Following America's entry into the war, the government decided to convert the Normandie to a troop carrier. A worker who was careless with a torch set a bunch of burlap sacks on fire, and it eventually involved the entire ship, causing it to capsize. But the military commander of the port suspected sabotage by dockworkers of German and Italian descent.
This suspicion reached Joseph (Socks) Lanza, Mafia boss of the waterfront. He brought it to Meyer Lansky. Lansky approached Murray Gurfein, a NYC judge who had been Thomas Dewey's top assistant when Dewey was the special prosecutor who put Luciano in prison. The offer: Transfer Luciano to a better prison, and mitigate his sentence, and all "sabotage" will cease. Dewey went along with it. "Sabotage" was never an issue, but the Mob figured, hey, if they wanna believe it, and if they believe Charlie can "stop the sabotage," the least we can do is go along with them.
Many believe that it was the Mob itself that started the fire (that sank the Normandie) in order to get Charlie Lucky's sentence softened. Frank Costello wielded an unbelievable amount of political power and pressure was put on Thomas Dewey for him to listen to the Mob. Dewey wanted to be president and the Mob could have been a big help in attaining that. He
ALMOST made it.
