Originally Posted by Turnbull
Yeah, sure, Meyer... rolleyes

If you don't already know this story:

The luxury French ocean liner Normandie was in NY harbor shen France surrendered to the Germans in May 1940. The US Coast Guard held the ship in the harbor. After the US entered the war, the US Navy ordered that the Normandie be converted to a troop carrier. A worker careless with a torch set a bunch of life vests on fire. The ship burned and capsized. The Naval commander of the Port of New York suspected sabotage by Italian and German dockworkers sympathetic to Mussolini and Hitler. Joseph "Socks" Lanza, Mob boss of the waterfrontt, saw an opportunity and brought it to Meyer Lansky.. He figured that if the Navy wanted to believe sabotage instead of careless worker, the least he could do was to go along with it and help out his pal, Charlie Luciano, who had been convicted of "compulsory prostitution" by Manhattann DA Thomas Dewey and was serving a double-digit sentence.

Lansky contacted Judge Murray Gurfein, who had been Dewey's assistant, and made an offer he couldn't refuse: In return for getting Luciano transferred from the bleak, upstate Dammemora Prison to Great Meadow Prison closer to NYC, and having his sentence commuted after the war, Luciano would guarantee no more sabotage and no strikes on the docks. Gurfein sold it to his former boss, Dewey. who was now the governor of New York. Luciano was transferred to Great Meadow and, on Jan. 4, 1946, his sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy.

So much for "helping the Italians to be better citizens.". tongue



Thanks, although I already know the story. There used to be one quite cool and old documentary which was called "How the US reinstated the Sicilian Mafia" or something like that, which includes all the military and intelligence guys who were involved in the whole operation. Lots of interesting details.

Edit: here it is... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lMqMq...ZSB1cyByZWluc3RhdGVkIHNpY2lsaWFuIG1hZmlh

Mongol General: Conan, what is best in life?

Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.