Editing Lucky Luciano (section)

===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>