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ANECDOTES |
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BORN LUCKY
Salvatore Lucania aka Lucky Luciano
In 1929 during the Castellammarese War in New York..........What!!!!!........ you don't know what the Castellammarese War was? ok I'll go back a bit.....
In 1919 the Volstead Act became the 18th Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America. Which meant the prohibition of alcohol. So, overnight, coz naturally everyone wasn't gonna stop drinking, an occupation called bootlegging started.....which was the illegal selling of alcohol. Another thing called speakeasies started up, they were "private" bars, illegal of course, but it was here you could get a drink, though normally the liquor was very low quality.
Bootleggers either sold, distributed, stilled or imported liquor for consumption. Some bootleggers were amateurs, some were ex liquor industry people and naturally some were from the "underworld" who had always been involved in all illegal profit making activities. Some too, were like "Legs" Diamond, who were hired mercenaries and opportunists. In the United States the nation was divided by market forces (not by plan) up into fiefdoms. Each city had a major "kingpin" in the racket that had to survive constant local battles to maintain their powerbase from other up and coming bootleggers. Naturally, who the "kingpin" was could change with the ebb and flow of local battles. When liquor had to be transported though a rival's territory to get to it's destination, levies and tributes were paid to the local "kingpin" or if you were a confident operator "avoid" them. The period saw a lot of liquor hi jacking, nightly running gunbattles between rival bootleggers and gang warfare increased in all major U.S cities. The early days of bootlegging were feudal and and the strongest barons of the trade got bigger and the weaker either had a violent exit, realised they needed to take on a stronger business partner or they got out of the trade.
......ok that's just some of the history of how it began...
Token shipments were 'busted", but no one went "dry". If you are a pot smoker you've probably heard this story before.
New York and Chicago were the big centres for the trade. Even though alcohol was prohibited, government officials, law enforcement personnel and they're families and friends still liked to drink. So, watching this happening and determining this as a great opportunity, we have a guy called Arnold Rothstein (Meyer Wolfsheim-the Great Gatsby). His lifestyle straddles the overworld and underworld. He has connections in Scotland (Whiskey Distillers) and in New York's Tammany Hall (Democrat Political Machine) and arranges for a supply conduit of the best whiskey.....so here goes....
.....its about 1922, Rothstein has the liquor and he has a market, but he alone can't move it. He needs "muscle" and "protection". He needs distribution in the way of trucks. He needs a fleet of boats to get the offshore liquor through the 3 mile limit, past the U.S coast guard and into the eastern seaboard cities. So he has options on who to go to and they are: the Sicilian Mafia of Joe Masseria, the numbers "King" Dutch Schultz, Chicago's Johnny Torrio....and a young guy who had brought together a number of New York gangs of all races, Salvatore Lucania, aka Lucky Luciano (though he didn't have this sobriquet at this time). It was with the young Luciano that Rothstein decided on.
Arnold Rothstein
By 1925 Luciano and friends were very rich. They supplied New York's social set and law enforcement all their alcohol requirements. Luciano and friends found themselves virtually untouchable in all the other rackets they maintained. Eyeing their success and rise through New York's Underworld, was Mafia Boss Joe Masseria, an old time Mafiosi with connections that go way back to the "Black Hand" and such notoriety's as Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Saietta and "Clutching Hand" Morello. At the same time as this, deeper and darker in the background is another Sicilian from Castellammare de Golfo who watched both Masseria and Luciano with a patient interest, the mans name was Salvatore Maranzano. A highly educated business man, in stark contrast to the slobberish and crafty Masseria, it would be Maranzano's presence that would trigger New York's brutal gang war that would rival and surpass Chicago's infamous gangland era.
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Guiseppe
"Joe the Boss" Masseria
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Salvatore
Maranzano
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.....So we are almost back to where I was gonna begin. You see where Castellammarese War comes from? Anyways, both bosses see Lucky's potential and growing powerbase.They are aware of the Arnold Rothstein connection and Luciano's association with Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel. Both older Sicilians don't like doing business with Jews or Calabrians, such as another Luciano associate Frank Costello. So both mafia bosses have a good excuse for a "Sicilian" way of dealing with Lucky that naturally is going to put him offside with all people and things Sicilian. So they both make overtures for Lucky to join them or "else"! Feeling the heat, Lucky has to make a decision. He and a group of guys (Meyer Lansky, Benjamin Siegel, Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis, Tommy Lucchese and others) meet to decide the future of their joint venture. They come to the conclusion that even with their affiliations in all the other U.S cities, they still didn't have enough firepower to go into battle and assure victory against Masseria or Maranzano (an indication of the power of Unione Sicilione and the "true" mafia at this time). So, the decision is made by the group...Lucky, for the time being will have to join the Sicilian clan of Boss Joe Masseria the seemingly most powerful of the two Sicilians at present. It was reported that "Boss Joe" could marshal 1000 troops at any given time. The reputation of the "Boss" himself was a fearsome one. He had seemingly dodged bullets in several assassination attempts during his career and his past association with true "black handers" such as Saietta were enough to engender terror in most Sicilian immigrants.
During 1928, with Lucky leaving his gang's operations to Costello and Lansky, he was more at Joe the Boss's side, but always uneasy that Joe would in time would resort to "whacking" him. So, he made secret liaisons with Maranzano. It was about this time things started hotting up...both sides of the Sicilian warring factions were starting to do "hits" on each other, at first for revenge, one for one, two for two etc.etc.... then....
One evening Frank Costello dropped Luciano off for a "meet" in Staten Island. Lucky didn't say who with, but it's generally thought it was with Maranzano, who by now was ready to make the big "move" against Joe the Boss. This is where Luciano gets the name "Lucky" from, he was taken for a "ride" and and next day was found near death on the side of a road, he had been tortured and left inches from death. It took months to recover. The ordeal left major scars on his body, cigarette burns and other tortures had left there mark and a deliberate cut down his cheek and near his eye severed the nerve. His drooping eye gave him a very sinister appearance that would make him memorable to all that he met. He fully recovered as fate would have it and obviously a resolve was formed that made the end for the two mafia dons inevitable.
During the year of 1928 Arnold Rothstein was shot dead. Suspicions fingered a number of people and the two Sicilian bosses can not be ruled out as the possible suspects. No one was ever charged with his death and though the "combination" mourned, they had business to do and Frank Costello became the link between the "overworld" and the "underworld" as Rothstien had been. A. R. as he was known, had been grooming Frank for the position for the past 5 years and the young protege didn't take long to prove more efficient than his predecessor.
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Frank
Costello
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Meyer
Lansky
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Benjamin
Siegel
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Gaetano
"Tommy"
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Lucchese
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The Sicilian gang war intensified and the body count got higher. Sympathies and loyalties swayed within the underworld and within the political scene that protected it. Someone needed to get the upper hand before business turned sour. Public attention began to focus on the hostilities. It was now that Luciano saw his opportunity. Maranzano was seeming to show more strength. Even though both sides lost many men in gunbattles it was the Castellammarese (Maranzano's Gang) who were gaining the upper hand. The reason for this being because amongst the Sicilian Mafiosi he was the least treacherous. In fact Maranzano, a cultured man, who studied for the priesthood in his youth engendered a certain "honour" in all he did. Therefore as the war intensified and men's resolve was tested it was with Maranzano's family that loyalties were remaining stronger. Lucky using the "ride" incident" to his advantage and using his position as second in charge to Joe the Boss decided he would end the war. Though Joe's success in the war thus far was with the help of "Lucky", his understanding of Masseria's constant treachery tactics made him dislike the old man intensely. For the "combination" joining with Maranzano now was the obvious way to settle their downturn in business. By playing a major role in Maranzano gaining the ascendancy they hoped to gain some legitimacy for "the combination" in the new Sicilian underworld.
At the Villa Nouvelle Restaurant on Coney Island on April 15th 1931 Masseria and Luciano had just finished a large meal when Luciano excused himself and went to the toilet. As he did so four men with machine guns burst through the door and gunned down the ever elusive Masseria in a hail of bullets and disappeared with out trace. Lucky returned composed enough to ring the authorities and the war was over.
In 1931 Maranzano held a huge meeting of Sicilian Mafiosi from all over the U.S in New York. Here he designated the five New York Families and gave the Mafia an organisational structure and a hierarchy. He also crowned himself Capo di Tutti Capi (Boss of Bosses) in a ceremony that most thought ridiculous. A lot of the diplomatic ground work for this "meet" and its high participation rate from around the U.S.A had been laid by Luciano over the previous decade and to those at the meet he was a closer affiliate than Maranzano. Not only that, Maranzano's grandiose manner and "old ways" with the exception of just a few, had put him "offside" with most at the "meeting". Though he made Luciano one of the five New York family bosses it was obvious that Maranzano could not have Lucky around for long. Word soon got back to the "Combination" that Maranzano not only wanted Lucky out of the way but his Jewish and non Sicilian friends also. Maranzano had to go, and a plan was constructed to "knock" what would be a very hard target.
Indeed, even before Lucky and his crew knew of Maranzano's plans, the boss had hired the killer "Mad Dog" Coll to do the hit on Lucky. A place for the set up had to be worked out, so Coll waited on Maranzano for the final details of the hit. Maranzano ran his "business" from his rich Park Avenue office block in Central Manhattan and he firmly believed that it could not be faulted for integrity "all his books were beyond complicity" . He claimed to all concerned that he ran a legitimate enterprise involved in importing and exporting produce, especially olive oil.
Lucky now began his plans to get "rid" of Maranzano. Knowing the man's very careful ways and his contingent of armed bodyguards he knew it would be difficult. Often your greatest strength is your greatest weakness and the fact the Maranzano took so much pride in his legitimacy, gave an angle in for Lucky and his Combination members to devise an ingenious plan. Maranzano often boasted that the IRS could raid his premises anytime and find nothing, as he books and accounts well were kept. "He would prove to be nothing but a "businessman"".
So after much careful planning a date was chosen for the "hit" on Maranzano . Four Jewish hitmen who had been supplied by Lansky and Siegel were in training to be, act like, and look like IRS agents. They would gain access to Maranzano under the guise of raiding IRS agents. Lucky had his way to get to the Boss.
The plot was to fake an IRS raid and having Maranzano alone and unawares he would be eliminated once and for all. The date was set for September 10th 1931. On the day before the planned "hit" on Maranzano, Luciano was summoned to the Manhattan Office block to be briefed for a job Maranzano needed him to do the following day. He would be driving downtown with other Mafiosi and a new man in the organisation, yep you guessed it naturally...Mad Dog Coll..."just to do some special business for him". Unlike his boss, Lucky smelt the hit coming and his plan was already in place to prevent that ride ever eventuating.
The Castellammarese War ......He wanted to get something of his "chest" ...he should have stayed quiet, so now he is as quiet as ever.
The following day the 10th of September, Coll was just leaving Maranzano's office to go and collect Luciano with his instructions to kill him. In Maranzano's Park Avenue office was Tommy Lucchese, though one Maranzano's men, he was more affiliated to Lucky, he was there to watch the event under the pretence of a requested business meeting with Maranzano. Tony Bender a loyal man to Maranzano was helping with business operations. As Mad Dog Coll walked down the stairs to the street four men passed by him, they looked like IRS agents, he thought! Then as he hit the sidewalk he felt something cold in his side, he was told to give the "hit" a miss as Vito Genovese held a gun to him and made sure he went no where.
Vito Genovese
Meantime up in the office, the IRS agents were greeted with long expectation by the ever diplomatic Maranzano. He hospitably invited them to his office to look at his operation's accounts. Once in the office the old man must have known his fate fairly quickly and drawing knives he was stabbed several times, then still managing to put up a decent struggle against the four killers, he had to be shot to ensure his death with out incident. It was a bloody murder that meant the end of an era for the so called "mustache petes" and their old Sicilian ways.
Luciano did not take the job of Capo di Tutti Capi when the meeting was held to discuss the new status quo. Instead he help set up a corporate like board called "the Commission" or "the Combination", "the Syndicate" is also another term used. All the fun stopped in 1933 when the Volstead Act was rescinded with another amendment to the U.S constitution. The complexity and sophistication bought about by the years of prohibition and circumventing legislation and law officials reportedly made this organisation more efficient and better managed than 90% of any of the current U.S multi nationals.
Charles "Lucky" Ross (aka Luciano)
The uniting of the "underworld", the loss of its racial, business and local discriminations to the profession of making "money" and of course the "social power" that comes with such a powerful entity can trace much of its rise to one Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Maybe some testimony to his life is the fact he died of natural causes at a good age and not via the normal gangster demise, death by lead poisoning. This is not a tribute to him, but rather an insight to show that we all have a purpose on this planet. From the circumstances of our birth and the events that roll by us, nothing is by chance, and without some of the "bent" beams in the framework of History's Wonder House, the building may fall down.........I mean for goodness sake.........
"stop people from havin a drink!, ya askin for trouble!!!"
The self assembly and evolution of the so called "underworld" can be seen as a microcosm of the evolution of capitalism. Eventually little "heaps" cluster and make bigger "heaps", which again collect to form just a couple of mounds, which try to form one massive big heap, until it crumbles at the edges and you have to go back to small little heaps again and so the cycle continues....it's like an impotent "big crunch"......capitalism, as we all know, has this tendency to thrive in a competitive market....which means, the more the merrier......damn that!
Do you think they want a drink? Why did it stop in the foist place?
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