Joe Masseria

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Lore & Background

Giuseppe Masseria was born on January 17, 1886, in Menfi, Province of Agrigento, Sicily, to a family of tailors. As a youth, he moved to Marsala, in the Province of Trapani. He arrived in the United States in 1902 and joined the Morello crime family based in Harlem and parts of Little Italy in southern Manhattan. In 1909, he was convicted of burglary and received a suspended sentence. On May 23, 1913, he was sentenced to four to six years in prison for third-degree burglary. By the early 1920s, Masseria and boss Salvatore D'Aquila vied for power in New York, leading to war. In 1920, Masseria recruited Lucky Luciano as one of his gunmen. On May 8, 1922, D'Aquila's gunman Umberto Valenti killed the Morello/Terranova boss Vincenzo Terranova and his underboss Silva Tagliagamba. That night, Valenti attacked Masseria on Grand Street; Masseria escaped but was arrested while fleeing the scene. On August 9, 1922, Masseria survived another assassination attempt, gaining the reputation as "the man who can dodge bullets" after being found with two bullet holes through his straw hat. Two days later, on August 11, Valenti was murdered in a cafe, allegedly by Luciano. After this, Masseria became known as "Joe the Boss."

Reader's Guide

Masseria became head of the Morello family, with Giuseppe Morello as his consigliere. After Salvatore D'Aquila was killed on October 10, 1928, Masseria was selected as the new capo dei capi that winter. He began pressuring other mafia gangs for monetary tributes and was accused of orchestrating the 1930 murders of Gaspar Milazzo in Detroit and Gaetano Reina in the Bronx. This sparked the Castellammarese War against Salvatore Maranzano. Masseria's consigliere Giuseppe Morello was killed on August 15, 1930, while collecting cash receipts in his East Harlem office. The war ended when Luciano, in a secret deal with Maranzano, agreed to engineer Masseria's death. On April 15, 1931, Luciano lured Masseria to a meeting at a restaurant called Nuova Villa Tammaro on Coney Island. While they played cards, Luciano excused himself to the bathroom, and gunmen—reportedly Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel—murdered Masseria. Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova drove the getaway car. No one was convicted; Luciano had an alibi. Masseria is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.

Did You Know?

• Masseria was known as 'the man who can dodge bullets' after surviving an assassination attempt on August 9, 1922, with two bullet holes through his straw hat.
• On May 8, 1922, Umberto Valenti killed the Morello/Terranova boss Vincenzo Terranova and his underboss Silva Tagliagamba in a single day.
• Masseria's consigliere Giuseppe Morello was killed on August 15, 1930, while collecting cash receipts in his East Harlem office.
• Masseria's autopsy report shows that he died on an empty stomach.
• No one was ever convicted in Masseria's murder; police suspected John 'Silk Stockings' Giustra, but the case was dropped after Giustra was murdered on July 9, 1931.