A war in the middle of two rival factions of organized crime in America developed in the middle of the Masseria clan led by Joe "The Boss" Masseria and the Castellammarese clan led by Sal Maranzano. This was known as the "Castellammarese War". Maranzano would triumph with the help of mobsters Carlo Gambino, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Albert Anastasia, Joe Adonis, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Vito Genovese. In 1920 with the murder of Joseph Masseria the war ended uniting the two isolate organized crime factions back into one club now dubbed "Cosa Nostra (thing of ours)" by Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano named his position "Capo di tutti capi" or "boss of bosses". Maranzano established the code of conduct for the club along with the formation of the "families" divisions and structure.
Maranzano then appointed the heads of the legal "5 Families" of New York. Most were already in command of there respective gangs but this made it legal under "Cosa Nostra".
1) Masseria's gang would be given to Luciano, with Vito Genovese as his underboss (and would later come to be the Genovese Family)
2) The Mineo gang would now be headed by Frank Scalise (and would later be known as the Gambino Family)
3) Maranzano would continue to head his gang (which would come to be the Bonanno Family)
4) Gaetano Gagliano would take over Tom Reina's gang, and Tommy Lucchese would be his underboss (this would come to be the Lucchese Family)
5) Joe Profaci would keep his gang, since he stayed neutral while the war (this would later come to be the Colombo Family)
Maranzano also appointed Al Capone as boss of the Chicago faction, later to be known as "the Outfit". He also appointed Francisco Milano boss of the Cleveland house and Stefano Magaddino boss of the Buffalo Family.
Maranzano's rein would be short as he was killed within six months of becoming "boss of bosses" by Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano was gaining in power and Maranzano plotted to kill the young upstart but Luciano was tipped off and struck first ordering the murder of Maranzano.
Charles "Lucky" Luciano would go on to form the Mafia "Commission". The Commission would come to be the controlling government of the mafia, each house boss would have a seat on the commission and a vote in setting mafia policy and settling disputes in the middle of families. The original Commission included bosses from six of the seven original families formed by Maranzano together with all 5 New York Families.
