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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Mafia and The Mob
| It is widely known that Capone was sentenced to eleven years for tax evasion, but how long to the nearest year did he actually spend in prison for this? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 1
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7. By the time Capone was released he was so deranged from severe syphilis that he spent almost six months in hospital for treatment before being released. He died aged 48 on January 25th, 1947.
Jim Colosimo. Colosimo was primarily involved in brothel-keeping in Chicago along with Torrio until he decided not to get involved with bootlegging. Torrio, realising the potential fortune to be made, sent a hood by the name of Al Capone to kill him, which he did, leaving Torrio and Capone in charge of Colisimo's empire.
Bonanno. Donnie Brasco, in reality Joe Pistone, spent five years undercover between 1976 and 1981. His evidence resulted in more than 100 convictions and the near collapse of the Bonanno family.
| Carlos Marcello and which other mafia boss have been named as the most likely to have been involved in the JFK assassination? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 1
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Santo Trafficante Jr. He was the boss of Tampa, Florida and was very successful. He became boss after the previous head, who was his father, died. Contrary to what happens in "The Godfather" this is one of the few cases of a mafia boss' successor being his son. He died on March 19th, 1987 of natural causes.
| The notorious mafia boss of Sicily Toto Riina, who declared war on the Italian government, was mentored by which other gangster? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 1
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Luciano Leggio. Luciano Leggio was the first of a new more violent wave of mafiosi who took control of the Sicilian mafia in the 70s and with it the lucrative heroin market. His violent lifestyle is, however, often overshadowed by Toto Riina's mass killing of rival gangsters and any government official who tried to stop him.
1957. The FBI were forced to admit this after a meeting of all the bosses across the country was raided by the police in Apalachin, upstate New York. Before this the FBI always claimed the mafia was a matter for local police and not a national problem.
| Joe "the boss" Masseria and which other "moustache Pete" were fighting for control of the New York underworld in the 1930s? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 1
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Salvatore Maranzano. This fight became known as the Castellammarese war and claimed the lives of dozens of gangsters. It ended when 'Lucky' Luciano sided with Maranzano and had Masseria killed. Not long after this Luciano also organised the murder of Maranzano. With their deaths the old fashioned gangsters were gone replaced by smarter, more efficient criminals.
Gambino. He was nicknamed the "teflon Don" due to his flash style. He was sentenced to life under R.I.C.O (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisation act)in 1992 and died in prison in 2002.
| When Italian gangsters first came to America in the early 20th century and started extortion rackets, what name were they known by? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2
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The Black Hand. They were known as The Black Hand, because when they sent extortion letters to businesses they would put a black hand on the paper. These Gangs terrorised shops and businesses in the Italian sectors of cities.
1929. The St Valentine's Day massacre was the culmination of a bitter gang war that had ravaged Chicago for years. It was between Al Capone's gang and an Irish gang under Bugs Moran. The massacre itself occurred when four of Capone's men, two of whom were disguised as police officers, burst into one of Moran's warehouses and killed seven of Moran's men on February 14, 1929.
| In which year was famous New York gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano sentenced to 30-50 years in prison for running a vice ring? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2
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1936. This sentence was the largest imposed at that time, it was the crowning achievement for special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey and his crusade against organised crime. Ironically it was Dewey who, as District Attorney, released Luciano in 1946, after a deal with the government in which Luciano protected the New York docks from sabotage and got the Sicilian mafia to help in the invasion of Sicily during WW2. Luciano was deported back to Italy upon being released.
The Flamingo. Benjamin "Bugsy" Seigel was an old friend of Meyer Lansky and "Lucky" Luciano from the street gang days. He built the Flamingo in 1945, with a mob loan; however due to mismanagement it soon went over budget. Unable to get their money back the top gangsters including Luciano and Lansky agreed to have him killed. On June 20, 1947, "Bugsy" Seigel was killed in his Los Angeles house.
Vincent Gigante. Vincent Gigante, a soldier under Vito Genovese, shot at Frank Costello on orders from Genovese who dreamed of becoming boss rather than just under-boss under Costello. The hit failed when the bullet just skimmed past Costello's head. Luckily for Gigante, Costello stepped down as head of his family after this and made Genovese boss. Vincent Gigante became famous by pretending to be insane to avoid going to prison. He was sentenced on racketeering charges in 1997.
Genovese. Joe Valachi became a government witness in 1963, after he killed a man in prison whom he wrongly believed was trying to kill him. To avoid being sentenced to death he exposed the inner workings of the mafia in the famous "McClellan committee."
| After the closure of the "French connection," what was the name of the operation set up to deliver heroin from Sicily to the United States? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2
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Pizza connection. This operation ran for about a decade before the FBI uncovered it in the 1980's. It is estimated to have generated about a billion dollars in profit for the mafia on both sides of the Atlantic. The name "pizza connection" derives from the fact that the heroin was sold through pizza parlours in the United States.
| What was the name of the large scale trials that happened in Italy in the mid-1980's against the Sicilian mafia? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2
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The maxi trials. The verdict of the first of four maxi-trials was announced on 16 December 1987. Of the 474 accused 114 were acquitted and 2,665 years of jail time was shared out amongst the guilty. To emphasize the clear and present danger of the Sicilian mafia the trial was held in a bomb-proof bunker with bullet-proof glass used in the court, as well as this the court was protected by a helicopter, 3000 soldiers and a tank.
| In which year were the famous anti-mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, brutally murdered by the mafia? | Mafiosi and the Mob: Part 2
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1992. Giovanni Falcone, who had masterminded the maxi-trials, was brutally murdered along with his wife and three of his escorts when 400 kilos of explosives blew them up while they were driving from Palermo airport to the small town of Capaci. Borsellino was killed a few months later along with five bodyguards by a massive car bomb outside his mothers house. These two attacks caused a massive increase in anti-mafia feeling and for the first time ever there were marches protesting the mafia in Sicily.
smallpox. Salvatore Lucania was born November 24, 1897, in Palermo, Italy to Antonio and Rosalia. His father’s primary source of income for the six-member family was a low-paying job working in the sulfur pit mines.
In 1906, the Lucania's sailed to America and settled in an American-Jewish location in New York City’s Lower East Side, known today as, Manhattan’s East Village. The affliction of smallpox marked his face with an acne-scarred facial feature. After medical treatment, he returned to normal health, although the scars were distinct for life.
In 1929, his Sicilian face was further disfigured after he endured a vicious and brutal attack. Historical reports indicate that Lucania was standing on Sixth Avenue when a limousine drove up and three men forced him in at gunpoint. They severely beat him, stabbed him repeatedly with an ice pick and knife, slashing his face, and then dumped him on a Staten Island beach to die. Lucky lay on the ground unconscious, and woke up nearly an hour later. He struggled to walk for over a mile before he made it to the Tottenville Police Precinct. An officer immediately took him to a nearby hospital, although, all he wanted was for someone to call him a taxi.
After he survived the remarkable near-death ordeal, he earned the nickname, “Lucky” Luciano. The cruel attack left him with his renowned droopy right eye. Lucky never provided any names of his attackers, instead, had his own investigation done by Meyer Lansky. Lansky found out that Masseria, also known as, “Joe the Boss”, was the one who had ordered the hit on Luciano.
| Being a bully at school, Luciano charged classmates a fee for his protection. One individual refused to pay, yet stood up to him, instead, in his fight. Who was the person whose defiance impressed Lucky so much, that they became best friends? | Mastermind of the Mob: Lucky Luciano
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Meyer Lansky. Although he befriended the others, Lansky became his most trusted and loyal childhood friend, and later his partner in his criminal empire. Lansky, being a Jewish from Poland, and Luciano, an Italian, the fearless duo started a hoodlum of tough gangs in 1907.
Just one year since his arrival to the states, Luciano's unofficial crime racketeering began by intimidating his fellow classmates and other vulnerable schoolchildren. If the pay were rejected, he would beat them up. He completed the sixth grade and then dropped out at the age of fourteen.
shoplifting. The lesson in the early arrest did not teach him anything. He was neither fearful of it, nor embarrassed by it. He was sent to a state facility for youthful offenders, and it was there that he officially changed his name from Salvatore “Sal” to Charles “Charlie” Luciano.
After serving a small term for shoplifting, he was released and put into the custody of his humiliated and hard-working parents. He took a job with a Jewish hat maker delivering his goods. Realizing he could more than triple his pay and make it look as if it was a legal front, he slipped drugs into the hatbands before he made his deliveries.
At the age of ten, he had already been involved in mugging, extortion, and shoplifting. By the age of nineteen, he had spent six months in jail for selling heroin. Still, Luciano refused to alter his insubordinate lifestyle.
| Lucky Luciano was credited with organizing which association that has been said to be his most important innovation, even by today’s Mafia standard? | Mastermind of the Mob: Lucky Luciano
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Commission. In 1930, with the assistance of his childhood friend Meyer Lansky, Luciano organized and became the leader of what he designated, the Commission, or “Unione Siciliano”, with his top, trusted men. The organization was considered as the gangster counterpart to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Commission consisted of a twelve-member group that settled all challenges and disputes in the gangland. Wanting to establish order within the cartel, Luciano implemented the effective idea of "crime families," selecting a group of his most faithful Sicilian supporters to head certain districts and territories. Being the top crime boss, he had been a popular figure in society, often seen at fine restaurants, ornate theaters, and elaborate parties and balls. He had been often seen with well-known political and civic leaders, entertainers, such as Frank Sinatra, and other distinguished persons. Being in charge of organized crime, even the VIP’s dared not to challenge his supreme authority.
Thomas Dewey. By 1935, New York’s special prosecuting district attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, had collected substantial evidence against Luciano. Dewey invaded eighty Manhattan, New York brothels, and arrested hundreds of madams and call girls.
In exchange for their freedom from prison, they turned state's evidence and offered incriminating information about the prostitution ring in which they were involved. The staff from the prominent Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue where Lucky managed many of his business transactions, testified at the trial that they had witnessed numerous gangsters entering his '39c' suite frequently.
Arkansas. After he posted his bail, Lucky Luciano was determined that he would not stand trial for something he affirmed he was not involved in. He fled from New York State to the southern state of Arkansas. After being recognized in Hot Springs, an Arkansas judge ordered an extradition.
However, Luciano was bailed out by a paid-off police detective before he could be transported. Dewey sent a group of New York detectives down south to bring Lucky back to stand trial. At his court appearance in 1936, he was indicted, tried by a jury, and was convicted on sixty-two counts of compulsory prostitution. The judge sentenced the thirty-eight year old Charles Luciano to serve thirty to fifty years in Clinton Prison at Dannemora, New York.
Although incarcerated, his mafia dealings did not cease. He continued to rule his cartel while imprisoned with an iron fist, issuing his orders through Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello. He was known to have operated the largest prostitution ring in American history in the 1930’s.
| Lucky Luciano, with his influential supremacy, helped the government of the United States and secured the waterfront docks in New York from Nazi saboteurs. With which branch of service was the secret deal formed? | Mastermind of the Mob: Lucky Luciano
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U.S. Naval Intelligence. At his age, he acknowledged that he was facing certain life in prison. Even as powerful as he was, Lucky Luciano could not foresee any way out of his situation. Then as luck would have it for him, World War II started when the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Lucky realized that he was in the perfect position to bargain and make his own demands and requests of either being moved to a better prison or a possible early parole. Orders were given to Lansky to send out the message that he could help in the war effort at home and abroad. The Naval Intelligence confronted Luciano with his proposition. After serious contemplation by the government, and knowing that he had connections world-wide, the choice was made to accept his offer, but not until they had him moved to a more secure and protected site.
On May 12, 1942, Luciano was moved to Great Meadow Prison in Comstock, New York. The Naval Intelligence made frequent, unrecorded visits to solicit his much needed help, and Luciano, who declared himself a loyal American citizen, obliged with all the assistance they needed, and more. Many people believed that the allied invasion of Sicily would not have been as triumphant for the U.S. had it not been for the help and valuable information that Lucky Luciano had supplied.
| Lucky Luciano's sentencing had been commuted only with instructions to return to his native country of Italy. One year later, he rebelled and disregarded the U.S. official’s agreement, and secretly fled to which country? | Mastermind of the Mob: Lucky Luciano
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Cuba. Lucky Luciano began to think that the U.S. had foregone their end of the bargain. The same person who had put him behind bars in the first place, was the only one who could have him released. Former district attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, had been elected governor of New York, and in January of 1946, he finally commuted his release from prison in exchange for his aide in the war.
Unfortunately, for Lucky though, conditions were attached to his newfound freedom back into the world. He was to be deported to Rome, and although he was genuinely hurt by having to leave the United States, a country he had grown to love and claimed as his own since he was nine, reluctantly agreed. Immediately after leaving prison on February 10, 1946, prison guards took him directly to Ellis Island, where on Sunday, at 8:50 a.m., Charles “Lucky” Luciano boarded the S.S. Laura Keene for Italy, never to return to America. Even though deportation made him relocate, he never lost his status as the “boss of bosses”.
He continued to use his control over the American cartel, but no more than one year had passed, he became displeased by the way the Commission and activities were being run back in the states. Though the Italian government held firm rules on Luciano’s lifestyle, he still managed to escape Italy and flew to Havana, Cuba, where he could conduct his business affairs more effectively through runners and telephone conversations.
The news of Luciano’s presence in Cuba soon got back to the U.S. authorities, and all shipments of medical drugs to Cuba were threatened to be stopped by the government if they did not return him back to Italy. After his forced return, he settled in Naples where he began directing drug traffics and smuggling aliens into America, using a medical supply store he had purchased as the cover for his illegal businesses.
massive heart attack. After returning to Naples, Luciano found the true love of his life, an Italian dancer named, Igea Lissoni. She was twenty years younger than he was, but the two spent eleven years together living the life of luxury in their sixty-room house on Via Tasso, before her fight with breast cancer ended. Since his deportation banned him from marriage, it has not been confirmed if they were ever secretly married. He became a very charitable person, helping many poor Italian families financially. When Igea died, so did part of Luciano.
His control of the American Mafia diminished, as did his illegal projects in Italy as well. He had already suffered several minor heart attacks and concluded that at the age of sixty-four years old, retirement was his best option. He granted permission for a scriptwriter to document his memoirs and make a film of his life. Although this concept would not appeal to the dangerous mob, Lucky was unwavered by his decision. On January 26, 1962, he walked up to greet the American film producer at Naples International Airport. Luck had run out for Charles “Lucky” Luciano when he grasped his chest, collapsed, and died of a fatal heart attack.
Because of the terms of his 1946 deportation, it was not until ten years later in 1972, that his family was allowed to ship his body back to the country he had always longed for, America. More than 2,000 people attended his funeral, and he was entombed at Saint John's Cathedral Cemetery in Queens, New York. Two of his close friends, Vito Genovese (1969) and Joseph Profaci (1962), lay nearby, what once was their boss!
http://www.biography.com/articles/Luciano-Lucky
http://crime.about.com/od/gangsters/a/luciano.html
http://www.hoodlumonline.com/History/lucky.html
http://crimelibrary.com/gangsters/murder/murderlucky.html
www.gangstersinc.tripod.com/LuckyLuciano.html
www.newyorkdailynews.com
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