The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob - Softcover

Sullivan, Patrick F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1466311045 ISBN 13: 9781466311046

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

Synopsis

The origins of the New York Mafia

To view 80 photographs from the book or read a sample chapter, please visit the books blogspot at    originsnewyorkmob.blogspot.com/

About this title

From the Author

CONTACT ME
Patrick Francis Sullivan
patrickf.sullivan@yahoo.com

From the Inside Flap

The origins of the New York Mafia start with Giuseppe Masseria, AKA Joe the Boss.
Masseria was the most powerful Mafia don in New York City from 1920 till 1930, with absolute control over the Lower East Side. An old world Mafia enforcer, he fled to the US from Sicily in 1903 to avoid a murder charge that even the Sicilian Mafia couldn't fix.

Forced into hiding in New York, Masseria began work as an enforcer for the Morello organization, a Mafia gang, families had not yet been established in the United States, that operated on the Lower East Side, under the sponsorship of two ambitious gangsters, Iganzio Saietta and Ciro Terranova.

But Masseria was equally ambitious, and after Saietta was sent to prison and Terranova retired from crime, having struck it rich by cornering the national artichoke market, Masseria, within seven years, controlled an enormous part of the rackets in New York.

Masseria was an old world Mafia Don, a tyrannically, strict bigot, who ordered his top men, young gangsters like Charles "Lucky" Luciano, to stop associating with Jewish mobsters. It was, he said, "unwise" to have relationships outside the Sicilian organization.

As for the Irish gangs that surrounded him and constantly encroached into his rackets, Masseria said it was easier to kill them than to bring them into his organization. As a result, his organization was insular and almost constantly involved in a street war.

Joe Masseria ruled supreme until 1927 when Maranzano, a native of Castellamarese del Gulfo, Sicily, came to the U.S. with permission of the Mafia Chieftain there, Cascio Ferro, with orders to bring New York under the control of the European Mafia and prepare the way for Ferro to take over. However Ferro was arrested by the Mussolini's fascists and imprisoned for life and never made it to the U.S, leaving Maranzano free reign in the United States.

Unlike most of the Mafia leaders of his time, who were crude and simple peasants, Maranzano, was a well-educated and somewhat refined former seminarian. He was also a brutal murderer who shot and stabbed his way into Masseria's rackets, causing the Castellamarese war, named after the town of Castellammare del Gulfo that spawned Maranzano and his young Americanized followers, Joe Bonanno; Jose Profaci; and Stefano Magaddino

At first, an arrogant Masseria wasn't concerned with the younger Maranzano. He responded in the old way of doing things, he filled the streets with gunmen and ordered them to kill anyone associated with the Castellamarese. While that plan may have worked in Sicily, in the new world, it failed completely largely because Masseria's men were independent business people with ongoing financial interests in prostitution; narcotics, extortion and bootleg beer and street wars were extremely expensive and took them away from the more important matters.

Masseria responded by bringing in new men from Italy and paying his American crews more money as a means to keep their loyalty, but eventually his war chest started to deplete. Added to that was the fact that Masseria was extremely unpopular with his crews who were reluctant to rush into an ongoing war for a man they detested largely because he refused to share his fortunes.

At the same time, the young Turks recognized the newly arrived Maranzano as just another tyrant. The leader of the Young Turks, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, decided to kill both Masseria and Maranzano and carry through with his American vision to organize crime by ridding it of the old world mentality of the so-called "Mustache Pete's" who spent their days plotting and counter plotting old world vendettas.
Luciano had been working for Masseria but soon Maranzano learned of Luciano's talents and intelligence and was pleased when Luciano expressed an interest in switching over to his side. However, Luciano was as calculating and cunning as any old world Don and convinced Maranzano that he could turn over to his side while secretly remaining Masseria's employ as a sleeper agent.

On April 15, 1931, Luciano, with Maranzano's approval, made his move. He invited Masseria to a Coney Island restaurant, The Nuova Villa Tammaro, because Masseria knew the owner and would be comfortable there. After a meal, when the restaurant was empty of customers, Luciano excused himself and went to the bathroom.
As he did this, four gunmen, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, future boss of what would be the Gambino crime family and Bugsy Siegel, future builder of Las Vegas, entered the restaurant shot Masseria dead. With Masseria gone, the Castellamarese War ended with a cost of between fifty to one hundred lives.

Maranzano now declared himself Capo di tutti Capi -- or Boss of all Bosses and called for a meeting with all the Mafia members in the United States. A huge banquet hall was rented which Maranzano had decorated with religious symbols to give off an air of reverence.

He addressed the meeting by explaining that his new organization would have five lieutenants below him and under them, crew chiefs, or Capo's and soldiers assigned to each "Crew" which would be made up of between 15 and 25 members of the Mafia, or "Soldiers". He further ruled that there would be no more vendetta killings and only those of Sicilian decent would be permitted to be involved in this organization.

Several days after the meeting, Maranzano began plotting the murder or his subordinates, especially Luciano. Others to be killed included Vito Genovese, future leader of the mob family that would bear his name, Al Capone of Chicago and Joe Adonis. To carry out the ghastly chore, Maranzano hired an independent Irish hoodlum named Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll.

At the same time, Luciano plotted his move against Maranzano. On September 10, 1931, six months after Masseria was killed and the same day that Maranzano had planned to have Luciano murdered, Maranzano was executed as he sat in his office. True to the new world order, Luciano sent Jewish thugs to carry out the murder. With Maranzano dead, Lucky Luciano was Boss and organized crime in America changed forever.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1466311045
• ISBN 13: 9781466311046
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 66