Joe Masseria
On May 7, 1922, the boss of the Morello/Terranova crime family, Terranova, was killed in a drive-by shooting near his E. 116th Street home. Valenti was believed to have been personally responsible. Mere hours later, Terranova's underboss Silva Tagliagamba was fatally wounded in Lower Manhattan by Valenti and gunmen working for him. The next day, Valenti and some of his men attacked the new boss of the rival Terranova family, Joe Masseria. Valenti found Masseria and his bodyguards on Grand Street "within a block of Police Headquarters". The "New York Herald" reported that "When the fight was ended, the gunmen had shot four men and two women, but had not harmed each other." Masseria tossed his pistol away and was arrested while fleeing the scene.