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COLLEGE #8 A CONTINUING SERIES OF COLUMNS ABOUT NOTORIOUS GANGSTERS |
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LUCIANO |
 "Lucky" Luciano, the mug shot |
Here's a little background
on this notorious hood
of TheColumnists.com
Recently I read an article in The Los Angeles Times about some guy who claims to have the rights to make a new movie about the life and times of "Lucky" Luciano. Now that could be a movie, all right.
"Lucky" was a prohibition era gangster who not only rose to the top by arranging the deaths of his former bosses (nothing new there), but by also doing something nobody else had been able to do up until then: Reorganizing the Mafia.
Lucky’s true genius move was incorporating a couple of nice Jewish “goodfellas” into the mob, which had always been pure Italian. One of them was Meyer Lansky, the real brains of the outfit. The other was Benny “Bugsy” Siegel, the crook who put Las Vegas on the map. Bugsy had street smarts but he wound up shot to death – while the Lansky and Luciano died from “natural causes.”
Lucky died of an alleged heart attack while waiting for a plane in Naples airport in 1962, (Jeez, how long a wait could it have been?). Others suspect he was poisoned by something that brought on his massive heart attack–in other words, a “whack” job.
Most cops think "Lucky" was just another racket guy while a few others say he’s just a dead pimp now. The latter reference stems from his conviction for running prostitutes. He was prosecuted by the famous Tom Dewey, who later became Governor of New York and ran for President on the Republican ticket in 1948, narrowly losing to Harry S. Truman. When he went after Luciano, Dewey was district attorney of New York City and was known as a crusader against gangland types. He put on a strong case with numerous witnesses who made Luciano out to be New York’s top pimp!
"Lucky" was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in Dannemora, an armpit of a prison, not that any of them are any good. They say Dewey paid to ship the witnesses to France to live so they would not be killed on his New York streets. The fact that Dewey's witnesses were a bunch of liars was later used to try to spring Luciano on appeal but the judge would not go for it.
Luciano first met up with Lansky and Siegel when they were young boys on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My own beloved mother, Rose Donovan Murcia, grew up on those same mean streets at the same time. Mom recalled seeing "Lucky," Meyer and Ben around the neighborhood candy store. She told me that everyone on her block knew them enough to “stay away from them hoods.”
Once in a Miami Beach restaurant I met Meyer Lansky and he looked like a nice old Jewish man who wouldn’t hurt a flea. I had an opportunity to observe him and listen to him speak and his worldly intelligence was obvious. Yet, I kept my distance as I heeded my mother’s sound advice.
Back in those days my Mom said Lucky Luciano was literally a penny ante crook because, as a very young boy, he demanded a few pennies from the Jewish boys or else he’d beat them up. When he leaned on two Jewish boys named Lansky and Siegel, they told him to go f--- himself. Lucky liked their courage a lot and that was the start of a life-long friendship in crime.
When a grown-up Luciano finally took over the New York Mafia family, he called upon his boyhood pals, Lansky and Siegel, to help him reorganize the Mafia in America. This was perhaps the smartest thing Luciano ever did in his life. Meyer was a true, brainy type of a guy in general, but when it came to organization and math, he was as good or better than any CEO of a Fortune 500 company!
While Luciano was doing his time in prison on the prostitution rap, our country entered World War II. It’s said that the U.S. Government turned to him and organized crime to assist them in gathering information about those who would wreck our ships in our own harbors as was done to the SS Normandie, a ship that was tapped to become a troop mover during the Second World War
Some say the wrecking of the Normandie wasn't the enemy's doing at all, but rather the brainstorm of Luciano and Lansky, who planned to use it as a ploy to get him sprung form prison via a pardon. "Lucky" and Meyer figured if the U.S. Navy had to worry about sabotage in its own harbors it would scare them to death and they would reach out for help.
The Mafia had the docks locked up and knew pretty much all that went on there. "Lucky" and Meyer had Joseph “Socks” Lanza, the czar of the Fulton Fish Market, help Naval Intelligence officers as far as he could. But to get more help, “Sock" told them they had to go to Luciano in prison.
At any rate, it all worked. The mob guys turned in some German spy stooges and Luciano was pardoned. Before he was set free though, "Lucky" had to agree to be deported back to Italy. Of course he agreed. He went back to Italy but eventually wound up in Cuba. Meyer Lansky and company had paid off the Cuban pol’s to let him run the Mafia’s gambling and other vice operations in Havana. Cuba was wide open back then, especially under the dictator Batista.
Havana quickly became a top vacation spot for ocean, sun, and “fun.” Siegel and Luciano knew and hung out with some major show biz goodfellas, such as Frank Sinatra, George Raft, etc. With these guys in tow they could get most of the top acts of the era to work their showrooms so as to attract the high rollers. They were so well entrenched into Hollywood that Siegel was shot and killed years later,not in some dirty doorway in little Italy but rather in Beverly Hills, California! But that’s another story.
So back to this guy who claims to have
the rights to make Luciano's life into a movie. His name is Joe
Isgro. The Times story reports that Isgro was convicted
of loan sharking and extortion back in 2000. Isgro calls himself
a “producer” and he is, having previously obtained
the rights to Jimmy Hoffa’s story, which he co-produced
as "Hoffa" with Jack Nicholson as the labor leader.
Before his movie producing days, Isgro was the nation’s
top music record promoter for the likes of Bruce Springsteen,
Michael Jackson, Prince and numerous others. During the 1990’s
Isgro spent time defending himself against a 51-count payola
and racketeering indictment filed by the Department of Justice.
He beat the rap when it was determined that the G-men were guilty
of “misconduct.”
But he did serve his time for the little loan sharking business, where he had been sentenced to 50 months in the can. (When asked what he learned behind bars he summed it up in just three words; “The food stinks”.) I hope he puts that kind of humor into the Luciano script.
Given his promotional background, I’m sure Joe Isgro knows how to plant a story in the publicity mill of Los Angeles. The L.A. Times sure gave his story a lot of ink. Joe knows how to move and shake–and knowing how the squares in “suits” who head the movie studios here just love New York tough guys, I’m betting on Joe to make the Luciano movie.
Personally, I’d love to see the Luciano movie get made. It’s my kind of story. And just in case Joe Isgro takes anything in this column the wrong way, he should know that I never start my own car. It’s just a habit us old Chicago coppers have.
©2007 by Andy Murcia. This column first posted Sept. 3, 2007.
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