The Everything Mafia Book (14 page)

Lucky Luciano, at the end of life, had this to say about his legacy: “I learned too late that you need just as good a brain to make a crooked million as an honest million. These days you apply for a license to steal from the public.”

Dewey Defeats Lucky

Lucky Luciano was a high-profile gangster. Unlike the low-key Meyer Lan-sky, Mr. Lucky was often seen at the trendiest nightclubs hobnobbing with the glitterati of the day. The high life took its toll. Prostitution was one of his many rackets, and his familiarity with the prostitutes gave him multiple bouts of gonorrhea and syphilis. When the Mafia ventured into the drug business, Lucky Luciano made sure that he got as many of the prostitutes hooked on heroin as he could, to better control them. This also made them turn their profits right back to him to feed their addiction. But the law was growing impatient with the mob run amok. The government went after Lucky Luci-ano in the form of Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey.

The Prosecutor

Thomas Dewey aggressively went after the prostitution racket in New York. And while his attention to the vice was admirable, he also had certain political aspirations that a well-publicized campaign could help bring about. During the early part of his campaign, forty brothels were raided and 100 or so women were arrested. Many of them told sad tales of their lives and their many abuses at the hands of the syndicate. Soon Luciano had a large group of women spilling the beans to the law. Dewey saw this as an opportunity to take down the biggest mobster in town, but more importantly, get him the publicity he was craving. He started compiling an airtight indictment.

Feeling the heat, Luciano decided to take in the waters at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Just before Lucky went there, famed English gangster Owney “the Killer” Madden left New York and opened up a hotel. Over the years it became a de facto hideout for gangsters on the lam, as well as those looking to get some relaxation at one of the many spas. Not soon after Luciano arrived, he was arrested. They shipped him back to New York and he was put on trial. The sensational news media covered it all breathlessly, eagerly awaiting each day’s testimony. In the end, he was convicted and sentenced to thirty to fifty years in prison.

Dewey’s political career soared after his prosecution of Luciano. He was elected as governor of New York State three times and ran for president three times, albeit unsuccessfully. After his last term as governor, he started a private law practice. He died in 1971.

In the Big House

Luciano was sent to the Clinton State Prison in upstate New York. The prison is also referred to as Dannemora, and was not considered to be as “comfortable” as Ossining, known in the vernacular as “Sing-Sing,” just a few miles north of Manhattan. Lucky was assigned number 92169 and put to work in the laundry room. In short order he went from laundering ill-gotten booty to washing other convict’s clothes.

Dannemora was not a model modern rehabilitation facility. It was positively medieval, with none of the amenities to which Mr. Big had grown accustomed. However, his influential pals on the outside saw to it that he had certain privileges.

Uncle Sam Wants Lucky

Lucky Luciano was locked up from 1936 to 1942. He was allowed as many visitors as he liked, and no record was made of who came to see him. Thus he continued to pull the strings and run the syndicate from his prison cell. And when America entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the godfather found a surprising ally in his bid to win freedom—the very government that sent him there in the first place.

Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator, had made many enemies among the Sicilian Mafia. The old political adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” suddenly applied to relations between the United States government and the Mafia. Luciano used the
Normandie
incident to make a case that he could guarantee the safety of the American ports. He dispatched Meyer Lansky to let the mob’s political contacts know that Luciano would be of valuable assistance in the war effort. Lansky pointed out that in addition to the port safety issue, Luciano could help with espionage in Sicily. Sabotage was a serious threat, and who better than the gangsters who ruled the docks to “police” them for the government?

The ocean liner Normandie, renamed USS Lafayette, was being overhauled into a troopship for American soldiers. It caught fire on Pier 88 in Manhattan, capsizing in the Hudson River. Authorities suspected arson, though other sources say it was an accident. Whatever the cause, this event spooked military officials and made them give the threat of sabotage on American soil more credence.

Luciano was moved to Great Meadows Prison in Comstock, New York. This was a Club Med compared to the dank Dannemora. From this new base of operations he continued to run his underworld enterprises and help the Office of Naval Intelligence by providing information about German military activity on the island of Sicily. Military intelligence agents made numerous clandestine trips to Luciano’s prison cell to secure his assistance.

“Lucky”Luciano

Courtesy of AP Images/Remo Nassi

Reputed mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano sips a drink during a news conference he called in the bar of Rome’s Excelsior Hotel, June 11, 1948. Luciano said he wanted “to set the record straight.” At extreme left is AP writer Johnny McKnight.

The Mafia was happy to oblige. Mussolini’s government had waged a war against the Mafia in Sicily, sending hundreds to prisons while killing many more. Ironically, when the American and British forces liberated Sicily, they also released hundreds of Mafiosi from Sicilian prisons, thinking they were political prisoners of the fascist government.

Room Service

Lucky Luciano was granted gourmet meals, plenty of booze, and even the pleasure of female companionship while incarcerated in Great Meadows. He also expected an early release from prison as a reward for his contribution to the war effort. It is ironic that the man who had him locked up, Thomas Dewey, was also the man who commuted Luciano’s sentence. Now governor of New York, Dewey was asked by the federal government to set Luciano free. But both the feds and Dewey were not too keen on letting Luciano back onto the streets of New York City. Since Luciano never bothered to become an American citizen, he was deported to Italy.

The Later Years

Luciano left America in 1946, never to return. He settled in Naples under the watchful eye of the Italian authorities. He could not travel more than a few miles out of town, and all foreign visitors had to be reported to authorities. But those restrictions did not last long. Luciano traveled to Cuba to hold a major conference with representatives from all the Mafia families, as well as Corsican, Italian, and Canadian crime figures.

Lucky Luciano was not publicity-shy at the end of his life. In fact, he suffered a fatal heart attack while waiting at the Naples airport for a visitor— not one of his Mafia buddies but a Hollywood producer who was interested in making a movie about the famous gangster’s violent life.

Luciano’s absence from the American scene kept him out of touch with the day-to-day activities of the mob. Luciano was still the de facto head of the Commission, but since he was deported, his influence naturally faded, and Lansky assumed more power. This did not go over too well with Luci-ano, who was expanding his drug empire in Italy, but there was little he could do.

While Luciano’s role in an international heroin smuggling ring with ties to the Trafficante family in Tampa and the Canadian mob was under investigation, he beat the law once more. In 1962 he suffered a fatal heart attack in Naples. It was the end of the violent life and times of a man who made a nice living through nasty means and helped create a modern criminal empire.

CHAPTER 8
Essentials of the Modern Mafia

The Mafia has a structure and chain of command like any other corporation. There are CEOs who run things, boards to answer to, midlevel managers climbing their way up, and even accountants. And while some people may joke that there’s little difference between a corporate board and the Mafia, the fact is the Mafia’s structure is one of the reasons the mob has been able to succeed in the business of crime. But like the business world, jealousy, people striving to get ahead, and office politics cause friction. But unlike the corporate world, in the mob when such upsets happen, people get killed.

The Commission

The Mustache Petes, the conservative Old-World dons, established the Commission. But while the old system had a supreme leader who called the shots over the rest of the representatives, Lucky Luciano envisioned a more representative body that could work out disputes and territorial differences. The Commission was originally made up of the five New York Mafia families as well as the Buffalo family.