Lucky Luciano and the Birth of the Modern American Mafia
Salvatore Lucania — known as Charles "Lucky" Luciano — did not invent American organized crime. Sicilian and Italian-American criminal organizations existed in the United States before he was born in 1897. What Luciano did was reorganize them, rationalize them, and turn a collection of warring ethnic gangs into something resembling a corporation with governance structures and conflict resolution mechanisms. The American Mafia as the Five Families era knew it was substantially Luciano's creation.
The Castellammarese War: 1930-1931
The Castellammarese War was a power struggle between two factions of the New York underworld — Joe Masseria's organization and Salvatore Maranzano's faction, composed largely of Sicilians from the town of Castellammare del Golfo. Luciano was ostensibly aligned with Masseria, but he was maneuvering throughout the conflict with his own objectives.
In April 1931, Luciano arranged a lunch meeting for Masseria at Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney Island. While Masseria ate, Luciano excused himself to use the restroom. Four men — including Bugsy Siegel and Albert Anastasia — entered the restaurant and shot Masseria multiple times. He was dead when Luciano emerged from the bathroom. Maranzano, who had effectively won the war, declared a peace and named himself "boss of all bosses."
Five months later, Luciano had Maranzano killed as well. He had no interest in a "boss of all bosses" — he had a different organizational model in mind.
The Commission
Rather than replacing Maranzano's centralized authority with his own, Luciano created the Commission — a governing body composed of the bosses of the major American criminal families. The Commission's authority extended to resolving territorial disputes, approving significant criminal operations that crossed family jurisdictions, and — critically — deciding on the murder of made members, which required Commission approval to prevent retaliatory wars.
The Commission was the organizational innovation that allowed American organized crime to operate as a stable enterprise rather than a series of ongoing conflicts. It formalized the concept of separate family territories, established rules of engagement, and created a mechanism for the kind of institutional decision-making that criminal organizations had previously been unable to sustain.
The National Crime Syndicate
Luciano's organizational vision extended beyond Italian-American families. Working with Jewish-American organized crime figures — Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Arnold Rothstein's successors — he developed the concept of the National Crime Syndicate: a cooperative arrangement among major organized crime groups of different ethnic backgrounds, operating in their respective spheres while coordinating on shared interests. Lansky, who managed much of the syndicate's financial operations, was Luciano's closest collaborator for decades.
Prosecution and Exile
Luciano was prosecuted by Thomas Dewey on compulsory prostitution charges in 1936 and sentenced to 30-50 years in prison. He continued to manage operations from prison through intermediaries. During World War II, the US government's Naval Intelligence unit negotiated with Luciano for intelligence assistance with the Sicily invasion — the extent of his actual contribution is disputed — and he was released in 1946 and deported to Italy, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in Naples in 1962 of a heart attack at age 64.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Lucky Luciano important?
Lucky Luciano reorganized American organized crime in 1931 following the Castellammarese War, creating the Commission and the structural framework that governed the Five Families and other major organized crime groups for the next 60 years. He is considered the founder of the modern American Mafia.
What happened to Lucky Luciano?
Luciano was convicted on prostitution charges in 1936, served ten years, was deported to Italy in 1946, and spent the rest of his life in Naples. He died of a heart attack at the Naples airport in January 1962. He was 64 years old.