13. A Short-Lived Victory
On the surface, the Castellammarese War had been a power struggle between mob bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. An underlying current, however, was a generational struggle of their younger underlings, who grew up American, against the rival bosses and their entire generation of leadership. Derided as “Mustache Petes”, the old-timers were insular, set in their Old World ways, and unwilling or unable to adapt to American realities.
Having won, Maranzano reorganized the Italian-American mafia, establishing the basic structure that survives to this day. Each family would henceforth have a boss and underboss, and beneath them would be captains, or caporegimes, in command of soldiers. Above them all, Maranzano declared himself Boss of All Bosses However, Maranazano, an egomaniac with delusions of grandeur who fancied himself a Julius Caesar of the criminal world, did not enjoy his victory for long. Five months after declaring himself capo di tutti capi, Lucky Luciano had him murdered. He then he abolished the Boss of All Bosses title, and set up a collective mafia leadership council, The Commission, to avoid future gang wars.