Charles “Lucky” Luciano
Quote: “There’s no such thing as good money or bad money. There’s just money”
Background
• Born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily on November 24, 1897
• Had four siblings
• Moved to the United States in Manhattan when he was
10 years old
• Struggled in school, not able to speak English well
• When he was 14 he dropped out of school and started
gambling
• As a teenager he started his own gang and offered
protection to young Jewish kids for money
Rise to power
• Got his nickname “Lucky” from surviving a severe beating
by three men and escaping near-death experiences, and he
was great at gambling
• As a teenager he befriended Jewish gang members: Meyer
Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (become his two most
important allies)
• 1920’s during prohibition he became one of the “big six” of
bootlegging
• 1929- he survived a brutal attack where he was stabbed
and left for dead and was discovered by a police officer and
taken to a hospital
• He arranged for his boss, Masseria, to be killed April 1931
and then took over his position
Life of crime
• He was the leader of one of New York’s five families
alongside infamous gangsters such as Joseph Bonanno,
Vincent Mangano, and Tom Gagilano
• His rival Salvatore Maranzano viewed him as a threat
and planned to kill him
• He ordered for Maranzon to be killed first in his office
September 1931
• He created and engineered a national organized crime
network to manage disputes andsolve conflicts
• Luciano took organized crime to the next level known
as a comission and did business with gang leaders
across the country such as Chicago’s Al Capone
Later Life
• Thomas Dewey, a special prosecutor for organized crime,
brought Luciano to court in 1936
• While he was in prison he helped during WWII by using his
criminal connections in Italy to advance the Allies’ cause
• After the war he received parol
• In 1947 he met up with “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky in
Cuba and was sent back to Italy
• He was not allowed to leave Naples, Italy and he spent the
rest of his life there and died from a hear attack 1962
• He was burried in St. John’s Cemetery in New York City
• His national crime syndicate still continues on today
Crimes Accused of Committing
Crime
Date
Punishment
Caught dealing heroin 1916
Served six months at a reformatory
Charges with 62
counts of prostitution
Sentenced to prison 30-50 years
June 1936
Most recent crime
• Charged in 1936 for prostitution and was sentenced to
30-50 years in prison, but he only ended up serving
about eleven years
• He maintained his life of organized crime and leading
his gang after being released from jail, but was never
convicted of anything else in his life
• There was close watch on him while he was in Cuba
because he planned to carry out being a world wide
heroin dealer and then he was sent to Italy
• He was going to be arrested for his heroin exploits, but
he died in 1962
Evidence brought against criminal
• Witness testimony of 62 counts of prostitution
• Thomas E. Dewey looked into Luciano’s
organised crime and brought
• Reported to police for selling heroin
Sentence
• Brought to court by prosecutor Thomas E.
Dewey
• Sentenced to 30-50 years in prison for 62
counts of prostitution
– He got off with parol in 1947
Cultural References
• Movie: Lucky Luciano (1973)
– Charles Lucky Luciano Coming out in 2016
– Hoodlem (1997)
• Documentaries:
– Lucky Luciano, Mobsters, Bugsy, American
Ganster
• Tv mini series- The Mob: New York
Differential Association Theory
This theory states that criminal behaviors are
learned through interactions with others, mostly in
intiamte groups. Charles Luciano learned his
criminal behaviors growing up in gangs. As soon as
he moved to America as a child he started a gang so
that he could make money off of the protection of
jewish kids who were beat up. He provided them
with security and a sense of family. This is how he
met his childhood friend’s Bugsy Siegel and Meyer
Lansky.
Differntial Association Theory
• They later started their own gangs as well and all were
allies. Through growing up with gangs Luciano learned
violence and crime. He sold drugs as a teenager and
throughout his entire life. The differential association
theory states that individuals are likely to become
criminals if the greatest influence to him/her strongly
support criminal activity. All of Luciano’s friends were
strongly involved in crime and gangs. The frequency of
Luciano’s crime from an early age and so on was quite
often. He had been heavily involved with organized
crime his whole life. I think the differential association
theory describes Luciano perfectly.