Castellammarese War
Although most Americans might not recognize, the name they definitely understand the image the gang war portrays. In the late 1920s, a bloody power struggle for territory in the prohibition racket known as the Castellammarese War broke out between New York City’s two biggest Italian-American criminal gangs: Masseria and Maranzano. A rising Mobster Lucky Luciano helped Sicilian-born crime boss Salvatore Maranzano won, he crowned himself boss of all bosses, in New York. Maranzano soon after believed that his ally Luciano had too much power and too many men to be left alive, so he secretly planned to have him killed. Unlucky for him “Lucky” Luciano found out about it and had him murdered almost immediately.
Luciano then founded the formation of a central organization called the Commission to serve as a sort of national board of directors for the American Mafia which at that time consisted of around twenty crime families across the country. New York was divided into five main Mafia families while every other city was only allowed one family at a time. The families for the most part were all Italian with the exception of a few individuals, who had earned their place at the table. The Commission’s main purpose was to mediate disagreements and set policies among the families. This system would be the base for the Italian American Mafia operations that still go on to this day.
