This is what the South-East corner of Broome and Mulberry looked like back in the early 1900’s.  On that very corner, in 1922, the biggest hood in the city, Joe “The Boss” Masseria, shot a man dead.  He was aiming for his chief rival, Umberto Valenti, but hit his lieutenant instead.

Police chased Joe a block up Mulberry.  They caught him with the smoking gun in hand.  But, to their surprise, he had a gun permit, so they let him go.  Yup – just like that.  He was never prosecuted for the murder, though Valenti would soon pay him a visit.

Masseria left Sicily in 1903 at the ripe age of 16 to avoid a murder charge – the perfect resume for a future mob boss.  He worked as an enforcer for years, but always yearned for something grander.  To be – not just a boss – but the boss of all bosses: the capo de tutti capi.

By 1922, he headed his own crime family, and began a war to assume and consolidate his nefarious power.  Steadily, Joe the Boss tightened his grip on the New York rackets through a network of capos that included Lucky Lucciano, Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.  But a Sicilian Boss, Don Vito Cascio Ferro from Castellammare del Golfo dispatched a trusted lieutentant, Salvatore Maranzano to take-over New York crime.

Thus began the defining conflict of the American Mafia: the Castellammarese War.  From August of 1930 to September of 1931, dozens of gangland assassinations took place across the five boroughs and even as far away as Chicago, where Al Capone took Joe’s side.  But on April 15^th, 1931, Anastasia, Genovese and Bugsy Siegel switched sides and killed their old boss at an Italian restaurant in Coney Island.  Maranzano became big boss over a new structure that he created for the American mafia: the Commission of the Five Families.

Experience these and other stories in our Little Italy tour.  We offer a unique NY tour experience, told with audio narration, hundreds of pictures, video clips, gps-enabled map, trivia quizzes, local recommendations, and much more.  Walk New York with Racontrs in your hand and take a walk through history.