LUCKY LUCIANO

Luciano was standing one day on Six Avenue in New York when a limousine, with curtains drawn, rolled up beside him. Three men leaped from the vehicle and prodded Luciano in the back with gun muzzles and forced him to the back of the limo. This was the beginning of the long ride. The adhesive tape was applied, then came the kicks and punches and knife wounds. Luciano thought for sure he would die and felt himself get weaker and weaker until the lights in his brain went out. Hours later he woke up on the beach, staring unbelieving at the waves rolling in from lower New York Bay.

Lucky (NY Post)

His head was aching from fist and gun butt blows and there was a knife wound on his chin. He tore off the tape and staggered almost a mile before he reached the police booth at the Tottenville Precinct. "Get me a taxi," Luciano pleaded. "I’ll give you fifty bucks if you do and let me go on my way." One of the cops ignored the offer and took Luciano to the hospital instead.

At the hospital the detectives began to ask a series of questions. Suddenly, Luciano became mute. He remembered the code of Omerta and kept his mouth shut. The cops wouldn’t give up, relentless, they asked, so it seemed to Luciano, a thousand questions. He finally blurted out in anger, "Don’t you cops lose any sleep over it, I’ll attend to this thing myself later."

He refused to say any more and denied that he had recognized the men who had taken him for the ride and wearily insisted that he had no enemies. The cops were inclined to the theory that Broadway racketeers had thrown Luciano on the beach in a belief that he was dead.

Initially, Luciano had no idea who would want him dead. He was fully aware of the infighting and rivalries that existed in the ranks and what a good way for some young maverick, looking to make it big, take him out. Luciano turned to his wise and trusted friend, Meyer Lansky, for an answer. It didn’t take Meyer long to come up with not only the answer, but a solution that would be beneficial for Luciano, and also himself. Meyer explained to him that Masseria was behind the plot and it would be wise to think about joining forces with Masseria’s arch-enemy, Salvatore Maranzano.

Sal Maranzano

Several months later, after recovering from the beating, Luciano did just that. He met secretly with Maranzano and agreed to betray Masseria. This put in motion one of gangland’s biggest purges or as some like to call it, the war of attrition. History would call it The Castellammarese War.