The Five Families and How Organized Crime Became Organized

Podcast Transcript

Organized crime wasn’t always so organized.

In the early 20th century, in New York, what we would call the mafia was rather unorganized. There were competing groups, and while the individual groups had an organization, there was anarchy among them.

From 1929 to 1931 there was a war between some of the crime organizations, and when the dust settled, all of the major mafia groups in New York City had found a way to work together, or at least not openly feud.

Learn more about New York’s Five Families and the creation of the Commission on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Before we get into the creation of the five families and the events that resulted in the commission, which put the organization into organized crime, it is important to understand how the mafia in New York came to be.

The roots of the New York Mob can be traced back to Italian immigration to the United States in the late 19th century. Many immigrants, particularly from Sicily, Calabria, and Naples, brought their Mafia traditions with them.

Sicilian immigrants introduced the Sicilian Mafia, aka Cosa Nostra, a secretive criminal network.

Neapolitan and Calabrian immigrants brought their own criminal groups, such as the Camorra and the ‘Ndrangheta.

These groups engaged in extortion, protection rackets, gambling, and loan sharking, primarily preying on fellow Italian immigrants.

By the early 1900s, New York’s Italian communities were dominated by small Mafia gangs, particularly in neighborhoods like Little Italy, East Harlem, and Brooklyn.

Before the Mafia became highly structured, Italian gangs engaged in a crude form of extortion known as The Black Hand.

The Black Hand was a form of extortion practiced by Italian criminals primarily targeting fellow Italian immigrants in cities like New York. It was not an organized crime syndicate but rather a method used by independent criminals or loosely connected gangs. Black Hand extortionists would send anonymous letters threatening violence, arson, or kidnapping unless money was paid, often signing them with a black handprint to instill fear.

Unlike the Mafia, which operated as a hierarchical and structured criminal organization with defined leadership, codes of conduct, and long-term business interests, the Black Hand was more chaotic and opportunistic.

The Mafia, particularly the emerging Sicilian-American Cosa Nostra, sought control over entire industries and ran extensive rackets, whereas Black Hand criminals typically engaged in one-off extortions with little organization.

As the Mafia grew in power during the 1910s, it actively eliminated Black Hand operations, seeing them as unprofessional and disruptive to more profitable and sophisticated criminal enterprises.

Nonetheless, many early mafia bosses had their start in Black Hand extortion gangs.

What really changed for the mafia was prohibition.

Prohibition created a massive underground market for alcohol, allowing organized crime groups to accumulate wealth and power at an unprecedented rate. The national ban on alcohol provided an opportunity for these groups to evolve into sophisticated criminal enterprises beyond their origins in extortion.

Bootlegging became the most lucrative business, and Italian mobsters quickly established supply chains, smuggling routes, and distribution networks.

During this period, several powerful Mafia bosses emerged, the most dominant being Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria, who controlled much of New York’s underworld, and his eventual rival Salvatore Maranzano, a Sicilian boss from the Sicilian town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily.

Masseria and Maranzano are two key figures in this story.

Masseria was the most powerful Italian crime boss in New York, running a criminal empire involved in bootlegging, extortion, and gambling. He followed the traditional Mafia customs and expected total loyalty.

Maranzano came from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, along with many other New York mobsters, and the head of the mafia there mentored him, Don Vito Cascio Ferro.

Don Ferro sent Maranzano to New York to attempt to take control of the criminal world there so the Mafia factions in Castellammare del Golfo would ultimately control it.

Maranzano quickly grew his criminal empire and found himself in confrontation with Masseria.

By 1929, this had erupted into an all-out war between the two factions, which became known as the Castellammare War.

The war had several different causes.

Most obvious were ethnic and regional divisions. Masseria’s faction consisted mostly of Sicilians and Neapolitans, while Maranzano’s faction was almost entirely Sicilian, particularly from Castellammare del Golfo.

Masseria adhered to a more rigid, old-school approach to Mafia leadership, while Maranzano sought to introduce a structured hierarchy inspired by ancient Roman military ranks.

However, the biggest reason came down to money. Both men wanted to control the highly lucrative bootlegging trade in New York.

The war began as both sides assassinated each other’s associates, bootleggers, and enforcers.

Masseria ordered a hit on a key Maranzano ally, Gaetano Reina, who controlled the ice distribution business in the Bronx. This move escalated tensions.

The fighting became increasingly violent, with both sides using hitmen to carry out assassinations.

Several prominent mobsters were killed, including Joseph Parrino, a Masseria ally, and Vito Bonventre, a Maranzano ally.

Enter into the picture the man who is perhaps the most important character in this entire story, Salvatore “Lucky” Luciano.

Luciano was born in Sicily, and in 1906, at the age of nine, his family emigrated to the United States, settling in New York City’s Lower East Side, a rough, crime-ridden neighborhood where many Italian immigrants lived in poverty.

As a teenager, Luciano quickly became involved in criminal activities, forming his own street gang. Unlike many Italian immigrants who only associated with their own kind, Luciano built connections with Jewish and Irish gangsters, including Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.

In his late teens and early 20s, Luciano worked for Joe Masseria and became involved in prostitution, narcotics trafficking, and bootlegging during Prohibition. By the mid-1920s, Luciano was a rising star in the Mafia, making millions from bootlegging while maintaining strong alliances with non-Italian criminals, including Lansky and Siegel.

In 1929, he was kidnapped, beaten, and stabbed multiple times before being dumped on Staten Island. Miraculously, he survived, earning him the nickname “Lucky” Luciano.

When the Castellammare War broke out, Luciano initially sided with Masseria but became frustrated with the old-school “Mustache Pete” mentality, which resisted working with non-Italians and limited opportunities for younger gangsters.

“Mustache Pete” was a name given to the old-school mobsters from Sicily.

Seeing an opportunity to modernize the Mafia, Luciano secretly aligned with Maranzano. On April 15, 1931, he set up Masseria’s assassination at a Coney Island restaurant, where hitmen, allegedly including Bugsy Siegel and Albert Anastasia, gunned down Masseria while Luciano excused himself to the restroom.

In exchange for the execution of Masseria, Luciano would get his business and be the number two guy under Maranzano.

With Masseria dead, the war was over, and Maranzano found himself at the top of Italian organized crime in New York City.

One of the first things that Maranzano did was to create a new organizational system which he based on Roman military hierarchy.

He created five families, with each family to be headed by a boss. The first five bosses were Lucky Luciano, Vincent Mangano, Tommy Gagliano, Joe Bonanno, and Maranzano himself.

Each family would then have underneath the boss, an underboss, a consigliere, several capos, and many soldiers.

At a meeting in upstate New York, he declared himself to be capo di tutti capi or “boss of all bosses.”

While these changes to the structure and organization of the mafia were well-received, Maranzano was fundamentally paranoid.

He soon turned against Luciano, plotting to eliminate him and his allies.

Word of the pending assassination made its way to Luciano. Before Maranzano could act, Luciano struck first. On September 10, 1931, Luciano ordered Maranzano’s assassination inside his office. The hit was carried out by Jewish gunmen, a move that broke Mafia tradition.

Maranzano had been the top boss for less than six months. now the guy on top was Lucky Luciano.

Maranzano had been dubbed “Little Caesar” because of his obsession with Roman history. If Maranzano was Caesar, then in a very real sense, Luciano became Augustus.

Luciano did not take the title “Boss of Bosses” for himself, as he knew it would only draw the ire of the other bosses.

Instead, he created a new system called the Commission.

Instead of a single supreme leader, the Commission acted as a board of directors, allowing Mafia families to resolve disputes, regulate criminal activities, and maintain order within the underworld.

The Commission consisted of the heads of the five families established by Maranzano as well as the head of the Chicago mob, who was Al Capone at the time, as well as the head of the Buffalo New York mob.

Every member of the Commission would have a single vote, and no one boss would have total control.

The Commission had several purposes.

Preventing Internal Conflicts – By resolving disputes between Mafia families peacefully, it reduced unnecessary wars.
Regulating Criminal Activities – The Commission set rules and guidelines for how families operated, ensuring cooperation instead of competition.
Approving Murders – Any high-profile assassination, such as a boss or high-ranking member, required Commission approval.
Managing Territory and Profits – The Commission determined which families controlled certain cities and industries.
National Coordination – The Commission allowed for organized crime to expand beyond New York, maintaining influence across the U.S.

The goal of all of these reforms was to avoid another Castellammare War, as mob wars were very bad for business.

The Commission didn’t meet frequently. In fact, the original agreement was that they would meet once every five years or if there was a need to resolve an important issue.

One of the issues they would adjudicate would be who could take over a family after a boss died or retired. The Commission approved their successor to prevent power struggles.

They also served as a sort of Supreme Court, being the last word on any disagreements or disputes between families so they wouldn’t break out in violence.

The Commission system developed by Lucky Luciano worked quite well at reducing violence and improving profits for all the families involved.

However, the Commission itself became the weak point in the entire system.

While the Commission didn’t meet that often, when they did, it became a potential single point of failure for the entire mafia.

This exact scenario happened In 1957 when the Commission held a major meeting in Apalachin, New York, attended by over 60 top Mafia bosses.

The meeting was raided by police, leading to multiple arrests and exposing the Mafia’s structure to the FBI, which had previously denied the Mafia’s existence.

The Apalachin raid led to increased government surveillance and legal pressure on the Mafia for years.

Nonetheless, the Commission and the Five Families system survived.

If you know even a bit about the New York Mafia, you probably didn’t recognize the names I gave as the first bosses of the families. That is because most of the families became known by other bosses who came after them. In particular, the modern names were named after who the bosses were during the 1963 McClellan hearings in the United States Senate.

Joseph Bonanno’s family remained the Bonanno Family.

Lucky Luciano’s family became known as the Genovese Family, named after Vito Genovese.

Vincent Mangano’s family became known as the Gambino Family, named after Carlo Gambino.

Tommy Gagliano’s family became known as the Lucchese Family, named after Tommy Lucchese.

And Joseph Profaci’s family became known as the Colombo Family, named after Joseph Colombo.

As for Lucky Luciano, despite his power, Luciano’s empire drew the attention of law enforcement. In 1936, special prosecutor Thomas Dewey launched an investigation into Luciano’s prostitution operations.

Luciano was arrested, tried, and convicted of running brothels. In June 1936, he was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, marking the biggest blow to organized crime at the time.

However, the US Government stuck a deal with him during WWII to help protect the New York docks, and in 1946, as a reward for his assistance, the now New York Governor Thomas Dewey commuted his sentence, and Luciano was deported to Italy, permanently barred from returning to the U.S.

Luciano suffered a fatal heart attack on January 26, 1962, at the age of 64, after meeting with a film producer who wanted to make a film based on his life story.

Although the Mafia still exists, the Commission is no longer as powerful as it once was. Several high-profile bosses were imprisoned, murdered, or turned informant, and the Mafia’s influence over industries like labor unions and casinos has significantly declined. However, the Five Families of New York still operate, albeit in a much more low-profile and decentralized manner.

Lucky Luciano is considered to be the father of the American mafia for his role in resolving the Castellammare War and for taking the steps to actually put some organization into organized crime.