Gambino was a teenage hitman in Sicily, alleged to be “made” into the Mafia overseas before coming to the United States in 1921 at age 19 and going to work for cousins connected to gangland factions in New York. When D’Aquila was killed by rival gangster Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria in 1928, Gambino shifted his allegiance to the Masseria gang, which fought a four-year war for underworld supremacy in New York against Salvatore Maranzano, a crime lord hailing from a different section of Sicily