Little Man, Big
Dreams
In 1927, Gaetano Lucchese or as the family spelt the name -- Lukese -- was in
the prime of his life. Born in 1899 in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, he had
come to America as an eleven-year-old boy. He had risen rapidly through his
chosen branch of the New York underworld, and was proving himself an able
soldier in the borgata or family of Gaetano Reina. Within the next three
years, he would rise to power and become the underboss of the family by the age
of thirty-one.
Lucchese showed a smart business sense early in his career. In 1922, he had
set up a window-cleaning business with some built-in incentives. Shopkeepers who
didn’t sign on to have their windows cleaned had them broken by brick-tossing
toughs. Five years later, he started a dried-fruit importing firm that fronted
for a bootleg alcohol plant. About the same time, he moved in on the Garment
District using his brick-tossing goons as labour muscle. Eventually, he went
into partnership with Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the top Jewish gangster of
this period, and effectively “sewed” up the Garment Industry in New York.
The rag trade and its corruption would remain the mainstay of his criminal
career in the years to come.
In 1927 he married his childhood sweetheart, a hot tempered and excitable
woman called Concetto Vassallo, also known as “Kitty.” They set up home in a
modest house in New Jersey.
Lucchese was a small man, standing five feet two inches in height and
weighing only one hundred and twenty pounds. Although slight of build, he was
tightly wound and a man not to be crossed. His legitimate business interests
were many and varied. He would come to be a major power in the garment industry,
owning Braunell Ltd., a ladies dress manufacturer, and at least six other
similar businesses in New York and East Pennsylvania, where labour costs were
much lower and union problems non existent. Some of his other interests would be
in real estate, sand and gravel companies, reflecting lens manufacturers, and a
hoist company. He also became very active in local political affairs and
developed friendships at every level.
When Lucchese sought American citizenship, his principal advisor was
Congressman Louis Cappozzoli, who later became a judge. He wrote many letters
supporting Lucchese’s application. It was finally granted to him in a federal
court on January 25th, 1943.
Lucchese was a particular close friend of Armand Chankalian, the
administrative assistant to the US district attorney for the Southern District
of New York. They often attended political and social functions together. On one
occasion, Lucchese booked rooms 300 and 302 at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan, for
the days of March 18th and 19th in 1948, and the tab was picked up by Chankalian.
Lucchese made a point of developing strong friendships with the judiciary; a
prime requisite in the building of corrupt relationships and one that he shared
with Frank Costello, the head of his own crime family. On at least two occasions
that were monitored, Lucchese personally hosted and paid for twenty-two judges
who were guests at charity functions he was involved with.
In 1951, he constructed a $60,00 house in Lido Beach on the southern shore of
Nassau County, Long Island. Built just back from Lido Boulevard, on Rogat
Street, the house lay behind a high wall. All the windows were burglar alarmed.
There was a large two way mirror built into the front door, and a mirror built
up onto a pole in front of the house to help observe all vehicles and people
coming into the street from the boulevard. There were also spotlights on all the
sides of the house.
Whatever his neighbours thought about the security arrangements he had
organized on his property, some of them were very impressed with the number of
political and judiciary figures that were constantly calling on him. One of his
neighbours had been trying to get into the Mayo Clinic without success. There
was a three months waiting list. After one telephone call by Lucchese the sick
resident was admitted the next day. Other people near him in the street came to
be beneficiaries of his seemingly endless power. One, facing 18 months in prison
on income tax evasion charges, followed Lucchese’s advice and served only four
weeks. Their attitude to him undoubtedly changed when it became known during the
Kefauver Hearings in 1952, that this small, seemingly insignificant “dress
manufacturer” was in fact a major crime figure in the New York underworld.
The Lucchese’s son Baldassare went to West Point with the help and
assistance of East Harlem Congressman Vito Marcontonio, and eventually graduated
from there. Their daughter Frances married Thomas Gambino, son of Carlo Gambino,
who one day would be the most powerful Mafia chief in the land. Thomas would
rise to multi-millionaire status, controlling the trucking industry that
serviced the garment district in Manhattan, earning millions of dollars for the
Gambino family; before falling a victim of the aftershocks that followed the
arrest and conviction of John Gotti, and went away himself to prison, for five
years.
As peace settled on the underworld, and the echoes of war died away, Gagliano
and his men continued with their activities that had been interrupted by the
fighting. Prohibition was over by 1929, so bootlegging had dried up as a major
source of revenue, but there were plenty of new opportunities waiting to be
exploited. One of them involved chickens, and Thomas Lucchese went for it, wings
and all.
In the 1930’s the kosher chicken business in the New York area earned
revenues of over $50 million annually. There were many steps in the preparation
of these chickens, at least 15, from the trucks that hauled the livestock into
New York from outlying rural farms, to the shochetim, highly skilled and
specialised chicken butchers who have to work to strict Jewish dietary
specifications. Tommy Lucchese came up with the brilliantly simple concept of
putting a lock on one of these many steps as a way of threatening the entire
chain. In doing this he could then control the whole industry, and force it to
pay him tribute in order to avoid disruption and consequent cost overruns.
Lucchese manipulated a devious union business agent called Arthur (Tootsie)
Herbert, and through him gained control of Union 167 of the Teamsters Union.
Together, they formed an organization called the New York Live Poultry Chamber
of Commerce, and “encouraged” the various units of the industry to join
them, thereby guaranteeing union peace. In return they received a bounty of
between one and seven cents for every pound of chicken that was sold.
By creating a cartel and fixing prices, Lucchese gained total control over
the whole industry, which was notorious for labour turmoil. Stability would
ensure, that in turn would guarantee that prices and accordingly profits would
rise. As there would be no competition, observant Jewish consumers would have to
carry the burden. Those people became the first to effectively pay a “crime
tax” in the history of America. They were to be the first of many, in the
years to come.
The takeover of the business was done quietly. No violence was used, and in a
way the disorganized and highly fragmented enterprise welcomed the change. It
was almost an invisible takeover, and in many ways set the precedent for the
infiltration through mob controlled unions of many of the commercial activities
that ran the New York economy. In the years to come the same kind of formula
would be used, with variations, in the construction, waste removal, restaurant
supplies, produce and dozens of other industries. The theft of a nation was
under way, and Tommy Lucchese was one of the arch conspirators in charge of
stealing.
