CHARLES "LUCKY" LUCIANO - THE GREATEST MAFIA BOSS?

mentioning the name of Charles Luciano in the minds of people interested in Mafi history conjures up an image of a peculiar criminal Prophet who almost single-handedly created and later led the strongest criminal organization in the United States called the crime syndicate Luciano is described as the man who reformed kosonostra and created an entire Army of killers for the mafia a man whose blessing was obligatory to set up in the criminal underworld of the United States but it turns out that this is just an image formed under the pressure of many factors firstly during the life and then after the death of jono in fact he was neither the greatest gangster and Boss Of All Bosses nor a glorified phony the truth as always lies somewhere in the middle today I want to tell you the real story of Lucky Luciano dispelling the myths around his personality please welcome Charles Lucky Luciano on the other side of the law Salvatore Luciano who later became Charles Luciano was born November 11 1897 in a small village in Sicily in the family of Antonio and Rosalia Luciano his father tired of working hard in the local mine and then in 1906 decided to go to the new world in searching of a better life with thousands of immigrants like him Antonio settled down in New York City within a year he managed to provide everything he needed for his family to follow him in 1907 his wife Rosalia joined him with Salvatore and his older brother and sister New York City of those years was not the paradise which La Luciano family was looking for they had come for a better life but found themselves in the midst of the same poverty they had been in Sicily only in a very different way instead of the smell of sulfur that enveloped their Village coming from the local mines they got the smell of decaying garbage when Salvatore arrived a wave of strikes by local janitors and garbage men distributed by New York so the streets of the Lower East Side were Luciano's family had settled were literally overwhelmed with garbage the neighborhood in which little Salvatore lived was not a separated National community and people of different nationalities lived there with a preponderance of Jewish Irish and Italian families this fact is very important in understanding the formation of Luciano's personality socialization in such an environment in the future will allow Salvatore to avoid prejudices about cooperating with non-italian gangsters which will open up more opportunities for making money at the same time this made him overly Americanized compared to other Mafia bosses which will also bring its benefits in the future all this will be in the future but for now nine-year-old Salvatore is scrambling through garbage littered streets making his way to his first day at an American School in addition to the garbage which ended after the strikes the streets were filled with all sorts of gangs from serious adult to small children the only difference between them was the scale of their actions otherwise everything was about the same looting robbery racketeering and Khan constant clashes over territory it was clear that between boring schoolwork and an emotional street life children chose the second option also in favor of joining gangs was the fact that an isolated existence was almost impossible more accurately it was impossible to defend against the attacks of other children alone all that awaited a lonely child was constant beatings and robbery it was a true Stone jungle extremely difficult to live without one's own pack Salvatore had such a pack too they mostly did the same robbery as the other gangs but they also had a special service Italian and Irish children often robbed Jewish ones Luciano decided to organize his own security service for such children he offered them his protection in the streets for a small fee many of them agreed and Luciano's gang had a relatively legal way of making money due to this there's a legend that this time Salvatore met his future partner in the illegal business Meyer Lansky whether this is true or not the likelihood that they were acquainted even then is very high as Lansky as well as Luciano lived in the Lower East Side it is hard to say how exactly Lansky and Luciano met but the statement that Salvatore enjoyed the life of a juvenile gangster more than attending school is 100 true he showed up to class less and less and supervisors made more and more visits to his home to notify his parents his life eventually resulted in Salvatore spending four months in a closed Juvenile Detention Facility for troubled teens coming out 1912 at the age of 14 he finally dropped out of school and got his first legal job becoming a courier for Max Goodman's hat store where he earned reportedly from five dollars to seven dollars a week however a legal job did not mean that he gave up the criminal business Salvatore again organized a small gang with his acquaintances they were mainly engaged in theft and drug dealing acting as Runners for a local drug dealer at the same time Luciano leaves home after an argument with his father because of a gun found in his stuff he rents a room with one of his then Associates named Joe Biondo who had later become a high-ranking mobster in the Gambino family Luciano lived this way until 1916 when he was caught when he was selling drugs he gave a dose of heroin to a man who would turn out to be a police informant on the 27th of June 1916 at the age of 18 Salvatore Luciano would be sentenced to eight months in prisonment at New Hampton Farms Correctional Facility after his release from prison Luciano would change his name from Salvatore to Charles this was due to the fact that Salvatore's name was shortened to the female named Sally during his incarceration this fact allowed the other prisoners to make unequivocal quick jokes in Luciano's Direction apparently the stubborn Italian was so fed up with it that he even decided to change his name after leaving prison Charles took a job at a so-called ships clerk for a while but quickly abandoned it winning almost his entire year's salary of 244 dollars from that point he no longer hired illegal work but focused all his attention on building a criminal career foreign the period from 1916 to 1920 and Luciano's biography is a blurry wide spot about which there's little information all that is reliably known is the fact that he continued to build his criminal career some sources say he resumed his activities with the same gang he worked with before his imprisonment others say he became increasingly close to langsy and his partner Ben Siegel if we consider that afterwards Luciano would be working for several criminal gangs at the same time and building his case in parallel I think both statements are true Charles as I will demonstrate later has always put personal gain in earnings first in his Affairs such attributes as belonging to a gang or loyalty acted only as a tool to increase personal wealth and in 1920 he got his first springboard for the increasing of his wealth prohibition was first introduced in the United States this period for Luciano up to the castella marisi war is characterized by the establishment of acquaintanceship and then joint dealings with all the future key players in the New York crime field Charles began his business during prohibition with langsky and his Jewish gang they robbed liquor stores and then sold them to bars this method quickly became irrelevant because the warehouses had trivially run out of liquor that had accumulated there before the law was passed then Luciano started looking for new ways to make money and together with his longtime partner Joe Biondo who had recently been released from prison he began turning legal industrial alcohol into banned liquor this alcohol was then used to make a semblance of known alcoholic beverages and sold to drinking establishments another way to obtain wine alcohol was to buy it from perfume factories where it was used to make perfumes this alcohol was then also bottled and sold to bars in addition to the direct sale of alcoholic beverages Luciano also earned money by selling raw materials to those who were engaged in moonshine distillation gradually Luciano's Capital grew and he began to open his own distilleries he also signed a contract to supply whiskey to one of the largest wholesalers of the beginning of the prohibition waxy Gordon acquaintance with a peculiar venture capitalist of the criminal world of those years Arnold rostein helped Luciano get in touch with langsky rostein was an investor who during prohibition invested in the illegal business of other gangsters and thus influenced the formation of all the famous Jewish gangsters of the period also this acquaintance with rostein allowed Luciano to get into the gang of Jack Diamond who ran rostein's bootlegging operations and was involved in all sorts of legal activities from stealing other Bootleggers property to robbery another notorious gangster that Schultz was also a member of this gang while dealing with the Jews and the Irish Luciano did not forget about building relationships with his countrymen he had connections with the Gambino family through his former associate Joe Biondo and he worked with Frank Costello's cousin Willie Moretti to open distilleries the most valuable the Luciano during that period was his acquaintance with Joe Masseria mostly known as Joe the boss masaria and his gang controlled the entire Lower East Side the area where Luciano and Lansky were doing their bootlegging business naturally their interests were bound to overlap and eventually Charles attracted maseria's attention and was recruited by Joe the Boss as an outside gunman in 1920. the organization of massaria family Luciano would join two years later in 1922 massaria was assassinated by Umberto Valentini in a mafia War but Joe the boss was safe and sound and retaliated three days later he arranges a meeting with Valentini to ostensibly hush up the conflict but will actually took with him three Shooters one of whom will be Luciano it is Charles who manages to kill Valentini in the shootout which paves the way for him to join the masaria family this war will last for another year during which several high-ranking members of the massaria will be killed this act as well as the fact that Luciano brought a good income to the family would allow Charles to take the position of Capo and Joe boss's organization in 1923 as well as to gain control over the gambling belonging to maseria around the same time Frank Costello who would become a a close partner Luciano's in the future also join the Joe Boss family we cannot say whether they knew each other before prohibition and stayed in the same Mafia family together but during prohibition they already had business contacts in particular they shared a whiskey delivery route to New York with Irish gangster William Dwyer likewise during prohibition Luciano also did business with several other gangsters who would hold High positions in the criminal hierarchy in the future among those most significant to Luciano's history is Vito Genovese although Luciano was not the last man in the Mafia Family of massaria he continued to do business on the side he had a close relationship with langsky they even rented a hotel room together where they would set up their headquarters Luciano was doing business with Jack Diamond's crew and also most surprisingly with Arnold rostein who was at the time in a cold war with Luciano's immediate boss rostein was one of the biggest heroin wholesalers in New York at the time and Charles was still dealing drugs he got caught again in 1923 selling to Goods again to an undercover policeman the second drug charge threatened Luciano with a 10-year sentence so he made a deal in exchange for a complete dismissal of the charges he told the law enforcement Authority's location of his own cash which contained 150 000 worth of goods from the point of view of the mafia he was clean because he did not turn anyone in but only testified against himself but on the other hand he did make a deal with the investigation which ruined his reputation in the criminal world after getting away with it and avoided imprisonment in 1923 Charles spent the next six years fairly quietly the only high profile event of that period in the Underworld was the death of Arnold Rothstein which did not directly affect Luciano in any way otherwise there was nothing remarkable mine are raids dealing in illegal alcohol and a few minor arrests the usual gangster's daily routine of those years but it was only the Calm before the storm the storm that would finally bring Charles Luciano to his main goals the period of the Costello marisi war was both for Luciano and for the Italian mafia in the United States a moment of Revolution dividing the history into before and after it was the end of this conflict that the Costa notra emerged in the guise we all know and Luciano LED his Mafia family but before turning to the Costello marisi War we should talk about another myth that can often be heard while describing Luciano's life it is of course the famous beating of Luciano after which he miraculously survived and allegedly earned his nickname lucky for those who don't know what I'm talking about here's the story itself on the evening of October 16 1929 Luciano was invited to a meeting with Salvatore maranzano the leader of a group that opposed Luciano boss Joe Masseria at this Rendezvous maranzano suggested that Charles kill Joe the boss and Luciano refused he resorted to torture in order to get Luciano to do what he wanted after good beating and still not getting the needed Answer maranzano's Man and threw Luciano into a ditch some time later Luciano regained Consciousness and by one o'clock in the morning he reached Highland Boulevard on Staten Island where patrolman picked him up and took him to the hospital there he was visited by Meyer Lansky who awarded him the famous nickname lucky this story firstly appeared in the book The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano which was written from the notes of Martin gauche who had spoken Luciano shortly before his death first of all no one ever saw these notes except Richard Hammer who wrote the book himself because they were burned by gosha's Widow and he died just before publication secondly the huge part of this book was refuted by those who was directly involved in the events Hammer said that gaucha's notes were more like a gangster action movie script than a biography it is also true because gosh Was preparing to make a film about Luciano in fact the story has been disproved not only by some of the participants in those events but even by Luciano himself who told a real story to Sal vizini a covert drug agent who was closely associated with in the 1950s and was in his Entourage there was no crime spree and maranzano had nothing to do with the beating Luciano had been kidnapped that day by police investigating a murder at the hotsy-totsi club they wanted the whereabouts of Luciano's friend Jack Diamond who was the Prime Suspect in the murder something went wrong and the cops went overboard with forceful interrogation thinking Luciano was dead they dumped him on Staten Island and just drove off as we already know the patrolman actually found him and took him to the hospital vizini told this story in his reports in the late 1950s but the last Testament of Lucky Luciano in the 1970s already included a story about torture by maranzano also the theory about criminal squabbles does not stand up to the usual domestic logic Luciano was already a high-ranking member of the massaria faction by that time which means that there was no way that maranzano would have left him alive after the beating this would simply could created a serious Nemesis with his own hands if the story about Luciano maranzano's beating was true I'd be finishing this video by now talking about what a lavish funeral Luciano had that's not the moment Luciano got his name lucky moreover Lansky had nothing to do with his appearance the newspapers called him lucky a few years before this unfortunate event most likely this nickname came from his childhood and came from an abbreviation of his surname Luciano from which you could get the word luck but if maranzano had no connection with the story of the beating he is at the Forefront in the history of the castella marisi war maranzano arrived in the United States in 1925. he left his homeland because of the rising power of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in America he quickly gained respect among his fellow countrymen from costellimar Del Golfo thanks to support from Italy from a prominent Mafia figure Don Vito casoffero maranzano like many others was involved in bootlegging he was the main reason of The First beginning conflict with Joe massaria who by this time had already won the title of Boss Of All Bosses so the situation began to heat up maranzan men occasionally attacked each other's liquor Caravans and tensions grew because of this the second Factor was that masaria supported Al Capone in his conflict with one of Joe Aiello's Castaways in Chicago he also wanted to eliminate gospera milazzo out of business in Detroit the third Factor grew out of the second masaria wanted to get his hands on everything he could get his hands on which did not please anyone the open conflict began with two murders firstly in February 1930 Gaetano Reyna who had broken away from the massaria faction and began to collaborate with maranzano was murdered then in May of the same year gaspera milazzo was assassinated on the orders of massaria after that bodies began to fall on both sides in the context of Luciano's story it's not so important who killed whom and when during this war so we will omit this it is far more important to understand the fact that Luciano himself tried to stay as far away from this conflict as possible he even went with Jack Diamond to Germany in late August 1930 to set up his own drug smuggling Network at that point though the confrontation was already in full swing Luciano was not interested in this war at all constant murders attracted extra attention to the illegal businesses from law enforcement agencies which caused money losses gradually many other participants in the conflict began to come to the same conclusion by this time massaria's organization was clearly in a losing position and the seed of doubt about the murder of his boss began to germinate in addition maranzano was at the same time declaring that all he wanted was the death of maseria he would not pursue the other participants of the conflict in the spring of 1931 maranzano's offer was accepted Luciano met with him and confirmed that they were ready to organize the assassination of massaria on the 15th of April that Year Joe the boss was murdered in akonia Island restaurant and the castella marisi war was ended by killing maseria Luciano openly took responsibility for the ACT also as Nick Jean today recalls in his biography conveyed the message to maranzano that murdering Joe the boss was done because it benefited him Charles Luciano and not because maranzano desired it in the end he added that any continued pursuit of anyone in the former massaria faction would immediately lead to a renewal of the conflict maranzano accepted the terms of his victory shortly after Joe the Boss died and the war ended he convened a general meeting of Sicilian gangsters in the Bronx where he celebrated his victory and also took the first step in creating the familiar structure of the New York mafia at this meeting it was established that all the Sicilian gangs from this point would be united into five families leading by a boss and an underboss Luciano became the head of the former massaria family now called the Genovese family his underboss was Vito Genovese Joseph bonano became head of the bonano family Joe profacci became the head of today's Colombo family Tom Galliano was put in charge of today's Lucchesi family and new Gambino family was headed by Vincent Mangano above the bosses of all five families was maranzano who received the title of Boss Of All Bosses however maranzano was not in such a high status for Long by and large he wanted the undivided power like masuria which would not be threatened this desire did not please not only his former adversaries in the Costello Mauricio War but began to displease his allies Joe Bonanno who was one of maranzano supporters later recalled that by being given the title of Boss Of All Bosses he showed everyone a style of organization that did not suit the generation of Sicilians raised in America maranzano wanted to begin establishing his dictatorship by eliminating all those who had opposed him in the Costello marisi War this firing list included such names as Al Capone Lucky Luciano Frank Costello Joe Adonis Willie Moretti and some prominent Jewish gangsters among others the first to be eliminated was Luciano to do this maranzano even managed to hire an Irish gangster Vincent Cole however he did not have time to fulfill the order Luciano found out about both the firing list and the assassination and struck first Charles proved the existence of the firing list to those who were at the top of it as well as those who could potentially oppose maranzano then enlisting the support of gangsters across the country he started preparing an assassination attempt on the boss of all bosses in September 1931 maranzano had problems with the Internal Revenue Service which Luciano became aware of because of these problems with the law the Boss Of All Bosses had to disarm the guards in his office Not to cause additional questions in case of an unexpected inspection Luciano decided to take advantage of this and send assassins to maranzano's office who introduced themselves as agents of the Internal Revenue Service the Assassins got inside the office without much trouble murdered maranzano and left before the police arrived so simple and peaceful was the murder of the last boss of all the Italian Mafia bosses in America on the same day and the following night of the murder of maranzano according to a legend that is widespread several dozen more murders of henchmen of the Boss Of All Bosses occurred throughout the United States the event was even named The Night of the Sicilian supper however you can hardly find a single person who could name at least 10 of the maranzano supporters murdered that day this myth was created artificially and now it is difficult to determine who was the first one to spread the story among the people everyone who worked with the archives at those years refute the events of the night of the Sicilian supper even the long-suffering the last Testament of Lukey Luciano denies this story and calls it Pure Imagination first of all as I mentioned earlier many people were already unhappy with their bosses by the time maranzano was murdered secondly Luciano openly demonstrated that the death of the Boss Of All Bosses was only a protective action because maranzano could attack first breaking his promise made at the end of the castella marisi war so it made no sense for both and the former supporters of maranzano to continue the conflict in the future they would go about their business quietly without recalling the old Strife this would also be greatly helped by the elimination of the title of Boss Of All Bosses and the creation of a commission this reorganization is attributed to the soul Merida Luciano saying that he nurtured the idea for several years and was its main lobbyist it is incorrect and again grew out of the last Testament of Lucky Luciano a kind of commission was created during the Costello Mauricio War to resolve that conflict but the Victorious maranzano proclaimed himself the Boss Of All Bosses and the idea was not pursued but it did not disappear in the Memoirs of the mobsters of those years Nick Gentile also confirms that the idea of the commission was not Luciano's personal initiative Charles was only one of many who supported the abolition of the Boss Of All Bosses and the creation of the commission the commission itself was a kind of ruling body that was supposed to settle disputes that arose between the families by voting it included the bosses of the five New York families as well as Al Capone of Chicago and Frank Milano of Cleveland another controversial fact about the commission is that Luciano was its first chairman at Joe Bonanno states in the book man of Honor Luciano never held that position on the commission Vincent mongano was the first chairman until his death but even assuming that Luciano was elected chairman of the first commission his vote meant exactly as much as that of the others the chairman was not at all equal to the Boss Of All Bosses especially in the commission there were at least three people who were not supporters of Luciano and this body was not at all a gathering of Charles's friends through whom he could Lobby any of his interests nevertheless Luciano was perfectly happy with the situation now he could do business with his family as he pleased and cooperate with those whom he needed there was no longer any great uncle above him who could affect his organization at any time with a single word Luciano finally got what he wanted he had his independence and Independence to make money [Music] the end of the castellamarisi war and the creation of the commission brought peace and Order back to the Italian mafia we might even say that the event finally brought the order to the Costa Nostra although the skirmishes and conflicts in the New York underworld continued and Luciano was directly involved in some of them it was the period from 1931 to 1936 that was the golden time for Luciano by this time he had already established a smuggling Network to bring drugs into the United States and would soon establish an extensive network of brothels as well these two activities would account for most of his income after the abolition of prohibition which helped Luciano to make a multi-million dollar Fortune allowing him to live without denying himself anything but before talking about how Luciano lived and how his organization worked at its peak we should first discuss the so-called National crime syndicate the crime syndicate as it is generally understood was a huge criminal corporation that covered most of the United States it consisted of a multitude of gangs which were branches with clearly defined bound boundaries in their Holdings these branches were governed by a special Council headed by Luciano in reality however things were a little different first of all which is probably a good place to start researchers have never come to a consensus as whether The Syndicate existed at all secondly if it did exist it was more likely not a corporation with centralized management but rather a Syndicate an association of businessmen for joint business where everyone remained independent all conferences of The Syndicate were discussions of further plans to invest money so for example they invested in gambling in Las Vegas and Cuba or according to unverified reports invested in the election campaigns of some presidential candidates but no one cared about the way in which the participants raised the money for their joint investment each boss had the right to do what he wanted on his own and no counsel even Lucky Luciano was not in charge it would be strange if Luciano who was not the boss of all bosses of the Italian mafia but just one of the bosses suddenly became the leader of the whole criminal world of the United States Luciano at the time was more interested in his own business than in his claims to domination of the whole country prohibition was about to be repealed and he was working hard to establish new ways of making money Luciano began building his heroin smuggling Network when he was not a Mafia Boss although a trip to Germany in 1930 was unsuccessful the networking was completed for Charles by a longtime comrade of the Lower East Side named Del grazio by the end of 1931 Luciano had his own heroin route to New York within just a few years Luciano's Market had expanded far beyond the Lower East Side and by 1934 stretched all the way to the West Coast where Charles had stumbled upon a gold mine for drug dealers called Hollywood however far less is known about the Luciano drug dealer than for example the Luciano Bootlegger or the Luciano racketeer certainly less is known about Luciano the pimp he created a working mechanism of the New York brothel business where every Cog was in its place this machine worked smoothly bringing its owner good money but at the same time crippling hundreds of young girls lives the system created by Charles was sexual slavery at its worst after prohibition was repealed in 1933 gangsters began to look for new ways to enrich themselves somebody like Frank Castello took up slot machines monsters like Dutch Schultz opened illegal lotteries quite a few like Luciano became drug dealers but nobody looked at the brothels scattered all over New York Luciano was the first to see the full extent this place could be turned around through threats and intimidation in a short period of time Charles managed to take over the entire brothel business of the Big Apple this racket of prostitution was called the combination at the top was Luciano himself below him in the hierarchy was an organized crime group called The moff street mafia represented by its leaders Abby Heller Dave attilo Jim Fredericks and Tommy benojio then came the moms and Bookers at the very bottom of the chain were prostitutes the system worked as follows prostitutes served clients and paid a percentage to The Mamas moms paid a fixed rate to a Booker for each girl he brought to their brothel at the same time both Mamas and Bookers paid a percentage which went to Luciano the mod street mafia was in charge of collecting the money and keeping order and received a percentage of Luciano's percentage the only drawback in this system with the fate of the prostitutes girls entered the brothels in various ways but almost never of their own willing they were lured from other cities with Promises of good jobs in New York they were lent money and then they couldn't pay back particularly attractive Bookers sometimes simply seduced gullible girls but for all the variety of ways to Allure them once they got into the brothel they all had the same thing waiting for them first they were raped repeatedly to break their morals and then they were hooked on drugs thus having become addicted to substances the girl firstly would bring all her earnings back to Luciano's pocket by buying drugs from him and secondly would not escape from the brothel as it was the only way to earn the dope she so desperately needed under this system prostitutes had absolutely all the money they earned taken away from them as soon as the girls lost their remarkable appearance they were simply thrown out on the street to meet their fate and new ones came to replace them the business brought Luciano about two million dollars a year in net income add to that the income from the sale of drugs as well as the money already earned during prohibition and you get a Fortune of not one million dollars which allowed Charles to live without denying himself anything however Luciano's life was not like that of Al Capone who threw tens of thousands of dollars worth of parties and made his every appearance in society a real spectacle Luciano appeared to remain in the shadows believing that too much attention in his Affairs would not do him any good he had no permanent place of residence referring to his own home rooms and hotels where he lived under assumed names he had no wife and no children to whom he preferred light flings without obligation he gave no interviews and tried to make his name as rare as possible to be spoken aloud however very soon in his life there was a man who will make the whole of America cry out the name of Charles Luciano until 1931 the upper criminals of New York City live without fear of going to jail as the authorities were mostly bought and turned a blind eye to much but then The Incorruptible prosecutor Thomas Dewey came on the scene and launched his Crusade against organized crime the first to fall under the chastening Sword of Justice were Petty Crooks do we hit illegal lotteries in Harlem and brought in gangsters Henry Miro for tax evasion the prosecutor realized that he had caught an average fish and that there were a couple of dozen more like him all over Harlem but the income that Miro was able to establish opened his eyes to the true extent of organized crime if a medium-sized gangster makes at least a million dollars a year how much does the man in charge of the whole Enterprise have realizing this Dewey began digging with redoubled Vigor by early 1933 he had enough evidence on two major gangsters he got close to waxy Gordon and Dutch Schultz Gordon was caught and convicted of tax evasion the same year but Schultz escaped for a time in addition to investigating and collecting evidence do we also try to influence the general public he lectured on the radio about how strong organized crime was in the country and How Deeply it had infiltrated all social institutions through these lectures he created an image in people's minds of a huge octopus with tentacles that could reach out to anyone a little later Dewey would put Luciano at the head of his organization which would be the first step in the formation of the myth of Charles Luciano as the greatest gangster and boss of all bosses in the meantime after he put Gordon away Dewey turned his full attention to Schultz the gangster under such close supervision began to lose the threads of running his organization which other gangsters especially Charles Luciano had their eye on the longer Schultz was under all kinds of pressure the more violent his temper began to show in the end he could not stand it and decided to get rid of his pursuer in the usual way the Dutchman decided to murder Dewey this decision soon became known to the other criminal bosses for whom his scheme was a good reason to murder Schultz and further divide his territories and spheres of influence on the 23rd of October 1935 The Hired Killers Shot the Dutchman and his men in a cafe in New Jersey without realizing Luciano by writing the death warrant for Schultz made matters worse for himself Dewey after the Dutchman's death had lost the prey he had almost chased and now he needed a new Target very soon he would drag Luciano permanently Out of The Shadow he had so diligently hidden in and place him under the light of hundreds of spotlights under which Charles would stand for the rest of his life actually to be precise Dewey had actually taken up Luciano's case months before Schultz's murder only the prosecutor was not yet aware that the brothel Trail would lead him to Luciano in July 1935 concerned citizens asked Dewey to pay attention to the increased cases of homosexual prostitution on the streets of New York the prosecutor responded to the request and when he began digging in that direction it turned out that homosexual prostitution was just a drop in the ocean of heterosexual prostitution the longer Dewey pursued this line of inquiry the clear it became to him that there was an organized group behind it all in order to finally understand exactly who is behind the prostitution trade in New York Dewey in February 1936 organized a raid on brothels during which he arrested and then interrogated 125 people prostitutes Mamas and Bookers through these interrogations investigators managed to establish the entire structure of Luciano's combination all Dewey had to do was to piece together all the evidence and press charges against Luciano the difficulty was that the trial would not take place without the defendant who had been Provident to flee New York for the town of hot springs in Arkansas after learning of this Dewey order to arrest Luciano there and set bail at two hundred thousand dollars but by the will of a higher power or perhaps someone else the local judge did not listen to Dewey and set bail at five thousand dollars which was paid by Luciano immediately after bail in April 1936 Charles intended to flee to Mexico but Dewey's aide who had arrived in Hot Springs and persuaded a local judge to issue a warrant for Luciano's arrest without bail frustrated his plans Luciano was placed back in the local jail where the local Administration provided him with a comfortable stay Dewey's Aid then demanded Luciano's extradition to New York he was refused on the grounds of an alleged local Court conviction that Luciano was not allowed to leave Arkansas in response Dewey through the governor of Arkansas literally seized the prison where Luciano was being held by local Rangers from there Charles was transferred to a prison in the state capitol where conditions were Less Pleasant only from there Luciano was transferred to New York as his attorneys would not have time to appeal his extradition from Arkansas in a further trial Luciano was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison it was the longest sentence of anyone in that case it was also the first time a gangster of that caliber had been successfully sentenced to prison for anything other than failure to pay taxes Dewey made Luciano the epitome of organized crime with this trial the cover by which the entire book is judged in the future many people will talk about the whole book without ever looking beyond the cover giving the misleading impression that the cover was not the basis of the book but that the book was written for the sake of the cover when Luciano was imprisoned the power of his family first went to Vito Genovese which questioned Charles's level of influence over Affairs because Vito Wanted full power for himself as he would confirm some time later but Genovese fell into Dewey's crosshairs almost immediately after Luciano and was forced to flee to Italy in 1937. then Frank Costello frequently visited Luciano in prison took charge of the family it could be said that even in prison Charles continued to manage the Mafia Family through Costello Luciano turned over the management of his personal assets and funds to his old friend and partner Meyer Lansky in the same way Luciano did not lose hope of appealing his conviction and obtaining a review of the case Luciano's attorneys had been fighting for his release for several years but it had no effect the only thing that helped Charles get out of prison was the imminent outbreak of World War II and assistance to the U.S Navy the U.S underworld beginning in the 1930s was already helping the American authorities to fight fascist sentiments not officially but rather out of its own convictions the Italian mafia which was persecuted in their home Homeland by Mussolini opposed his supporters in the states the Jewish gangsters fought against the American fascists who were supporters of Hitler because of their treatment to the Jewish people so it is not surprising that later the authorities would come with a formal offer of cooperation from the end of 1941 when the United States officially entered World War II they suffered greatly from the German submarines which attacked virtually All Ships leaving the port of New York as well as constantly adding to the ranks of Third Reich saboteurs who operated directly on the local docks the breaking point after which the U.S Navy leaders realized that they were losing on their own turf was the fire of February 9 in 1942 which put out of action the cruiser Normandy where 56 million dollars and capable of carrying up to 10 000 soldiers at a time there are at least two versions of this catastrophe that describe what happened according to one of them the fire was started by German saboteurs while the other is that the Italian mafia did it due to Luciano's orders so that the government would ask for help from the gangsters as soon as possible in this case it does not matter which one is correct because they both lead to the same thing the Navy afterwards actually came to the gangsters who control the port for help they applied to a gangster named jolanza who racketeered the port workers unions and also controlled the entire fish trade Lonzo was under investigation at the time and agreed to assist Naval intelligence even without direct Promises of dropping the charges the fact that lonza had cooperated with the authorities soon became known to Meyer Lansky who like Luciano had no lonza for many years and it helped him more than once putting this fact together with Luciano's imprisonment langsky got the perfect opportunity to get his old friend out of jail at langsky's request Lanza told the fleet Representatives that he had done all he could if they needed more help they should go to a man who had far more power than he did by doing so lonza referred the Navy to Lucky Luciano the Navy officials pleased with the results of their cooperation with Lanza so they took his advice and promptly contacted Luciano's lawyer Moses polikov who referred them to Meyer Lansky who had already put Naval intelligence in touch with the Genovese family boss Luciano's terms of cooperation were exactly the same as lanskies he was promised absolutely nothing in return except the opportunity to take pride in helping his country nevertheless Charles accepted the offer with only one condition no one ever would find out about the collaboration as it could have ended very badly for him in Italy where he was to be deported at the end of his term the deal with the Navy was profitable for both the state and Luciano the former was finally coming out Victorious with the German saboteurs and Luciano could now participate much more in Affairs and freedom because Lansky and Costello who act as Liaisons in the deal and directed his Affairs were now unrestricted in their visit to Luciano a third consequence of this collaboration was the perpetuation of the myth of Luciano as the king of the underworld this misconception first emerged thanks to Dewey's efforts during the trial then it was voiced by lonza at Lansky's request in negotiations with the government so they would be more likely to turn to Luciano at the moment this deal began to bring its benefits the government institutions took his bluff at face value and passed it off his Truth for a long time when the issue of German saboteurs was resolved and American troops were preparing to land in Italy Luciano came in handy again he supplied the intelligence Community with information about everything concerning his homeland the Americans knew where to land and which people to talk to in order to get important strategic information and most importantly how to get those people on their side this information also contributed to the U.S offensive which was successful and helped the Allies win the final Victory although Luciano was promised nothing in return for his help he received his reward after the war ended in February 1946 Charles was released from custody and immediately deported to Italy from that point on he would never again be in the country that had become his home at the age of 48 Charles Luciano regained his freedom but forever remained an exile after his release Luciano was escorted to Ellis Island where he remained for some time awaiting his departure for Italy there the day before his departure he was visited by some of the gangsters with whom he had been doing business for a long time Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello among others will be at the farewell party after saying goodbye to his colleagues and Friends Luciano left the United States on a cargo ship and arrived in Naples 17 days after the 28th of February 1946. there he was taken directly from the gangway to the police station to be questioned about his motives for being in the area after a brief interview Luciano was released and went to Sicily to his parents hometown of lerkara fridi after staying with his relatives for a couple of months Luciano began to develop a plan to return to the states he was not deterred in this desire even by the fact that his entry into the United States threatened him with re-imprisonment to serve the rest of his term of 25 years the main motive that made Luciano return of course was was money while being in Italy he was too far away from the business he had been building for so many years the results of which he had never received because of his imprisonment in addition around the same time Vito Genovese who had already tried to take control of the family returned to the states it would be foolish to assume that he would not try to do so again the first way Luciano planned to return to the States was Mexico the FBI received reports from July to September 1946 The Charles was planning to move to America through Tijuana the bureau worked with local authorities to check the entire city and county but Luciano was not caught so Luciano managed to slip away or it was a deliberate planting to test the ground the second way which had already been officially confirmed was Cuba the island of Liberty at the same time was considered an unofficial state to the United States from there to Miami it was only an hour's plane ride away allowing Luciano to keep his finger on the pulse of his business in America without even crossing the border or risking prison in addition Luciano's longtime friend Meyer Lance was planning to create a gambling Empire in Cuba and Charles was going to invest his money in in other words it was practically the perfect place for Luciano Luciano arrived on the Liberty Island in late 1946. According to some sources he flew there by plane from Mexico others say directly from Italy by this time thanks to Lansky's connections who had been courting the Cuban Authority since the early 1930s Charles already had an official Visa shortly after Luciano's arrival in Cuba the famous Havana Mafia Conference was held there this convention brought together practically all the key crime bosses the main issue of the conference was investing in the gambling industry in Cuba after much discussion it was decided to support the idea which was largely spearheaded by Meyer Lansky not less important subject to the discussion at the convention was the fate of Ben Siegel who was building the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas many gangsters had money invested in this gambling establishment and they were not happy with the fact that Siegel's girlfriend Virginia Hill was transferring some of the money allocated for construction to her Swiss bank account despite Lansky's defense of Bugsy Siegel was sentenced to death by a vote of the convention this convention predictably attracted the attention of the American authorities since they believed at the time Luciano was the leader of the criminal underworld in the United States it was decided that he should be expelled from the shores of the United States at all costs two departments were involved the FBI and The Drug Enforcement Administration America pressed the Cuban authorities hard on this matter and at the end of February they agreed to expel Luciano from the country a on the 20th of March 1947 Charles Luciano was again extradited to Italy through the efforts of the American authorities in order for Charles would not be near the states again FBI director Hoover personally sent letters to all Latin American countries that could accept Luciano urging them not to do so upon its arrival in Italy Luciano was first imprisoned for nine days in Genoa and then transferred to Palermo where he spent the same amount of time under arrest after 18 days in detention he was finally released and allowed to leave for Rome where he rented an apartment and was finally able to think in normal conditions about what to do next the U.S authorities had made it very clear that they would not let him anywhere near the country which meant that running things in New York was becoming almost impossible of course he could get money from investments in Lansky's businesses he got a little money from the New York mafia for past services and Frank Costello could send him cash on behalf of his family while he was the boss but all this was not even a tenth of what he could earn by being directly involved in the business Luciano needed something of his own in Italy that could generate an income commensurate to what he had lost this could be drug smuggling refers but looks like another Luciano's myth it is commonly believed that Charles was a key figure in Italy in organizing the delivery of heroin to the states what did the facts tell us about this shortly after his expulsion from Cuba Luciano visited heroin producing countries these movements were not unnoticed by the U.S Bureau of Narcotics so they increased their own surveillance of Luciano and press the Italian law enforcement agencies on this matter throughout the 1950s Charles was under the hood the usdea was digging hard for him and the Italian authorities arrested Luciano at the slightest suspicion of his involvement in drug smuggling his passport was taken away to prevent him from leaving Italy his movements within the country were restricted it even went so far as to impose a curfew for Luciano this close attention of the authorities led to the fact that local mafiosi did not want to have any illegal business with Luciano rumors that Charles had cooperated with authorities during the war did not add to this desire either on the whole he was still reckoned within Italy largely because of his friendship with a powerful local boss named calojiro vizini if Luciano had really been a central figure in the drug smuggling of those years taking into account the corruption of the police the authorities in Italy in principle then the the money that drugs bring in he would have never been subjected to such widespread law enforcement harassment likewise running an extensive drug smuggling Network would have given Luciano far more credibility in the Italian underworld than he actually had his true position in the mafia at the time is well illustrated by the story of local mafioso Antonio Calderone that some small Neapolitan hooligan in front of everyone slapped Luciano in the face although this guy was later killed this incident shows how Luciano was treated the fact that Charles was not in charge of smuggling and had little weight in the ranks of the mafia is approved by the fact that in 1957 Joe bonano negotiated a cooperation deal to deliver drugs to the United States not with him but with the Sicilian boss Giuseppe jenko Russo and Luciano was not even invited to the meeting the last thing I would like to add is that with all the attention from the usdea and the Italian police with all the constant arrested Luciano with the many arrests and interrogations of people involved in drug trafficking the case of Charles's involvement in drug smuggling has not progressed Beyond theories and speculation in more than a decade despite Luciano's willing after his expulsion from Cuba to have something in Italy that would that brings in a lot of money he had to live on what his friends in America sent him this income also gradually became less and less first Luciano's friend Frank Costello resigned as boss of the family under pressure from Vito Genovese and the payment stopped then there was a revolution in Cuba which took away the lion cheer Luciano's investment in the gambling business Charles wanted to improve his financial situation by selling a film about his life he even began to write his own screenplay and got acquainted with film producer Barnett Glassman but while Glassman wasn't particularly interested in the idea his assistant Martin gauche was the opposite go spent a lot of time working on the plot of the film with Luciano in February 1961 the final script was ready and approved by Luciano the contract which was to bring Charles one hundred thousand dollars and a percentage of the receipts was already signed but suddenly intervened old acquaintances from New York who hinted unequivocally that they did not want to see this film adaptation such a warning could not be interpreted Ambiguously and in January 1962 Luciano arranged a meeting with gauche to tell him that there would be no film gauche was going to fly to see Luciano in Naples and char trials drove to the airport to meet him after waiting for the producer and walking out of the terminal with him uchano suddenly collapsed to the ground he had recently been plagued by heart problems and it was on the 26th of January 1962 that Charles suffered the heart attack that had been haunting him for several years which ended lucky Luciano's life on the 29th of January a memorial service was held in Naples attended by close relatives several small-time gangsters and dozens of police officers among prominent Mobsters only Joe Adonis Came to Say Goodbye to Luciano his longtime friend Meyer Lansky only sent flowers two weeks later Luciano's body was transported to America and buried in the family Krypton Queens where he rests until nowadays this was the story of Charles Lucky Luciano the most mythologized gangster in American history whose role in the Underworld on paper was exaggerated compared to the reality

Channel: On the other side of the law

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Length: 49min 9sec (2949 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023