Lucky Luciano, without doubt the most important Italian-American gangster this country ever produced, left a far greater impact on the underworld than even the illustrious Al Capone. In 1931, Luciano created what can be balled the American Mafia by wiping out the last important exponents of the Sicilian style Mafia in America. Together with Meyer Lansky, Luciano was also a founder of the Mafia’s “parent” organization, the National Crime Syndicate, a network of multi-ethnic criminal gangs that has ruled organized crime for more than half a century, a criminal cartel which has bled Americans of incalculable billions over the years.
Luciano was born Salvatore Luciana near Polermo in Sicily (1897) and was brought to America in 1906. In 1907, he was logged for his first arrest for shoplifting. During the same year, he started his first racket. For a penny or two a day, Luciano offered younger and smaller Jewish kids for personal protection against beatings on the way to school; if they didn’t pay, he beat them up himself. One of these kids was Meyer Lansky, fresh from Poland, who surprised Lucky when he fought back ferociously. From then on the two became bosom buddies, a relationship that would continue long after Luciano was deported back to Italy.
By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the Five Points Gang and named by police as a prime suspect in a number of murders. His notoriety grew through his teen years, as did his circle of underworld friends. By 1920, Luciano was a power in the bootlegging rackets (in cooperation with Lansky and Bugsy Siegel) and had become familiar with Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, and most important among Italian gangsters; Frank Costello.
Luciano was amazed by the old-line mafiosi who counseled him to stay away from Costello, the “dirty Calabrian.” But Costello led Luciano astray--by ritual mafioso standards--by introducing him to other ethnic gangsters like Big Bill Dwyer and Jews like Arnold Rothstein (who Lucky will call “teach” if asked about), Dutch Schultz and Dandy Phil Kastel. Luciano was much impressed by the way Costello bought protection from city officials and the police, which Lansky had already been telling Luciano was the most important ingredient in any big-time criminal setup.This made sense to Lucky, who said fuck the old men keeping the youth down.
Although he maintained separate ties with Lansky, Luciano by the late 1920s had become the chief aide in the largest Mafia family in the city, that belonging to Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria. Luciano had nothing but contempt for Joe the Boss’s Old World ways, with its mumbo-jumbo of the Sicilian Mafia that stressed “respect” and “honor” for the boss and distrust and hatred of all non-Sicilians. In Luciano’s opinion, Masseria’s prejudice against other gangsters, Sicilian as well as non-Sicilian, created an unconscionable obstacle to making real profits. In 1928 the Castellammarse War erupted between the numerous forces of Joe the Boss and those rising mafioso Salvatore Maranzano. Over the next two years, dozens of gangsters were killed. Luciano avoided the conflict as much as possible and instead cemented relationships with the young second-line leadership in the Maranzano outfit. It soon became clear that young mobsters in both camps were waiting for one boss to kill off the other. Then the second line could dethrone the remaining boss.
Eventually, Lucky convinced Joe the Boss to attend a dinner party where he was shot to death. As a show of gratitude over a supposed act of sabotage, Maranzano made Lucky his number two. Maranzano had dreams of achieving the Boss of All Bosses status by killing off Al Capone and Lucky himself, but Lucky got to him first. A few guys from Murder, Inc. posing as security guards entered Maranzano’s office building and killed him quickly. With the death of Maranzano, Luciano became the dominant organized crime boss in the United States. He had reached the pinnacle of America's underworld, directing criminal rules, policies, and activities along with the other family bosses. Luciano also had his own crime family, which controlled lucrative criminal rackets in New York City such as illegal gambling, bookmaking, loan-sharking, drug trafficking, and extortion. Luciano became very influential in labor and union activities and controlled the Manhattan Waterfront, garbage hauling, construction, Garment Center businesses, and trucking.
Luciano abolished Maranzano's title of capo di tutti i capi or "boss of all bosses". Luciano felt that the position created trouble between the families and made himself a target for another ambitious challenger. Instead, Luciano chose to quietly maintain control through the Commission by forging unofficial alliances with other family bosses.
It was at this point in the early 1930s that Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey realized he could finally put Lucky in jail for a charge of pandering (basically being a pimp) in a huge prostitution ring. While not totally untrue, Lucky didn’t have the stuff to fight Dewey in court, and away to jail he goes. Continuing to run the Commission from jail, Lucky enjoyed a posh existence until the start of World War II. During which, the US Government approached Lucky about using the mob to fight threats both at home and abroad. Lucky, being the hardline patriot he is said “Fuck you guys, you put me in jail” but eventually he relented, promising to keep the New York docks safe from German invasion. But Lucky wasn’t done serving his country. He also made all Sicilian bosses aware that the Chairmen told those sons of bitches to help the GIs any way they could. Lucky’s involvement was directly responsible for America taking control of the island during the invasion of Italy, and was celebrated as a minor war hero both by the goon squad and the Feds.
Using his clandestine war record as means for a parole hearing, Lucky was able to whittle his sentence down to nothing on the condition he be deported back to Italy. This harshed Lucky’s mellow majorly; America was his home, he loved New York more than anything. During this time, Lucky’s favorite place to hang out was the California, a restaurant in Naples where Lucky could hang out with American tourists and sign autographs.
Eventually, Lucky was all “‘kay Italy fucking sucks I wanna go back to New York”, and the first step in this plan was hopping over to Cuba for the infamous Havana Conference. Bugsy Siegel had been convicted of skimming too much off the top during the construction of the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas, and it was decided he had to go. Just as the meeting was starting, Cuban officials learned Lucky was staying in Cuba right under their noses, and shipped his ass back to Italy. Lucky would die years later in Naples on his way to the airport.
Originally Posted by Alexcoene
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