Genovese rose to great stardom during the famous Castellammarese War. He joined forces with
Joe Masseria along with such young stars as
Luciano,
Lansky,
Siegel, and Costello. They continued to serve Masseria until it became evident that Masseria would lose. In April 1931, Luciano orchestrated the assassination of Joe Maserria. Vito Genovese was on eof the four shooters involved. After the Great War,
Marazano put Genovese in the family, which was headed by Luciano. But after a while Maranzano began to realize that these young men would be a threat to his undisputed crown of “boss of all bosses”. So Maranzano put together a hit list that included Genovese.
After World War II, Genovese began a campaign of murder to gain new status in the underworld, taking advantage of Luciano being in exile in Italy. His murder spree included an attempt on the life of Frank Costello, which failed but forced Costello into retirement. Facing a murder charge in 1937, Genovese was forced to flee to Italy. When Genovese returned to the States, all the witnesses to the murder disappeared. Because of this lack of witnesses, Vito won his freedom. His next move was to obtain control of the Luciano family and the dominant role in the Mafia. But in order to accomplish this, he needed to eliminate the acting boss Frank Costello. The attempt on Costello’s life failed but the successful murder of
Albert Anastasia (ordered by genovese) forced Costello to retire. Now Genovese had control of Luciano’s family and sought to strengthen his hold. Genovese reportedly was the coordinator of the Apalachin Meeting where he expected to be named Boss of Bosses. But as we all know, the meeting proved to be a fiasco and Genovese was blamed by everyone involved. Genovese now knew that he needed to move against Costello, Lansky and others. But before he could, Lansky and Luciano setup Genovese on a huge drug smuggling deal. In 1959, Genovese and many of his supporters were given long prison terms. In 1969, Genovese died in prison.
