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    1. JackOfTheLantern999 on

      The Castellammarese War was a gang war in NYC 1930-1931, fought between reigning boss, Joe “The Boss” Masseria, and the upstart, Salvatore “Little Caesar” Maranzano. On Masseria’s side was Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who was known as a “Young Turk,” a younger mafioso who was more forward thinking and willing to work with non-Italians. Lucky was tired of the older, more conservative thinking of guys like Masseria and Maranzano, “Mustache Petes.” He made a deal with the more competent Maranzano, he would arrange Masseria’s murder in return for being put in charge of his operation and serving directly under Maranzano, thus ending the war. Maranzano declared himself capo dei capi (boss of bosses), only for Lucky to arrange his murder just 5 months later, after Maranzano had organized the various Italian gangs into the Five Families.

      Lucky looked down on the dictatorship-like position of capo dei capi, wishing instead for crime to be run more like a proper, modern business. He took the Five Families of New York, the bosses of the Chicago Outfit, and leaders of other prominent Mafia families across the country to found The Commission, a ruling body for the American Mafia that acted like a board of directors. He also furthered his goals of creating a National Crime Syndicate, criminal groups of all ethnicities and backgrounds cooperating, which he started working to create in 1929 during a meeting with all the prominent Mafia bosses except Masseria and Maranzano (it would never become an actual structured organization, just a series of loose alliances and a new standard for cooperation).

      Edit: fixed a translation

    2. National Crime Syndicate sounds like sth straight out of a superhero comic book.

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