The Lucchese crime family () is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activity in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata (or brugard) is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese members as "Lukes".
The Lucchese family originated in the early 1920s; Gaetano Reina served as its boss until his murder in 1930."The Lucchese Family: Blood and Gravy" by Anthony Bruno TruTV Crime Library It was taken over by Tommy Gagliano during the Castellammarese War, and led by him until his death in 1951. Known as the Gagliano crime family under his leadership, the family kept their activities low-key, with their efforts concentrated in the Bronx, Manhattan and New Jersey.
The family's next boss was Tommy Lucchese, who had served as Gagliano's underboss for over twenty years. Lucchese led the family to become one of the most powerful to sit on the Commission, the Mafia's governing body. Lucchese partnered with Gambino crime family boss Carlo Gambino to control organized crime in New York, exerting a stronghold over the city's garment industry and other criminal rackets.
When Lucchese died of a brain tumor in 1967, Carmine Tramunti controlled the family for a brief time; he was arrested in 1973 for funding a major heroin network and died five years later. The secretive Anthony Corallo then gained control of the family, soon becoming one of the most powerful members of the Commission. He was arrested and convicted in the Mafia Commission Trial of 1986.
For most of its history, the Lucchese family was reckoned as one of the most peaceful crime families in the United States. However, that changed when Corallo named Victor Amuso as his successor shortly before going to prison. Amuso later promoted one of his closest allies, Anthony Casso, to underboss. Starting in 1986, Amuso and Casso instituted one of the bloodiest reigns in Mafia history, ordering virtually anyone who crossed them to be murdered. Casso also had the advantage of employing two corrupt New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, as hitmen in killing at least eight individuals in service to the Lucchese family.
Amuso was arrested in 1991 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Several Lucchese members, fearing for their lives, turned informant. The highest-profile of these was acting boss Alphonse D'Arco, who became the first boss of a New York family to testify against the Mafia. This led to the arrests of the entire Lucchese family hierarchy, with Casso also becoming an informant. Casso pleaded guilty to seventy crimes, including racketeering, extortion and fifteen murders and was sentenced to 455 years in prison. Testimony from these informants nearly destroyed the family, with as many as half of its members winding up incarcerated. Amuso continues to rule the family from prison.
History Early history The early history of the Lucchese crime family can be traced back to the Morello crime family, which was based in East Harlem and the Bronx in the early 20th century. During the 1910s, the bosses of the Morello family lost power and control, which allowed Gaetano "Tommy" Reina, along with Salvatore D'Aquila and Joe Masseria, to split off and form their own crime families. The Morello family lost more control during the Mafia-Camorra War as many top leaders were imprisoned and murdered.
By 1920, Reina ruled as boss of his own crime family, controlling criminal operations in the Bronx and parts of East Harlem. His family held a monopoly over ice box distribution in the Bronx. That same year, with Prohibition having just been passed, Reina's wealth and power grew as he aligned himself with Masseria, who became the most powerful Italian American crime boss in New York. In 1930, the Castellammarese War began as Masseria fought with rival Sicilian boss Salvatore Maranzano. At this point, Masseria started demanding a share of Reina's criminal profits, prompting Reina to consider changing his allegiance to Maranzano. When Masseria learned of Reina's possible betrayal, he plotted with Reina lieutenant Tommy Gagliano to have Reina murdered.
On February 26, 1930, a gunman (suspected to be Vito Genovese or Joseph Pinzolo) murdered Reina outside his aunt's apartment. With Reina dead, Masseria bypassed Gagliano, who expected to take control of the family, and installed his underling Joseph "Fat Joe" Pinzolo as boss. Furious with this betrayal, Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese secretly defected to Maranzano. In September 1930, Lucchese lured Pinzolo to a Manhattan office building, where Pinzolo was killed. This allowed Gagliano to take control of the Reina family. Months later, on April 15, 1931, Masseria was murdered and the war ended.
The Two Tommies
After the murder of Masseria, a meeting between the families was convened by Maranzano, who proclaimed himself the new capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of the American Mafia.DeStefano, Anthony M. Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History p. 128 Maranzano outlined a peace plan in which twenty-four organizations (to be known as "families") throughout the country would elect their own bosses, while the Italian American gangs in New York would be reorganized into five families. One of these families was headed by Gagliano, who was confirmed as boss of the old Reina organization with Lucchese as his underboss. The other four families were to be headed by Maranzano, Lucky Luciano, Vincent Mangano and Joseph Profaci, with Maranzano wielding authority over all of the families.
However, Luciano and other mobsters were not willing to serve under Maranzano. When Maranzano learned about Luciano's disaffection, he hired a gunman to kill him. However, in September 1931, Luciano struck first. Several Jewish assassins provided by Luciano's associate, Meyer Lansky, murdered Maranzano at his office inside the New York Central Building at 230 Park Avenue, making Luciano the most powerful mobster in the city.
Luciano kept the family structure as created by Maranzano but removed the boss of bosses title in favor of a governing body, the Commission. The body's responsibility was to regulate the families' affairs and mediate disputes between mobsters. The first Commission members included Luciano, Gagliano, Bonanno, Profaci, Mangano, Chicago Outfit boss Al "Scarface" Capone and Buffalo family boss Stefano Magaddino, with Luciano as chairman. Although the Commission was technically a democratic institution, it was actually controlled by Luciano and his allies.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Gagliano and Lucchese led their family into profitable areas of New York's trucking and garment industries. When Luciano was sent to prison for pandering in 1936, a rival alliance took control of the Commission. The alliance of Mangano, Bonanno, Magaddino and Profaci used their power to control organized crime in the U.S. Understanding his vulnerability, Gagliano was careful to avoid openly opposing this new alliance, preferring to quietly pass his orders through Lucchese and a few other close allies. Lucchese, by contrast, embraced his role as the public face and street boss of the family. In 1946 he attended the Havana Conference in Cuba on behalf of Gagliano.Gaetano Gagliano A Mafia Short Story by Allan May (June 19, 2000) Rick Porello's AmericanMafia.com
Lucchese era
After Gagliano's death in 1951, Lucchese took over the family as its boss and appointed Vincenzo Rao as his consigliere and Stefano LaSalle as his underboss. Lucchese continued Gagliano's policies, making the family one of the most profitable in New York City. He established control over Teamsters union locals, workers' co-operatives and trade associations, and rackets at the new Idlewild Airport. He expanded the family's rackets in Manhattan's Garment District and in related trucking industry activities around the city. Lucchese built close relations with many powerful New York politicians, including Mayors William O'Dwyer and Vincent Impellitteri and members of the judiciary, who aided the family on numerous occasions. Throughout his regime, Lucchese kept a low profile and saw to it that his men were well taken care of.
During the 1950s, Lucchese controlled a narcotics trafficking network with Santo Trafficante Jr., the boss of the Tampa crime family. He also helped Genovese and Carlo Gambino in their struggles to take control of their respective families. The three plotted to take over the Commission by murdering bosses Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia. On May 2, 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt and immediately decided to retire in favor of Genovese. Then, on October 25, 1957, the Gallo brothers (from the Colombo crime family) murdered Anastasia inside the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, allowing Gambino to become boss.
Almost immediately, Lucchese and Gambino started conspiring to remove their former ally, Genovese. After the disastrous 1957 Apalachin meeting in Upstate New York, in which numerous high-ranking mobsters were arrested by police, Genovese lost face within the Commission. In 1959, with the assistance of Luciano, Costello and Lansky, Genovese was arrested on drug charges. Assuming full control of the Mafia Commission, in 1960 Lucchese and Gambino backed the Gallo brothers in their rebellion against Profaci. The two men saw the turmoil within the Profaci family as an opportunity to take over their rackets. After uncovering a plot by Joseph Bonanno to assassinate them, Lucchese and Gambino used the Commission to strip Bonanno of his role as boss. This power play started a war within the Bonanno family and served to strengthen both the Lucchese and Gambino families.
In 1962, Gambino's oldest son, Thomas, married Lucchese's daughter Frances, strengthening the Gambino-Lucchese alliance."Police Say Their Chinatown Sting Ties Mob to the Garment Industry" By Selwyn Raab New York Times March 20, 1990 Lucchese led a quiet, stable life until his death from a brain tumor on July 13, 1967. At the time of his death, he had not spent a day in jail in forty-four years. Lucchese left his family in a very powerful position in New York City, firmly in control of rackets in East Harlem and the Bronx and consisting of about 200 made members. Lucchese intended for longtime caporegime (captain) Anthony Corallo to succeed him. However, since Corallo was imprisoned at the time, he named another longtime capo, Carmine Tramunti, as acting boss until Corallo's release.
Tramunti and the French Connection Around the time of his appointment as temporary boss, Tramunti was in ill health. With boss-in-waiting Corallo in prison, Tramunti was expected to hold power until his release. Tramunti faced a number of criminal charges during his time as acting boss and was eventually convicted of financing a large heroin smuggling operation, the infamous French Connection responsible for distributing millions of dollars in heroin along the East Coast during the early 1970s.
Before the French Connection trial, the seized heroin was stored in a New York City Police Department (NYPD) evidence room pending trial. In a brazen scheme, criminals stole bags containing hundreds of kilograms of heroin worth $70 million from the room and replaced them with bags of flour. Officers discovered the theft when they noticed insects eating the so-called heroin. The scope and depth of this scheme are still unknown, but officials suspect the thieves had assistance from corrupt NYPD officers. Certain plotters received jail sentences, including Vincent Papa (later assassinated while in prison), Virgil Alessi and Anthony Loria. In 1974, after Tramunti's incarceration, Corallo finally took charge of the family.