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Printed page 166 of the 1963 hearings, Part 1 (NCJRS PDF page 181): Valachi explains that Castellammare is "In Sicily" and that "All the Castellemarese were sentenced to death."
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Hearing of October 1, 1963, pp. 166–168: "All the Castellemarese were sentenced to death"; the Morello and Pinzolo killings as Valachi told them

Valachi testified that Masseria had condemned "all the Castellemarese" to death, that Peter Morello was killed "by the Maranzano group," and that the Maranzano and Gagliano sides then joined forces. Counsel put the dates of August 15 and September 9, 1930 from police records. Testimony, much of it hearsay.

Date
1963-10-01
Kind
hearing
Source
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Rights
A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The NCJRS cover sheet records reproduction permission as "Public Domain / U.S. Senate."

Printed pages 166 to 168 of Part 1 (NCJRS PDF pages 181 to 183), October 1, 1963. This is the passage that explains the name of the war.

Valachi testified that Joseph Profaci explained it to him: “All the Castellemarese were sentenced to death.” Asked by counsel Jerome Adlerman what the Castellammarese are, he said he could explain in Italian, and agreed that Castellammare is a town “In Sicily.” Asked whether Masseria condemned to death anybody who came from that area, wherever they were in the United States, he answered: “All Castellemarese. That is the way I was told. I never found out the reason. I never asked for the reason.” Asked to name Castellammarese in New York, he named “Joseph Profaci, Joe Bonanno,” and said Tom Gagliano was not one. Asked whether Maranzano was a Castellammarese, he said “Yes.”

Adlerman then put the sequence: “The first one that was killed was Tommy Reina,” then “Peter Morello was killed, I think, August 15, 1930.” Valachi said Morello “was killed by the Castellemarese group, put it this way, by the Maranzano group,” by a gunman he knew only as “Buster of Chicago.” Adlerman said the Pinzolo killing “took place according to the police records on September 9, 1930”; Valachi attributed it to Bobby Doyle of “the Gagliano group” and said of the date, “Dates I didn’t know but that sounds about right.” He testified that the two sides then exchanged names to be killed and “joined forces.” Staff counsel Duffy added: “This became a nationwide war after these two men were killed.”

The dates are counsel’s, taken from police records; the police readings are filed as pp. 174–179. Who killed whom is what Valachi said he was told, and nobody named here was charged on it. “Buster” is never identified further in the record. These are a witness’s sworn answers, not findings.

Page images: printed p. 166 (stored above), p. 167 and p. 168.

itemHearing of October 1, 1963, pp. 156–157: Valachi joins Gagliano's group and names "the Castellamarese war"Valachi testified that he was persuaded to join a group headed by Tom Gagliano that meant to "fight some big shots," and, asked about the war between Masseria and Maranzano, called it "what we call the Castellamarese war." Testimony, not a finding.itemHearing of October 1, 1963, pp. 163–165: the killing of Tom Reina, the "undeclared war" and Joseph PinzoloStaff counsel LaVern Duffy named the death of Tom Reina as the first significant date of the 1930–31 war, and Valachi explained why the war was at first "undeclared" and what he was told of the killing of Joseph Pinzolo. Counsel's statements and testimony, not findings.itemHearing of October 1, 1963, pp. 168–174: the watch on Steve Ferrigno's apartment at Pelham Parkway and the killing of Ferrigno and Alfred MineoValachi described renting an apartment across from Steve Ferrigno's on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, seeing Masseria at the building, and the shooting of Ferrigno and Mineo, which he said happened while he was away. He gave the place as "750 Pelham Parkway." Testimony, not a finding.itemHearing of October 1, 1963, pp. 174–179: Sgt. Ralph Salerno reads the police records of the 1930 killings of Reina, Morello, Pinzolo, Ferrigno and MineoA New York police sergeant read into the record the department's entries on five killings of 1930, with the time and street of each: Reina at 1522 Sheridan Avenue, Morello at 362 East 116th Street, Pinzolo in the Brokaw Building, and Ferrigno and Mineo on Pelham Parkway. Every case was still open in 1963.itemTestimony of Joseph Valachi, October 1, 1963: the initiation ceremonyValachi described the ceremony at which he said he was made a member, with Salvatore Maranzano speaking. The same day, staff presented Exhibit 8, the Masseria-Maranzano war chart.