Gangster, born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, S Italy. He moved with his family to New York City in 1906, and was soon an active criminal. He became the chief of New York organized crime, founding his empire on narcotics-peddling, extortion, and prostitution. For years he managed to evade arrest, but he was tried and imprisoned in 1936. However, he retained control, initiated a reorganization of crime, and set up the Crime Syndicate of Mafia families. In 1946 he was deported to Italy.
| Salvatore Lucania | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 24, 1897 Lercara Friddi, Sicily, Italy |
| Died |
January 26, 1962 Naples, Italy |
Charles "Lucky" Luciano (born Salvatore Lucania) (November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was a notable Italian-American mobster. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime and the mastermind of the massive postwar expansion of the international heroin trade.
Early life
Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in the village of Lercara Friddi, located approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of Corleone, in Sicily. One kid refused to pay, and when Luciano tried to beat him up, the kid gave him a good fight: The kid's name was Meyer Lansky, another legendary mobster in the making. Both Siegel and Lansky were Jewish, causing Luciano's alliance with them to be frowned upon by other members of the Sicilian community.
By 1916, Luciano joined the "Five Points Gang", who were suspected by the police of being involved in many murders. New York City crime bosses started taking notice of him, and by 1920, when the Prohibition was passed, Luciano was working for various gangsters as a bootlegger and meeting future legendary mafiosi such as Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.
Many old time mafiosi recommended Luciano stay away from Costello. Luciano ignored the advice and maintained his friendship with Costello, who introduced him to mobsters, politicians and powerbrokers of other nationalities, such as William O'Dwyer, Dutch Schultz and Arnold Rothstein.
Castellammarese War and rise through the ranks
By the 1920s, Luciano became one of the leaders of another mafia family, that of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, while disagreeing with Masseria's bigoted mistrust of everyone who wasn't Sicilian. When Maranzano gained the upper hand, Luciano, along with Vito Genovese, betrayed Masseria and threw their support behind Maranzano while also secretly plotting to turn against him. Luciano reasoned that he would become boss after both Masseria and Maranzano had been eliminated.
By 1931, Luciano was so eager to gain power and become a boss that he, along with Lansky, planned the assassination of Masseria at a Coney Island restaurant while Luciano washed his hands in the bathroom.
Maranzano, having won the Castellammarese War thanks to Luciano and his friends, made Luciano his second in command. Ultimately this was just part of a Maranzano plot to have Luciano, Genovese, Frank Costello and the young mafiosi's Jewish friends eliminated. When Luciano and Lansky learned of this, they arranged to have four of Lansky's associates, disguised as government agents, go to Maranzano's office and murder him. Afterwards, the gang reportedly met the Irishman Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, who had been hired by Maranzano to kill Luciano and Genovese, coming up the stairs.
Formation of the Commission
With the killings of Masseria and Maranzano completed, Luciano was able to achieve his vision by joining the various and often-warring mafia families into a conglomerate. Unlike Maranzano, who had tried to impose himself as the "Emperor" (technically, capo di tutti capi, "boss of bosses") in an organization modeled after the Roman Empire, Luciano organized a decentralized structure in which the major crime families divided up territories and spheres of activities and met, when necessary, to mediate differences between the various famiglias. Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years (being sent to the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora) and served 10 years. Even while Dewey was prosecuting him, Luciano took steps to prevent Dutch Schultz from going through with his plan to assassinate Dewey, arranging for Schultz to be murdered when it became clear he could not be deterred.
World War II, freedom, and deportation
During WWII the U.S. government is reported to have covertly made a deal with Luciano, who was by then imprisoned. U.S. military intelligence was aware Luciano had maintained good connections in the Sicilian and Italian Mafia, which had been severely persecuted under Mussolini in Italy. Luciano was an American devoted to Sicily, the Mafia, and the USA alike. Both during and after the war, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies reputedly also used Luciano's Mafia connections to root out Communist influence in resistance groups and local governments.
In return for his cooperation, it is claimed that Luciano was permitted to run his crime empire unhindered from his jail cell, and that during the 1940s, he used to meet US military men during train trips throughout Italy, and he enjoyed being recognized by his countrymen, several times taking photos and even signing autographs for them. At the meeting, Luciano ordered the execution of Siegel, who had cost the Mafia millions by opening money-losing casinos in Las Vegas. When the US government learned of Luciano's presence in the Caribbean he was forced to fly back to Italy. The influence of heroin on American institutions continued well beyond Luciano's death.
Later years
Later in life Luciano came into conflict with Lansky over the amount of money he was receiving from Mafia operations in the early 1960s, but his failing health prevented him from putting up a fight on the matter.
On the day of his fatal heart attack, Luciano had plans to sell the rights of his life's story to a movie maker. It has been hypothesized that Luciano's heart attack was a result of poisoning by the Mafia. This legend proclaims the death of over 100 Sicilian "moustache petes" which the syndicate (Luciano as Chairman) had orchestrated across the U.S.A on the night of the day Salvatore Maranzano was killed in 1932. In the 1972 movie, The Valachi Papers Luciano is portrayed by Angelo Infanti In 1974 a movie about Luciano was made, called Lucky Luciano. In the 1981 NBC mini-series, The Gangster Chronicles, Michael Nouri was cast as Lucky Luciano. In the 1984 Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film The Cotton Club Luciano is portrayed by Joe Dallesandro. The 1989 book Billy Bathgate, a retelling of Dutch Schultz's last days from the point of view of a young boy he befriends, features Luciano as a minor character whom the narrator is too afraid to identify by name. The 1991 film Mobsters is about the rise of Luciano, Lansky, Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegel. The 1991 film Bugsy, the role of Lucky Luciano was played by Ben Kingsley. The 1997 film Hoodlum, about the gang war in Harlem between Dutch Schultz and Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, co-starring Andy Garcia as Luciano.
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