The Influence of Prohibition on the Illegal Activities of the Maranzano Family, Essay Example

Background and Plan of Investigation

The Prohibition Era began in 1920 and ended in 1933 and prohibited the legal sale of alcohol in the United States (Kyvig). Although the prohibition laws primarily made the sale and distribution of alcohol illegal, some states made the private ownership and consumption of alcohol illegal as well. While the act was supported strongly by many religious leaders and won the majority of votes in Congress, many civilians were outraged by the passage of these laws. As a consequence, organized crime families, such as the Maranzano’s, took matters into their own hands and entered the business of bootlegging. While Prohibition was intended by lawmakers to be pathway to morality and encourage proper behavior, its consequence was the opposite of that; illegal alcohol sales were at an all-time high, which encouraged crime families to battle one another for dominance of the market. This research aims to demonstrate that the Maranzano family came to power primarily due to the passage of the prohibition laws in the United States. A summary of events of historical relevance and a literature review will be used to show how the Maranzano crime family rose to the top and took control of this aspect of the black market.

Summary of Evidence

The Maranzano crime family was headed by Salvatore Maranzano, who was born in Castellammare Del Golfo, Sicily. He was originally involved in organized crime during his time there, and saw an opportunity to continue this lifestyle when he moved to New York City in 1925 (Critchley). Salvatore Maranzano was skilled at taking advantage of political and social situations to benefit himself, which led to his receipt of the title “Boss of Bosses”. Both his ability to produce and distribute alcohol during the time of prohibition and involvement in the mafia war with Joe Masseria’s family led to his success as a gangster.

Evaluation of Sources

Although simply producing and distributing alcohol doesn’t seem like a typical gangster activity, it is essential to understand that in the prohibition error, this paved ways for other forms of organized crime. An article entitled “Organized Crime and Prohibition: What Difference Does it Make?” discusses the threats of alcohol to society depending on its legal status (Demleitner). While alcohol consumption certainly is not healthy for the user and can persuade them to conduct themselves in manners they would not while they are sober, this is the extent of the harm of alcohol when it is legal in a society. When alcohol, or any other drugs for that matter, are made illegal, it will likely enter the black market if there is a want or need for the product. Someone will take it upon themselves to ensure the product is still created and find ways to distribute it. This is currently happening with drugs like marijuana; even though it is illegal in many states, people still know how to obtain it, although they run the fear of paying too much or getting an impure product.

Ultimately, organized crime derives from situations in which the state is either unwilling or unable to enforce regulation of either a statute or item. In the article “The political economy of organized crime: providing protection when the state does not”, the author compared organized crime and crime families to varying aspects of the government (Skaperdas). Firstly, he notes that mafia families and gangs have a certain hierarchal structure, much as the government does. One of the major differences between the hierarchal powers of mafia families in the government is how members come into power. In a sense, we can argue that mafia bosses are elected democratically; however, it is clear that this decision was made by others based on their ability to deliver. In the case of Salvatore Maranzano and Giuseppe Masseria, Maranzano became the leader over Masseria due to his popularity and efficacy that was demonstrated in the Castellammarese War. While leaders of democratic and republic governments are elected similarly, we don’t have much power to remove them from office. In the mafia however, removing someone from a leadership position simply requires enough individuals who are upset about the leadership, and they simply eliminate him.

The Maranzano family came to power in part due to how this hierarchal structure of leadership works in the mafia. Salvatore Maranzano, unlike Giuseppe Masseria was intelligent enough to ensure that other mafia families were on his side. When Maranzano was able to demonstrate his power over Masseria, these other families decided that it would benefit New York City if Masseria were overthrown. While gangsters like Luciano led this effort, he knew he would not simply replace Masseria by killing him because he lacked the power that Maranzano demonstrated. As a consequence, Luciano killed Masseria without consulting Maranzano because he knew that Maranzano would be pleased and he would be rewarded.

While Salvatore Maranzano hit his peak in 1931 and awarded himself the title of “Boss of Bosses”, this was short lived. Before the murder of Giuseppe Masseria, Maranzano had claimed that he wanted to end boss rule, so his new sense of self-entitlement shocked the other crime families. Maranzano’s rule of the five new crime families displeased them greatly, as he treated himself as an emperor and the heads of the other crime families as subordinates. In fact, Luciano came to believe that Maranzano had become even more terrible than Masseria had been. As expected, the five crime families would not stand for this and decided to take action against Maranzano. Maranzano suspected that Luciano and his friends would take action against him, and hired Mad Dog Coll to murder Luciano and his companions. However, Luciano had already found out about Maranzano’s plans and remained safe (Maas).

Luciano hired Samuel “Red” Levine and several other gangsters to pose as accounts and travel to Maranzano’s office for the hit. Once inside of Maranzano’s building, they managed to disarm his guards and upon finding Maranzano, shot and stabbed him to death. At this point, Luciano was in charge, but abolished the title of top boss and reassigned the power than the Maranzano’s once had to the Bonanno family. Salvatore Maranzano may have died in a timely manner; his death occurred on September 10, 1931, while prohibition ended only two years later.

Analysis

Prohibition in the United States was similar to today’s drug was on marijuana. However, due to the prevalence of organized time during this period, crime families were the main “dealers” of alcohol and their success rates were far higher than the average person due to their connections and man power. While this business was an illegal trade, it was still a business nonetheless, and a primary concern of many businesses is competition. When Salvatore Maranzano immigrated to the United States, he opened up a small distillery in order to support himself and his family. However, he recognized that it would be beneficial for him to convert his small scale business to a large scale operation, employing some of the skills he used as a member of the mafia back in Sicily.

While normal competition in business is encouraged because it allows consumers to have quality product at an affordable price, such is not the case for competition on the black market. Since Salvatore Maranano and the rest of the Castellammarese branch of the mafia were not the only group trying to profit off of the illegal sale of alcohol, it was essential they become dominant over the Morello gang, led by Giuseppe Masseria (Raab). Since this is competition on the black market, members of opposing gangs were willing to do whatever it took to become the head of the mafia in America. While a majority of the crime families recognized that prohibition was an excellent opportunity to become involved in the illegal sale of alcohol, Salvatore Maranzano rose above all the rest in order to achieve this venture.

Tensions between the two crime families were constantly on the rise, although what is termed as the Castellammarese War between the two of them resulted as a consequence of a misunderstanding. Before then however, the Masseria became angry that the Maranzano’s were becoming involved in something that they believed was their business and which they had the exclusive right to. The two families would try to set one another back by hijacking one another’s trucks and Salvatore Maranzano tried to further himself in the business by forming alliances with other crime families and taking hits on the Masseria family. Eventually, it was rumored that Gaetano Reina, a lieutenant of Masseria, was negotiating with Salvatore Maranzano behind Masseria’s back after Masseria demanded a share of his profits. As a consequence, the Masseria’s had Vito Genovese murder Reina. This triggered a large scale back and forth between the two families who were taking hits on important members of each side.

The Castellammarese War came to an end in 1931 when it became clear to many mafia families that it would be more beneficial for them to work for Salvatore Maranzano than Masseria. A decision made by Masseria lieutenant Charles Luciano was the primary reason the Masseria family’s dominance came to an end. Luciano was unique from other mobsters in that his crew included people from a broad range of ethnicities, including Italians, Sicilians, and Jews. Therefore, he had both the knowledge to take over the mob game in addition to the man power. Luciano with the help of three other influential members of the mob scene decided that they would attack and kill their boss, Giuseppe Masseria, with the hope of creating peace on the streets of New York again in addition to restructuring the mafia in America. Since Salvatore Maranzano was still more powerful than Luciano, he had the main say in how Luciano and the other families who assisted the death of Masseria would profit. As a consequence, he divided the New York territory among five crime families, the Luciano family (formerly members of the Masseria’s), the Gagliano family (formerly members of the Reina’s), the Profaci family (not active during the war), the Scalise family, and the Bonanno family (members of the Castellammarese).

Conclusion

Although prohibition in the United States was responsible for giving the Maranzano crime family the necessary power to take over the mafia in New York, it also was responsible for ending his rule. Ultimately, the fight over the illegal production and trade of alcohol was an involved battle for many crime families, and many of these families were upset by Maranzano’s belief that he could control everyone. However, it is possible that Maranzano would have eventually lost power without Luciano’s intervention. As a result of the Maranzano family involvement in the illegal trade of alcohol, gangster culture had changed for the good, and there hadn’t been a “boss of bosses” for many years to come after Maranzano’s death.

Works Cited

Critchley, David. The Origin of Organized Crime in America. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. Print.<http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Origin_of_Organized_Crime_in_America.html?id=uX29UdJJ3qYC>

Demleitner NV. Organized Crime and Prohibition: What Difference Does Legalization Make? 1994 Web. 5 January 2014. <http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/whitlr15&div=31&id=& page=>

Kyvig, David E. Law, Alcohol, and Order: Perspectives on National Prohibition Greenwood Press, 1985. Print.<http://books.google.com/books/about/Law_alcohol_and_order.html?id=yGXBAAAAIAAJ>

Maas, Peter. The Valachi Papers (1986 Pocket Books ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. Print.<http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Valachi_Papers.html?id=dzAZAAAAIAAJ>

Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005. Print.<http://books.google.com/books/about/Five_Families.html?id=5JPhSgeJFCsC>

Skaperdas S. The political economy of organized crime: providing protection when the state does not. 2001. Web. 5 January 2014. <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/PL00011026>