in 1920 alcohol (or liquor) was made illegal in the us and the gangs had a new way to make money. they brought in illegal liquor from canada and sold it in clubs. they bribed police into letting them sell liquor (which is also illegal) and made millions of dollars from this because they were the only ones who had liquor and so could sell it at extremely high prices. around this time the gangs in new york became one large gang (the mafia) as leaders of the gangs realized that more money could be made if all the gangs worked together. a man named giuseppe masseria and a man named salvatore maranzano both wanted to become the boss of the newly made new york mafia. fighting, known as the "castellammarese war", broke out between the two men and many of their soldiers were killed. giuseppe masseria's underboss was a man named lucky luciano who also wanted to control the new york mafia. he met with masseria's enemy salvatore maranzano and plotted to kill masseria, his own boss. masseria was shot to death in a restaurant in new york by maranzano's soldiers; one of them was vito genovese - a man who would later become boss - this was also the end of the "castellammarese war". with the death of masseria, maranzano appointed himself the boss of the new york mafia, in italian language called the "capo di tutti capi" meaning "boss of all bosses". he called a meeting with the other "mafiosi" (plural: italian language for mafia members) from all over the us and made the rules that are still used today.