Sicilian-American gangster. From grubby street urchin, Luciano rose through the ranks of organized crime and became director of a crime syndicate. He earned the nickname “Lucky” because he successfully evaded arrest on a number of occasions and eventually became famous for racketeering in narcotics, prostitution, slot machines, loan sharking and “protection.”
Born Salvatore Lucania, his family emigrated from Sicily to New York City in 1906. By the age of ten, he had embarked on his life of crime. In 1916, he spent six months in jail for selling heroin, but after he was released, he teamed up with Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky. By 1920, ruthless and upwardly mobile, he began working for the crime boss, Joe Masseria, and within five years, he became Masseria’s chief lieutenant.
In October 1929, he survived a “one-way ride,” a rare feat. He was abducted, beaten, stabbed repeatedly, had his throat cut and was left for dead; he never named his abductors, and soon afterward he changed his name to Luciano – and earned his nickname of Lucky
The years of 1930 and 1931 were spent in a bloody gang war between Masseria and his rival, Maranzano, and Luciano felt this was an abomination. His personal vision was to replace traditional strong-arm methods with a corporate structure and then to systematically infiltrate legitimate business. Masseria wasn’t impressed by the plan, and Maranzano felt that Lucky was too ambitious and innovative, and therefore, too dangerous. Soon Luciano arranged to have both Masseria and Maranzano assassinated, leaving him as capo di tutti capi (boss of all the bosses). By 1934, he and the leaders of the other crime “families” had established the national crime syndicate, and Luciano was living the good life. He dressed like a business executive, wearing elegant suits, handmade shoes and silk shirts, and it was a rare occasion when there wasn’t a beautiful woman on his arm. He mingled with such stars as Frank Sinatra.
He had an enemy, however, in New York special prosecutor Thomas Dewey who called him “the czar of organized crime in this city.” In 1936, Luciano was indicted, tried and convicted on charges of extortion and prostitution. Convicted in June of that year, he was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison. His power continued to grow even while he was incarcerated, as he issued orders and ruled from his cell.
In 1942, Navy Intelligence asked for his help after a luxury liner blew up in New York Harbor. Luciano gave the orders that tightened security on the docks and ended the possibility of sabotage. His sentence was commuted in 1946, but he was promptly deported to Italy where he settled in Rome. A year later, he moved to Cuba; pressure from the United States, however, forced the Cuban government to deport him, and he went to Naples, where he continued to direct his narcotics operations.
Near the end of his life, a reporter asked him if he would do it all again, and he replied, “I’d do it legal. I learned too late that you need just as good a brain to make a crooked million as an honest million.” Luciano, the man who forever changed the face of organized crime, died of a heart attack on 1/26/1962, Naples, Italy.
Link to Wikipedia biography