Charlie "Lucky" Luciano

in WIKIPEDIA

Charlie "Lucky" Luciano (born Salvatore Lucania; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in America for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. He was, along with his associate Meyer Lansky, instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States.

He was born on 24 November 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, a town primarily known for its sulfur mines. His parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippia (born 1901), and Concetta (born 1903).

When Charlie was 10 years old (1907), the family emigrated to the United States.[2] They settled in New York City, a common destination for Sicilian immigrants at that time.[3] While a teenager, he started his own gang. Unlike the other street gangs whose business was to pickpocket, mug, and steal, Lucania decided to offer protection to the Jewish kids who were always picked on by Italian and Irish kids. He would charge ten cents per week for each kid.

By the age of 20, he was well integrated into the crime scene in the Lower East Side, being involved in theft, extortion,[1] and drug trafficking (for which he served a six-month prison term in 1916). He also became life-long friends with Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky.

• Residence: Manhattan Assembly District 8, New York, New York, United States - 1920
• Residence: Dannemora, Dannemora Town, Clinton, New York, United States - 1940
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 4 2022, 21:29:04 UTC