He also became known to the leader of Mafia activities in New York, Joe " the Boss " Masseria.

Masseria became increasingly suspicious of the growing number of Castellammarese in Brooklyn.

This war between Masseria and Maranzano became known as the Castellammarese War.

Joe Masseria became an underworld dictator, requiring absolute loyalty and obedience from the other four New York families.

In 1931, after the Masseria and Maranzano murders, Luciano became the leader of the new Luciano crime family, with Genovese as underboss and Costello as consigliere.

After Luciano had Masseria killed, Luciano became the boss, and Gambino was sent to the Scalise Family.

Meanwhile, Luciano became an enforcer for Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria, who ran an organization loosely based on clans from Naples and Southern Italy.

Masseria soon became embroiled in the vicious Castellammarese War with his arch rival, Salvatore Maranzano.

What became known as the Castellammarese began in early 1930 and would drag on for the better part of two years as New York Mafia leaders Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano fought for dominance over the New York rackets.

One year early in 1916, Joseph Masseria was released from prison after serving 3 years for burglary of a Bowery pawnshop and became a top members in the family.

* 1922 – 1931 — Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria — paroled in 1920, became boss in 1922

* April 15 – The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe " The Boss " Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti i capi (" boss of all bosses ") and undisputed ruler of the American Mafia.

In 1930, Masseria demanded a $ 10, 000 tribute from Maranzano's then boss, Nicola " Cola " Schiro, and supposedly got it.

Also in 1921, Brooklyn gang boss Joseph Masseria recruited Luciano as one of his gunmen.

Luciano soon become a top aide to Brooklyn crime boss Giuseppe Masseria.

Maranzano took over a faction of the Italian-American underworld at odds with the Mafia " boss of bosses " Joseph Masseria.

In 1922, Costello, Luciano, and their closest Italian associates joined the Sicilian Mafia crime family led by Joe " the Boss " Masseria, a top Italian underworld boss.

When Maranzano arrived in New York in 1925, his access to money and manpower let him quickly set up rumrunning, bootlegging, extortion and gambling operations that directly competed with Masseria, Costello's boss.

On October 10, 1928, Joe Masseria eliminated his top rival for the coveted " boss of bosses " title, Brooklyn boss, Salvatore " Toto " D ' Aquila.

* Having previously arranged the murder of mafia boss Joseph Masseria on 15 April 1931 in order to consolidate organized crime in New York City under Salvatore Maranzano, mafia boss Lucky Luciano then ordered the murders of Maranzano and those capos of Maranzano and Masseria whom Luciano saw as threats.

In the early 1920, Genovese started working for Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria, the boss of a powerful Brooklyn gang.

He was killed on orders of boss Joe Masseria in 1928.

As part of this reorganization, Maranzano designated Luciano as boss of the old Morello / Masseria family.

Former boss Giuseppe Morello was released from prison approximately the same time, and quickly aligned himself with Joe Masseria against boss Toto D ' Aquila.

Having recently aligned himself with boss Joe Masseria, Mineo more than likely played a direct role in planning the murder of his boss D ' Aquila.

After declaring his allegiance to Masseria and showing his distorted loyalty by betraying his former boss, Mineo's place atop the D ' Aquila crime family leadership was cemented.

Strong rivalries continued between various New York Mafia crime families and factions, the most heated rivalry being the one between Mineo's Manhattan based allies in the Masseria crime family and those in the Brooklyn based Castellammarese clan, a group of mafiosi from the Sicilian seaside town of Castellammare del Golfo, who rose to prominence during Prohibition and would become extremely independent and eventually oppose the dominance of boss Joe Masseria and his supporters like Mineo.

Mineo felt secure being aligned with Joe Masseria, who led the most powerful New York Mafia crime family and was recognized as the most influential crime boss in the city.

Masseria had taken over the Morello family interests, and by the mid-1920, had begun to amass power and influence to rival that of D ' Aquila.

On August 15, 1930, Castellammerese loyalists executed a key Masseria enforcer, Giuseppe Morello, at Morello's East Harlem office ( a visitor, Giuseppe Pariano, was also killed ).

When the two men returned to New York, they relied on Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria, a new Morello ally, to kill D ' Aquilla.

* 1920 – 1922 — Giuseppe " the Clutch Hand " Morello — stepped down becoming underboss to Masseria

* August 9-Rocco Valenti, a leading member of the Morello crime family, attempts to assassinate Joe Masseria after killing his two bodyguards, and upon cornering Masseria in a Second Avenue millinery shop Masseria manages to escape.

* Giuseppe Masseria assumes control of the Morello Gang.

One of these crime families was the former Morello crime family, which had been taken over by Joseph " Joe the Boss " Masseria around 1920.

Giuseppe " the Clutch Hand " Morello ( May 2, 1867-August 15, 1930 ), also known as " The Old Fox ", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria.

Giuseppe's half brothers Vincenzo, as family boss, and Ciro, as underboss, were next to run the family business until the 1920s when former Morello family capo Giuseppe " Joe the Boss " Masseria took over Morello's operations in Manhattan and Salvatore D ' Aquila took over in Brooklyn.

Trying to retake control of his empire, Morello, with the new nickname of Peter Morello, enlisted former family soldier Umberto Valenti in his battle against Masseria.

After two failed assassination attempts against Masseria by Valenti a truce meeting was arranged between Morello and Masseria.

Morello decided to make peace with Masseria and shortly afterward allied himself with him.

The peace allowed Masseria to take total control of New York with Morello as his consigliere and Luciano as one of his main lieutenants, running his own crew.

During the Castellammarese War, roughly between 1929 – 31, Masseria and Morello fought against a rival group based in Brooklyn, led by Salvatore Maranzano and Joseph Bonanno.

This is when Joseph Masseria and Rocco Valenti began to fight for control of the Morello family.