was lucky a rat ???

I have read things an have heard from different ppl on this forum that he did flip on someone and it had to do with drugs any opinions or facts...

He was not a rat.

Agree with Mastronardo

ive read here and there that he may have dry snitched on a few people.
http://www.onewal.com/maf-info.html
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano: Even Lucky cooperated. In an effort to avoid prosecution for drug trafficking, young Luciano cooperated in a narcotics investigation. There is also reason to believe that the future underworld czar passed information to federal agents during a beating that left him permanently scarred and that he helped set up his own underboss, Vito Genovese, for a drug bust. Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky are also believed to have cooperated in setting up Genovese.

i also read once he was assaulted by one of his associates in prison whilst doing time for his prostitution ring.

I think he was arrested as a teenager for drugs possession and yes he did ratted out.....at least thats how the story goes

When was that? Was he beaten when he already was a boss?

I think he was attacked by Maranzanos ppl,not federal agents...and no he wasnt the boss at that time

By the way, were there any Cosa Nostra bosses beaten in custody by law enforcement in American history? It's off-topic here, but I don't know if this question is worthy of a separate topic.

Dont have any proof for this statement but i bet the beatin may have started when the C.I.A. was created....

Great info thanks

The only time he ratted was he was pinched for heroin as a teen and ratted out a bunch of Jewish guys he knew.

I got the shit kicked out of me one time for fucking with some Bubba redneck cops in rural Georgia. The Georgia in the United States...not the one near Russia.

Luciano did cooperate with narcotics agents when arrested, he testified in his 1936 trial on it when Dewey bought it up. However he gave up no one, the cooperation was giving them address of an apartment he had drugs hidden in. No one was ver arrested besides him, so he would not be a rat in my opinion. Unless ratting on himself makes him one?

Of course he was. He ratted on a bunch of Jewish guys in his younger years. But his fans like to brush it under the carpet, Luciano was a selfish and greedy man.

People act like he's some LCN god, when in reality he's the complete opposite IMO, he betrayed everything traditional about the organization.

Really?!?!?

This guy obviously doesn't know much about Lucky

Even if he was, from what history tells us he was the one that wanted to divide profits from all the rackets although I believe he always stiffed the prostitutes

He was also the driving force behind removing the "boss of all bosses" title. If he was greedy like TommyGambino said, he would've taken that title. He had the backing to do that, yet he didn't and formed the commission.

He ratted on which Jewish guys? In every report, it is said he gave up a stash of heroin, but no other people. His testimony in his trial is where story originates, and in it, you can find out he gave up no one.

In a youtube docu (take that as reliable as you want, it's said that the he "ratted on some jewish guys" according to narrator. I agree though, he wasn't a rat and never would have risen to the rank he was if that incident was considered "ratting" because everybody would know by then...

Probably a myth, about Maranzano. I read Luciano was brutally beaten by NYPD for not giving up whereabouts of Jack legs Diamond, who was hiding in an apt owned by Luciano.

You're correct, ht2. In The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano he made the claim that Maranzano had him strung up and beaten. Only problem is that that book is a fraud and contradicts known reliable information. I wrote a lengthy article obliterating that book in Informer magazine last year. As for who he ratted on in 1926, the Bureau of Narcotics reported that it was a friend of his named Steve Armone, who was later a capo in the Gambino Family.

Not about Lucky but the same topic, Carlo Gambino, as a boss, reportedly told the police (maybe through one of his men) about a thief or a burglar. I read this many years ago and I think the source was Don Carlo: Boss of Bosses by Paul Meskil. If I recall correctly it was basically away to get rid of an annoyance and the guy was sent to prison.

I agree that he is extremely overrated. And his leadership style was completely different from the style of the more traditional bosses´. One can argue that Luciano´s style and modus operandi was a "modern way" of running things but in the end, it was also his achille´s heal. I believe if he had chosen to stay more in the background and lead his Family in a more traditional way, he would have lasted longer than the 16 years he did as a boss (and 11 of those he was behind bars, may I remind you).

I'd love to read that article.

Care to elaborate on this?

Yep, this is where I read it, in April 2012 issue.

So youre sayin that in 1929 Lucky survived a gangland ride with NYPD in which he was beaten, stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick,slashed throat and thrown from a car and left for dead?Or this didnt happend at all?

Yes, it did happen, but Maranzano had nothing to do with it.