The Rise and Fall of the Italian Mafia in the U.S.
             The Italian mafia was originally formed in the year 1282 as a terrorist and freedom fighter group. It was a secret society to unite the native Sicilian people so that they could evade the attacks of the French and the Arabs. In fact, one of several contrived meanings of the word mafia is "Morte Alla Française Italia Annella", which means "Death to France is Italy's cry"(mafiasite.8m.com). This early mafia group gained power by employing terroristic means to gain influence over the people. In time, the mafia grew in Italy, and became a rather powerful group. Benito Mussolini tried to destroy the Italian Mafia in the early 1900's, so many mafia members immigrated to the U.S., along with thousands of other Italians (Nash, 167). Thus, the Italian mafia began its rise in the United States. Over the time period of about 100 years, the Italian mafia in America grew by using many different illegal methods and force to gain power and wealth, but eventually began to fall apart due to wars between mafia families and arrests of top mafia bosses.
             After migrating to America in the early 1900's, the mafia branched out into 3 cities: New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. In New York, the main center of mafia activity, there were 5 main groups or families. They were: Joe Masseria's gang, Al Mineo's gang, The Castellamarese Clan, Tom Reina's gang, and Joe Profaci's gang. Because Joe Masseria was boss of the whole mafia, he was obeyed by all of the other groups. However, the Castellamarese Clan, which was run by Sal Maranzano, did not obey the boss, and therefore there was tension between the two gangs.
             In the 1920's, Masseria ordered a young Al Capone to go to Chicago to handle a problem. However, Al killed one of Maranzano's close friends, so Maranzano was furious and the Castellamarese war began between the 2 g...