interests of another gang in another city, then a meeting should be called of the national syndicate to discuss the misdemeanor and sort it out before it ended in war.
If one gang wanted to carry out an enterprise within another gang’s sphere of influence they had to ask permission before barging in. They should also share any of their valuable assets, such as corrupt politicians who could help out other gangsters. It all operated on a currency of favors owed and repaid. Some territories were to be considered open and gangs could come together to invest in developing criminal interests there. This would include areas such as Nevada or Cuba, where gambling casinos were built with Mob money. Luciano repeated his assertion there would be no boss of bosses—just an association of key gangsters who would work together to oversee the peaceful development of the underworld. The presence of Meyer Lansky, Louis Lepke, and Longy Zwillman reassured the large Jewish contingent that this syndicate was not a purely Italian club.
As he surveyed the underworld around him, Luciano was pleased to see how many of his teenage associates had prospered alongside him. This satisfied him, for he felt that everyone should have a slice of the pie and not lord it over the others, as Masseria and Maranzano had tried to at their cost. This really was the secret of Luciano’s success. Through good fortune and the power of his personality, Luciano was at the center of a group of friends who had all established themselves in various aspects of New York crime. Their strength was their friendship and the money they channeled into their various enterprises.
It should also be emphasized that although much of the
literature about Luciano portrays him as a master criminal in New York in the early 1930s—with him presiding over gangster conferences like a chairman of the board—this is probably more legend than reality. It is partly a construct of the crime busters who later confronted him, as they needed to show him as a master criminal to justify their own expensive crusades against him. Luciano was too interested in managing his own moneymaking rackets—and the countless day-to-day problems with them—to devote much time at all to overseeing a national syndicate, if it ever really existed. Most Mafia enterprises were local businesses operating in specific parts of cities. They liked to emphasize the importance of their personal contacts and this gave them considerable reach throughout the country if they needed it.
In the same month as the Park Avenue conference calling for an end to gang warfare, there was a spectacular gunfight on Broadway that somewhat undermined the pacifying words of Luciano and Torrio. On the evening of May 24, as crowds were coming out of movie theaters, they came under fire from two expensive sedans racing northward along Broadway. Bullets flew everywhere and wounded three bystanders, including a forty-five-year-old nurse who was taken to the hospital in critical condition. At West Seventy-ninth Street, one car drew abreast of the other and the fedora hat–wearing passengers inside sprayed it with bullets.
“Careening wildly from side to side,” said a newspaper report, “the riddled sedan sped north to the intersection of 84th Street, where its driver lost control. The car smashed into the railing surrounding the island park just north of the street crossing and was almost completely wrecked. Two men jumped out of the car and lost themselves in the street crowds. The police found that although the sedan was equipped with bullet-proof glass an inch and a half thick, at least 11 shots had penetrated the body of the sedan. In the back seat were fresh bloodstains.”
The gunfight was thought to be linked to the death of two
henchmen working for chief bootlegger Waxey Gordon. No one had told them about the need for criminal coordination.
Throughout this period, Meyer Lansky remained Luciano’s leading associate. He had
If one gang wanted to carry out an enterprise within another gang’s sphere of influence they had to ask permission before barging in. They should also share any of their valuable assets, such as corrupt politicians who could help out other gangsters. It all operated on a currency of favors owed and repaid. Some territories were to be considered open and gangs could come together to invest in developing criminal interests there. This would include areas such as Nevada or Cuba, where gambling casinos were built with Mob money. Luciano repeated his assertion there would be no boss of bosses—just an association of key gangsters who would work together to oversee the peaceful development of the underworld. The presence of Meyer Lansky, Louis Lepke, and Longy Zwillman reassured the large Jewish contingent that this syndicate was not a purely Italian club.
As he surveyed the underworld around him, Luciano was pleased to see how many of his teenage associates had prospered alongside him. This satisfied him, for he felt that everyone should have a slice of the pie and not lord it over the others, as Masseria and Maranzano had tried to at their cost. This really was the secret of Luciano’s success. Through good fortune and the power of his personality, Luciano was at the center of a group of friends who had all established themselves in various aspects of New York crime. Their strength was their friendship and the money they channeled into their various enterprises.
It should also be emphasized that although much of the
literature about Luciano portrays him as a master criminal in New York in the early 1930s—with him presiding over gangster conferences like a chairman of the board—this is probably more legend than reality. It is partly a construct of the crime busters who later confronted him, as they needed to show him as a master criminal to justify their own expensive crusades against him. Luciano was too interested in managing his own moneymaking rackets—and the countless day-to-day problems with them—to devote much time at all to overseeing a national syndicate, if it ever really existed. Most Mafia enterprises were local businesses operating in specific parts of cities. They liked to emphasize the importance of their personal contacts and this gave them considerable reach throughout the country if they needed it.
In the same month as the Park Avenue conference calling for an end to gang warfare, there was a spectacular gunfight on Broadway that somewhat undermined the pacifying words of Luciano and Torrio. On the evening of May 24, as crowds were coming out of movie theaters, they came under fire from two expensive sedans racing northward along Broadway. Bullets flew everywhere and wounded three bystanders, including a forty-five-year-old nurse who was taken to the hospital in critical condition. At West Seventy-ninth Street, one car drew abreast of the other and the fedora hat–wearing passengers inside sprayed it with bullets.
“Careening wildly from side to side,” said a newspaper report, “the riddled sedan sped north to the intersection of 84th Street, where its driver lost control. The car smashed into the railing surrounding the island park just north of the street crossing and was almost completely wrecked. Two men jumped out of the car and lost themselves in the street crowds. The police found that although the sedan was equipped with bullet-proof glass an inch and a half thick, at least 11 shots had penetrated the body of the sedan. In the back seat were fresh bloodstains.”
The gunfight was thought to be linked to the death of two
henchmen working for chief bootlegger Waxey Gordon. No one had told them about the need for criminal coordination.
Throughout this period, Meyer Lansky remained Luciano’s leading associate. He had
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