Charles Luciano: An Italian Mobster Essay

Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Sicily, Italy; almost ten years later, he began a new life of crime and prosperity in New York City’s lower east side. Upon arrival, he could not speak english; he bullied the other kids into paying him for protection and participated in drug dealing. One day, Lucania was abducted, beaten, stabbed, and left for dead; miraculously, he survived. This rather fortunate recovery led him to become known as Lucky Luciano (“Lucky Luciano Biography.com.” Edited by Biography.com, The Biography.Com website, A&E Television Networks, 17 June 2015, www.biography.com/people/lucky-luciano -9388350). In 1916, he became the leader of the Five Points Gang and continued to make a name for himself. During these early years, Luciano was in and out of jail-- mostly for getting caught dealing drugs.

The Sicilian Mafia and the Camorra (mafia group located in Naples) were both created in the mid-1800’s (FBI 2010). These are the two mafia groups we will focus on. The Sicilian Mafia was originally an underground secret society formed to unite the peasants as resistance fighters and vigilante justice to protect their families and friends. In the 1920’s these chivalrous groups developed into what we know as the mafia. The Camorra was originally a prison gang that took controlled the prison and collected fees from the prisoners and guards for keeping order. They continued to meet after leaving prison and spread throughout Naples. They are currently Italy’s largest organized crime group with over 7,000 members (FBI 2010).

Despised by many, admired by few, but known by all, history had never seen an outlaw quite like Al Capone. Capone rose to his notorious fame during Chicago’s 1920’s Prohibition era through organized crime and extreme celebrity status. Though his legacy today remains one of violence and murder, Capone’s heyday was full of glamour and good deeds. Due to his staunch pursuit of the American Dream, charitable nature, and effective business tactics, Al Capone’s legacy should not only be a violent gangster but additionally as an ambitious businessman on his own unique path to success.

Luciano formed a gang that would later dominate the face of organized crime and change it into a new and all-pervasive menace that would influence the American social life for many years to come. He first met Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel when he was into “grabbing pennies” from jewish kids for protection (Gosch, 1975). Luciano had walked up to Lansky, and standing a whole head taller than him, made the usual proposition for protection (Gosch, 1975). Lansky stared Luciano down and, with no fear, told Luciano he didn’t need

In her article “Rewriting the Mafioso: The Gangster Hero in the Work of Puzo, Coppola, and Rimanelli”, Marissa M. Sangimino noted that Michael is the new generation of Italian-American identity and whose significant role in the novel is to safeguard the Italian culture (2015). In the novel, Puzo uses considerable usage of Italian lexicon through the speeches of Michael and Vito Corleone words such as: Pezzonovantis, Mafia, Omerta, and Cosa Nostra that stem from Sicilian environment. Vito wished that his grandchildren would someday be great members in society (pezzonovanti) such as professors and scientists (The Godfather), Michael in his journey to Sicily discovers that the first meaning of mafia is a ‘place of refuge’ (274), and then it became an organization fighting the corrupted members of the country. And Omerta, ‘the law of silence’ (274) meaning; in Sicily people deny murder and if someone attempts to tell the police, he will be executed by his people. The use of Italian language within the United States reveal the hybrid culture of the hero.

He is the loving father who will support his children under any and all circumstances, the father who defends the honor of those he loves. This directly clashes with his role in the crime family as the boss. In his essay, “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert B. Ray argues that “such two sided characters seemed particularly designed to appeal to a collective American imagination steeped in myths of inclusiveness” in order to captivate a more complex society (Ray 377). The complication of taking on the roles of father and mob boss begin with the form of business mob families conduct. Involvement in several forms of illegal activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug trafficking began to evolve into the social norm for the mafia.

“There’s no such thing as good money, or bad money. There’s just money.” - Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Lucky Luciano one of America’s notorious gangster. He was a criminal with a slow uprising to becoming top boss. He vanquished his rivals with brutal force. Salvatore Lucania was a brutally organized Italian born crime boss who greatly influenced the American society during his time.

Organized crime was has flourished in the united states for the past century. There have been countless investigations and studies conducted on this topic. Organized crime is composed of numerous ethnic and transnational groups operating together or apart with legitimate and illegitimate businesses and political entities (Lyman, M. D. ,2015). The media has glamorized these criminals creating the idea that they are like the lone wolf, or Robin Hood of society. One of the most iconic depictions of organized crimes can be seen by the mafia movies, and stories. This paper will discuss the mob man known as Frank ‘The Enforcer’ Nitti. In addition, the paper will go into detail on who this man is, what he specialized in, what his organization was, who hung around him and also give police officers a profile on this criminal.

Lucky Luciano made the modern mafia. In 1931 he cut New York into five slices and served the rackets up in a form that still exists today. He had his fingers in every slice of the metaphoric mince meat pie that was America in the first half of the twentieth century, and then spent his remaining years ruling the underworld from afar. In the history of organized crime, there has never been a more powerful boss, and unless there is a drastic change in American law enforcement, no one person will ever be able to consolidate so much criminal power again.

The Chicago Mafia remained in contact with the Mafia connections in Italy. Since each community had their own gang, there were several of them. There was the Chinese, Irish, Jewish, and Italian gangs. Each gang had their own style. For example: there was the Dead Rabbits gang. They were known for attacking regular civilians in broad daylight. They got their name by the unforgettable dead rabbits they carried on sticks while beating people up. There was also the Italian Mafia. They were recognized by the "Black Hand." The "Black Hand" was a letter with a black hand print on it. The letter would simply ask for money. Every Italian knew that if you refused to pay, it would cost you your life. The only way to be immune to the terrifying "Black Hand" was to be a part of the Mafia. Even Italian tenor Enrico Coruso received a "Black Hand" letter demanding two thousand dollars. Without

Nowadays, the Mafia is perceived to be a transnational criminal organization, riddled with violence and gang-like activity. For example, the American Mafia has been described as, “A cult, a secret society, a brotherhood among men, and even a pack of rats that eat anything in their path including each other” (Inside the American Mob). On the flip side, the Italian Mafia groups have been described as, “gangs, whom besides running a series of illicit businesses, also pervade the social environment in which they operate, influencing aspects of public and private life to cement their power” (Bacchi). Given these descriptions, it would stand to reason that the Mafia groups across the globe are a force and even now are considered a threat to society. However, when speaking about the Mafia groups it is important to first understand that they are independent of each other and differ from country to country. That is not to say that they do not work together, but rather that they have their own independent structures, which have developed in accordance with their differing countries’ legitimacies and institutions. Furthermore, while there are many different Mafia groups across the world, in this essay, through case studies of “The Sopranos” and “La Scorta”, as well as other relevant texts, I will firstly analyze how the American and Italian Mafia groups rose to power and endured under similar conditions. Secondly, I will explain how due to the greater legitimacy of the American

The men abducted Luciano, beat, and stabbed him. The group of people left Lucky Luciano on Staten Island where they say he was left for dead. But Lucky Luciano was discovered by a police officer and then taken to the hospital. No one knows who ordered the attack on Lucky Luciano but some say that it was the police or the top crime boss Masseria. Around this same time, Masseria was in a “turf war” with rival boss Salvatore Maranzano. Lucky Lucian used to work for Masseria, he worked for him for years. But later on he started supporting Marazano. With Marazano’s approval Luciano took over Masseria’s position as the top boss. Luciano was then became the leader of the cities five families. Marazano started looking at Lucky Luciano was a threat and he ordered to take him out, but Luciano got to him first. After Luciano got his rival taken care of he then started focusing on how criminal gangs done their business. Luciano then created a national organized crime network to stop any kind of conflict before it got started. In the 1930s Luciano lived in New York’s luxurious Waldorf Tower. He was using the name Charles Ross then. When he was there he lived the life of a wealthy businessman. He would wear custom-made suits and would always ride around getting chauffeured. But little did Luciano know that Thomas E. Dewey was about to make all of his good times come to an end. (Lucky

It was on a Friday on his way home from work that Salvatore’s life-course would take a turn for the worse; Not by bad luck but by a stroke of good luck. Salvatore gambled his seven-dollar weekly wage and wound up winning $244 in a game of alley craps. In turn Salvatore adopted the nickname “Lucky” and, instead of going to work the next day, Luciano would go to the alleys.

Although many arrests have been made, organized crime and the Mafia are still very active. Organized crime and its families, particularly the Italian mafia, have increased their illegal activities significantly over the past few decades. The Mafia and organized crime go hand and hand, one cannot be spoken without the other. Both of these forms of criminal actions have been recognized since the late 1800's, and police say it is not disappearing too fast.(Widener 6)

In popular American culture, the Italian Mafia has always been portrayed through romantic lenses. Almost as if mirroring the sentiments of the audience, Henry Hill in the movie The Goodfellas tells the viewers, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” (Scorcese) The quintessential mafia movie, The Godfather, was made over forty years ago, yet Michael Corleone stays at the forefront of popular American icons. What’s not to love about a no-nonsense tough guy, willing to go to any length, however fantastical or illegal, to protect both his immediate family and his adopted family in the crime network? Almost as if blatantly ignoring the extremely violent connotations that go with the group, American culture has highly