The Mafia Encyclopedia (78 page)

Read The Mafia Encyclopedia Online

Authors: Carl Sifakis

Tags: #True Crime, #Organized Crime, #test

BOOK: The Mafia Encyclopedia
7.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Page 222
the crime family. Even mafiosi know the wisdom of the tale of the goose that laid the golden egg. It was observed by some journalists that there was no greater show of sadness over a fellow mobster's death than at the fabulous moneymaker's lavish funeral.
See also:
Demotions in the Mafia; Sex and the Mafia
.
Long, Huey (18931935): Syndicate partner and assassination victim
He was the Kingfish of Louisiana politics, serving first as governor and later as U.S. senator. As far as the national crime syndicate was concerned, Huey Long was the best political friend the mob ever had. Long controlled the statewhatever he said wentand he invited New York mobsters under Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky to "come on down, y'all."
When New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia started busting up the syndicate's slot machines, a desperate Costello had to find a new haven for his one-armed money makers. The mob cultivated Longor perhaps it was vice versa. In any event, the mob shipped one-armed bandits and other slots by the thousands to Louisiana, soon making New Orleans the illegal slot machine capital of the United States.
And that was only the beginning of the Long-syndicate joint venture. The slots were for the poor folks who could only part with nickels and dimes. Lansky worried about the big spenders, those who could afford to part with big bucks. There was a need to offer them luxuriously equipped casinos so they could play for high stakes. Long was interested, but still a mite hesitant. It meant a lot of payoffs all around, and he was very worried what to do about his own graft payments which Lansky said would equal $3 or $4 million a year.
Huey was already in hot water with the tax people. He railed to Lansky and a top aide, Doc Stacher, that the new president, Franklin Roosevelt, reneged on a promise to call off the tax sleuths. How was Long supposed to conceal $3 million or $4 million a year from the government snoops? Patiently Lansky and Stacher explained to him the wonders of Swiss bank accounts and numbered accounts in particular. Stacher added:
You have nothing to worry about. We'll take the money there for you with our special couriers and nobody but you and us will know your number. And only you will be able to draw on the account. Your signature and secret code which you give the bankyou don't even have to tell uswill be your protection. To put money in, all we need is the number. To draw it out, you need the code that only you will know. You must never write it down. Keep it in your head
.
Long was entranced with this sophisticated fillip to the art of graft and gave the syndicate carte blanche to set up casinos. There were several choice localesthe famous Blue Room at the Roosevelt Hotel and the fabulous Beverly Country Club, both in New Orleans, as well as numerous others. Moe Dalitz had already been opening joints in Ohio and Kentucky, but Louisiana represented the break into the big time, the beginning of countrywide development of casinos by the syndicatein Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Florida's lush East Coast and elsewhere. The mob had much for which to be thankful to the Kingfish.
Then, in 1935, Long was shot to death by a demented assassinor perhaps by overzealous bodyguards who shot Long while trying to protect him. If the syndicate thought it at first to be a disaster, the boys soon discovered otherwise. There were plenty of other politicians eager to take payoffs, and they didn't even think as big as ole Huey. Lansky and Costello could count. The payoffs decreased and the profits soared. They were, indeed, very thankful to Huey Longfor everything.
Los Angeles Crime Family: See Hickey House Mafia.
Lovett, William "Wild Bill" (18921923): Irish waterfront racketeer
Under Wild Bill Lovett, the White Hand Gangthe last organized-crime hold by Irish gangsters on the New York waterfrontreached its pinnacle of power. The gang was made up of diverse Irish gangsters who around the turn of the century combined on the waterfront to repel the Italian gangsters seeking to move in on dock rackets. To counter these upstarts, considered part of La Mano Nera, or Black Hand, the Irish organized under the name of the White Hand.
Shortly after the end of World War I, Wild Bill Lovett took control. His slight 5-foot-7-inch, 145-pound frame belied the terror he inspired in the Brooklyn Bridge and Red Hook sections of Brooklyn. He demonstrated his viciousness in the way he achieved leadership of the gang.
The previous leader, Dinny Meehan, had been assassinated in his sleep. Contending for his crown were Wild Bill and a pier rowdy named Timmy Quilty. In the interests of peace and gang unity, the pair agreed on a most democratic method of choosing a new boss. They would engage in a dice contest, and the first man to throw a seven would become the undisputed leader.
The contest was held in a Furman Street bar and was attended by a number of gang members and curious dock hands, much impressed with this new experiment
Page 223
Wild Bill Lovett (handcuffed prisoner on right) was a
bloodthirsty if innocent-looking killer who
headed the Irish gangsters battling the mafiosi
invading the waterfront,
in democracy. Quilty rolled first and came up with a seven. ''I'm the boss!" he crowed, flushed at the abrupt end of the "election." Wild Bill glared sour-faced and liquor-glazed at the ivories. It was clear he was seeking grounds for a recount. Suddenly he pulled an automatic pistol from his waistband and emptied the clip into the still-smiling Quilty. "Now I'm boss," Lovett said and left the bar. No one disputed his election.
Lovett was never charged in the Quilty murder but in all he was arrested 19 times for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to several other murders. However, he spent only a total of seven months in jail for all his capers.
Wild Bill extended the White Hand's power to all the docks from Red Hook to Greenpoint, forcibly ejecting mafiosi who had gotten a foothold. As a first warning to vamoose, he shot foes in a limb. If they came back, he shot to kill. His tactics in extortion were also straightforward. Any dock owner or shipper who didn't pay tribute was beaten, stabbed or shot and his goods and property looted or burned.
White Hand mistreatment of both the dock owners and the mafiosi guaranteed further violence. Wild Bill was the subject of several assassination attempts and he carried seven bullets in his body from such tries. In one instance, it was suspected that the dock owners hired gunmen to kill him. In other cases, it was known the attempts were made by the Mafia.
It seemed Wild Bill Lovett was invincible. Wounded while a machine gunner with the 11th Infantry Division in France during the war (he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross), the Germans had been unable to kill him. Now the Black Hand Italiansand even the Irishwere having similar difficulty. On January 3, 1923, in a shack on Front Street, two slugs penetrated Wild Bill's chest just above the heart and another just below it. He was given up for dead, but refused to name his assailant. Remarkably, Lovett recovered. Shortly thereafter an Irish gangster named Eddie Hughes was bumped off. There was considerable speculation as to who had put Hughes up to the murder try but Hughes died without telling. When Lovett was asked his opinion, he gave a logical answer: "My enemies."
About this time Wild Bill fell in love. He proposed to Anna Lonergan, touchingly known as "the Irish Rose of the Brooklyn Waterfront." Anna was the sister of Pegleg Lonergan, Lovett's second in command. At first Anna spurned Wild Bill because, she said, she didn't want to be a young widow, but finally in August Lovett got her to consent to marriage by promising to give up his gang activity. The couple went on a Catskills honeymoon and Pegleg Lonergan stepped into control of the White Hands.
Wild Bill and his bride settled down in Little Ferry, New Jersey, living under the name of Brady to mislead any old grudge-bearers. Lovett kept his promise to his wife until October when there were rumors on the docks that he was coming back. This did not please the Mafia who regarded the erratic Lonergan as an easier target than the crafty Lovett. It may also have been that Pegleg resented Wild Bill's rumored resumption of power.
On October 31, 1923, Halloween, Lovett headed for the city, telling his wife he had some business to take care of. He wound up drinking at the Loader Club with an old longshoreman buddy. After they had polished off a bottle of bootleg rye, Lovett passed out at the table while his buddy staggered off elsewhere in search of more filled cups. Five hours later the club was empty save for Lovett stretched out on a bench snoring. Suddenly two armed men charged into the club. Lovett opened his eyes and grinned at them sleepily as they opened fire. Lovett was hit three times. Then a third assassin charged in, waving a cleaver. He brought it down into Lovett's skull. Naturally, the newspapers could not resist reporting that the cleaver man had said, "Trick or treat, Bill."
The Mafia spread the word that Lovett had been done in on the orders of Pegleg Lonergan so he could maintain his hold on the White Hands, but the cleaver killer was in fact an assassin known by the alias of Dui Cuteddi (Two Knives). Afterwards, he was shipped back to Sicily and pensioned off richly for his good works as mafiosi moved to take over the waterfront, a task they completed in only a few years.
See also:
White Hand Gang
.
Page 224
Lucchese, Thomas "Three-Finger Brown" (c. 19001967): Crime family boss
Considered one of the "classiest" mafiosi in the United States, Thomas "Three-Finger Brown" Lucchese was an ex-con who maintained long and close relationships with many of the nation's top criminals. He also mingled socially with many influential figures of the upper-worldbusinesspeople, prosecutors, judges, members of Congressin the guise of a respectable businessman.
Mobsters liked serving under the thin, 5-feet-2-inch Lucchese. His New York crime family was considered to be the fairest and most peaceful, especially when Lucchese stepped into the top position following the death from natural causes of Tom Gagliano, whom he has served faithfully for years.
The mix of peacefulness and Lucchese could be viewed as an odd one considering his early years, ones marked by frequent bloodletting. Born around 1900 in Palermo, Sicily, he came to America in 1911. He picked up the nickname "Three-Finger Brown" (after a famed baseball pitcher of that name), following an accident in 1915 that cost him a digit. His criminal record was replete with arrests for grand larceny, car theft, receiving stolen goods and homicide, but his only conviction came in the early 1920s for grand larceny. In the 1920s, he served for a time as bodyguard for Lucky Luciano when both were working under Joe the Boss Masseria. He may have been Luciano's favorite killer, high recommendation indeed, since the bloodthirsty Albert Anastasia was always eager to please Lucky. Lucchese hit several Maranzano men during the war to win control of the New York Mafia, and may well have been involved in as many as 30 murders.
After Luciano arranged Masseria's assassination, he then used Lucchese as the fingerman in Maranzano's murder on September 10, 1931. That started Lucchese's rise to the highest levels in the councils of the modern American Mafia.
An extremely popular boss, he exerted great power in the garment industry rackets and ran smooth operations in gambling, loan-sharking, narcotics and the construction rackets. As a corrupter, he was the equal of Frank Costello and had friends and connections at all levels of local government. He was also a close friend of Armand Chankalian, administrative assistant to the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. It was probably through Chankalian that Lucchese developed a friendly relationship with U.S. Attorney Myles Lane. When Lucchese applied for a certificate of good conduct in 1945, Chankalian served as a character witness. Lucchese's application was granted by the New York State Parole Board.
Through Chankalian, Lucchese also met Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Murphy, who gained fame as Alger Hiss's prosecutor. As Virgil Peterson, the longtime head of the Chicago Crime Commission, notes in his 1983 book
The Mob
: "The welcome mat was out for Lucchese at the Murphy residence and Murphy and his wife were entertained as dinner guests at the Lucchese home."
After Mayor Bill O'Dwyer quit to become ambassador to Mexico, Lucchese became an important supporter of the new mayor, Vincent Impellitteri, backing him in his race for reelection in November 1950. Previously, Impellitteri had named Murphy police commissioner, and Lucchese, apparently because of his high interest in law and order, made a personal call at the Murphy home to offer his congratulations. Later when the Murphy-Lucchese friendship became well known, Murphy declared he had been totally unaware of Lucchese's criminal history until 1950.
It was often said that Lucchese support for Impelliteri had been a calculated move to take over the top political connection spot in the Mafia from Frank Costello, who had aligned himself with Tammany boss Carmine DeSapio. There were others, however, who saw in it a typical mob ploy of covering all bets.
An extremely popular boss, Tommy Lucchese headed a crime
family that dominated the New York garment industry
rackets as well as the city's gambling, loan-sharking, narcotics
and construction rackets. As a corrupter, he was
the equal of Frank Costello.

Other books

When It's Right by Jeanette Grey
Goddess Sacrifice by M.W. Muse
Contact by Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt
Compromising Positions by Kate Hoffmann
Songs of Christmas by Thomas Kinkade
Fly with Me by Angela Verdenius
Forever Yours by Rita Bradshaw