Excellent video! Never saw this before. Thanks for sharing.

Lucky Luciano/Hip Sing Tong 1930s

It's a historic covert surveillance video by Italian police.

Luciano in Naples is a good video, the one about the Chinese working with the Italians is just a bunch of baloney.

Awesome find! Thanks again.

I found one of my old posts from ten years ago regarding Lucky, although the link from which I received the info at the time doesnt work anymore...btw any truth to this?

"On February 9, Luciano was escorted by two agents of the U.S. immigration service onto the seven-thousand-ton freighter Laura Keene, which was shipping a consignment of flour. Reporters swarmed around the dockside, wanting a final picture of the king of the underworld. Fifteen journalists were refused admittance to the pier by a menacing guard of longshoremen armed with baling hooks. They’d been provided by the Mafia to keep the media at bay and their boss told the reporters to “beat it.”

Six police guards working in pairs watched Luciano twenty-four hours a day in eight- hour shifts during his period of custody on board the Laura Keene. Officially, they denied the presence of any liquor or extra food on board for Luciano, but Lansky told a different story.

On the evening before Luciano’s departure, all the city’s top mobsters gathered on board the freighter for a farewell party. They included Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Bugsy Siegel, William Moretti, Tommy Lucchese, Joe Adonis, and Stefano Magaddino. Someone must have bribed the police guards generously. Champagne corks popped and they laughed about old times. “We had a wonderful meal aboard,” said Lansky, “all kinds of seafood fresh from the Fulton Fish Market, and spaghetti and wine and a lots [sic] of kosher delicacies.” Luciano loved his Jewish food.

“Lucky also wanted us to bring some girls to take along with him on the ship to keep him company. I asked Adonis to do something about that . . . Joe found three showgirls from the Copacabana Club and there was no difficulty in getting them aboard. The authorities cooperated even on that. Nobody going into exile ever had a better [s]end- off.”

An FBI report gives yet another version of Luciano’s last days in America. An anonymous FBI agent visited him on board the Laura Keene.

“I had no trouble whatsoever with the stevedores on the pier or on board the ship,” he reported, “nor was I molested or threatened.” The stevedores, “chiefly Italians, looked upon Luciano as more or less a hero, and that any word from him requesting that the reporters be barred was all that was needed to have it carried out by the stevedores as an order . . . there would have been bloodshed if the reporters tried to storm the pier in an unauthorized entry.”

The agent flashed his ID to the steamship guard and was shown to Luciano’s cabin.

“When I entered Mr. Luciano’s cabin, I told him that I was stopped by the representatives of the press at the end of the pier and that they would like to interview him. He reacted unfavorably to the idea and he told me that since the press had not been too nice to him in the past, he had no desire to give any statements. “Mr. Luciano was quartered in a cabin known as the ‘gun crew quarters’ aft of amidship. In the cabin with Mr. Luciano was the first mate who informed Luciano that he would have to remain in the quarters assigned to him, until the ‘old man,’ meaning the captain, orders the change of quarters.”

The FBI agent contradicts Lansky’s story of a farewell feast. On Saturday evening, February 9, he was told by guards that Luciano had baked macaroni and steak for dinner. He asked for a cup of tea but was told there was none and he settled for a drink of milk. They stated there was “no evidence of any parties, drinking or visitors to Luciano during the time he was under their surveillance” from midnight to 8:00 a.m. on Saturday the ninth through Sunday the tenth. They denied he had been visited by Albert Anastasia.

The agent returned on Luciano’s last day in Brooklyn docks at the Bush Terminal at 6:00 a.m. “Upon my arrival there, I saw a gang or mob of 60 to 80 men and about 20 to 30 cars. I have no idea to their identity or their purpose for being on hand.”

When the ship left the pier at 8:50 a.m., a launch followed them for three miles. The agent guessed it was members of the press trying to get one final shot of Luciano. The agent left the ship at 2:00 p.m. when he caught a ride on a fishing ship returning to the Brooklyn docks."

Very interesting TD… I can see reasons for both sides pushing their narratives

Thats right and I agree, although if you ask me the most interesting thing is the launch of cars which followed the ship for 3 miles and the FBI agent GUESSED that it was probably reporters, but on the other hand it might've been Lucky's pals showing a sign of respect.

Nice detail there!

Heres another interesting read from one sociology project which again involves Lucky...

"What Charles "Lucky" Luciano's criminal history suggests to us about the nature of offending is that criminals, when adolescents, start offending as the result of a sort of hero worship. "In his world, the guys with the flashy clothes, the big cars, and the folding money never work" (Feder and Joesten, 44). Offending is not the result of being in dire straits and having neuropsychological deficits, rather it is a chosen lifestyle.

The nature of Luciano's crimes also suggest that more elaborate crimes hinder arrest and provide more benefits. Escalation served as a way to escape criminal prosecution. The prostitution case withstanding, Luciano was convicted for minor crimes such as shoplifting and drug dealing, but for more severe ones the networks were either too complex or did not provide sufficient evidence to permit prosecution.
Age was of little importance as a means of social control in Luciano's criminal career. Age at no point in his life served as a means of informal social control and offending was not hindered by an "attachment to the labor force and cohesive marriage (which)- explain variations in criminal behavior independent or prior differences in criminal propensity" (Sampson and Laub, 245).

In fact, in this case, Luciano's nature and onset was the direct result of rebellion against the social institutions, which are supposed to provide social control according to Sampson and Laub. He forfeited his job to seek out a more extravagant life; to live in the high-society that Petersilia described.

The onset of Luciano's criminal career is best described with strain theory. Luciano's goals were not being met when he was working and carrying an "adult" social role. His prospects for the future were bleak and did not provide him with the luxuries he desired. The whole concept of a "crum" is based on the premise that a working class lifestyle is not desirable and that the pressure to succeed is never relieved through these means. Lucky himself aimed to "prove that society alone was to blame for his life of crime" (Feder and Joesten, 308).

Upon entering the realm of "organized crime" it was Luciano's associations that provided him with the ability to attain his goals. Differential association perpetuated and advanced his criminal career. His associations landed him his job selling drugs and would later allow him to live in high-society. Luciano used tremendous agency and planning by learning ways of undermining conventional society.

Differential association theory is also supported by the fact that he escalated. The escalation resulted when he learned new forms of crime and made the necessary associations with other criminals to execute them. The associations grew to the point that they shielded him. Luciano remarked, "They talk about me and never come up with evidence. It's all politics and I'm the victim. It's about time to stop rapping me for all the bad things that happen in the US and in Europe." (Feder and Joesten, 312). Despite the great amount of prosperity that Luciano attained with differential association he always viewed himself as a victim of circumstance. Thereby ironically lamenting an argument of strain, that society could provide nothing but persecution and defeat."

http://www.collegetermpapers.com/Te...f_Charles_Lucky_Lucianos_LifeCourse.html

This is excellent ma, thanks!!

LUCIANO IS LINKED TO HEROIN ARRESTS; Narcotics Bureau Official Says Exiled Gangster 'Definitely' Is Behind Smashed Ring
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
March 9, 1952, Page 54Buy Reprints

Full text is unavailable for this digitized archive article. Subscribers may view the full text of this article in its original form through TimesMachine.
WASHINGTON, March 8 (UP) -- Charles (Lucky) Luciano, one-time New York vice overlord, was "definitely" behind an international narcotics smuggling ring cracked in San Francisco, a Government official said today

You're always welcome @Jimmy.



Thanks for the additional info @H.

That's a great observation from that sociologist Toodoped. I've been saying since time immemorial that many guys are still attracted to the lifestyle regardless if they have plenty of money or not. For many, it's in their DNA. DNA being figurative speech for anyone who's head it went over. All this talk that only impoverished people want to be involved is bullshit. Some of the biggest wannabe gangsters I know have or had everything. There's even been wealthy guys who joined the mob, and their wealth was their ticket in. That sociologist did a splendid job blowing one of the great myths straight out of the water with this line, "Offending is not the result of being in dire straits and having neuropsychological deficits, rather it is a chosen lifestyle." Bravo!

Wow this is good footage. Thank you for posting this

I completely agree with you and also regarding the guy who made this project and did a wonderful job on creating one good definition regarding the criminal mentality of individuals such as Luciano.

...in addition, I think I already posted this old ass documentary before but here it goes again since I believe that it fits perfectly with this thread...

Luciano didn't have any kids what was the reason?

Lucky Luciano - Mafia Murderer and Secret Agent ebook by Tim Newark


Charles 'Lucky' Luciano was a vicious mobster who rose to become the multimillionaire king of the New York underworld. He was a legend - but also a fake master criminal without real power, his reputation manipulated and maintained by the government agents who had put him behind bars.

Drawing on secret government documents from archives in America and Europe, this myth-busting biography tells Luciano's real story, from his early days as a top hit man for the mob to his exploits running sex and narcotics empires and revelations about his trip to Nazi Germany to set up a drugs importing racket. His career abruptly halted by imprisonment, Luciano's reputation was enhanced by rumours that he was helping to win the Second World War for the Allies in Sicily and the Mediterranean. Through painstaking research, Newark exposes the truth about what Luciano really did during the war.

Expelled from the US in 1946, Luciano returned to Italy, where he was reputed to head a massive transatlantic narcotics network. In a complex conspiracy, he became a victim of the far greater powers around him, and Newark provides evidence that, at one time, he was even working as a Cold War agent, helping the US government fight Communism in Sicily. Lucky Luciano: Mafia Murderer and Secret Agent turns accepted Mafia history on its head with an extraordinary story that has never been told before.

I personally dont know the reason behind it but I think that Costello also didnt have any kids. Even Chicago leader Gus Alex also didnt have kids, while being in numerous relationships with lots of beautiful women during his life time. Who knows, maybe "the playaz need no love"?! Lol

Thanks TD. Five men arrested in the prostitution case against Luciano, Meyer Berkman, Benny Spiller, Joseph 'Jo-Jo' Weintraub, Al Weiner and Jack Eller. Some of the men were loan sharks to the women.

He did have a long relationship with a neapolitan dancer Igea Lissoni.

The old links which I had, doesnt work anymore but anyways you ever heard of this story?? Dont know how true it is...

"Thelma Alice Todd was this beautiful blond actress from the 30's and she is one of Hollywood's greatest unsolved mysteries.She was found dead in her car inside her garage, from monoxide poisoning. The coroner ruled it an accident but rumors of fowl play flew around. She was divorced from shady businessman Pasquale "Pat" DiCicco, living with married director Roland West and rumored to be having an affair with mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano.She also ran a bistro-type club,Lucky wanted her to let him use some rooms in the bistro as a gambling den and to invite her Hollywood friends to it,but she refused.

"Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, who got her hooked on amphetamines in order to keep her in line. He began persuading her to let him use an upper room at the Roadside Cafe as an illicit gambling den, but she persistently refused. At dinner one night in the Brown Derby, she screamed at him, "Over my dead body!," to which he is supposed to have replied, "That can be arranged.""

Awesome stuff guys. It’s really appreciated!

Again, you're always welcome bud

Heres another interesting story regarding Lucky and his stay in Napoli, and I think I already posted it back in the days but still, here it goes again...

Larry Ray of Gulfport, Mississippi spent some time in Naples many years ago and enjoys sharing his memories.....

"Great story that brought me back to Napoli and 1959, as a barely nineteen-year-old who had arrived fresh from a year of US Navy electronic and instructor schools for a posting to Naval Air Facility Capodichino. I have told you about my instant fascination with Napoli and making the transition from speaking Spanish to Italian facilitated by my taking a tiny apartment on Cupa Carbone, a stone's throw literally across a wooden fence from the American base which in a fenced off area just down from the Italian civilian airport facilities.

A large gray Mercedes bus shuttled us between the Capodichino air base and Piazza Municipio which was a central hangout with the enlisted Bluebird Club, and all sorts of other bars and even a huge pizzaria on the second floor of a large building on the corner of Via Medina and Piazza Municipio above where the entrance to Monte Dei Paschi di Siena bank is today.

Across the piazza roughly around where via Verdi comes into the piazza from Via Santa Brigida there was the California Bar which attracted lots of American sailors as well as locals. I was having a great time trying to communicate, learning Italian and, unwittingly, mimicking the strong local Neapolitan accent and vernacular. I had developed a friendly repartee with a waiter in the California Bar and he found it a novelty that an American was trying so hard to learn to speak Italian.

One afternoon I stopped in the California Bar and there was just one other person, an older man sitting alone at a table. As I bantered with the barrista, the man at the table smiled and motioned me over. He was nicely dressed, very friendly and he complimented me on my Italian. Really a nice old guy. I asked him how he learned his English so well and he allowed as how he "had lived in the states" and that he always liked meeting "you young fellows stationed here." Sort of like talking to a favorite old uncle.

I saw him a couple of more times and wrote my parents that I had met the nicest interesting old man, an Italian who had lived in the USA, a Mr. Luciano, but everyone called him "Lucky." I got a stern almost screaming letter from my father who told me to stay away from the man and not to talk to him ever again because he was a notorious gangster.

I was sure father had bad information, but after mentioning this to one of the guys who had been stationed there a couple of years he told me that Lucky Luciano did indeed hang out at the California Bar and that he had been deported by the US government and that it was best not to even be seen with him. So I quit going to the California Bar and never saw my friend "Lucky" again.

A few months before I was was discharged, ready to return to Texas and enter the University of Texas, all the newspapers had a photo of a well dressed man sprawled on the pavement at the entrance to Capodichino airport where the US Naval Air Facility was located . . . and, incidentally, just across the fence from Cupa Carbone and not far from my little apartment. In the photo he was being lifted into a plain wooden coffin. Someone had taken what looked like a cushion from a chair inside the airport lobby and thoughtfully placed it under the head and shoulders of the man who had collapsed and died. He was sixty-five years old.

As a gangly kid from Aransas Pass, Texas who knew nothing at all about gangster mobs, or for that matter, not about much of anything at all outside South Texas, it was one of many real life history lessons I got while living in bella Napoli."

I love your content bro. Lucky has always fascinated me. Much obliged.

When we discuss Luciano in Italy we also have to look at Joe Adonis.

In 1953 he was expelled to Italy following the discovery that he was not a naturalized American citizen, and settled in a villa outside Naples , from where he continued to maintain close contact with Luciano. In February 1958 he moved to Milan , to an apartment on the seventh floor in Via Albricci. He lived them as a great gentleman, frequenting fashionable venues and night clubs, displaying refined manners and dressing elegantly.

In 1965, in Milan, the Florentine painter Giovanni "Professore" Bruzzi met Joe Adonis during a meeting at the Club Morocco of all the gambling dealers in Italy, to define the strategies of clandestine gambling and on that occasion, the boss accepted to have his portrait taken by the artist (and it is the only portrait in existence).

Over time, the financially struggling Luciano grew angry at the wealthy Adonis for not helping him. On January 26, 1962, Luciano died of a heart attack in Naples at age 64. Adonis attended the funeral service in Naples, bringing a huge floral wreath with the words, "So Long, Pal".

He was summoned to the police station on 1 June 1963 to be heard in relation to the ambush set up for Angelo La Barbera , whom Adonis knew and with whom he had had some contact. Investigations conducted between 1970 and 1971 revealed that Adonis still had the functions of mafia "boss" and that the choice of Milan as his residence had been determined by precise strategic needs: the direction of the international trafficking of precious stones, especially diamonds, with ramifications in France and Switzerland and the coordination of drug smuggling.

In May 1971 Adonis was arrested and sent to Serra de' Conti , a small town in the province of Ancona : despite rigorous surveillance he managed to receive one of his trusted men, who probably continued to report to him about ongoing affairs. He maintained relationships with the mayor and the local parish priest, showing off elegance and generosity.

Adonis was one of 115 suspected mobsters relocated to Serra de' Conti after the assassination in May of Pietro Scaglione, the public prosecutor of Palermo, Sicily. In late November 1971, Italian police forces transported Adonis to a small hillside shack near Ancona, Italy, for interrogation. During the lengthy questioning and some abusive treatment, Adonis suffered a heart attack. He was taken to a regional hospital in Ancona, where he died several days later on November 26, 1971.

Adonis' passion for the musical world was never a mystery. Aside from nightclubs and singers, in the early 1960s there was also a rumor about his attempt to undermine the Sanremo Festival with a competing event.

This is good info Hollander. Interesting...Joe Doto was a sharp guy, all around it seems.