was not interested in supporting. For all Luciano cared, Maranzano had just marked himself as the same greedy overlord as Joe the Boss had been, but with an even bigger appetite for personal enrichment. The other families agreed, and stood aside to let Luciano do what he did best. Within a few months, Luciano had arranged for Maranzano to be killed. By this time, the two each understood the threat posed by the other, and Luciano was determined to move against Maranzano before Maranzano could move against him. Not only that, but Maranzano had gotten into some potential tax trouble with the federal government, a ticking time bomb that could have brought much of the Mafia down if it had shaken out the wrong way. On September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death in Manhattan by a team recruited from the Jewish Mafia, with his childhood friend, the now-famous mobster Bugsy Siegel, being one of the men involved with the hit. Although no new Boss of all Bosses stepped up in his place, Lucky Luciano essentially became a de-facto leader of the transition into the five-family structure. Although it’s not confirmed, the Night of the Sicilian Vespers was a rumored purge of other old-world Mustache Petes within the Mafia, allegedly orchestrated by Luciano. There’s only minimal evidence that any purge took place, but Luciano is known to have participated in at least a low-level purge of Maranzano’s core associates. In their place rose the Commission, a new superstructure for Mafia organization that Lucky Luciano championed as a way to increase both profits and willful cooperation with the Mafia’s broader goals. The five-family structure Maranzano had proposed remained in effect, but with a far less regimented structure that was designed to model the Mafia after a major corporation, rather than a small-time crime syndicate. While status as an Italian-American remained central to a person’s ability to become part of an Italian Mafia family itself, the generation of the Young Turks had no issue partnering with other organizations as long as they could pull their weight. And at the top, the Commission would replace a structure of singular leadership with rule by committee. No longer could any mobster declare themselves Boss of all Bosses; anyone who even had a remote claim to that title would no doubt be part of the Commission, and if any one upstart were to try and overthrow the existing system, the Commission would be there to beat them down. After all, in the world of the Young Turks, petty things like ideology, ethnicity, and vision for the future all came second to profit. The future of the Mafia would thus lie with the Commission, with the Five Families of New York, the families in charge of the rest of America’s cities, and any other sophisticated criminal outfit who could prove they deserved to be in on the action. In the wake of the Castellammarese War, the ultimate victor was not Joe the Boss, or Salvatore Maranzano, or the Sicilian dons who had, to a degree, been pulling strings in the American Mafia during and before the conflict. In fact, the victor wasn’t even Lucky Luciano, despite his status as architect of the old order’s downfall. Instead, it was the Mafia itself that won the war—an Italian-American crime syndicate, run by and for the Italian-American criminals and those they chose to include in the profits. Far more than a bitter power struggle, the Castellammarese War was the fall of an old order, and the rise of the more effective, more focused, and above all else, more profitable Mafia that still exists today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was it called the Castellammarese War?

The Castellammarese War was called as such because it involved a power struggle between partisans of Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, with the latter having ties to Castellammare del Golfo, a town in Sicily. This conflict took place from 1930 to 1931 and was a significant event in the history of the American Mafia. The war was fought between the Masseria and Maranzano factions, with the outcome determining the leadership of the American Mafia. The name ‘Castellammarese’ refers to the town of Castellammare del Golfo, which was the hometown of many of the Sicilian mobsters involved in the conflict. In 1928, Giuseppe ‘Joe the Boss’ Masseria was elected Capo dei Capi, or Boss of Bosses, of the American Mafia, setting the stage for the eventual conflict.

What caused the Castellammarese War?

The Castellammarese War was caused by a power struggle for control of the American Mafia between the partisans of Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. The conflict was fueled by the prohibition era in the United States, which created a lucrative black market for alcohol and led to the rise of organized crime. The war was also driven by the ambitions of senior gangsters within Sicily, who sought to expand their influence in the United States. By the late 1920s, the Italian Mafia in the United States was largely under the control of Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria, but his leadership was not universally accepted, and other factions began to challenge his authority. The conflict ultimately resulted in the deaths of over 120 men and led to a significant shift in the leadership of the American Mafia.

Who won the Castellammarese War?

Salvatore Maranzano emerged victorious in the Castellammarese War, becoming the Capo di Tutti i Capi, or boss of all bosses, of the American Mafia. However, his victory was short-lived, as he was eventually assassinated by Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano and his allies. Maranzano’s faction had gained the upper hand in the conflict, and he was able to establish himself as the dominant force in the American Mafia. Nevertheless, his reign was marked by violence and power struggles, and he ultimately fell victim to the same forces that had brought him to power. The war lasted from 1930 to 1931 and resulted in the deaths of many prominent mobsters, including Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria.

What was the outcome of the Castellammarese War?

The outcome of the Castellammarese War was the establishment of a new leadership structure in the American Mafia, with Salvatore Maranzano emerging as the Capo di Tutti i Capi. However, Maranzano’s reign was short-lived, and he was eventually assassinated by Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano and his allies. The war resulted in the deaths of over 120 men and led to a significant shift in the power dynamics of the American Mafia. The conflict also marked the beginning of a new era in organized crime, with the establishment of the Five Families and the rise of notorious mobsters like Luciano and Vito Genovese. In the end, the war paved the way for the modern American Mafia, with its complex hierarchy and code of conduct.

What did the Sicilian Mafia do?

The Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, played a significant role in the Castellammarese War, with many of its members involved in the conflict. The Sicilian Mafia had a long history of involvement in organized crime, dating back to the 19th century, and had established a strong presence in the United States during the early 20th century. During the Prohibition era, the Sicilian Mafia was able to capitalize on the lucrative black market for alcohol, and many of its members became wealthy and powerful as a result. The Sicilian Mafia also had a complex hierarchy and code of conduct, with a strong emphasis on loyalty and respect. In 1987, the Italian state convicted 338 mafiosi in a maxi-trial, and in 1993, the notorious mobster Salvatore Riina was finally captured. The Sicilian Mafia continues to be a major player in organized crime, with a significant presence in Italy and around the world.

Is the Mafia still a problem in Sicily?

Yes, the Mafia is still a problem in Sicily, although the organization has undergone significant changes in recent years. The Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, continues to be involved in organized crime, including extortion, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking. However, the organization has faced significant challenges in recent years, including the conviction of hundreds of mafiosi and the capture of top leaders like Salvatore Riina. In 1987, the Italian state convicted 338 mafiosi in a maxi-trial, and in 1993, Riina was finally captured. Despite these setbacks, the Mafia remains a powerful force in Sicily, and the Italian government continues to grapple with the problem of organized crime. The Mafia’s influence can be seen in many aspects of Sicilian life, from politics and business to culture and society.

Are Sicilian and Italian Mafia the same?

The Sicilian Mafia and the Italian Mafia are related but distinct organizations. The Sicilian Mafia, also known as Cosa Nostra, is a specific type of Mafia that originated in Sicily and has a unique history and culture. The Italian Mafia, on the other hand, refers to the broader phenomenon of organized crime in Italy, which includes the Sicilian Mafia as well as other organizations like the Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta. While the Sicilian Mafia is the most well-known and powerful of the Italian Mafia organizations, it is not the only one, and there are significant differences between the various groups. The Sicilian Mafia has a strong presence in the United States, where it has been involved in organized crime for over a century, and has played a significant role in the history of the American Mafia.

What started the Castellammarese War?

The Castellammarese War was started by a power struggle between Joe ‘The Boss’ Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, two prominent Sicilian mobsters who sought to control the American Mafia. The conflict was fueled by the prohibition era in the United States, which created a lucrative black market for alcohol and led to the rise of organized crime. The war was also driven by the ambitions of senior gangsters within Sicily, who sought to expand their influence in the United States. In 1928, Giuseppe ‘Joe the Boss’ Masseria was elected Capo dei Capi, or Boss of Bosses, of the American Mafia, setting the stage for the eventual conflict. The war began in 1930 and lasted for over a year, resulting in the deaths of over 120 men and a significant shift in the leadership of the American Mafia. The conflict was marked by violence and betrayal, with both sides suffering heavy losses.

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