According Capeci and Robbins in "Mob Boss":
"Most of the garment rackets had been run by Jewish gangsters, led by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, whose thugs worked both sides of the industry's many labor battles. But Luchese worked out an accomodation, cutting Lepke into the family's small but growing narcotics trade in exchange for room at the table on Seventh Avenue.

After Lepke was convicted of his Murder Inc slayings and died in the electric chair in 1944, Luchese's men had things mostly to themselves. The crime family's principal role in the garment district was officially confirmed by a Mafia Commission ruling in the 1950s. The other families were allowed to have pieces of the trade, but the Luchese crew ruled. Carlo Gambino's sons Tommy and Joey ran several large garment trucking companies. But their position and influenece there stemmed partly from a wedding gift Thomas Luchese had made when Tommy Gambino married his daughter."



That's what I have read. The Gambinos owned the Teamsters local for garbage collectors. The Lucheses ran the business in Long Island, but they had to give the Gambinos a piece of the action.



Never heard about that guy I'll have to check it out. I haven't really heard that much about construction rackets prior to the 70s. However, in "Mob Boss" Al D'Arco says that the Lucheses used to control Local 282 which had huge power over the construction industry because because its members drove the trucks delivering materials to building sites. Tommy Luchese gave the local to the Gambinos for a wedding present too!!