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Salvatore Lucania
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born in 1897 in Sicily, Italy. He lived there until 1906, in that year Lucky and his family moved to the United States looking for a better life. Pretty soon after arriving Lucky had found his typ of life and in 1907 he was arrested for shoplifting, it would be his first arrest. In that same year Lucky also had a nice racket going. For a few pennies a day, Luciano offered younger and smaller Jewish kids his personal protection against beatings on the way to school and if they didn�????�???�??�?�¢??t pay, he beat them up. Things went great for the young Lucky until he came across a boy who wouldn't pay. The boy was called Meyer Lansky and was a Jewish kid from Poland. Lucky went to work and fought the young Lansky but couldn't beat him. Lansky put up a hell of a fight and Lucky was impressed, he asked Lansky to join him and his rackets and become friends, Lansky accepted. As he grew older Luciano went into more serious rackets and committed more serious crimes. When he was 18 years old he was arrested for peddling heroin and morphine, was convicted and was committed to a reformatory for 6 months. Upon his release he resumed narcotics dealing. By 1916 Luciano was a leading member of the notorious "Five Points Gang" and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders.
When the year turned 1920 Luciano had joined the largest crime Family of the country: The Family led by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and under him had set up major bootlegging rackets and had made contacts among other important gangsters of those days, among those: Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Costello introduced Luciano to some non Italian gangsters like: Big Bill Dwyer and Jews like Arnold Rothstein, Dutch Shultz and Dandy Phil Kastel. Luciano was impressed by the way Costello bought protection from city officials and the police. Luciano told his boss about Costello's way of conducting business but Masseria would not listen. His boss Masseria had the belief that only Sicilians can be trusted and become a member of the Organization. Not even people who were Italian (like Costello) but not from Sicily were allowed in. This angered Luciano who saw his boss as an obstacle in the way to taking Organized Crime to the highest level. Masseria must have felled some bad vibes coming from Luciano because he would soon send him a message.
Luciano was standing one day on Six Avenue in New York when a limousine rolled up beside him. Three men leaped from the vehicle and grabbed Luciano and dragged him into the limo. Luciano was kicked, punched, stabbed and sliced, he felt like he was going to die and after some more punches he went knock out. Hours later he woke up on the beach. After walking for about a mile before he reached the police booth at the Tottenville Precinct. "Get me a taxi," Luciano pleaded. "I�????�???�??�?�¢??ll give you fifty bucks if you do and let me go on my way." One of the cops ignored the offer and took Luciano to the hospital instead. At the hospital Luciano was questioned and asked who was behind this murder atempt but Luciano kept his mouth. When he got out of the hospital Luciano had no idea who was behind the attempted hit and asked his friend Meyer Lansky to ask around. Soon Lansky came back with the answer, Masseria was behind the hit. Lansky told Luciano right away that it would be smart to join Masseria's enemy Sal Maranzano who was the boss of the second biggest Family of New York, Luciano agreed. Several months later, after recovering from the beating, Luciano did just that. He met secretly with Maranzano and agreed to betray Masseria.
As soon as Luciano came under Maranzano a war errupted between Maranzano and Masseria. The war would become known as the Castellammarese War. The war started in 1928 and would rage on for 2 years. During these 2 years Luciano kept a low profile, spending a lot of time with the Caporegimes under Maranzano. He himself a youngster in those days became friendly with them and soon found out that younger mobsters in both camps were waiting for one boss to kill off the other. Then the second-line could dethrone the remaining boss. Pretty soon Luciano became the leader of this group. When the war reached a climax in 1932, Maranzano was winning, Masseria still held a lot of power though. Luciano decided it was time to make his move. He requested a sit down with his old boss Masseria. At this sit down Masseria was whacked by 4 men including Bugsy Siegel. The assassination made Maranzano the victor in the Castellammarese War and Maranzano made Luciano the Number Two man in his new Mafia empire. Maranzano proclaimed himself the "Boss of Bosses" in New York and set up five crime families under him. Maranzano didn't have much time to enjoy his newfound power Luciano had sent some guys over to his office and whacked him at the spot. Charles "Lucky" Luciano was boss of bosses of New York.
Now Luciano could finally get to work and push the Mafia to enormous heights. Together with Meyer Lansky Luciano began setting up businesses everywhere. They moved into Cuba, setting up casino's and brothels. They were the most powerful gangsters of the U.S. more powerful than Al Capone