THE MAFIA'S GREATEST MOB BOSS HITS
By Scott Williams-Collier
Mafia hits are all part and parcel of being in the mob. But few are rarely more spectacular or provide more shock and awe than the execution of a mob boss. These hits go down in gangland folklore and their legend is told for years to come. Mob informant Joe Valachi once said to the McClellan Committee, "You live by the gun and the knife and you die by the gun and by the knife." Here The True Crime Page gives it's top 3 mob boss hits of the 20th century.
#1 Joe the Boss Masseria born January 17th 1886 in Menfi, Sicily,Italy was a Mob boss of what is now known as the Genovese crime family. He was the most powerful mob boss in New York in the early 1920's. An old school gangster and a part of the Mustache Pete era; he did not approve of working with none Italian's and did not like his underlings doing business with none Italian's either.
Joe arrived in America in 1902 and soon became a member of the Morello crime family. He would eventually take control of the Morello crime family with Giuseppe Morello deciding to take a number two roll.
During the early years of prohibition Joe was the most powerful mob boss in America. That was of course until the arrival of another powerful mafioso came to America in 1925. Salvatore Maranzano came from the notorious mafia town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. On arriving in New York, he set his sights on taking over all the rackets in the city and becoming the Boss of Bosses (Cappo di tutt'i capi). In February 1930 when tensions mounted between the two leaders, the killings started and war broke out between the two factions of Joe the Boss and Salvatore Maranzano.
The younger, and more Americanised generation of mob guys like Charles Lucky Luciano knew that the war was bad for business. People were dying, they weren't making the money they could, and bodies in the street attract attention from the authorities. The old guard had to go!
Charles Luciano decided the war needed to end, so he went against his boss Masseria and made a deal with the enemy , Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano would have Masseria killed, in return he wanted to take over Masseria's gang and be an equal power with Maranzano in New York. Maranzano accepted and the deal was made.
On April 15th, Coney Island New York, Masseria was eating at the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant. Gangland legend has it that he was invited their by Luciano. After eating they played cards while Luciano's hitmen waited outside. After excusing himself to the bathroom the hitmen entered the restaurant and opened fire on Masseria. Masseria was hit four times in the back and once in the head killing him outright. Clutched in his bloody hand was the death card, the ace of spades. This hit would mark the end of the Castellammarese War and the beginning of a new era for the mob. The American Mafia would soon go on to be one of the most powerful and profitable crime groups in the world.
#2 Salvatore Maranzano was born in the notorious mafia town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy in 1886. More educated and cultured than his gruff counterpart Masseria; Maranzano arrived in New York in 1925. Upon arriving in the city he immediately set his sights on taking full control of all the rackets and the Mafia, becoming the Boss of Bosses ( capo di tutti capi).
Although more educated and cultured than Masseria, Maranzano did have two things in common with his rival. He was greedy and wanted to be the Boss and Bosses, he also did not do any business with none Italian's. This was something that riled the younger generation like Charles Lucky Luciano.
Guys like Maranzano and Masseria came from an older generation, they didn't speak English as well as the younger guys, they did not trust or do business with none Italian's and weren't Americanised like the younger breed of gangster's who had grown up in New York.
Luciano understood that it was good for business to build relationships with Jewish and Irish gangsters. It would give the mafia access to their networks and they could make money together, lots of money.
After Making a deal with Luciano to get rid of Masseria, Maranzano went against his original deal. Instead of equality as promised he declared that all the gangs would be split up into five families, each would control rackets in one of the five boroughs of New York. Each family would have a boss and above all of them would sit Maranzano; the Boss of Bosses. This did not sit well with gangsters like Luciano!
Maranzano knew that Charles Luciano was a threat to his power over the mafia, so he arranged to have him killed. He acquired the services of a young notorious murderer call Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Luciano would be called to Maranzano's offices and upon entering the office, Luciano would be shot and killed by Mad Dog Coll.
Luciano learned about this attempted hit on his life and knew now was the time to strike, kill or be killed. So he employed the help of his good friend Meyer Lansky to help him get to Maranzano.
Maranzano was hard to get to, he always had armed body guards and was driven around in an armored car. The best way to reach him would be through his office at the Helmsley Building on 230 Park Avenue.
Luciano was called to Maranzano's office on September 10th 1931. Instead Jewish gangsters were sent, arranged by his friend Meyer Lansky and posing as tax men. Under the guise of tax men the hitmen entered the Helmsley building unsuspected by Maranzano and his men. Upon entering Maranzano's office his men were relieved of their weapons and the Boss of Bosses was attacked, viciously! Stabbed multiple times, throat slit and then finished off with guns. A slower and much brutal murder than his predecessor Masseria, this murder was to spell the beginning of a new era for the mafia in America, a golden age and the rise of the biggest gangster of them all, Charles Lucky Luciano.
Charles Luciano would go on to keep the five family structure put in place by Maranzano, but abolished the the Boss of Bosses title. Instead in it's place he created the Mafia Commission with the
committee consisting of the five bosses of the New York Five Families and the bosses of the Chicago Outfit and Buffalo crime family. This structure would organise the mafia and turn it into the most powerful criminal organisation in the country, which would rule America for the next 60 years.
the Mangano crime family. This relationship was a strained one, Mangano did not like the fact that Anastasia was close to Frank Costello and Charles Lucky Luciano.
During the early 1950's leading up to 1957 two gangsters conspired to get rid of Anastasia and his friend and ally, boss of the Luciano crime family, Frank Costello. Capo and one time underboss of the Luciano crime family Vito Genovese was hungry for power and wanted to take control of the family from Costello. He colluded with Anastasia crime family underboss Carlo Gambino to also remove Anastasia. In return Gambino would become the boss of Anastasia family.
Mafia hits are all part and parcel of being in the mob. But few are rarely more spectacular or provide more shock and awe than the execution of a mob boss. These hits go down in gangland folklore and their legend is told for years to come. Mob informant Joe Valachi once said to the McClellan Committee, "You live by the gun and the knife and you die by the gun and by the knife." Here The True Crime Page gives it's top 3 mob boss hits of the 20th century.
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| Joe The Boss Masseria |
Joe arrived in America in 1902 and soon became a member of the Morello crime family. He would eventually take control of the Morello crime family with Giuseppe Morello deciding to take a number two roll.
During the early years of prohibition Joe was the most powerful mob boss in America. That was of course until the arrival of another powerful mafioso came to America in 1925. Salvatore Maranzano came from the notorious mafia town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily. On arriving in New York, he set his sights on taking over all the rackets in the city and becoming the Boss of Bosses (Cappo di tutt'i capi). In February 1930 when tensions mounted between the two leaders, the killings started and war broke out between the two factions of Joe the Boss and Salvatore Maranzano.
The younger, and more Americanised generation of mob guys like Charles Lucky Luciano knew that the war was bad for business. People were dying, they weren't making the money they could, and bodies in the street attract attention from the authorities. The old guard had to go!
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| Joe The Boss and the death card clutched in his hand |
On April 15th, Coney Island New York, Masseria was eating at the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant. Gangland legend has it that he was invited their by Luciano. After eating they played cards while Luciano's hitmen waited outside. After excusing himself to the bathroom the hitmen entered the restaurant and opened fire on Masseria. Masseria was hit four times in the back and once in the head killing him outright. Clutched in his bloody hand was the death card, the ace of spades. This hit would mark the end of the Castellammarese War and the beginning of a new era for the mob. The American Mafia would soon go on to be one of the most powerful and profitable crime groups in the world.
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| Joe the Boss lies dead in the Nuova Villa Tammaro Restaurant |
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| Salvatore Maranzano |
Although more educated and cultured than Masseria, Maranzano did have two things in common with his rival. He was greedy and wanted to be the Boss and Bosses, he also did not do any business with none Italian's. This was something that riled the younger generation like Charles Lucky Luciano.
Guys like Maranzano and Masseria came from an older generation, they didn't speak English as well as the younger guys, they did not trust or do business with none Italian's and weren't Americanised like the younger breed of gangster's who had grown up in New York.
Luciano understood that it was good for business to build relationships with Jewish and Irish gangsters. It would give the mafia access to their networks and they could make money together, lots of money.
After Making a deal with Luciano to get rid of Masseria, Maranzano went against his original deal. Instead of equality as promised he declared that all the gangs would be split up into five families, each would control rackets in one of the five boroughs of New York. Each family would have a boss and above all of them would sit Maranzano; the Boss of Bosses. This did not sit well with gangsters like Luciano!
Maranzano knew that Charles Luciano was a threat to his power over the mafia, so he arranged to have him killed. He acquired the services of a young notorious murderer call Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Luciano would be called to Maranzano's offices and upon entering the office, Luciano would be shot and killed by Mad Dog Coll.
Luciano learned about this attempted hit on his life and knew now was the time to strike, kill or be killed. So he employed the help of his good friend Meyer Lansky to help him get to Maranzano.
Maranzano was hard to get to, he always had armed body guards and was driven around in an armored car. The best way to reach him would be through his office at the Helmsley Building on 230 Park Avenue.
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| Maranzano lies dead in his office |
Charles Luciano would go on to keep the five family structure put in place by Maranzano, but abolished the the Boss of Bosses title. Instead in it's place he created the Mafia Commission with the
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| Maranzano death scene photo in his office. |
#3 Albert Anastasia born 26th September 1902 in Tropea, Calabria, Italy. Anastasia came to America in 1919 after deserting a freighter he was working on with his brothers as soon as it reached New York. Here Anastasia got a job working as a longshoreman on the Brooklyn waterfront. It was here that Albert got himself into serious trouble. After getting into an argument with a fellow
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| Albert Anastasia |
longshoreman he lost his temper and killed the man in a viscous fight. He was sent to Sing Sing prison to await execution in the electric chair.
Albert's tough fearless attitude soon caught the eye of mob connected guys in prison. Here was a guy that could be useful to the mob, ruthless, tough and nerves of steel. Anastasia won a retrial. Miraculously before Anastasia would stand trial again, 3 of the witnesses in his case were found dead and the 4th one disappeared. Anastasia was again a free man.
In the coming years Anastasia now aligned with mobsters like Charles Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello would become one of the most feared and ruthless gangsters in the Mafia, so feared that he earned the nick names The Mad Hatter and the Lord High Executioner. He is alleged to have been one of the shooters in the execution of Joe the Boss Masseria.
In the 1930's and 1940's Anastasia ran the notorious enforcement arm of the crime syndicate, "Murder Incorporated. " He ran this group of hit-men with fellow mob boss, Jewish gangster Lepke Buchalter. Murder Inc was responsible for hundreds of murders across the United States of America. Anastasia participated in many of them. During this period Anastasia also served as the underboss in
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| Albert Anastasia Lies dead |
During April 1951 mob boss Vincent Mangano and his brother Philip went missing. Mangano family Consigliere, Philip was found dead in marshland by a women fishing there. He had been shot three times, once in the neck and one in each cheek. His brother and boss of the family Vincent was never found. The brothers were whacked on the orders of Anastasia who took control of the family. Backed by Frank Costello that Anastasia had acted in self defense because Mangano had planed to kill his underboss, the commission accepted this story and Anastasia was now the Boss of his own family. The family would be named after him, the Anastasia crime family.
This was the first time that doubts were cast on Anastasia, that he was a law unto himself, trigger happy and volatile. This was a man to be both feared and concerned about!
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| The end of Anastasia |
On May 2nd 1957 while entering the the lobby of his apartment building Frank Costello was shot in the head. Mobster Vincent Gigante stepped into the lobby and fired a shot at Costello then left the scene. The shot did not kill the mob boss but grazed his head. However the failed hit had the desired effect, and the ageing mob boss decided to step down as the boss of the family and retire.
Just over 5 months later, on the morning of October 25th, Albert Anastasia visited the Park Sheraton Hotel barber shop, at 56th Street and 7th Avenue, Midtown Manhattan . While inside, relaxing in the barber's chair with a hot towel wrapped around his face, two gunmen entered the building and fired shots into Anastasia. The mob boss apparently lunged forward towards the mirror in front of him at the reflections of the gunmen, eventually falling backwards onto the floor where he died. This murder was extremely big news back in 1957. One of the most violent, dangerous and feared gangsters to ever run the streets of New York was dead. This also marked the rise to power of Carlo Gambino. Carlo Gambino would go onto be the most powerful mob boss since Charles Lucky Luciano. The family he took control of still bears his name to this day.
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