|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Lucchese Family
Tom Reina, boss of what would become the Lucchese Family, was killed in 1930 in the Castellammarese War under orders from Joe "The Boss" Masseria. Masseria did not want Reina's gang to side with Sal Maranzano, so this hit was meant to intimidate Reina's gang. To Masseria's surprise, the new leaders of Reina's gang, Tommy Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese (right), took their men and joined up with Maranzano.
After Masseria's death, Maranzano officially recognized Gagliano as head of his Family at La Cosa Nostra's first national meeting in Chicago in 1931. He was therefore one of the original Commission members, along with the bosses of the other four New York Families and the bosses of the Buffalo and Chicago Families. Obviously not feeling obligated to Maranzano for this, Gagliano and Lucchese later joined forces with Charles "Lucky" Luciano against Maranzano.
After Gagliano's death of natural causes in 1953, Lucchese took over easily as boss. In 1957, Lucchese was involved in the plot that gave Carlo Gambino (above left) and Vito Genovese the title of boss of their Families. Later, this group supported the revolt in the Profaci Family, and eventually Joe Colombo was made boss. They then replaced Joe Bonanno with a boss that they could control.
In 1967, Lucchese died. Next up for the throne was Carmine Tromunti, who was soon convicted of approving a drug deal and died in prison. "Tony Ducks" Corallo took over and held his position until the Commission trials of the 1980s, when he was given a 100 year sentence. Corallo died on 9/1/00.
Victorio Amuso then became boss with the notorious Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso as his underboss.
They were plotting with Vincent "The Chin" Gigante (above right) to kill John Gotti (above left), but both were charged with a previous murder. Gaspipe opted to become a government informer, but recently lost his chance at a sentence reduction. It was believed that Amuso, who is serving a life sentence, chose capo Joe DeFere as boss, which may have been true, but recently (9/7/00) it was discovered that Steven L. Crea (right) has been serving as acting boss. Crea and a host of others were arrested on September 7, 2000 on a union racketeering charge (see "Past News Articles" for that date).
