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Masseria
Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria (; January 17, 1886April 15, 1931) was an Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York City Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 to 1931. In 1930, he battled in the Castellammarese War to take over the criminal activities in New York City. The war ended with his murder on April 15, 1931, in a hit ordered by his own lieutenant, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, in an agreement with rival faction head Salvatore Maranzano. Early life Giuseppe Masseria was born on January 17, 1886, in Menfi, Province of Agrigento, Sicily, in a family of tailors. When he was young, he moved to the town of Marsala, in the Province of Trapani. Masseria arrived in the United States in 1902. He then became part of the Morello crime family based in Harlem and parts of Little Italy in southern Manhattan. Masseria was a contemporary of other captains of that mafia family such as Gaetano Reina. In 1909, Mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castellammarese War
The Castellammarese War () was a bloody power struggle for control of the American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano that took place in New York City from February 26, 1930, until April 15, 1931. The feud was named after the Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo, Maranzano's birthplace. Maranzano's faction prevailed in the conflict and divided New York's crime families into the Five Families; Maranzano declared himself '' capo di tutti i capi'' ("boss of all bosses"). However, Maranzano was murdered in September 1931 on orders of Lucky Luciano, who established a power-sharing arrangement through a governing body called the Commission, giving equal stature to all Mafia families to avoid such feuds in the future. Background In the 1920s, Mafia operations in the United States were controlled by Giuseppe "Joe The Boss" Masseria, whose faction consisted mainly of gangsters from Sicily, Calabria (the 'Ndrangheta) and Campania (the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genovese Crime Family
The Genovese crime family (), also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. The Genovese family has generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia crime family, Philadelphia, Cleveland crime family, Cleveland, Patriarca crime family, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime family, Buffalo crime families. The modern family was founded by Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano and was known as the Luciano crime family from 1931 to 1957, when Vito Genovese became crime boss, boss. Genovese was head of the family during the McClellan hearings in 1963, which gave the Five Families their current names. Originally in control of the waterfront on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Manhattan as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five Families
The Five Families refer to five American Mafia, Italian American Mafia Crime family, crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were Organized crime, organized by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War. Maranzano reorganized the Italian American gangs in New York City into the Maranzano, Profaci, Mangano, Luciano, and Gagliano families, which are now known as the Bonanno crime family, Bonanno, Colombo crime family, Colombo, Gambino crime family, Gambino, Genovese crime family, Genovese, and Lucchese crime family, Lucchese families, respectively. Each family had a demarcated territory and an organizationally structured hierarchy and reported to the same overarching governing entity. Initially, Maranzano intended each family's boss to report to him as the ''capo dei capi'' ("boss of all the bosses"). This led to his assassination that September, and that role was abolished for The Commission (mafia), the Commission, a ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Luciano
Charles "Lucky" Luciano ( ; ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian gangster who operated mainly in the United States. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of the Italian-American Mafia for the establishment of The Commission (mafia), the Commission in 1931, after he abolished the Capo dei capi, boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War. He was also the first official Crime boss, boss of the modern Genovese crime family. In 1936, Luciano was tried and convicted for compulsory prostitution and running a prostitution racketeering, racket after years of investigation by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. Although he was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, an agreement was struck with the U.S. Department of the Navy through his Jewish Mob associate, Meyer Lansky, to provide na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umberto Valenti
Umberto "The Ghost" Valenti (August 14, 1891 – August 11, 1922) was a Sicilian-born New York City gangster and prominent member of the D'Aquila crime family during the 1910s. He is frequently confused with Rocco Valenti, a Camorra gunman of the same era. Career Valenti was born in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily and immigrated to America in 1910. After settling in the Lower East Side of New York, he joined the Mafia family led by capo di tutti capi Salvatore D'Aquila. He was said to have been the shooter in the May 1914 murder of D'Aquila's chief rival, Italian Harlem mobster Fortunato Lomonte. After this successful hit, Valenti became known as D'Aquila's chief assassin. By the beginning of Prohibition, Valenti was considered one of the best gunmen in New York; he was suspected in at least twenty murders. During this period, Umberto Valenti had run afoul of his boss, Salvatore D'Aquila, and was one of twelve men (including Giuseppe Morello, Ignazio Lupo, Ciro Terranova a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvatore Maranzano
Salvatore Maranzano (; July 31, 1886 – September 10, 1931), nicknamed Little Caesar, was an Italian-American mobster from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led what later would become the Bonanno crime family in New York City. He instigated the Castellammarese War in 1930 to seize control of the American Mafia, winning the war after the murder of rival faction head Joe Masseria in April 1931. He then briefly became the Mafia's '' capo di tutti capi'' ("boss of all bosses") and formed the Five Families in New York City but was murdered on September 10, 1931, on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who established the Commission, in which families shared power to prevent future turf wars. Life and career Early years Salvatore Maranzano was the youngest of 12 children born to Domenico Maranzano and Antonina Pisciotta. Five of his siblings lived to adulthood: Mariano, Angelo, Nicolo, Giuseppe, and Angela. As a youngster, Maranz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silva Tagliagamba
Silvio Tagliagamba (died June 1922) was an early New York mobster and a member of the Morello crime family. Tagliagamba served as a bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ... for mob boss Umberto Valenti during the early 1920s. On May 8, 1922, Valenti allegedly murdered mobster Vincent Morello in Manhattan. When Morello's ally, Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, heard about the shooting, he supposedly set an ambush for Valenti later that day outside the Liquor Exchange, an open-air market for bootleggers, in downtown Manhattan. Other accounts suggest that it was Valenti, not Masseria, who set up the ambush. In any event, during the ambush, Masseria shot and fatally wounded Tagliagamba. Both Valenti and Tagliagamba escaped the scene while Masseria was arrested. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian-American Mafia
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society and organized crime group. The terms Italian Mafia and Italian Mob apply to these US-based organizations, as well as the separate yet related Sicilian Mafia or other organized crime groups in Italy, or ethnic Italian crime groups in other countries. These organizations are often referred to by its members as Cosa Nostra (, "Our Thing" or "This Thing of Ours") and by the American government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN). The organization's name is derived from the original ''Mafia'' or ''Cosa Nostra'', the Sicilian Mafia, with "American Mafia" originally referring simply to Mafia groups from Sicily operating in the United States. The Mafia in the United States emerged in impoverished Italian immigrant neighborhoods in New York's East Harlem (or " Italian Harlem"), the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn; also emerging in o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaetano Reina
Gaetano Reina (; September 27, 1889 – February 26, 1930) was an Italian-American gangster. He was an early American Mafia boss who was the founder of what has for many years been called the Lucchese crime family in New York City. He led the family until his murder on February 26, 1930, on the orders of Joe Masseria. Early years Reina was born on September 27, 1889, in Corleone, Sicily, to Giacomo Reina and Carmela Rumore. Critchley p. 86 In the early 1900s, the Reina family moved to New York City and settled on 107th Street in East Harlem. Reina, along with his brother Antonio, began working with members of the Morello crime family. He married Angelina Olivera and the couple had nine children: five sons Giacomo - who became a member of the Lucchese family - Capeci p. 61 Henry, Sam, John and Bernard, and four daughters, Anna, Carmela "Mildred" Valachi - who married Joe Valachi in 1932 - Rose Bongrieco and Lucy Sterling. The family lived in a home on Rochambeau Avenue in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gangster
A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more organized crime, complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series, and video games. Usage In modern usage, the term "gang" is generally used for a criminal organization and the term "gangster" invariably describes a criminal. Much has been written on the subject of gangs, although there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a gang or what situations lead to gang formation and evolution. There is agreement that the members of a gang have a sense of common identity and belonging and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
