luchese was a top guy in his family for forty years. He was definetly a big hitter even arrested on suspicion of murder. The lucheses never wise were smaller than manganos but the luchese influence per soldier was the highest among all 5. Tommy owned the garment center, JFK and had Long Island locked down. Gambino inherited his power from the contributions of Anastasia and his ownership of the docks and longshoreman. It was tommy who helped install gambino and if not for becoming terminally ill he would of been the top man in ny in the 70s. After luchese died, gambino parlayed all his connections and influence w others to become the strongest don. Carlo was power hungry which luchese was not. Luchese def one of the top 3 influential gangsters in NYC history along w Costello and gambino. Def no arguement there
On a side note, I read somewhere that even though Lucchese and his family ran the garmet district, that they were only supervising for the rest of the families. Meaning, the Lucchese's ran it, but the monies flowed upwards to the Commission and were split among the Bosses and maybe their administrations. This will lead to my next post, about Boss of Bosses. Hope to see you and everyone else there.
