giance to ethnic and family bonds than the liberated managersrnand bureaucrats of transnational firms. Nevertheless, the samernhistorical pattern that brought American society under the controlrnof managerial elites in state and economy can be perceivedrnweaving its way through organized crime, and looking at thernmanagerial revolution as it triumphed among the mobstersrnhelps us see ourselves and what has happened to us.rnAt the beginning of the 20th century, organized crime wasrnless organized than criminal, based on small gangs thatrndominated the immigrant neighborhoods of the larger cities,rnruled by tightly enforced ethnic, family, and communityrnbonds, and governed by patriarchal (though usually brutal andrnavaricious) leaders who had deep roots among both their followersrnand their victims. Its activities were the usual vices thatrnlegitimate society forbids —gambling, prostitution, fencingrnstolen goods, extortion—and its scale was comparable to that ofrnthe mom-and-pop businesses and owner-operated firms thatrntypified the American economy of the day. The larger gangs atrnthe turn of the century were not Sicilian but Irish, Jewish, andrnnot a few Anglo-Saxon.rnWith the advent of Prohibition, this began to change, and byrnthe mid-1920’s the Sicilians had formed their own syndicaternunder a founding father named Giuseppe (“joe the Boss”)rnMasseria. Something of a megalomaniac, Masseria demandedrnunconditional submission from his fellow Sicilians and distrustedrnthose who declined to give it. Distrusted in particularrnwere a bunch of Sicilians who hailed from the northern coast ofrnthe island, Castellammare del Golfo, and who were raking inrnbig money from the speakeasies. Tlie Castellammarese, as theyrnwere known, included such future statesmen as Joe Bonannornand Stefano Magaddino, but their leader was an erudite soulrnnamed Salvatore Maranzano. In his youth, Maranzano hadrnstudied briefly for the priesthood and, if he learned little ofrnpiety, had absorbed enough ancient history to pick as his personalrnicon Julius Caesar. His apartment was filled with booksrnon Caesar and his political and militar’ tactics.rnIn 1928, Masseria, increasingly alarmed at the independencernof the Castellammarese, decreed an increase in the tiibuternthey were supposed to pay him. At the time, he still held thernloyalty of most Sicilians and the services of a good many youngrnmen who would soon become famous —Salvatore Lucania,rna.k.a. Charlie Lucky, and better known as Lucky Luciano; VitornGenovese; Albert Anastasia; and Bonanno —but the higherrntribute and Masseria’s increasingly domineering view of himselfrnas “Joe the Boss” grated on them, as did their insubordinationrnon him. In 1930, one of Masseria’s gunmen shot downrnone of Maranzano’s less submissive confederates, GaetanornReina, an act that sent the whole underworld to the mattiesses.rnWhat ensued is known in Mob circles as the “CastellammaresernWar,” a year-long bloodletting that eventually brought most ofrnthe famous names of Mafia lore into the newspapers and dispatchedrnseveral now obscure names to the fi^ineral parlors. Thernmain figure to emerge into prominence was Luciano, who hadrnbeen busy constructing his own alliances.rnWith his pal Genovese, Lucky cut a deal with Maranzanornand then made a luncheon appointment with Joe the Boss atrnScarpato’s Clam House on Coney Island for April 15, 1931. Afterrnstuffing himself for some three hours, Joe played cards withrnLucky for a while, and then Luciano excused himself to go tornthe men’s room. During his absence, four men armed with pistolsrncharged into Scarpato’s and splattered Masseria all oer therntablecloth. Luciano was able to tell the police that he had nornidea who the killers were or why they would want to murder hisrnbeloved patron—he was in the men’s room the whole time. “Irnalways take a long leak,” he insisted to the cops. In fact, the fourrnkillers were Luciano’s new allies—Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia,rnJoe Adonis, and Bugsy Siegel —and the whole murderrnhad been planned carefully by Lucky and New Ally NumberrnOne, the Little Man.rnThe Castellammarese War did not quite end with the executionrnof Masseria, though his death did promise a new stabilityrnto the mob. But Maranzano soon declared himself caj&o dirntutti capi, “boss of all bosses,” which was not exactly what Luckyrnand his fi-iends had had in mind. Maranzano also exploited hisrnlearning in Roman history to remodel the whole organization.rnFrom now on, the gangs would be structured into units analogousrnto Roman legions, each led by a capo, assisted by a sottocapornor underboss who would command the caporegimi, orrnlieutenants, who led the actual tioops. But if Masseria’s megalomaniarnhad been annoying, Maranzano’s soon became insufferable.rnHe concocted the notion that all the little bosses wouldrngather around him, as he sat on a raised platform in their midst,rnand do him homage. Luciano had moved up in tlie world withrnhis betrayal of Masseria, but not high enough, and neither hernnor his new friends had any intention of letting Maranzano lordrnhimself over them. By September 1931, Lucky and his fi’iendsrnhad decided on a course of action.rnHis friends included the distinctly non-Sicilian group knownrnas the “Bug and Meyer Mob” after their leaders, Benjaminrn”Bugsy” Siegel and Lansky, along with allies such as Al Caponern(like Luciano, a Neapolitan by birth), Murray “the Camel”rnHumphreys (a Welshman), and Arthur Flegenheimer, popularlyrnknown as “Dutch Schultz.” The alliance of mainland Italians,rnJews, and the odd Welshman was a novelty, since the oldrn”Italian Society” set up by Masseria was a closely knit bandrnlargely confined to Sicilians and distrustful of mainlanders andrnother aliens. But in the minds of Luciano and his confederates,rnit was merit that counted, not ethnicity, and the course of actionrnthey followed against Maranzano and his old Sicilian MustachernFetes created the modern Mob.rnThe course of action kicked off on September II, 1931,rnwhen a group of “four Jews” (as Joe Valachi would callrnthem some 30 years later) entered Maranzano’s business officernand shot him to death. But Maranzano’s execution was not thernend of the action. Over the next two davs, some 40 to 50 bosses,rnunderbosses, and lieutenants were cut down all over thernUnited States. Most of these were the Castellammarese withrnwhom Luciano and Lansky had allied against Masseria. Crimernwriter Peter Maas calls the series of executions “an intricate,rnpainstaking])’ executed mass extermination.” Crime historianrnDonald Cressey writes that “the losers of the war’s last big battlernwere members of the Sicilian Castellammare group in NewrnYork, and Sicilian ‘greasers,’ ‘handlebars,’ and ‘mustache Petes’rnall over the country.” It was a daring and brutal bid for power,rnbut it was also an act of mini-genocide. In Mob folklore it isrnknown as the “Sicilian Vespers.”rnAfter they made the desert, Luciano and Lansky called itrnpeace. Luciano decreed that the Maranzano-Caesarean modelrnof organization would be retained, but there would be norn”boss of all bosses” (at least in principle). Instead, there wouldrnbe a “council of six” composed of the leaders of what soonrncame to be known as the “Five Families” of New York and onernOCTOBER 1998/15rnrnrn