The Man Who Invented the Mafia: Lucky Luciano

Lucky Luciano, an immigrant from Italy, transformed the American Mafia into a national network with rules and structure. Despite his humble beginnings and limited English, Luciano’s strategic mind and vision allowed him to rise above poverty and street gangs. His influence was so significant that even the US government sought his help during World War II. This story is shared by Michael Francis, a former Mafia member, who credits Luciano as the architect of the organized crime world he once operated in.
Luciano, a prominent figure in organized crime, aimed to transform the criminal landscape in America. He built strong networks with various ethnic groups, politicians, and corrupt police, focusing on cooperation rather than conflict. He modernized operations, creating a multi-ethnic coalition that dominated American crime for half a century. Despite his success, his involvement in prostitution led to his downfall when prosecutor Dewey used this to build a case against him.
In 1936, Luciano, a notorious mob boss, was arrested and sentenced to 30-50 years in prison for running a large prostitution ring. Despite being in prison, he maintained control over his organization and continued to profit from it. During World War II, the U.S. government sought Luciano’s help to prevent sabotage on the New York waterfront, promising a reduced sentence in return. After the war, his sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy, where he continued to exert influence over the American Mafia.
Lucky Luciano, a significant figure in the American Mafia, was deported from the US to Italy in 1947 but continued to influence American operations from afar. Despite his distance, he maintained control through Meyer Lansky, who regularly visited him with money and updates. Over time, his power diminished, and he became more of a respected figure than an active boss. Luciano’s legacy, however, continues to impact American society, as his vision of organized crime as a business and his strategies are still used by modern criminal organizations.
This story is about a person who, despite taking a wrong path, managed to improve his life through determination. It’s not about glorifying the person or his actions, but showing the power of resilience. The story is part of a series, with plans to cover many more interesting figures in history, starting with mobsters. The aim is to provide insightful and entertaining content for the audience.

He came to America as a nine year old kid. He barely spoke a word of English. He was very poor. He was hungry. He was packed into a tiny apartment on the Lower east side of New York. Now, most people in his shoe, they stayed poor. Some joined street gangs just to get by. But this kid, he had a different kind of mind. His name, of course, Lucky Luciano. And what he built, well, it changed the landscape of America for decades to come, my friends. He didn’t just want money, he wanted control. So while other gangsters fought over corners, he was busy reorganizing the entire Mafia.

He turned it into a national network, an organization with rules, structure and profits like no one before him had ever seen. How does he end up creating a criminal empire that’s so powerful? The US government actually came to him for help in World War II. And this is the story of how lucky. He didn’t follow the rules. He wrote his own. And somehow he made the world play by that. Hey everyone. Welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. As always, my friends, we give all the praise, honor, glory and thanksgiving to our God for that.

Very excited to continue this series that’s been so well received. We’re doing the 50 mom bosses that are on this beautiful tapestry behind me. The canvas, you’ve seen it painted by my dear friend Bowden, Him. And yes, if you want one, everybody’s been asking me, you can go to the link goldenera collections.com you can have one. It’s a great conversation piece. People are loving it. There’s 52 of us on there, me and my dad. I didn’t ask to be put on there, but he put us on there. But these are the 50 most prominent people in the mob, in the Mafia in the last hundred years in this country.

I gave them those names. This is my opinion. You may disagree, but hey, I have some inside information. So this is my, my choice for these 50 men. And this is number four in the series today. We did first Carlo Gambino. People loved it, got a million views or so on that. People just really enjoyed it. Of course, a very important figure in that life. Number two, we did Tony Accardo. You know, he ruled the Mafia family in Chicago for over 40 years. Very successful in that regard in organized crime. Number three was Joe Colombo, my mentor, somebody that I really cared about and loved.

And number four, today I don’t think there’s anybody that doesn’t know who he is. I lived that life for over 20 years I was a soldier, and I was a capo in the Colombo family. And, you know, I made a lot of money. I made millions of dollars. It’s all documented. I had a good amount of power and influence. People know that. But you know what? Even at my peak, I was operating in a world that Luciano built. We all were. They called him Lucky because he survived a. A very brutal throat cutting attack that left him with a drooping eye.

If you’ve seen photos of him and that distinctive scar you’ve seen in the photos, you know, like, Capone had a star. So did a scar. I’m sorry, so did he. But he. His real luck was his mind. He was a strategic genius who saw possibilities no one else could see. You know, people, I told you this many times, there was a lot of very smart guys in that life. Had they chosen other path, the legitimate path, they would have done well. It’s just a product of their upgrading that they grew up on the street. You know, Lucky came over here from Italy.

You saw the situation he was in. He gravitated to the street, and boom. But he was a very smart guy, and there were a lot of smart guys in that life. When I walked away from that life, finding redemption through my Christian faith, and yes, I am a Christian in people, and if I didn’t turn to Christ, I would either be dead or in prison for the rest of my life. No doubt about it. God had a different plan and a purpose for my life. And that’s why I’m here and able to talk to you. I believe that with all my heart.

Join my platform michaelfrancis.com family and you’ll hear more of that from me. And if I can help you and encourage you to turn your life around, that’s what I’m here for. I’ve been doing it for 30 years, you know, but when I became a Christian, I started reflecting on my life and I started studying how myself and my father before me ended up in that life in the first place. And I really concluded that all roads led back to Lucky Luciano. He was the father of organized crime in America. All right, my friends, before I get into the story, I got to have a glass of wine.

You know, I don’t know about you, but I enjoy my wine. You know, I was never much of a drinker in my life. I didn’t get into, you know, spirits or anything like that or any hard stuff. Not even a really a beer drinker. I enjoy my wine, man, and I have it at dinner. And for me, Like I said, wine was always when people were around and family and stuff like that. I didn’t go to a bar and order a glass of wine. But anyway, salute to all of you. It’s good. Very good. You know, Salvator Lucania, that was his name, was born in Sicily, and he arrived in New York harbor in 1906, way back.

Nine years old. He didn’t speak English. His family found not the American dream, but Lower east side tenements. And, you know, they were bad places to live back then. You know, at the turn of the century, they had cockroaches. They were overcrowded. There was poverty everywhere. Most Americans today, we don’t realize how bad it can be unless you live, you know, unfortunately, in one of the ghettos. It was pretty bad. You know, school didn’t last long for him. By the age of 14, I believe, he was already on the streets. He was running errands for the local gangsters who were around already.

Remember, they all immigrated from Italy back then, and they were, you know, some of them were gangsters. Remember, they left because they were worried. Mussolini was turning against everybody back then. He was going against the Mafia. He thought they insulted him when he made a visit to Sicily, and from that point on, he went to war on them. So a lot of them came over to America, you know, so he would work with the local gangsters. He made deliveries. He kept lookout for them when they were doing their stuff. And this was even before Prohibition, when the Italian gangs were really at the bottom of the criminal hierarchy.

Back then, we weren’t big time back then. Even as a teenager, Luciano, people saw something special in him. He was naturally intelligent. He had a good way with people. He knew how to network. And most importantly, he was a guy with vision. He was a young man with vision. While others focused on their block or their neighborhood, Luciano saw the entire city. He recognized how gangs fought each other. They kept themselves weak, and how. The old Mustache Pete’s, that’s what they call the original Italian gangsters, they were stuck in the past with blood feuds and vendettas.

They were always fighting against one another back then. You know, that’s one thing that, you know, got me about Italians. You know, we fought with one another quite a bit, and it was. It was a bad trait, you know, bad characteristic that we had. By the age of 18, he started to form partnerships that would shape organized crime for decades to come. Notably one of his best partners, Meyer Lansky, and after that, Benjamin Bugsy Siegel. They were Jewish gangsters. He didn’t care, you know, Jewish. You know, a lot of people thought that we were racist and prejudiced.

No, we weren’t. If we could work with you, we worked with you. And, you know, back then, this was pretty revolutionary when old timers kept everything in the family strictly Italian, preferably Sicilian. Luciano valued talent regardless of background. You know, he. Like I said, yeah, maybe the old guys, the Mustache Pete’s, they kept it within themselves. You know, when the Italians, but not in my generation, my father, we dealt with anybody. We thought we could work with them, we dealt with them. There was no racism or any of that stuff. I didn’t witness it. Some people are going to say, come on, Michael, I’m telling you what my experience was.

By his early 20s now, Charles Luciano, he changed his name. He was making serious money as a gunman for hire. He was a bootlegger and he operated, you know, brothels. And unfortunately, I don’t know why he got into that, but he did. But what separated him from thousands of other ambitious gangsters was his ability to think bigger. He didn’t just want to be another thug or a boss. He wanted to build something that would outlast him and transform America itself. And, yeah, you know, the Mob had a hand in transforming America. Prohibition transformed crime in America.

No doubt. It, I’ve said it a hundred times, it created fortunes in illegal alcohol. Italian gangs were perfectly positioned with smuggling experience, old country connections, and very strong family networks. Luciano became the right hand man to Joe Mazaria. Joe the Boss, an old school Sicilian who controlled New York’s largest Italian criminal organization at that time. And while Masseria was stubborn and traditional, Luciano maintained relationships with other ethnic groups because he saw potential partners rather than enemies. He wasn’t worried about their ethnicity. If they could work with him and he could work with them, he did it.

He developed connections with Irish gangsters, with politicians and corrupt police. He understood that real power came from building networks, not controlling the blocks or the streets. By 1925, Luciano was a millionaire living in luxury hotels. And he was well known in all the fine nightclubs in New York. But despite his success, he remained frustrated by the outdated ways of the old Mustache Pete’s. This frustration boiled over during the Castellamorrazi War. And that was from 1930 to 1931, when rival boss Sal Maranzano, he battled Masseria’s organization. They were in a war. Dozens died in the street violence.

They were killing each other in the streets. You saw some of this on television. Some of it was played out in Some of the old movies. Lucky knew that violence was bad. It was bad for business. The smart guys knew that. Colombo knew that. Gambino knew that. Frank Costello knew that. Even Persico to a degree, even though he was a tough guy, he’s pretty violent, but he knew you can’t get away with that all the time. It brings too much heat. The smart guys knew you got to try to sell disputes the other way. Luciano, he was caught in the middle of that war, but he took decisive action.

After arranging to meet Masseria for lunch at a Coney island restaurant. It was April 15, 1931. He excused himself. He went to the bathroom while four gunmen that he had hired, Siegel and Vito Genovese, they entered and they killed Mazaria. Now, with Masseria gone, Maranzano declared himself the boss of bosses. And he started to reorganize the Italian gangs in New York into five distinct families. It was him, Maranzano, that organized, you know, all the groups into the five families. And he placed Luciano very high in the hierarchy because he killed Mazaria. But you know what? Soon after that, Luciano learned that Maranzano was plotting to eliminate him also.

Why? He was getting too popular. People were liking Luciano. They were liking the way he did business. They respected him. They knew he took out Masseria. So guys on the street had a lot of respect for Luciano, and Maranzano didn’t like that. So he wanted to kill him. But what happened? Luciano found out about it. He struck first. That’s what you got to do in that life. People, when you think you’re on a hit list, you got to go first or you. Or you’re going down. Either that or you run away. On September 10, 1931, Luciano’s guys disguised as federal agents.

This was brilliant. They walked into Maranzano’s office and boom, shot him dead. And instead of claiming the boss of bosses title because everybody figured, ok, you know, this is what happens. You take out the boss, and now you’re the boss of bosses. Luciano didn’t want that. He abolished it. He didn’t want that. He called a meeting of all the gang leaders in the country. Italian, Jewish, Irish. And he outlined his vision to all of them. Here’s what he wanted. A national crime syndicate. A commission of equals where disputes could be settled without warfare, where territories would be respected for everyone and where everyone could profit by cooperating with one another and not going into conflict.

Smart. He created the Commission. The Commission made famous by what? The big Commission trial that Giuliani had in 1986. Put all the bosses away. But he created the Commission. Maranzato created the five families and Luciano organized them. Gave up boss of bosses. He didn’t want that. He wanted each boss to be the boss of their own family. And they’re independent. Nobody can tell the boss of another family what to do in his family. But the Commission would come to a consensus on things of importance. So by the age of 34, Luciano had completely transformed organized crime in America.

He eliminated the old guard, all the mustache petes, they were gone. He modernized operations and he created a multi ethnic coalition that would dominate American crime for half a century at least. You know, that’s how powerful it was. It was great vision. So after eliminating Maranzano, Luciano became America’s most powerful crime boss. He did. Though he preferred to be seen as first among equals. He didn’t want to be the boss of all bosses. First among equals. Keeping potential rivals from feeling disrespected while still maintaining control because they respected him. His organization had its hands in everything.

It was gambling, loan, shocking protection, rackage, union control, prostitution. I don’t like that. And liquor distribution, you know, is profitable even after Prohibition due to the taxes and the regulations that they had on liquor. So it was still profitable after Prohibition. Not the same, but profitable nonetheless. What set Luciano apart was his business approach. He saw organized crime as a corporation, a business with each family having their own territory, their own specialties. Disputes went before the Commission, the governing body, with representatives from each major family. If you were a boss of a family, you had a seat on the Commission.

Violence became a last resort rather than the first option. Luciano lived with regally. He lived regally with a suite at the Waldorf Astoria. He had handmade suits and he had entree to the finest establishments. All the clubs, the nightclubs, all the restaurants. You know, he was like, you walk in there with Lucky, you get treated like gold, you know. Celebrities sought his company. Politicians and judges, they were on his payroll. Milanski remained his right hand man. He handled his finances, his money laundering. Together, they began investing in Las Vegas decades before others saw its potential. And that was Myelinsky.

He had great vision also. And Luciano kept a low profile. He understood that real power operates quietly in the shadows. He controlled vast networks of corruption. Police, judges, politicians. Not just through bribes, but by building relationships and creating systems that were mutually beneficial to all parties. His influence extended internationally with connections to Sicily, where he came from. He had operations in Cuba and, you know, he understood that there was money in narcotics, people. And you know what? I never Liked anything to do with drugs Again, during my time in that life, we weren’t allowed to get involved with drugs.

We were told the night we were made, you deal with drugs, you die. As a matter of fact, I was told that as a recruitment. So we were not major drug dealers during my era. It was hands off after. I think Gambino started that. Whatever. I don’t want to go into the history, but yes. Luciano realized there was money in drugs. By 1935, Luciano’s empire generated hundreds of millions of dollars in today’s dollars. He transformed organized crime from neighborhood rackets into an invisible government, a shadow authority, collecting taxes through protection money, enforcing its own laws, influencing everything from construction projects to elections.

So for a poor migrant who arrived with nothing, it was an extraordinary achievement. The darkest version of the American dream, but the American dream nonetheless. But you know what people, the higher you climb, the harder they come after you. And there was a special prosecutor in New York. His name was Thomas E. Dewey. When he saw what was going on with Luciano, kind of like Giuliano, later on, he set his sights on Lucky and bringing him down. That was it. But again, you got to give him credit. The guy started out with nothing and created the biggest criminal empire in the country.

He had a lot of influence, a lot of money, a lot of power, and everybody wanted to be around him. We didn’t have to force our way onto people. People wanted to be around us. That’s the way it was. I’m sorry, but, you know, there was an attraction there. Dewey, he was a young, ambitious prosecutor, but he had a problem. He knew Luciano controlled a very big criminal enterprise, but proving it was difficult. That was something else. It wasn’t like today with the RICO Act. Luciano insulated himself masterfully. He used layers of underlings. He rarely spoke on telephones.

He kept nothing in writing. And he ensured that witnesses were either paid off or they were terrified to talk about him. But Dewey got creative. He started attacking Lucky through the prostitution operations. That was a mistake that Lucky made, no doubt about it. You know, he had women around there. Women, you know, how. How much can you push them? Throughout 1935, Dewey’s investigators built a case from the testimony of prostitutes, madams, and pimps. How much trust can you place in those people? They followed the money right up to Luciano’s organization. Salud, my friends. Well, time started to catch up with lucky.

It was February 1, 1936, when he was arrested. He was in Hot Square Springs, Arkansas. He was at a dinner there at a restaurant. And, you know, Al Capone had been in Hot Springs, Arkansas, too. There was some Mob presence there, and they took him from there. They extradited him to New York. He went to trial. It started in May of 1936. It was a media sensation. Forget it. People were all over this. Luciano appeared daily. He had perfectly tailored suits, kind of like John Gotti. People were waiting outside to see him. But Dewey was a smart prosecutor.

Again, you gotta compare him to Giuliani and what he did. He methodically built his case with testimony from dozens, and I mean dozens of witnesses. Mostly pimps and madams and the women that were prostitutes. He painted a picture of a very vast prostitution ring that generated enormous profits for Luciano was. On June 7, 1936, after just five hours of deliberation. That’s how strong the case was. The jury found Luciano guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution. The judge later sentenced him to 30 to 50 years in prison. Sounds like a sentence they gave my father. You know, effectively, it was a life sentence.

After that, Luciano was sent to Clinton Correctional Facility, Dannemora. It was like Siberia in New York, was a maximum security prison right near the Canadian border. And it was known for very brutal winters. It was cold there, right near the Canadian border, cold. Trust me, I’ve been up there. And for a man who had lived like royalty and controlled an empire, it was a pretty stunning downfall. Even in prison, though, Luciano remained the boss. Nobody replaced him. Through Lansky and other Loyalists, he continued receiving his share of the profits. He had his orders followed. The organization he built was designed to survive.

With its architect behind bars, Luciano never stopped looking for opportunities to regain his freedom. He worked hard, like I did with my dad, for years. We never let up. We always were in court, we were always filing appeals. Just didn’t have a lot of success. But Luciano kept at it. And then that chance would come from an unlikely source. Where do you think it came from? The United States government itself. At Dannemora, Luciano maintained his dignity. He kept to himself. He remained very polite to guards and inmates alike. And not from weakness, but from strategy. He knew authorities were watching for him to make mistakes.

You know, you can’t be a jackass in prison. You can’t be yelling at the guards. You can’t conduct yourself like a. Like a fool. You got to get along in there. You got to know how to handle yourself. You got to know how to do time. I learned how to do time. My father gave me advice. My father knew how to do time. You got to maintain it. It’s like being on the street, in a way, you got to network a little bit. You got to know who to cater to sometimes who to back off something.

Sometimes prison. You got to know how to navigate that. Especially when you know people are watching you. They want you to make a mistake. People wanted me to make a mistake all the time. So they can ship me out, throw me in a hole, whatever. You had to know what to do with both the staff and the inmates, he was doing the right thing. And his empire was surviving. Meyer Lansky managed his interest. He ensured that the profits reached the designated accounts. Vito Genovese, a name you know well. He was Lucky’s underboss at the time. He temporarily took over all the New York operations.

But then he had a problem. He got involved in a possible murder beef and he had to flee to Italy to escape. Who took over then? You know the story. Frank Costello, who was the consigliere. He became the. The organization’s public face. He handled political connections brilliantly. And he. He was really a good businessman. And I told you that Costello, he was kind of my model. If I wanted to name the model boss, it would be Costello. More so than Gambino. Costello, he had a lot of political connections. You know, they called him the Prime Minister.

He knew how to operate business. He was against violence unless it was absolutely necessary. He was kind of the ideal boss, in my opinion. I’ve said that before. And under Costello’s leadership, the Commission continued to function efficiently. It was resolving disputes without bloody street wars. Luciano’s system proved itself even in his absence, because again, he created a system. After six years behind bars, even Lucky must have wondered if he’d ever be free again. Then came World War II and an opportunity that nobody could have predicted. When America entered the war, the government feared there would be an attempt to sabotage the New York waterfront, where vital war supplies were loaded for our troops in Europe.

It was very important. These docks were controlled by unions under the Mob influence, and Lucky was the main guy. So in early 1942, when the luxury liner SS Normandy caught fire while being converted to a troop ship, rumors of the sabotage spread. The government got really nervous. The Navy became desperate to secure the waterfront. Someone in government suggested, hey, I know what we should do. We should approach Luciano. They knew we controlled the docks at that time. It was obvious. They knew he had maritime connections and they knew he hated fascists because like I said earlier, Mussolini is the guy that chased everybody out of Italy.

That’s why they all came here, because he was out to get every one of them, he had no love for Mussolini. That was a good thing for the United States government. Naval intelligence officer Commander Charles Haffenden visited Luciano in prison with a proposal. He said help protect the waterfront and the government might reduce his sentence after the war. Negotiate. What exactly Luciano did remains partly classified. We should know what he did at this point in time. It’s been a heck of a lot so. But almost a century later. But some people say that he arranged for mob enforcers to watch the docks.

That’s what I was told, that we started to watch the docks and if anybody suspicious came, boom, we’d handle it. He assisted with the Allied invasion of Sicily. I’ve said this before. Myelinsky said that they reactivated bootlegging networks to gather intelligence in Italy. Brilliant. Not a single act of sabotage occurred on the New York waterfront after this arrangement with Luciano began. That’s Paolo, my friends. But by the war’s end, American authorities, they kept their bargain. Listen to this. Look at the irony in this. Thomas Dewey, who is now the New York governor, who was the guy that put Luciano in jail.

He had to reluctantly commute Luciano’s sentence. And in 1946, on condition of deportation to Italy that he would never return to the United States, his sentence was commuted to time served. Dewey was not happy about that. Guaranteed, but he was the governor and he had to do it because it was a state sentence. It wasn’t a federal sentence. On February 9, 1946, after nearly 10 years in prison, Luciano boarded a ship to Italy. As New York scout skyline receded, he must have felt profound loss because he loved America. But freedom, even with conditions, was worth taking.

Trust me, people, when you can get out of jail, you’re going. No matter where they got to send you, you’re going. And the physical distance from America would not mean surrendering his power in the American Mafia. He still was going to be the guy in control here. So even though he couldn’t be here, he had his people in place. He had the system he put in place. But he couldn’t come back to America. After receiving a hero’s welcome in Sicily, Luciano realized the war ravaged island offered little for his ambitions. He didn’t want to stay there.

So he began traveling throughout Italy and eventually to Cuba. It was a strategic move to position himself near enough to the United States to reassert control. Cuba’s what? Very close to the US he figured if he stayed in Cuba, he can still have control over this country. In Havana, Luciano held court at the luxurious Hotel National. American mobsters made Pilgrimage to see him there. Lansky, Costello, Genovese, representatives from every major family, they would all come and pay Lucky homage there. In December of 1946, he hosted to what amounted to really a gangland convention. Every major figure in American organized crime attended this welcome back party where Luciano reasserted his authority and he set new directions for the, for the organized crime in America.

He blessed the expansion into Las Vegas, he mediated disputes, and he improved increased involvement in narcotics trafficking. Yes, he did. Don’t throw this up to me. I keep telling you, in my era, no, but Luciano, Genovese, yes, they did it. Luciano’s visibility caught the attention of the American Department of Justice. They didn’t like it. And soon after, the US Government, they pressured Cuba to expel him from the country. And people, the United States, when they put pressure on any country, you’re going to lose. That was it. So by 1947, in February, Lucky was deported back to Italy.

They moved him back, but this time permanently. Yet, you know, even from across the Atlantic, he maintained his influence in the American Mafia. He established a palatial Naples home. He invested in legitimate businesses, and he briefly became involved in the Italian cinema. He got into the movies. More importantly, he managed to stay connected to all his American operations. How? Through Meyer Lansky, who visited him regularly, brought him suitcases of cash and Luciano’s share of all the American profits. You know, and they would spend weeks, from what I was told, reviewing operations, making strategic decisions, basically reminiscing about the good old bad days in New York.

Yeah, Lucky miss them. No doubt about it, you know, but money was flowing better than ever. Las Vegas, it was booming. You remember what happened? Hey, Las Vegas was better when the mob controlled it. No doubt about it. Union control generated millions of dollars. We controlled all the unions in this country. Traditional rackets continued. Narcotics would add enormous revenue to the pot. Luciano lived like royalty, with custom made suits, fine dining, beautiful women. He had it all. Except being in America. His home became a destination for American mobsters visiting Italy. He would open up his doors.

He was still sad that he couldn’t get back to America. And, you know, despite all his wealth and influence, Luciano was homesick. He studied New York newspapers. He spoke often of returning, even though he knew it was probably impossible. As years passed, his power waned. You got to be there when he wasn’t there. You know, things just in that life, forget it, you’re going to get passed over eventually. New generation in that life was rising up. Men like Gambino, Giancana, eventually Colombo. You Know, they respected Luciano’s legacy, but they weren’t necessarily bound by his distant authority.

That’s how it goes in that life. If you’re not present, things happen. Guys go to jail. They don’t maintain control like they did. And look, there’s guys on the street that are always hungry for power. So they’re going to make their movement. And by the 1950s, I would say the late 1950s, Luciano was more an elder statesman than an active boss. He was honored. They respected him. But no longer did he direct the day to day operations. And in 1961, he agreed to work with a writer, Martin Ghosh, on his autobiography. It was unprecedented for a major mob figure to write his autobiography.

But fate really had one final twist in store for Lucky, and this was a sad one. It was January 26, 1962, Naples International Airport. Luciano arrived there to meet a film producer about his life story. He was going to make a movie on it. And he was walking through the terminal, and as he was walking, he suffered a massive heart attack right in the terminal. Collapsed. By the time the medical help arrived, he was dead. Sad way to go, you know, at the age of 64, still a young guy, still had, you know, a good part of his life ahead of him, but collapsed and died in the airport.

For a man who had survived numerous assassination attempts, so many, they nicknamed him Lucky. It was perhaps the most peaceful ending possible in his world. You know, when you look at it that way, he could have been taken out a hundred different ways, but he dies by a heart attack, collapsed on the floor. That was it. It. But I got to tell you this. Thousands attended his Naples funeral. And I mean thousands. You have to see the procession. American mobsters, they flew in from all across the United States. Maya Lansky, he was devastated. Too devastated to attend.

He later said, in my life, I’ve met a lot of tough guys, but Charlie, he was the toughest. And you know what? Even more so, he was the smartest. That was a quote from Meyer Lansky. Initially, he was buried in Italy, but then, you know, something that he wanted his. His body eventually was returned to America. And today he rests in probably the most famous cemetery in the entire country. And that’s St. John’s Cemetery in Queens. My entire family is buried there. And that’s not too far from where he built his empire in the country that he considered home.

Despite everything else, you know, Luciano’s legacy is everywhere, if you know where to look. The five families, the structure, it still exists. It’s weakened by federal prosecutions but it’s still there. The Commission. It functioned for decades until the famous Commission trial of the mid-1980s. You know the deal. Most significantly, though, Luciano’s vision of organized crime as a business, rational, profit focused, using violence as a last resort. It changed everything. Before him, gangsters were street thugs. After him, there were businessmen with guns. Las Vegas, which Luciano helped pioneer through Meyer Lansky. It grew into a multi billion dollar industry.

Labor union control gave the Mob influence over entire economic sectors for years. His money laundering innovations, it created templates still used today. There’s a darker side, too. Hundreds of people died in mob violence. Institutions and legitimate businesses were corrupted. The narcotics trade he embraced brought suffering to countless communities. And. Man, I don’t like hearing that people. You know my deal with. With drugs. I had a sister that died of an ova. I saw too many people either die or suffer greatly because of narcotics, drugs. I don’t like it. I’m sorry. This was part of Luciano’s legacy.

And that’s the complexity of Luciano. He was brilliant, he was a visionary. Yet he was responsible for tremendous harm. We got to say it. His story isn’t a celebration, but it’s a study in how extraordinary talent can be channeled toward destructive ends when legitimate paths are closed. Charlie Lucky Luciano, he didn’t just live the American dream. He bent it to his will. He reshaped it into something darker, but no less remarkable. It was a testament to human potential for both ingenuity and corruption. A cautionary tale. A study in power. Yeah, you could say all of that.

But history isn’t just made by presidents in general. Sometimes it’s shaped from the shadows by men like Luciano. Men who change the world without appearing in our textbooks. It’s a sad, but it’s. It’s a true story. It’s not always people that you expect that shape history. Guys in the Mob did it, too. The past never stays buried. Not completely. Lucky Luciano. He died nearly 60 years ago. But his influence, it continues rippling through American society in ways most people never notice. When federal agents dismantled the Commission in the 1980s and Giuliani broke the Five Families power in the 1990s, many believe organized crime, as Luciano envisioned it, was finished.

But systems this deeply embedded, they don’t just disappear. They evolve. Look at Las Vegas today. A desert metropolis of legitimate casino corporations worth billions. Few realize they’re walking through the house that Luciano built. His vision of gambling as a legal corporate enterprise eventually became true. Modern criminal organizations still follow his corporate structured, diversified investments, international connections, even the relationship between crime and politics, it still follows patterns that he established. Luciano’s most lasting legacy isn’t his specific criminal empire, but the mindset that he embodied. The immigrant outsider who refused to accept society, his limitations. We saw hypocrisy in his system, preaching equal opportunity while closing doors on some.

And he decided to kick those doors down. Was he a hero? No, we’re not saying that. You might say he caused immense harm to society. I agree to that. But was he simply a villain? That’s too simple. He was complex. He responded to an America that told immigrants they would always be second class citizens. And he wasn’t having it. Perhaps the most profound lesson is how talent finds expression. One way or another, in a different America, with different opportunities, Luciano might have become a legitimate business guy, A titan political leader maybe, or military strategist. He had the brains.

Instead, those gifts built the most sophisticated criminal organization America had ever seen. Luciano never escaped the life he built. But his story fascinates because it’s quintessentially the American and immigrant tale, rags to riches story. As long as there are outsiders looking in, as long as doors remain closed to those without the right background, there’ll always be those who follow Luciano’s path, for better or for worse. That’s the real legacy of Lucky Luciano. Not just an organization, but a template for power that continues to inspire those on society’s margins. A cautionary tale in how America’s future, failure to truly embrace all its citizens can create the very forces that it really undermines.

The gangster Lucky Luciano, he’s gone. But the blueprint he created for organized crime, the Mafia in America, it still remains. And people, it remains till today. Lucky had a tremendous impact. That’s why they wrote books about him. The Mafia exists today, I believe, because of his system that he put in place. So, yeah, it’s a sad story, but, you know, it’s a story of, of somebody that was able to rise above the situation that he was in. He took the wrong path, but he was able to do it. So again, we’re not glorifying the life, we’re not glorifying the person, but we’re showing what can happen when somebody has the determination to pull themselves up off of a bad situation and better their lives.

For better or for worse, that’s what Lucky did. And this is the story. Hope you enjoyed it, my friends. How do I always leave you? Same way. Never going to change. Be safe, be healthy. God bless each and every one of you. God bless America and people. I hope you really enjoyed this and if you do subscribe so that you get alerts whenever we put a new one up. I explained to you this is a series that we’re going through. We’re going to go through all 50. We’re trying to do two a month. We put a lot of work into these and hopefully in the next year or so we’ll get through them all next year or two.

And if you like them, just keep, you know, telling us. And you know what, we even have thoughts about doing these documentary style, you know, videos for people outside of the mob. I mean, how would you like one on Abraham Lincoln or people that, you know, made their way in history that you really didn’t know about? And we’re going to try to give you this insight in a, in a very anticipated, entertaining way. So we’re going to start with the mobsters and then we’ll see where we go from there. The next one to follow is going to be a good one, I promise you.

Take care, my friends. I will see you next time.
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