Boardwalk Gangster by Tim Newark Page A

Maranzano and the establishment of what was dubbed the Commission, Luciano had abandoned a dictatorial vision of organized crime and settled on something more discreet and collaborative. He discouraged the old Sicilian manner of greeting fellow mobsters with a kiss—a simple handshake would do—drawing less attention. Negotiation, not fighting, was the preferred way forward, but that didn’t stop Luciano and his associates from using guns when necessary to settle any business problems—that’s what gave them their competitive edge against regular corporations.
    Aping Rothstein, Luciano made sure he developed his own political contacts and firmed up a strong relationship with New York State governor Al Smith, ensuring the appointment of several friendly politicians in his administration. In 1929, Smith was succeeded as governor by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and there is no reason not to expect that Luciano also had links to him, as he did with all leading Democrat politicians in New York at the time. It was the historic legacy of the Lower East Side gangs and their assistance to Tammany Hall. Luciano’s go-between in political matters was Albert Marinelli. During the early years of Prohibition, Governor Smith had appointed Marinelli port warden of the city, a position that allowed him to ensure the unloading of bootleg whiskey was carried out without intervention.
    In July 1932, Luciano and Marinelli, along with Lansky and Costello, attended the Democratic convention in Chicago. Both
Smith and Roosevelt were the leading presidential contenders. Eventually Roosevelt was chosen, partly because he was less tainted with Tammany Hall than Smith, and the next year he became president. It was a new era for the United States.
    The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had brought an end to the heady postwar boom and reduced some of the money that flowed into criminal coffers during Prohibition. With the Great Depression taking hold of the country, citizens wanted an end to the discredited period of rapacious capitalism headed by the Republicans and wanted someone to clear up the mess. That person was Roosevelt. Three weeks after becoming president, on March 23, 1933, he signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act, which allowed the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages. By the end of the year, Prohibition was repealed and the business of bootlegging was at an end. Luciano and his fellow gangsters had known the end was coming to this lucrative trade and were already prepared for it.
    In May 1933, another national convention of gangsters was arranged—perhaps by Luciano—at a Park Avenue hotel. Johnny Torrio again took center stage as the voice of wisdom. His argument for a more secretive and cohesive approach to organized crime had been proved by the jailing of Al Capone more than a year earlier. Capone’s brand of shock-and-awe gangsterism had eventually pushed the authorities to nail him for income tax evasion, and this more sophisticated method of law enforcement was not lost on the gang bosses, who also took note of Capone’s hefty eleven-year sentence. They had to stay out of the limelight for their own survival or face a more determined crackdown on their activities.
    Luciano understood the virtue of working together, said Torrio. He had overseen the establishment of a successful monopoly over illicit liquor. Now that bootlegging was coming to an end, the same approach had to be taken with other rackets. When it was Luciano’s turn to speak, he carried on the theme of criminal cooperation. He argued that the major gangs should
establish a nationwide syndicate. Each city or region would belong to its leading gang and other subsidiary gangs would recognize their supremacy. It didn’t matter that they were not a hundred percent Sicilian or Italian, as in the old Mafia. Any ethnic gang that had fought its way to the top had earned its title. But if those gangs started messing around in the business