Why Is Luciano Important

Luciano’s luck did eventually run out. In May of 1936, he and eight members of his vice racket were brought in for facilitating prostitution. The evidence against Luciano wasn’t strong, as he had no ties to prostitution, but during the trial he was disastrously cross-examined by Dewey ("Charles “Lucky” Luciano", 2009). Dewey questioned Luciano for four hours, and one of the questions asked was how Luciano lived so well on a reported income of $22,500. Luciano’s actual take was about $10 million. At the end of the trial Luciano was convicted and sentenced to thirty to fifty years in state prison, the longest sentence ever meted out for compulsory prostitution (Gosch, 1975). On June 18, 1936, he was sent to the Clinton Correctional Facility,
He went to his home village of Lercara Friddi and was greeted with huge enthusiasm (Gosch, 1975). School, stores, everything had closed and the whole village was in the piazza to take place in one of the greatest days in the town’s history (Gosch, 1975). But Luciano didn’t have plans to stay long (Gosch, 1975). In September of 1946, Luciano had obtained two passports under the name Salvatore Lucania, with visas for Mexico, Cuba, and several South American nations. He then made his way to Cuba to set up the meeting. On December 22, the delegates began arriving; Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, “Joe Bananas” Bonanno, Frank Costello, Tommy Lucchese, Joe Profaci, Giuseppe Magliocco, Willie Moretti, Augie Pisano, Mike Miranda, Steve Magaddino, Tony Accardo, Charlie and Rocco Fischetti, Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, “Dandy Phil” Kastel, and Meyer Lansky. They discussed “the Siegel Situation,” which included Siegel’s hotel and casino, the Flamingo, in a small town in Nevada called Las Vegas. He had skimmed money from the building budget provided by the delegates and if the casino was a flop, Bugsy was dead (Gosch, 1975). After some U.S. interference, Luciano was forced to leave Cuba and return to
Early in 1961, Luciano made a decision that the truth about his life, his ambitions, his achievements, and his crimes, should be told, just not at that moment (Gosch, 1975). It needed to be told later in his life, where retribution could no longer fall on him of his associates (Gosch, 1975). For months he had been involved in a proposed motion picture related to his later years headed by producer Martin Gosch. But then, Luciano received a note from “The Little Man,” Meyer Lansky, letting him know that “the picture is a bad thing at this time, for all reasons you know. The Little Man would be very upset if you went ahead.” This note stopped the production of the film all together. Luciano then came to two decisions; first, he called Gosch and proposed that instead of a movie, Gosch would take down Luciano’s whole life story, then, he would emerge from his retirement and challenge the powers in America (Gosch, 1975). The only condition for the story was that Gosch couldn’t use any of it for at least ten years after Luciano dies, and not until Tommy Lucchese was dead also, he was a friend Luciano didn’t want to hurt (Gosch, 1975). To challenge the American underworld powers, he was going to do exactly what they’d been accusing him of for years; he was going to take over the supply of narcotics (Gosch,