Five Families
In the early 1930s, New York's Five Families began using gangs to commit their murders. This was because they had reformed their operating structures following the vicious, high-profile Castellammarese War which had made front-page news for its brutality. With the new peace, the mobs now wanted to keep a low public profile. By using contract killers, the Five Families were better protected from public and law enforcement scrutiny. These killers were led by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the young leader of the Jewish gang known as the "Gorilla Boys". With the growth in racketeering, Buchalter's small informal network of killers grew into a group of 250 criminals who were also involved in narcotics, labor unions, and other rackets such as gambling and prostitution. Buchalter called his group "The Combination" but the New York Press labeled it "Murder, Inc." Unlike the Five Families, which required members to be of Sicilian or Southern Italian ancestry, Murder Inc. was a diverse ethnic gang that included Jews, Italians, and Irish killers.