Joe Masseria
Mafia boss who led the Genovese family and died in the Castellammarese War.
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Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria was an Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. Born in Sicily in 1886 to a family of tailors, he immigrated to the United States in 1902 and joined the Morello crime family, operating in Harlem and parts of Little Italy. By the early 1920s, he was vying for power against boss Salvatore D'Aquila, a conflict marked by violent attempts on Masseria’s life.
In 1922, after surviving a shooting in which bullets pierced his straw hat, he gained a reputation as a man who could dodge bullets. His rival Umberto Valenti was murdered shortly afterward, reportedly by Masseria’s gunman Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and Masseria became known as “Joe the Boss.” He took over the Morello family and, after D’Aquila’s death in 1928, was selected as the new capo dei capi. As leader, he demanded monetary tributes from other gangs and was accused of orchestrating several murders. This aggression sparked the Castellammarese War in 1930 against Salvatore Maranzano’s faction.
Masseria’s consigliere, Giuseppe Morello, was killed in August 1930. The war ended when Luciano, in a secret deal with Maranzano, lured Masseria to a Coney Island restaurant on April 15, 1931, where he was murdered by a group of gunmen. His death cleared the way for a reorganization of the Mafia into the Five Families.
Background
During the mid-1920s, Masseria expanded his bootlegging, extortion, loansharking, and illegal gambling rackets throughout New York. To operate and protect these rackets, he recruited many ambitious young mobsters, including future heavyweights Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Frank Costello, Joseph "Joey A" Adonis, Vito Genovese, and Albert Anastasia. Luciano soon became a top aide in Masseria's organization.
By the late 1920s, Masseria's main rival was boss Salvatore Maranzano, who had come from Sicily to run the Castellammarese clan. Their rivalry escalated into the Castellammarese War. As the war turned against Masseria, Luciano, seeing an opportunity to switch allegiance, decided to eliminate him in 1931.
In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for taking over his rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command. Adonis had joined the Masseria faction, and when Masseria heard about Luciano's betrayal, he approached Adonis about killing Luciano. However, Adonis instead warned Luciano about the murder plot.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Joe Masseria's role in organized crime?
He served as the head of the Genovese family in New York City and was a dominant player in the Castellammarese War, a brutal power struggle over who would control the city's criminal operations.
What was the Castellammarese War?
It was a violent conflict in the late 1920s and early 1930s among rival Mafia factions in New York over control of the city's criminal operations. Masseria stood at the center of this war, and his assassination in 1931 brought it to a close.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Joe Masseria (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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