Charles Luciano and the Mafia in America
Uploaded by tuna29 on Jul 23, 2006 |
|
|
Charles Luciano and the Mafia in America
Most people think that the Mafia is obsolete in America but they it isn’t. It still flourishes through out the states controlling parts of the Government. The members and head bosses just aren’t as public as they had been in the 1900’s. Now they are mostly “underground” to try from being broken up, and if heard of usually they assassinate or pay off whoever shall try to disturb there roles in life of there personal business dealings. All though not, the Sicilian-born gangster Salvatore Lucania, better known as Charles “Lucky” Luciano, is still a big subject when it comes to talking about gangsters and there participation in the Mafia throughout the 1900’s.
Salvatore Lucania, nicknamed Lucky, was born in 1897 in Lercardia Friddi, Sicily. As a child his family was rather poor and his parents worked as hard as they could to provide for Salvatore. Even when they worked longer hours until there hands chapped, it still didn’t put enough food on the family dinner table. It was such a hard life that they were considering to leave there friends and relatives and the area where there ancestors had lived for hundreds of years and leave to the promised land of America. It would be better for Salvatore they thought. They would quickly realize that the thought of plentiful work and great schools was simply not true (Ron Nichols, “A Gangster is Born”).
The Lucianos set sail in 1906 to arrive in the New York harbor that same year. Mischief and mayhem were the key factors in describing Salvatore’s youth. His first racket, started in 1907, offered younger and smaller Jewish kids his personal protection from beatings on there way to school. If they didn’t pay him the penny or two a day for his protection, then Salvatore would beat them up. A thin runty kid from Poland, Meyer Lansky, refused to pay. Salvatore fought him one day and was amazed at how well he fought back. After this they would become buddies for life. In his teens Salvatore started participating in more illegal thing, such as narcotics. At eighteen he was charged for peddling heroin and morphine and then committed to a reformatory for 6 months. Once he was released he resumed narcotic dealing. In 1916, Salvatore was a leading member of the Five Points Gang and named by the police as a prime suspect in several murders (Ron Nichols, “A Gangster is Born”).
By the time the 1920’s arrived, Lucky was a power in bootlegging rackets, and had become familiar with many Italian gangsters, one being Frank Costello who introduced Lucky to many other ethnic gangsters. Salvatore later joined forces with Joe “the Boss” Masseria (Ron Nichols, “A Gangster is Born”), who later thought Salvatore was a threat due too his ambitions. Joe Masseria ordered some of his men to kidnap Lucky and beat him half to death. After the incident, Luciano woke up finding himself lying on a beach. He then had to walk a mile to get to a police station, and then taking to a hospital where he was questioned over and over. Luciano gave them no information, and had no idea who wanted him dead (Ron Nichols, “The Long Ride”). After the incident he would change his name to Charles Luciano (Encyclopedia Britannica, “Luciano, Lucky”). Next, he turned to his wise trusted friend Meyer Lansky. Lansky told him the inside story who wanted him dead and told Luciano to join forces with Salvatore Maranzano, Masseria’s arch-enemy, which would later start one of gangland’s biggest purges, The Castellammarese War (Ron Nichols, “The Long Ride”).
The Castellammarese War erupted between the numerous forces of Joe Masseria and those of a fast rising New York Mafioso, Salvatore Maranzano. Over the next two years, dozen of gangsters were killed. During the time Luciano stayed away from the killing and gun fire as much as possible and instead acquainted himself with the rest of Maranzano’s gang. The biggest thing Luciano helped with was the slaying of Joe the Boss when Luciano led some of his men to a Coney Island restaurant and they assassinated Masseria. This made Maranzano the victor in the Castellammarese War, and showed much gratitude towards Luciano in which he made Luciano the number two man in his new Mafia empire. There partnership came to a short end when Luciano found out that Maranzano wanted him killed. Since Luciano already new how Maranzano planned to kill him, he had four of his men march in to Maranzano’s office disguised as government agents and assassinated him (Ron Nichols, “The Castellammarese War”). Luciano was now on top (Ron Nichols, “My Friend Meyer”)
Now that he was on top he needed help building a national crime syndicate. He would choose Meyer Lansky, his long-time friend, to help him out. All though Lansky was not Italian he was just as good at dealing with the Mafia than many other Italians. Big, well known mob bosses such as Al Capone soon realized that Luciano and Lansky were now more powerful than he (Ron Nichols, “My Friend Meyer”). They decided that it would be very businesslike to set-up a special troop of killers, in which they called Murder Incorporated. They felt this murder squad would eliminate animosity and conflict of interest in killing each other’s members. Within the following years there would be and estimated 500 murders believed to be committed by Murder Incorporated but never carried out without the word from Luciano, Lansky, or Frank Costello. They would tell men under them who to kill and then they would tell Murder Incorporated so that the head bosses could never be tracked from the murders. But like all thing, nothing is forever. In 1940, Murder Inc. unraveled when some men were picked up and gave details on some 200 murders (Ron Nichols, “Murder Inc.”).
By the time the 1930’s came around it was hard for many people to make money. In this case Luciano started new rackets such as prostitution. Prostitution was Luciano’s forte, and he mastered the art of pimping. He was pulling in a lot of money. But, things took a turn for the worst when Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey went after and broke up Luciano’s whorehouses. Everything went downhill from there. All Luciano’s prostitutes were soon talking. A warrant was issued for Luciano’s arrest wherefore he would be taken in at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Luciano was then put on trial and found guilty of all charges and given a thirty to fifty years imprisonment. The 38-year-old Luciano then left his empire to his associates (Ron Nichols, “Living Large”).
Luciano would move from Sing Sing Prison, to Clinton State Prison, then finally to Great Meadow Prison. He would be shipped to Great Meadow Prison because the Naval Intelligence needed Luciano to ask his men to secure the waterfront docks in New York from Nazi saboteurs, since this was during the time of World War II (Ron Nichols, “Not So Lucky”). Great Meadows was a great place to visit, but Luciano didn’t want to live there. Naval Intelligence made numerous visits to Luciano to solicit help from him. With his service to the U.S. Government, he felt this justified an early release from prison, and just that happened. Thomas Dewey, now the Governor of New York and also the same person that had Luciano put in jail, granted commutation of his sentence with the condition that he be deported to Italy. Back in Italy, the government gave strict rules on Luciano’s livelihood, but he still conducted business back in the states. As he got older his heart became weak and he suffered several heart attacks. On January 26, 1962 he had a massive heart attack which ended his life. Wherefore he was buried at St. John’s Cemetery in New York City (Ron Nichols, “Lucky Factor”).
According to the FBI Charles Luciano was the first of the modern Mafia chieftains, and with Meyer Lansky standing for the brains of Luciano’s Mafia empire, Lansky has fair claim to be considered one of the architects of modern organized crime (Lacey 7). The only thing that held Luciano back from the continuation of leading his crime family and illegal operations in America was made by one foolish mistake. Luciano, just like all criminals and gangsters, always get caught up eventually when trying to outwit the law. Luciano all though a criminal, made enormous amounts of money during his years as a criminal doing big and small crimes, but don’t think that I mean this like crime pays.
Bibliography
Crime Library The Castellammarese War. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000
<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/war.htm>.
Crime Library A Gangster is Born. Ron Nichols. 17 March 2000 <http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/born.htm>.
Crime Library Living Large. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/living.htm>.
Crime Library The Long Ride. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/ride.htm>.
Crime Library Lucky Factor. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/lucky.htm>.
Crime Library Murder Inc.. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/murder.htm>.
Crime Library My Friend Meyer. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/meyer.htm>.
Crime Library Not So Lucky. Ron Nichols. 18 March 2000<http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/lucky/not.htm>.
Encyclopedia Britannica Luciano, Lucky. 25 March 2000
<http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,50430+1,00.html>.
Lacey, Robert. Little Man: Meyer Lansky and The Gangster Life.Canada: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. |
|
|