Editing Frank Costello (section)

=== Castellammarese War ===
In early 1931, the [[Castellammarese War]] broke out between Masseria and [[Salvatore Maranzano]]. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer the death of his boss, Masseria, in return for receiving Masseria's [[racket (crime)|racket]]s and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command.<ref name="five families book"/> On April 15, 1931, Luciano had lured Masseria to a meeting where he was murdered at a restaurant called Nuova Villa Tammaro on [[Coney Island]].<ref name="slain">{{cite news|title = Racket Chief Slain By Gangster Gunfire. Giuseppe Masseria, Known as Joe the Boss, Shot Mysteriously in Coney Island Cafe. Police Say He Was Leader in Every Kind of Racket. He Escaped Death Many Times. Shooting Still a Mystery|url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/04/16/96193033.pdf|quote = It took ten years and a lot of shooting to kill Giuseppe Masseria—he was Joe the Boss to the underworld—but his enemies found him with his back turned yesterday in a little Italian restaurant in Coney Island, and when they walked out into|access-date = November 23, 2011|newspaper = New York Times|date = April 16, 1931}}</ref><ref name="five families book"/> While they played cards, Luciano allegedly excused himself to the bathroom, with the gunmen reportedly being Genovese, [[Albert Anastasia]], [[Joe Adonis]], and [[Bugsy Siegel|Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel]];<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=31 October 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 29, 2012}}</ref> [[Ciro Terranova|Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova]] drove the getaway car, but legend has it that he was too shaken up to drive away and had to be shoved out of the driver's seat by Siegel.<ref>{{harvnb|Sifakis|2005|pages=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><ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=John H.|title=Mafia dynasty : the rise and fall of the Gambino crime family|year=1994|publisher=HarperPaperbacks|location=New York, N.Y.|isbn=0-06-109184-7|url=https://archive.org/details/mafiadynastyrise00davi|url-access=registration|quote=Albert Anastasia.|edition=1st Harper paperbacks|page=[https://archive.org/details/mafiadynastyrise00davi/page/40 40]}}</ref> Luciano took over Masseria's family, with Genovese as his underboss.

In September 1931, Luciano and Genovese planned the murder of Maranzano. Luciano had received word that Maranzano was planning to kill him and Genovese, and prepared a hit team to kill Maranzano first. On September 10, 1931, when Maranzano summoned Luciano, Genovese, and Costello to a meeting at his office, they knew Maranzano would kill them there. Instead, Luciano sent to Maranzano's office four Jewish gangsters whose faces were unknown to Maranzano's people. They had been secured with the aid of Lansky and Siegel.<ref name="Dec. 7, 1998">"Lucky Luciano: Criminal Mastermind," ''Time'', [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989779,00.html Dec. 7, 1998]</ref><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> After assassinating Maranzano, Luciano subsequently created [[The Commission (mafia)|The Commission]] to serve as the governing body for organized crime.<ref name=origins>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/20/nyregion/the-commission-s-origins.html|title=The Commission's Origins|date=1986|work=The New York Times|access-date=22 February 2017}}</ref>