The Mob and the City (13 page)

“A week or two,” he answered. And with that, Luciano set out to betray his boss.
⁴¹

2:00 P.M., WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 15, 1931, NUOVA VILLA TAMMARO RESTAURANT: THE ASSASSINATION OF JOE MASSERIA

Joe Masseria spent the winter behind guards at his penthouse atop a fifteen-story complex at 15 West 81st Street just off Central Park. Joe the Boss could not stay cooped up forever.

On Wednesday afternoon, April 15, 1931, Masseria's men persuaded him to venture out to a restaurant called the Nuova Villa Tammaro on Coney Island, Brooklyn.
⁴²
Contrary to his image as a slob, Joe Masseria dressed dapperly: a light grey three-piece tailored suit with handkerchief, a white madras shirt, and black Oxford dress shoes. Properly attired, he went downstairs to his armored sedan and rumbled off to Coney Island.
⁴³

Around 1:00 p.m., Masseria's sedan arrived outside the Nuova Villa Tammaro. As Masseria walked to the restaurant, he breathed in the warm sea breeze of Coney Island.
⁴⁴
Contrary to myth, Masseria did not gorge on pasta that afternoon. The purported glutton skipped lunch. Masseria sat around a table with a few men he knew, playing cards for cash and silver. The proprietor Gerardo Scarpato later claimed that he had just stepped out for a walk.
⁴⁵

For the first time in his life, Giuseppe Masseria did not see them coming. At 2:00 p.m., as Masseria was sitting in his chair, he was shot from behind. Four bullets hit his back. The fifth and fatal bullet ripped through his brain and exited his eye socket. He fell out of his chair onto the floor. Joe the Boss was dead.
⁴⁶

The gunmen walked out of the restaurant in a hurry. Whether from nerves or shock, they left behind four overcoats. The assassins got into an automobile and sped off. Police found their abandoned car about two miles away in Brooklyn. The automobile had been reported stolen; its license plates were unregistered. In the back were a pair of .38 revolvers and a .45 automatic.
⁴⁷

The question of who betrayed Joe Masseria has focused on famous
mafiosi
. Multiple insiders confirm that Charles Luciano planned Masseria's assassination. Joe Valachi later testified that he had heard that Vito Genovese, Frank “Cheech” Livorsi, Joseph “Joe Stretch” Stracci, and Ciro Terranova were among those present at the Nuova that afternoon.
⁴⁸

But there was another gangster who has since been largely forgotten. In
April 1931, John “Silk Stockings” Giustra was a thirty-two-year-old racketeer on the Brooklyn waterfront. The New York Police Department identified Giustra as their prime suspect in the shooting. In 1940, an internal NYPD note stated: “Confidential information was received by the Detective in the case that the person who shot and killed the deceased was one John Giustra,” and that one of the coats left behind “was identified as the property of [Giustra].” Because Giustra himself was murdered on July 9, 1931, the NYPD closed the case.
⁴⁹
In 1952, another informant on the waterfront stated: “John ‘Silk Stocking’ Giustre [
sic
] murdered Joe the Boss and thought he would take over from him,” but Phil Mangano, Albert Anastasia, and others “double-crossed Silk Stocking.”
⁵⁰
The conflict may have been affected by yet another individual's crass ambitions.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 15, 1931, CHARLES LUCIANO'S RESIDENCE

That evening, Charles Luciano gathered his men at his Manhattan residence. Luciano summoned Vincenzo Troia, an ally of Maranzano, to his residence for a message. “Vincenzo, tell your
compare
[godfather] Maranzano that we killed Masseria not to serve him, but for our personal reasons,” Luciano warned.
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They wanted to go back to making money.

LATE MAY 1931, CONGRESS PLAZA HOTEL, 520 MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE MAFIA

With Masseria's blood still on the floor of Nuova Villa, Maranzano called Al Capone in Chicago. Capone had succeeded in eliminating Joseph Aiello and had become the unquestioned crime boss of the City of Broad Shoulders. They agreed to call a general assembly of the Mafia.
⁵²

In late May 1931, Al Capone hosted the Mafia's general assembly at the Congress Plaza Hotel on Lake Michigan. A few hundred representatives from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, and elsewhere traveled across the country to Chicago.
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The mob was in disarray. “In the general assembly…an indescribable
confusion reigned,” recalled Nicola Gentile, who attended the conclave. “Some representatives, mindful of the past dictatorial regime of Masseria…had proposed to elect for the job of boss of the bosses a commission composed of six,” Gentile said. The idea of a power-sharing commission had a lot of support.
⁵⁴

The ambitious Salvatore Maranzano outmaneuvered them. Maranzano cynically cut a deal with the Neapolitan Al Capone, the man whom Maranzano only recently had said was “staining the organization” of the Mafia. In exchange for Capone agreeing to “affirm Maranzano's supremacy in the national scene,” he would recognize Capone in Chicago after all. Next, Maranzano cajoled or intimidated the smaller clans. It worked. “Maranzano was thus elected boss of the bosses of the United States mafia,” explained Gentile.
⁵⁵

JUNE 1931, FEDERAL GRAND JURY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

“CAPONE IS INDICTED IN INCOME TAX CASE,” blared the June 6, 1931, edition of the
New York Times
. Weeks after the general assembly departed Chicago, the United States attorney for Chicago announced that Alphonse Capone was being indicted on charges of income tax evasion on $1 million of
illegal
income ($14 million in present dollars).
⁵⁶

Capone's tax indictment shook the underworld. New York mobsters hardly bothered filing income tax returns, and they certainly did not pay taxes on bootlegging and other illegal income. They would have a very difficult time explaining their assets.
⁵⁷

AUGUST 1–3, 1931, NUOVA VILLA TAMMARO, CONEY ISLAND, BROOKLYN: MEET THE NEW BOSS OF BOSSES

The Castellammarese threw a banquet in honor of Maranzano from Saturday, August 1 through Monday, August 3, 1931, under the guise of a local Italian festival. Pouring salt in the wound, they chose the same site where Joe Masseria was killed: the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant, freshly scrubbed of blood stains.
⁵⁸

3–2: Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant after shooting of Joe Masseria, 1931. Salvatore Maranzano would celebrate his ascension to boss of bosses at the same site in August 1931. (Photo from the
New York Daily News
Archive, used by permission of Getty Images)

The bacchanalian weekend was an intoxicating experience for Maranzano. The clans sent fat envelopes of cash as tribute to the
capo di capi
. “In the banquet room, on the immense decorated table, with magnificent lavishness, there towered a grandiose tray on which handfuls of dollars were placed,” described Gentile. The piles of money totaled $115,000 ($1.7 million in current dollars). “
Compare
, these victories have made me drunk!” admitted Maranzano. “I feel a ball of fire inside!”
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Like a dictator's parade, there was a palpable phoniness to the honors. The attendees were greeted by Maranzano's soldiers, who steered each attendee to the cash tray. “
Viva il nostro capo!
” shouted his soldiers. “Long live our boss!” Street guys put on airs for the refined boss. “Many, who, even being boors, cared to appear like gentlemen,” Gentile recalled. His supplicants praised him a little too much, laughed a little too loudly. “I would like to go to Germany to be more secure,” Maranzano mumbled nervously.
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EAGLE BUILDING CORPORATION, PARK AVENUE, GRAND CENTRAL BUILDING

The
capo di capi
sets up his empire. He opens an elaborate suite of Art Deco–style offices on the ninth floor of the bustling Grand Central Building at 230 Park Avenue. In the mornings, he walks through the spectacular expanse of Grand Central Station. The Eagle Building Corporation is the official name of the enterprise, though no one knows what it does exactly. He hires an English-speaking secretary. File cabinets contain the meticulous paperwork of business
concerns. To be closer to work, he leases a luxurious apartment on 42nd Street in Manhattan.
⁶¹

Beneath the surface is something else. The nominal president of Eagle Building Corporation is James Alescia, a convicted narcotics trafficker who served time at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. In the afternoons, the anteroom is full of gangsters waiting impatiently to see the big man. He keeps even important
mafiosi
like Steve Magaddino waiting an hour or more to see him. The
capo di capi
can do that.
⁶²

SAME AS THE OLD BOSS OF BOSSES

As an aficionado of ancient Rome, Maranzano should have learned from Caligula, who sought to concentrate all power in himself (“Let there be One Lord, One King,” he declared). He became the first Roman emperor stabbed to death by conspirators.
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Maranzano proved even more power hungry than Masseria. He made a list of people he wanted dead. “Al Capone, Frank Costello, Charley Lucky, Vito Genovese, Vincent Mangano, Joe Adonis, Dutch Schultz,” recounted Joe Valachi. “These are all important names at the time.” They all happened to be former Masseria allies. So much for no reprisals. An FBI electronic bug picked up Steve Magaddino describing how Maranzano “wanted to shoot in the worst way” various men. “I said what are you crazy…there isn't any need to,” recalled Magaddino. The Castellammarese, the vaunted band of brothers, started backbiting over Maranzano.
⁶⁴
Perhaps even more galling, Maranzano began threatening their money, too. There were rumors that Maranzano's men were hijacking booze trucks belonging to fellow
mafiosi
and dividing the spoils. A new cabal began plotting against the
capo di capi
.
⁶⁵

Although Charles Luciano was involved again, the roles of Tom Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese of the former Reina Family have been seriously underestimated.
⁶⁶
First
, they had motive: Gagliano and Lucchese owned trucking companies in the garment district, an industry Maranzano had been eyeing. Joe Valachi recalled how Tommy Lucchese told him that the
capo di capi
“had been doing a lot of bad,” and asked if “I knew if Maranzano hijacked trucks of piece goods.”
⁶⁷
Second
, they had means: Gagliano and Lucchese had become regulars in his Park Avenue office. Bonanno said he learned Lucchese was funneling intelligence on “Maranzano's office habits and his preoccupations with the IRS.” Gentile likewise suggested there was a mole in his office.
⁶⁸
Third
, they had opportunity. Both would be present at the scene of the crime.

3:45 P.M., THURSDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 10, 1931, OFFICE OF SALVATORE MARANZANO: KILLING THE BOSS OF BOSSES

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 10, Mr. Maranzano had his secretary, Miss Francis Samuels, keep several men waiting in the anteroom. In his office, Maranzano sat at his wide desk looking over paperwork. The metal fan buzzed next to the wall clock. Around 3:40 p.m., Tom Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese walked into the anteroom. Minutes ticked by….
⁶⁹

At 3:45 p.m. four lawmen burst into the anteroom brandishing badges and guns. Mr. Maranzano had told his men that he'd received a tip that a government raid on his office was imminent. Not to worry, though. His accountants assured him his office records could withstand even the most rigorous examination by the IRS. To avoid a gun charge, Mr. Maranzano instructed his men to stop bringing firearms to the office for the near future. His bodyguard Girolamo Santuccio did not like being unarmed, but he obeyed his boss.
⁷⁰

This must have been the raid everyone was expecting. The four lawmen were dressed properly, they flashed metal badges, and they were Jews not Italians. They ordered everyone to line up against the wall of the anteroom. “Who can we talk to?” demanded an agent. Hearing the commotion, Maranzano poked his head out his office.
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