Masseria hitmen, including Gyp Rosetti, waiting to ambush Enoch Thompson's liquor convoy, Tabor Heights, 1923
The Masseria crime family was a family of the American Mafia that existed from 1922 to 1931, based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The family was led by Joe Masseria, who once served as the underboss of Morello crime family boss Giuseppe Morello. During the 1920s, the Masseria family became one of the most powerful Mafia families in America, leading to war with the rival Maranzano crime family of Brooklyn from 1929 to 1931. Men such as Masseria, Morello, Lucky Luciano, Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Al Manfredi, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, and Carlo Gambino fought for the Masseria family during the "Castellammarese War" with Maranzano, and the war went poorly for Masseria. Masseria, Morello, and Manfredi were killed during the conflict, with Masseria being killed by his own men on Luciano's orders. Luciano and the others proceeded to defect to Maranzano, whom they proceeded to kill in September of 1931. The war led to the demise of both families and the rise of the new generation of the Mafia, which abandoned the old-fashioned ways and formed an Americanized crime syndicate.