In 1931, after the
Castellammarese War had been going on eighteen months, Luciano, who was one of
Masseria's top lieutenants at the time decided to double-cross Masseria. At a
meeting with Maranzano Luciano proposed to end the bloodshed. Luciano offered to
get rid of Masseria and take control of his gang. In exchange he wanted
Maranzano to call of his gun men, accept him as an equal boss and keep peace
between the two factions.
On April 15, 1931, Giuseppe “Joe
the Boss” Masseria was invited to one of his favorite restaurants, the Nuova
Villa Tammaro, located in Coney Island by Lucky Luciano. The meeting was
supposedly to find a way to ambush Maranzano, but Luciano had his own agenda
for the meeting, he had made arrangements to get rid of Masseria at this
meeting. Masseria arrived at the meeting, with three bodyguards, in his
personal armored car, which had one-inch think bulletproof windows. The
mobsters had a extravagant lobster lunch, played a card game and conferred over
how to get rid of Maranzano. At 3 pm, an hour after Masseria had arrived at the
restaurant and just before desert arrived, Luciano left for the toilet,
Masseria’s bodyguards vanished from the restaurant and four of Luciano’s gunmen
appeared in the restaurant and pumped Masseria full with an array of bullets.
The New York Daily News reported melodramatically that Masseria died “with the
ace of spades, the death card, clutched in a bejeweled paw"
The police found the dead
racketeer in a pool of his own blood in Nuova Villa Tammaro. Two bullets had
struck him in the head and one had pierced his heart. Police officers from Captain
Ray Honan’s homicide squad reported that; arriving at the crime scene they
could not find anyone who could give a clear description of Masseria’s shooters
or the men who were at lunch with Masseria. Even though the police could not
get a description of the shooters, they did find some clues. In an alley beside
the restaurant, the police found four overcoats, three hats and two pistols.
Three revolvers were also found in an abandoned car, a few blocks from the
crime scene.
On April 16, 1931, a day after Masseria
was slain, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reported that the police feared a gang
war as a result of Masseria’s death. The police believed that Masseria’s murder
could lead to the worst gang war New York City ever saw. However, what the
police did not know was that Masseria had been set up by his own man, Lucky
Luciano and his death would actually end the gang war, known as the Castellammarese
war.
Joe the Boss was taken home on
the night of April 16th, 1931. He was taken home in a bronze casket,
costing fifteen thousand dollars, it had silk cushions, on which Masseria’s
head rested and engraved was “Giuseppe Masseria” on the cover of the casket. Joe
was buried at Cavalry Cemetery, Queens, New York.
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