Maranzano became the leader of the
immigrants from Castellammare del Golfo in
New York. Sent to the
U.S. by
Don Vito Cascio Ferro, where he met and allied with several other men sent by Don Ferro, including
Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, Joseph Profaci, and
Stefano Magaddino, Maranzano's orders were to organize the American
Mafia and bring it under Don Vito's control. Maranzano came to the United States in
1925, settling in
Brooklyn, where he built up a growing
bootleg liquor business.
Maranzano's first move was to gain the support of the local
Castellammarese people. He then began to invade the territory of
Joe "The Boss" Masseria. Maranzano hijacked truckloads of Masseria's liquor and started taking over Masseria's bars. This led to a bloody underworld battle known as the
Castellammarese War. While outnumbered at the outset of the war, Maranzano and his fellow Castellamarese eventually prevailed, as Masseria's allies deserted him. The war ended after
Charles "Lucky" Luciano helped orchestrate Masseria's murder.
Maranzano was now the most powerful gangster in New York. After the war, he began to organize the Mafia and implement rules, including appointing five mobsters under his immediate command, who would establish the
Five Families which soon ruled
organized crime in
New York City. But, Maranzano would remain at the throne of the underworld for less than five months.
Two weeks after Masseria's murder, Maranzano called together several hundred Mafiosi at a banquet hall at an undisclosed location in
Upstate New York. Maranzano laid out his vision of a new gangland, structured on hierarchical lines, in which he would be the
Capo di tutti capi, or the boss of all bosses, while Luciano, Bonanno, Joseph Profaci,
Vincent Mangano and
Thomas Gagliano would head families of their own, but owing ultimate loyalty to him.
Maranzano also laid down some rules for a
commission; among other things, he outlawed random killings, and he prohibited anyone in
The Commission from talking about the Mafia or its activities to anyone outside, even if the outsider was just the gangster's wife. Anyone who broke any of these rules would be punished by death.
Maranzano's scheming, his arrogant treatment of his subordinates, and his fondness for comparing his organization to the Roman Empire did not sit well with Luciano and his ambitious friends, like
Meyer Lansky and
Benjamin Siegel, however. Despite his advocacy for modern methods of organization, he was still resented by the family heads as a Sicilian
Mustache Pete who wielded too much authority.
Maranzano realized this soon enough, and began planning the murder of Luciano, Genovese,
Frank Costello and others.
Maranzano did not act quickly enough, though: by the time he hired
Mad Dog Coll to murder Luciano and Genovese, Luciano, aided by
Meyer Lansky, had already found out about Maranzano's plans. Luciano arranged for
Samuel "Red" Levine and three other gangsters provided by Lansky to go to Maranzano's offices, posing as police detectives. Once inside his office on the 9th floor of
The Helmsley Building, they disarmed Maranzano's guards. The four men then shot and stabbed Salvatore Maranzano to death. As they fled down the stairs, they met Coll on his way upstairs for his appointment with Maranzano. They warned him that there had been a raid and he fled too.
Following Maranzano's death, his killers reorganized the
Five Families and abolished the position of "capo di tutti capi." The remaining portions of Maranzano's empire were given by Luciano to Bonanno and became known as the
Bonanno family.
Luciano took over Maranzano's place at the head of
organized crime in
New York City, but established a more federal system, in which neither he nor anyone else claimed to be the boss of bosses.
Maranzano's wife, Elisabetta, died in
1964. Both are buried in
Saint John's Cemetery, Queens, located in
New York City's, buried near the graves of Luciano and Genovese.
