BOOK REVIEW Published March 2, 2010 by Robert Miller Enigma Books |
Ted Morgan |
BOOK REVIEW by Robert Miller September 5, 2010 The Real and the Fake Gangster Lucky Luciano By Tim Newark St. Martin’s Press 2010 978-0-312-60182-9 $26.99 The Mafia once again, but this time with some solid research and many corrective insights that neither glorify and glamorize the violence that is an integral part of its existence nor the harm it imparts on the societies it comes to dominate. Tim Newark gives us an excellent Lucky Luciano. with a wide-angle view of the gangster’s life and misdeeds based upon solid research and a critical examination of what has been written about him so far. From the rough beginnings in what is now Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, similar to those of millions of Italian immigrants to the United States at the turn of the preceding century, Salvatore Lucania becomes Charles “Lucky” Luciano after the First World War. We learn from Newark that ‘Charley Lucky’ would suffer from venereal disease all his life while in his memoir he states that he contracted it on purpose to avoid the draft. The exact nature of the disease remains unclear but we may assume it was gonorrhea. Just one of many examples of embellishing the truth that Luciano slipped into his memoir. On the purely criminal side Luciano’s great ability was to understand early on that crime had be organized in order for it to thrive and break the tight mold of the Sicilian and Italian immigrant community. He therefore associated with many non-Italian mainly Jewish associates such as Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel as well as the traditional Sicilian and Neapolitan mobsters like Vito Genovese and Albert Anastasia. But there are startling revelations as well: Luciano’s secret trip to Germany with Jack “Legs” Diamond in the early 1930s to set up a drug smuggling operation tend to prove that he was indeed deeply involved in narcotics long before it became so pervasive among the Mafia. It took an aggressive New York District Attorney like Thomas E. Dewey assisted by Murray Gurfein to break the hold that Lucky Luciano had on the lucrative criminal activities of the 1920s and 30s. Unquestionably the Mafia had at the time deep ties to New York politicians including Al Smith and possibly even Franklin D. Roosevelt and that FDR’s campaign benefited from contributions that were denied Al Smith before the Democratic Party Convention of 1932. Luciano also claimed that from jail he contributed to Tom Dewey’s campaign for New York governor as well. Luciano was convicted to serve 30 to 50 years in state penitentiary for organizing prostitution and white slavery. He would always deny those charges and claimed that the one witness that testified against him had been suborned by Dewey according to his lawyer Moses Polakoff. In any case the Second World War provided the opening for Luciano’s liberation when he cooperated with the office of Naval Intelligence in 1942 and secured enough patriotic credentials to allow his release and deportation to Italy in 1946. Newark offers new information into Luciano’s collaboration with Naval intelligence and the undeniable services he provided in the U.S. and in Sicily. Then came the long exile and eventual demise in Naples where the former Boss of Bosses was slowly forgotten and reduced in size in every way imaginable, not at all the shadowy arch-puppeteer the press made him out to be. His income was no longer that of the high roller he once was living in the Waldorf Towers in Manhattan yet his life style remained that of a well to do retired entrepreneur who was still looking for opportunities. The end came in January 1962 at Naples airport as he was waiting for film producer Martin Gosch to discuss his plans for a book and a movie of his life. Was his death a natural passing or was Luciano silenced by angry New York mobsters who didn’t want to be identified in his announced autobiography? That mystery shall remain unsolved. Tim Newark tells the whole fascinating story in precise language following impeccable research and a passion for detail that makes this book such an engaging experience. We highly recommend it to all those searching for the truth about the Mob. |
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