by ezzat amier
The Castellammarese
War was a bloody power
struggle for control of the Italian-American Mafia between partisans of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and those of Salvatore Maranzano. It was so called because
Maranzano was based in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. Maranzano's faction won, and he declared himself capo di tutti capi ("boss of all bosses"), the undisputed leader of
the entire Mafia. Outwardly, the Castellammarese War was between the forces of
Masseria and Maranzano. Underneath,
however, there was also a generational conflict between the old guard Sicilian
leadership, known as the "Mustache Petes" for their long mustaches and old-world ways, and the
"Young Turks", a younger and more diverse Italian group who were more
forward thinking and willing to work more with non-Italians. Tensions between
the Maranzano and Masseria factions were evident as far back as 1928, with one
side frequently hijacking the other's alcohol trucks
(alcohol production was then illegal in the United States due to Prohibition). However, both factions were fluid, with many
mobsters switching sides or killing their own allies during this war. However,
he was soon murdered in turn by a faction of young upstarts led by Lucky Luciano, who established a power-sharing arrangement called
"The Commission," a group of five
Mafia families of equal stature, to avoid such wars in the future.
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