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Birth: 1927
Giuseppe Masseria was born in Palermo, 1887, and moved to America to avoid murder charges back in Sicily. He arrived in New York somewhere in 1903. It wasn't for long until he got into contact with Giuseppe Morello, the Sicilian leader of a notorious band of counterfeiters. Masseria later joined a Harlem branch of the Morello gang headed by Ciro Terranova. The Morello gang already headlined newspapers with the 1903 "Mysterie of the barrel" where a man was found stuffed inside a wooden barrel, he was killed with several stabbing wounds. Although many were arrested in the aftermath, no one of the gang was jailed for the crime. Masseria began his uprising in the gang as an enforcer and hitman. In 1910 then leaders Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Saietta were arrested and jailed for counterfeiting. Morello's half-brothers Ciro, Vincent and Nicholas Terranova took over the organization. In 1916 however the Terranova's were challenged by the Brooklyn Camorra who were in fact former partners. The resulting violence led to the murder of leader Nicholas Morello in 1916. However, one year later turncoats sent most of the Camorra leadership to prison. For a while the danger seemed to calme down again and in 1920 Peter Morello and Ignazio Saietta got out of prison. Saietta returned to his homeland Sicily while Morello was eager go back to his brothers. But things had changed. 
Men who headed this murderous crew were Bonanno relative Vito Bonventre, Giuseppe Lombardi, Francesco Puma, Bartolo DiGregorio (relative of Gaspare DiGregorio) and Manriano Galante (relative of Carmine Galante). The assassins mainly had their base of operations in both New York and Detroit, but also operated in Pittsburgh and New Jersey. In the following years rich and influential Italians would pay large sums of money for their work. As example they were responsible for the death of Detroit leader Giovanni Vitale in 1920. 
As one of the first high profile victims, Gaetano Reina was murdered by Vito Genovese on February 26, 1930, in orders of his own boss. Masseria then appointed his allie Giuseppe Pinzolo to succeed Reina as head of his crew. Only 2 months later important Castellammarese ally Gaspar Milazzo was murdered in Detroit. In July, 1930, Castellammarese leader Vito Bonventre was also killed in his garage. Maranzano immediatly reacted with the murder of Peter Morello, second in command of Masseria in August. In September Masseria loyalist Joseph Pinzollo was murdered by members of his own crew, because they disliked Pinzollo and wanted to allie themselves with Maranzano. Gaetano Gagliano and Thomas Lucchese ordered Pinzollo's murder and soon backed Maranzano. Then, in October 1930 Maranzano loyalist Joe Aiello, who ran a small Castellammarese branch in Chicago, was also murdered in orders of Al Capone and Masseria. Again Maranzano acted and ordered the murder of Al Mineo, the man who took over from Salvatore D'Aquila. Both sides had lost major members and Masseria's foundations were shaking.