<P> In the early 1920s, fascist Benito Mussolini took control of Italy and waves of Italian immigrants fled to the United States . Sicilian Mafia members also fled to the United States, as Mussolini cracked down on Mafia activities in Italy . Most Italian immigrants resided in tenement buildings . As a way to escape the poor lifestyle, some Italian immigrants chose to join the American Mafia . </P> <P> The Mafia took advantage of prohibition and began selling illegal alcohol . The profits from bootlegging far exceeded the traditional crimes of protection, extortion, gambling, and prostitution . Prohibition allowed Mafia families to make fortunes . As prohibition continued, victorious factions went on to dominate organized crime in their respective cities, setting up the family structure of each city . Gangs hijacked each other's alcohol shipments, forcing rivals to pay them for "protection" to leave their operations alone, and armed guards almost invariably accompanied the caravans that delivered the liquor . </P> <P> In the 1920s, Italian Mafia families began waging wars for absolute control over lucrative bootlegging rackets . As the violence erupted, Italians fought Irish and Jewish ethnic gangs for control of bootlegging in their respective territories . In New York City, Frankie Yale waged war with the Irish American White Hand Gang . In Chicago, Al Capone and his family massacred the North Side Gang, another Irish American outfit . In New York City, by the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged to fight for control of the criminal underworld, one led by Joe Masseria and the other by Salvatore Maranzano . This caused the Castellammarese War, which led to Masseria's murder in 1931 . Maranzano then divided New York City into five families . Maranzano, the first leader of the American Mafia, established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the "family" divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes . In an unprecedented move, Maranzano set himself up as boss of all bosses and required all families to pay tribute to him . This new role was received negatively, and Maranzano was murdered within six months on the orders of Charles "Lucky" Luciano . Luciano was a former Masseria underling who had switched sides to Maranzano and orchestrated the killing of Masseria . </P> <P> After prohibition ended in 1933, organized crime groups were confronted with an impasse and needed other ways to maintain the high profits that they had acquired throughout the 1920s . The smarter of the organized crime groups expanded into other ventures, such as unions, construction, sanitation, and drug trafficking . On the other hand, those Mafia families that neglected the need to change eventually lost power and influence and were ultimately absorbed by other groups . </P>

La cosa nostra the history of the new york mafia