Lucky Luciano(1897-1962)
US gangster and racketeer. Born Charles Salvadore Lucania in Sicily, he
emigrated with his family to the US in 1906. In 1907 he started
shoplifting. He was given his nickname by childhood friend and fellow
gangster Meyer Lansky for his luck with betting on racehorses, but it also
could have applied to the many times he avoided imprisonment and
prosecution as a Mafia "godfather" who operated successfully and
profitably in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1928 and 1930 the
Castellammarese War broke out between the gangs of Giuseppe Masseria (aka Joe the
Boss) and Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano sent some men to "rough up" Luciano, and
when they caught him they not only beat and stabbed him, but addition
severed the muscles of his right cheek, leaving him with a droop in his
right eye. He was left for dead under the Brooklyn Bridge. However, he
lived up to his nickname and survived. Recovering, he sided with
Maranzano in the conflict. By 1931 Masseria had been assassinated and
Maranzano had won. He named himself "boss of bosses" (capo di tuti
capo), but that title proved to be short-lived. Luciano and Lansky's
had their men visit Maranzano in his office, disguised as government
agents, and assassinated him. Luciano followed that with anywhere from
40 to 90 additional murders during the series of killings that came to
be called the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers". Luciano was now the
undisputed boss of a "new" Mafia. His business included
narcotics-peddling, extortion and, especially, prostitution, including
everything from low-rent streetwalkers to high-priced call girls.
Luciano, one of the most powerful figures in organized crime, was
arrested 25 times between 1919 and 1936 but convicted only once. When
three prostitutes finally agreed to give evidence against him, he was
arrested (1936) and found guilty of compelling women to become
prostitutes. Even from prison, he retained control of his Family,
setting up the Crime Syndicate of Mafia Families. During World War II
he helped U.S. military intelligence through his Mafia connections in
Italy and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the
US. In 1946 he was released from prison and deported to Italy as an
undesirable alien. He returned to Naples, Italy, where he lived out his
life in luxury. Luciano died of a heart attack at Naples Airport. He
was only posthumously allowed to return to the USA, where he was buried
at St John's Cemetery in New York.
