Frank Costello - The Castellammarese War

The Castellammarese War

By 1928, Costello and Luciano were considered to be two young, ambitious, and powerful gangsters on the rise. However, an internal conflict in the Italian underworld would sidetrack Costello and associates. Masseria was facing a challenge from Maranzano, a recent arrival from Palermo, Sicily who was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. When Maranzano arrived in New York in 1925, his access to money and manpower let him quickly set up rumrunning, bootlegging, extortion and gambling operations that directly competed with Masseria, Costello's boss. On October 10, 1928, Joe Masseria eliminated his top rival for the coveted "boss of bosses" title, Brooklyn boss, Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. However, Masseria still had to deal with the powerful and influential Maranzano and his Castellammarese Clan.

Joe Masseria became an underworld dictator, requiring absolute loyalty and obedience from the other four New York families. In 1930, Masseria demanded a $10,000 tribute from the leader of Maranzano's crime family and got it. The Castellammarese Clan leader, Nicola "Cola" Schiro fled New York in fear, leaving Maranzano as the new leader. By 1931, a series of killings in Detroit, Chicago and New York involving Castellammarese clan members and associates caused Maranzano and his family to declare war against Joe Masseria and his allies. These allies included Costello and his associates, Luciano, Vito Genovese and Joe Adonis. Another Masseria ally was the large Mineo crime family (formerly D'Aquila), whose members included Costello associates Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, and Frank Scalice. The Castellammarese clan included Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno and Stefano Magaddino, the Profaci crime family which included Joseph Profaci and Joseph Magliocco, along with former Masseria allies the Riena family, which included Gaetano "Tom" Riena, Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano and Gaetano Lucchese.

The Castellammarese war raged on between the Masseria and Maranzano factions for almost two years. This internal war devastated the Prohibition era operations and street rackets that the New York families controlled with the Irish crime groups. The Castellammarese war cut into gang profits and in some cases completely destroyed the underworld rackets of crime family members.

Several of the younger gang members on both sides realized that if the war did not stop soon, the Italian crime families could be left on the fringe of New York's criminal underworld while the Irish crime bosses became dominant. However, it was inevitable that a breach would eventually occur due to a fundamental philosophical difference between the Old World crime bosses and their younger underlings. Masseria, Maranzano and others who had begun their careers in Italy were known as "Mustache Petes" because they were not willing to work with non-Italians, and were skeptical of dealing with non-Sicilians. Costello, Luciano and their group of "Young Turks," on the other hand, believed that as long as there was money to be made, they should deal with anyone regardless of ethnic roots. Costello, Luciano, Seigel and Lansky decided to end the Castellammarese War, and secretly planned to eliminate one "Mustache Pete" immediately, then bide their time and kill the other one.

Luciano and Costello set their plan in motion by secretly agreeing to betray Masseria if Maranzano would end the war. On April 15, 1931, Masseria was gunned down at Scarpato's restaurant in Coney Island by Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and Bugsy Seigel. Luciano then took over Masseria's family, with Costello as his consigliere.

However, at a secret meeting in Upstate New York, Maranzano surprised everyone by naming himself boss of all bosses. Although they had planned to get rid of Maranzano anyway, Costello and Luciano came to believe that Maranzano was even more power-hungry than Masseria had ever been, and moved up their timetable. Maranzano served as boss of bosses until September 10, 1931, when he was killed in his 9th floor Helmsley Building office in Manhattan by gunmen posing as IRS agents. Hired by Lansky and Luciano, the shooters allegedly included Schultz gang lieutenant, Abraham "Bo" Weinberg and Murder, Inc. gunman, Samuel "Red" Levine. It has been estimated that the Castellammarese War led to about 60 deaths among gangsters.