Editing Lucky Luciano (section)

==Rise to power and the late 1920s==
Luciano soon became a top aide in Masseria's criminal organization. In contrast to Rothstein, Masseria was uneducated, with poor manners and limited managerial skills. By the late 1920s, his main rival was Sicilian-born boss [[Salvatore Maranzano]] of the [[Bonanno crime family|Castellammarese clan]]. After [[Gaetano Reina]], one of Masseria's lieutenants, switched sides to Maranzano, Masseria ordered Luciano to arrange Reina's murder.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dc-Ms8-YMUAC&q=reina|title=Gangster priest: the Italian American cinema of Martin Scorsese|author=Robert Casillo|year=2006|publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0802091130}}</ref> After the murder took place on February 26, 1930, the rivalry between Masseria and Maranzano escalated into the bloody [[Castellammarese War]]. Masseria and Maranzano were "[[Mustache Pete]]s": older, traditional Mafia bosses who had started their criminal careers in Italy. They believed in upholding the supposed "Old World Mafia" principles of "honor", "tradition", "respect", and "dignity". These bosses refused to work with non-Italians and were skeptical of working with non-Sicilians. Some of the most conservative bosses worked with only those men with roots in their own Sicilian village. In contrast, Luciano was willing to work with not only Italians, but also Jewish and Irish gangsters, as long as there was money to be made. Luciano was shocked to hear traditional Sicilian ''mafiosi'' lecture him about his dealings with close friend Costello, whom they called "the dirty [[Calabria]]n".<ref name="MafEnc">Sifakis</ref>

Luciano soon began cultivating ties with other younger mobsters who had been born in Italy but began their criminal careers in the U.S. and chafed at their bosses' conservatism. Luciano wanted to use lessons he learned from Rothstein to turn their gang activities into full-blown criminal enterprises.<ref name="valachi">[[Peter Maas|Maas, Peter]]. ''The Valachi Papers''.</ref> As the war progressed, this group came to include future mob leaders such as Costello, Genovese, [[Albert Anastasia]], [[Joe Adonis]], [[Joe Bonanno]], [[Carlo Gambino]], [[Joe Profaci]], [[Tommy Gagliano]] and [[Tommy Lucchese]]. They believed that their bosses' greed and conservatism were keeping them poor while the Irish and Jewish gangs got rich. Luciano's vision was to form a [[national crime syndicate]] in which the Italian, Jewish, and Irish gangs could pool their resources and turn [[organized crime]] into a lucrative business for all – an organization he founded after a [[Atlantic City Conference|conference was hosted in Atlantic City]] by Luciano, Lansky, Costello, and [[Johnny Torrio]] in May 1929.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic_city/years-ago-the-mob-came-to-atlantic-city-for-a/article_3d2aedaa-856e-5e81-8e5a-9db020bed549.html?mode=image&photo=0 | title=80 years ago, the Mob came to Atlantic City for a little strategic planning | date=May 13, 2009 | publisher=Press of Atlantic City | access-date=August 6, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071104/http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic_city/years-ago-the-mob-came-to-atlantic-city-for-a/article_3d2aedaa-856e-5e81-8e5a-9db020bed549.html?mode=image&photo=0 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Howard Abadinsky, ''Organized Crime'', Cengage Learning, 2009, p.115</ref><ref name="Saga">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080911231857/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/genovese1/2.html "Genovese family saga"]. ''Crime Library''.</ref> In October 1929, Luciano was forced into a [[limousine]] at gunpoint by three men, beaten and stabbed, and strung up by his hands from a beam in a warehouse in [[Staten Island]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Raab |first1=Selwyn |title=Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires |date=2006 |publisher=Robson Books |isbn=1250101700 |pages=31}}</ref> He survived the ordeal, but was forever marked with a scar and droopy eye.<ref name="five families book" /> The identity of his abductors was never established. When picked up by the police after the assault, Luciano said that he had no idea who did it. In 1953, Luciano told an interviewer that it was the police who kidnapped and beat him in an attempt to find [[Jack "Legs" Diamond]].<ref>Feder & Joesten, pp. 67–69</ref> Another story was that Maranzano ordered the attack.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eisenberg |first1=D. |last2=Dan |first2=U. |last3=Landau |first3=E. |year=1979 |title=Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob |publisher=Paddington Press |location=New York |isbn=044822206X}}</ref>

===Power play===
[[File:Lucky Luciano mugshot 1931.jpg|thumb|1931 [[New York Police Department]] mugshot of Luciano]]
By early 1931, the Castellammarese War had turned against Masseria, and Luciano saw an opportunity to switch allegiance. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for receiving his rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command.<ref name="five families book">{{cite book |title=The Five Families |year=2014 |publisher=MacMillan |isbn=978-1429907989 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5nAt6N8iQnYC |access-date=June 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910091333/http://books.google.com/books?id=5nAt6N8iQnYC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 |archive-date=September 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Reppetto>{{cite book|last=Reppetto|first=Thomas|title=American Mafia: a history of its rise to power|year=2004|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|location=New York|isbn=0-8050-7210-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanmafiahis00repp/page/137 137]|url=https://archive.org/details/americanmafiahis00repp|url-access=registration|quote=Joe Adonis.|edition=1st}}</ref>

On April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at Nuova Villa Tammaro, a [[Coney Island]] restaurant in [[Brooklyn]]. While they played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to go to the bathroom, at which point gunmen{{mdash}}reportedly Anastasia, Genovese, Adonis and [[Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel]]{{mdash}}entered the restaurant.<ref>{{cite news|last=Pollak|first=Michael|title=Coney Island's Big Hit|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/nyregion/answer-to-a-question-about-a-mobsters-death-in-coney-island.html?_r=0|access-date=October 31, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 29, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116023517/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/nyregion/answer-to-a-question-about-a-mobsters-death-in-coney-island.html?_r=0|archive-date=November 16, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Ciro Terranova]] drove the getaway car but legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive and had to be shoved out of the driver's seat by Siegel.<ref>Sifakis, (2005). pp. 87–88</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Martin A. Gosch|author2=Richard Hammer|author3=Lucky Luciano|title=The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano|year=1975|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=978-0-316-32140-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lasttestamentofl00gosc/page/130 130–132]|url=https://archive.org/details/lasttestamentofl00gosc/page/130}}</ref> With Maranzano's blessing, Luciano took over Masseria's gang and became Maranzano's lieutenant, ending the Castellammarese War.<ref name="five families book"/>

With Masseria gone, Maranzano reorganized the Italian-American gangs in New York City into [[Five Families]] headed by Luciano, Profaci, Gagliano, [[Vincent Mangano]] and himself. Maranzano called a meeting of crime bosses in [[Wappingers Falls, New York|Wappingers Falls]], [[New York (state)|New York]], where he declared himself ''[[capo di tutti capi]]'' ("boss of all bosses").<ref name="five families book"/> Maranzano also whittled down the rival families' rackets in favor of his own. Luciano appeared to accept these changes but was merely biding his time before removing Maranzano.<ref name=MafEnc /> Although Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking than Masseria, Luciano had come to believe that he was even greedier and more hidebound than Masseria had been.<ref name="five families book"/>

By September 1931, Maranzano realized Luciano was a threat, and hired [[Vincent Coll]], an Irish gangster, to kill him;<ref name="five families book"/> however, Lucchese alerted Luciano that he was marked for death.<ref name="five families book"/> On September 10, Maranzano ordered Luciano, Genovese and Costello to come to his office at the [[Helmsley Building]] in Manhattan. Convinced that Maranzano planned to murder them, Luciano decided to act first.<ref name=Cohen>{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Rich|title=Tough Jews|year=1999|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=0-375-70547-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/toughjews00cohe/page/65 65]–66|url=https://archive.org/details/toughjews00cohe|url-access=registration|quote=Genovese maranzano.|edition=1st Vintage Books}}</ref> He sent to Maranzano's office Lucchese and four Jewish gangsters, secured with the aid of Lansky and Siegel, whose faces were unknown to Maranzano's people.<ref name="Dec. 7, 1998">{{cite magazine |last=Buchanan |first=Edna |title=Lucky Luciano: Criminal Mastermind |magazine=Time |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989779,00.html |date=December 7, 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227034055/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989779,00.html |archive-date=December 27, 2013}}</ref> Disguised as government agents, two of the gangsters disarmed Maranzano's bodyguards. Lucchese identified Maranzano to the other two gangsters, who proceeded to stab the boss multiple times before shooting him.<ref name=Saga/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Genovese Family |website=Crime Library |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/genovese1/2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214043547/http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/family_epics/genovese1/2.html |archive-date=December 14, 2007}}</ref> This assassination was the first of what would later be fabled as the "Night of the [[Sicilian Vespers]]".<ref name=Saga/>

Several days later, on September 13, the corpses of two Maranzano allies, Samuel Monaco and Louis Russo, were retrieved from [[Newark Bay]], showing evidence of [[torture]]. Meanwhile, Joseph Siragusa, leader of the [[Pittsburgh crime family]], was shot to death in his home. The October 15 disappearance of [[Joe Ardizonne]], head of the [[Los Angeles crime family]], would later be regarded as part of this alleged plan to quickly eliminate the Mustache Petes;<ref name="Dec. 7, 1998"/> the idea of an organized mass purge, directed by Luciano, has been debunked as a myth.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o64XJkmUPr0C&dq=night+of+the+sicilian+vespers&pg=PA283 |page=283 |isbn = 9781440625824|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140622195147/http://books.google.com/books?id=o64XJkmUPr0C&pg=PA283&lpg=PA283&dq=night+of+the+sicilian+vespers&source=bl&ots=UNxXwhT69x&sig=YG9wk-3q0Zzfu_iBzollWG1_w14&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iTi6UuGZE5a-sQSZ9YLAAQ&ved=0CFwQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q=night%20of%20the%20sicilian%20vespers&f=false |archive-date=June 22, 2014|last1 = Capeci|first1 = Jerry|date = January 4, 2005| publisher=Penguin }}</ref>