The Mob Deal That Saved America in WWII [REVEALED]

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February 9th,
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1946. [music]
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The SS Laura Keen pulls away from a
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Brooklyn pier. And standing [music] on
0:10
that deck is the most powerful criminal
0:12
America has ever produced. Salvatore
0:15
Lucania, the man they call Lucky [music]
0:19
Luciano Lu Chi.
0:22
Ah, no. convicted, imprisoned, and now
0:29
deported
0:31
forever. The government celebrated. The
0:34
newspapers declared [music] victory.
0:37
Here was the man who had built the
0:39
American mafia into a national
0:41
enterprise. The man who had unified the
0:44
five families of New York. The man who
0:47
had corrupted judges, politicians, and
0:49
police commissioners across a dozen
0:52
states. and they were finally rid of
0:54
him. [music] But within 8 months,
0:57
Luciano would be sitting in a penthouse
0:59
suite in Havana,
1:01
Cuba, surrounded by every major crime
1:04
boss in America, running an empire from
1:06
90 mi off the Florida coast. This is the
1:10
story of how one man proved that power
1:12
doesn't require presence, that [music]
1:15
loyalty, properly constructed, makes
1:18
distance irrelevant, and that the
1:21
American mafia's most dangerous
1:23
transformation happened while their
1:25
founder was 4,000 mi away. A note
1:29
[music] before we continue, portions of
1:32
this account rely on historical
1:34
reconstruction. [music] Dialogue is
1:36
drawn from FBI surveillance transcripts,
1:39
court testimony, and documented
1:41
interviews with investigators and
1:43
journalists [music]
1:44
who covered these events. Where direct
1:46
quotes cannot be verified, [music] we
1:49
present the most credible interpretation
1:51
the historical record allows. [music]
1:53
Some scenes are dramatized for narrative
1:56
clarity. The facts, however, are
1:59
documented. To understand what happened
2:02
after that ship left Brooklyn, you have
2:05
to understand who was on it. Luciano
2:08
wasn't born lucky. He was born poor.
2:12
1907,
2:14
a 9-year old kid stepping off a boat
2:17
from Sicily with nothing but a father
2:19
who worked in a sulfur mine and a mother
2:21
who spoke no English. By 15, he was
2:25
running a protection racket on the Lower
2:27
East Side. By [music] 20, he was
2:30
delivering heroin for the biggest
2:31
narcotics operation in [music]
2:33
Manhattan. By 25, he had survived a
2:37
throat slashing that should have killed
2:40
him. The scar ran from his chin to his
2:42
ear. It was the wound that gave him the
2:45
nickname Lucky. But luck had nothing to
2:48
do with [music] what came next. In 1931,
2:52
Luciano did something no one in the
2:55
American underworld had ever [music]
2:57
done. He eliminated the old guard,
3:00
Salvatore Marenzano, Joe, the [music]
3:03
boss Maseria, the men who had imported
3:06
the blood feuds of Sicily to American
3:08
streets. [music] Luciano killed them
3:11
both within 5 months. And in their
3:14
place, he built something [music] new,
3:16
the commission. Five families in New
3:19
York, bosses in Chicago, [music]
3:22
Philadelphia, Detroit, and beyond. Not a
3:26
dictatorship, a corporation. [music]
3:29
Disputes settled by vote, not by
3:32
vendetta. Territories respected, [music]
3:35
money shared, violence only when
3:38
necessary. By 1935, [music]
3:42
the American mafia was generating an
3:44
estimated $100 million per year. In
3:48
today's money, [music] that's nearly 2.3
3:52
billion. And at the center of it all sat
3:55
Luchiano. Now here is where the story
3:57
takes a turn no one expected. In 19306
4:01
[music]
4:02
a young prosecutor named Thomas Dwey
4:05
made Luciano his personal mission not
4:08
for murder not for [music] racketeering
4:11
for prostitution. Dwey had compiled
4:14
testimony from prostitutes and madams
4:16
[music] across New York. The evidence
4:19
was thin. The witnesses were unreliable,
4:22
but the jury convicted anyway, [music]
4:24
30 to 50 years in prison. Luciano was 38
4:29
years old. He would die behind bars, or
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so everyone believed. What no one
4:36
anticipated was that 5 years later, the
4:39
Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor.
4:41
[music] And suddenly, the United States
4:44
Navy had a problem. German Ubot were
4:47
sinking supply ships off the Atlantic
4:50
coast. [music] The docks of New York
4:52
were flooded with potential saboturs.
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[music] In February of 1942, the SS
4:58
Normandy, a luxury liner being converted
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into a troop carrier, caught fire, and
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capsized at Pier 88 in Manhattan.
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Sabotage was suspected. Naval
5:09
intelligence needed eyes and ears
5:11
[music] on every waterfront from Maine
5:14
to Virginia. And the only people who
5:16
controlled those waterfronts were
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Luciano's men. So [music] they made a
5:22
deal. Commander Charles Hafendon of
5:24
Naval Intelligence began meeting with
5:27
Luciano's associates, then with Luciano
5:30
himself in his cell at Great Meadow
5:34
Correctional [music] Facility. The terms
5:36
were never put in writing, but the
5:39
arrangement was clear. Luciano would
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order his men to protect the docks, to
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report suspicious activity, to assist
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with the Allied invasion of Sicily when
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the time came. In exchange
5:53
consideration, [music]
5:54
they called it Operation Underworld and
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it worked. The docks went quiet. The
6:01
intelligence [music] flowed. And when
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American troops landed in Sicily in
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1943,
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local mafia figures [music] helped
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smooth the way. Pay attention to what
6:13
happens next. [music] It's easy to miss.
6:16
When the war ended, Luciano's lawyers
6:19
petitioned for clemency. Governor Thomas
6:21
Dwey, the same man who had put Luciano
6:24
away, signed the [music] papers. Let
6:26
that sink in. The prosecutor who had
6:29
built his career [music] on convicting
6:31
Luciano now agreed to release him. There
6:34
was one condition. Luciano could never
6:37
return to the United States. [music] He
6:40
would be deported to Italy immediately
6:42
upon release. On the morning of February
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9th, 1946,
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Luciano walked out of Singh Singh
6:50
prison. He was driven directly to the
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Brooklyn waterfront. [music] He boarded
6:56
the SS Laura Keen and by noon America
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was shrinking behind him. [music] The
7:02
government believed the problem was
7:04
solved. Luciano was gone. [music] The
7:07
mafia would fracture without him. They
7:10
were wrong on both counts. [music] What
7:12
the authorities didn't understand.
7:16
What they couldn't understand
7:18
was that Luciano had spent 20 years
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[music]
7:22
building something that didn't require
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his physical presence. He had trusted
7:26
lieutenants in every [music] family.
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Frank Costello who would handle
7:31
operations in New York. [music] Meer
7:33
Lansky who controlled gambling from Cuba
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to Las Vegas. Albert Anastasia whose
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murder incorporated enforced discipline
7:42
through fear. These men didn't need
7:45
Luciano in the room. They needed to know
7:47
he was still in charge. [music] And
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Luciano made sure they knew. Within
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weeks of arriving in Italy, [music] the
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coded messages began. Couriers crossing
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the Atlantic. [music] Phone calls routed
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through multiple countries.
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Intermediaries [music] who could pass
8:04
information without ever speaking
8:06
directly to anyone who mattered. The
8:09
exile had [music] changed nothing. And
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within months, Luciano was planning
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something that [music] would prove it.
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But there was someone else watching.
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Someone whose name you'll hear again.
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Veto. [music] Genevies. Gen O V.
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A man who had been waiting in the
8:32
shadows for 15 years. A man who wanted
8:35
everything Luciano had built. And a man
8:38
who would eventually try to take it. In
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the fall of 1946,
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Luciano received visitors at his suite
8:46
in Rome, not Italian officials. American
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gangsters. Meer Lansky came first. Then
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Frank Costello. They brought news and a
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[music] proposal. Havana, the capital of
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Cuba, 90 m from Florida. Close enough to
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smell American money. far enough to be
9:08
beyond American jurisdiction. For years,
9:12
[music] Blansky had been building an
9:13
empire there. Casinos, hotels, [music]
9:17
connections to the Cuban government that
9:20
ran deeper than anyone knew. And now he
9:24
wanted to bring the entire commission to
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Havana. A summit. Every boss, every
9:30
[music]
9:31
underboss, the first gathering of its
9:34
kind since Luciano's conviction. [music]
9:36
And this time, Luciano would be there.
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The plan was simple. Luciano would
9:43
travel from Italy to Cuba. In Havana, he
9:46
would meet with every major figure in
9:48
American organized crime. [music] He
9:51
would reassert his authority, settle
9:54
disputes, chart the future, and then
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perhaps he would find a way back to the
10:00
United States itself. The arrangements
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took [music] weeks. fake passports,
10:06
strategic bribes, a carefully
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choreographed journey that would leave
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no paper trail. [music] In December of
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1946,
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Luciano boarded a flight from Rome, his
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destination,
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Havana,
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Cuba. And waiting for him there were the
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most dangerous men in America, the
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[music] FB, I would later call it, the
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Havana conference. the largest gathering
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of organized crime figures ever
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assembled outside the United States. 20
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bosses, [music] capos, and underbosses
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from every major family, representatives
10:46
from Chicago, Detroit, [music]
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Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.
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They booked entire floors of the hotel
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NSA. They claimed to be [music]
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businessmen, medical suppliers, citrus
11:00
exporters. But everyone who mattered
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knew the truth. The man [music] who had
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built the American mafia was back in the
11:08
Western Hemisphere. And he had summoned
11:10
his kingdom. The government was about to
11:13
discover [music] that deportation hadn't
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solved anything. It had made Luciano
11:19
more dangerous. [music]
11:20
And that discovery would change
11:22
everything that came next. December
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1946, [music] Havana,
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Cuba. The lobby of the hotel, Nasiano,
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smells like Cuban tobacco and French
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perfume. [music] Crystal chandeliers
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throw light across marble floors. Bell
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hops in white gloves carry Louis Vuitton
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luggage to the upper floors and in a
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corner suite on the eighth [music]
11:47
floor. Lucky Luciano is holding court.
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Has been in Cuba for 3 days. 3 [music]
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days since he stepped off a plane from
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Rome using forged travel documents. 3
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days since he crossed an ocean to prove
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a point. The point is simple. He never
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left. They came from every corner of
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America. Frank Costello from New York.
12:12
Luciano's acting boss. The man [music]
12:14
who had kept the machine running for 10
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years. Meer Lansky who had arranged
12:19
everything. The hotel, the bribes, the
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security. Albert [music] Anastasia,
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whose reputation for violence preceded
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him into every room. From Chicago came
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Tony Cardardo and the Fachete brothers.
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From New Orleans, Carlos Marcelo. From
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Tampa,
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Santo [music]
12:41
Trafocante, Senior from Cleveland,
12:45
from Detroit,
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from Los Angeles. 20 bosses, [music]
12:51
their under bosses, their most trusted
12:54
captains. According to FBI, reports
12:57
compiled later, the gathering
12:59
represented control of gambling,
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narcotics, labor unions, and political
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corruption across 37 states. The
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combined wealth in those hotel suites
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exceeded anything [music]
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the legitimate business world could
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assemble in a single building. And every
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one of them had come to see one man. The
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exile, the deport, [music]
13:22
the boss they still called Charlie
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Lucky. The cover story was perfect. A
13:28
convention [music] of medical suppliers.
13:31
A gathering of citrus industry
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executives. The Cuban [music] government
13:35
asked no questions. President Ram Feyen
13:38
Grow San Mart Fen's administration
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[music] had been well compensated to
13:43
look the other way. But the real
13:45
business happened behind closed doors.
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Luciano sat at the head of a long table
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in a private dining room. The curtains
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were drawn. Armed men stood outside
13:56
every entrance. [music] And for the
13:58
first time in nearly 11 years, the
14:01
commission was in [music] session with
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its founder present. The agenda,
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according to accounts that emerged
14:07
through later investigations, covered
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three main issues. First, the heroin
14:13
trade. Luciano had spent his months in
14:16
Italy making connections. The Corsican
14:19
networks in Marseilles, [music] the
14:21
processing laboratories that could turn
14:23
Turkish opium into pure heroin, [music]
14:26
the shipping routes that could move
14:28
product across the Atlantic without
14:31
detection. [music] He laid out a plan.
14:33
Heroin would flow from Turkey through
14:36
France to Italy, from [music] Italy to
14:38
Cuba, from Cuba to the United States.
14:42
The Sicilian families would handle
14:45
European operations. The American
14:47
families would [music] handle
14:49
distribution. The commission voted. The
14:52
plan was approved. In that single
14:54
decision, [music]
14:55
according to federal investigators who
14:58
would spend decades tracking [music] the
14:59
consequences, the modern international
15:02
drug trade was born. This next detail
15:05
changes everything we thought we knew.
15:07
[music] The second agenda item was Las
15:10
Vegas. For 3 years, Bugsy Seagull had
15:14
been building a casino in the Nevada
15:17
desert, [music] the Flamingo. It was
15:20
supposed to revolutionize gambling.
15:22
[music] It was supposed to make everyone
15:24
rich. Instead, it had become a
15:27
catastrophe. The budget had ballooned
15:30
from $1.5 million to 6 [music] million.
15:34
The construction was behind schedule.
15:37
and Seagull.
15:39
Seagull had stopped answering questions
15:41
about where the money was going. Meer
15:44
Lansky had vouched for Seagull. They had
15:46
grown up together on the Lower East
15:48
Side. They had built their first rackets
15:51
together. [music] Lansky's word had
15:54
protected Seagull for months. But
15:56
sitting in that Havana dining room,
15:59
Luciano asked a question that no one
16:01
else would ask. Where is the money?
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Meer Lansky didn't have an answer, not
16:10
one that satisfied the table. The
16:13
conversation that followed was not
16:15
recorded. But according to multiple
16:17
accounts [music] from investigators and
16:19
journalists who interviewed participants
16:21
years later, [music] the commission
16:23
reached an understanding. Seagull would
16:25
be given one more chance. The flamingo
16:28
would open in March. If it succeeded,
16:32
all would be forgiven. If it failed, the
16:35
sentence didn't need [music] to be
16:36
finished. But before we go further,
16:39
Theres something the FB [music]
16:41
I reports never fully explained. How did
16:44
Luciano maintain authority over men who
16:47
hadn't seen him in a decade? Men [music]
16:50
who had built their own empires while he
16:52
rotted in a cell? The answer wasn't
16:54
fear. Not primarily. It was
16:57
architecture. Luciano had spent 20
17:00
[music] years building a system where
17:02
loyalty wasn't personal.
17:04
It was structural. Every boss at that
17:07
table owed their position to the
17:09
commission he had created. Every
17:12
territory they [music] controlled
17:13
existed because of boundaries he had
17:15
drawn. Every dispute they couldn't
17:18
resolve themselves eventually required
17:21
his arbitration. He hadn't made them
17:23
afraid of him. He had made them need
17:26
him. And sitting at that table in
17:28
Havana, surrounded by men who controlled
17:31
billions in criminal enterprise, [music]
17:34
Luciano demonstrated something that
17:36
would echo through every criminal
17:38
organization that followed. [music]
17:40
Distance doesn't defeat power when the
17:43
infrastructure of loyalty is properly
17:45
built. The boss [music] doesn't need to
17:47
be in the room. He needs to be in the
17:50
system. This insight would prove more
17:53
valuable than any single decision made
17:56
that week, [music] and it would haunt
17:58
federal law enforcement for the next 50
18:00
years. Take a breath, because from here
18:04
on, the story only gets darker. The
18:07
conference lasted 5 days. 5 days of
18:11
meetings, negotiations, [music] and
18:13
celebrations. Frank Sinatra was there.
18:16
The young singer had flown in from
18:18
Miami, reportedly carrying a briefcase.
18:22
What was in that briefcase has never
18:24
been confirmed. Sinatra would deny for
18:27
the rest of his life that the trip had
18:29
any significance beyond a vacation.
18:32
[music] The bosses ate at the finest
18:34
restaurants in Havana. They gambled at
18:37
Lansky's casinos. They [music] toasted
18:40
to a future where American law
18:41
enforcement couldn't touch them. and
18:44
Lucky Luciano.
18:46
Lucky Luciano began making plans to
18:49
stay. [music] Cuba was close enough. He
18:52
could run operations from Havana
18:54
indefinitely. Perhaps [music] with the
18:57
right connections, he could even find a
18:59
way back to Florida. A boat [music] in
19:02
the night. A landing on an unguarded
19:05
beach. The men who controlled the docks
19:08
[music] could make it happen. The exile
19:10
might not be permanent after all, but
19:13
[music] 3,000 mi away,
19:16
someone was paying attention. Harry
19:19
Anslinger, the director of the Federal
19:22
Bureau of Narcotics, a man who had made
19:25
his career fighting the drug trade, and
19:28
a man who had never forgotten, Lucky
19:31
Luciano. Annslinger had sources
19:34
everywhere, informants in the hotels of
19:37
Havana, contacts in Cuban law
19:39
enforcement who were willing to talk for
19:42
the right price. And in early January of
19:45
1947,
19:47
one of those sources delivered a report
19:49
that changed everything. Luciano was in
19:52
Cuba, [music] not just visiting, living
19:55
there, running the American mafia from
19:59
90 m off the coast of Florida. Anslinger
20:02
picked up the phone. What happened next
20:05
demonstrates how quickly power can shift
20:08
when governments decide to act. On
20:10
February 21st, [music] 1947,
20:14
the United States government delivered
20:16
an ultimatum [music] to Cuba. Either
20:18
Luciano leaves or America cuts off all
20:21
shipments of legitimate [music]
20:23
pharmaceuticals to the island,
20:25
narcotics, in exchange for
20:27
pharmaceuticals. The irony was not lost
20:30
on anyone. President Growl faced an
20:33
impossible choice. The Cuban medical
20:36
system depended on American drugs.
20:38
[music] The bribes from organized crime,
20:41
however generous, couldn't replace
20:43
hospital supplies for an entire nation.
20:46
[music] 3 days later, Cuban authorities
20:49
arrived at Luciano's hotel suite [music]
20:51
with deportation orders. The dream was
20:54
over. 8 months of freedom. Eight months
20:57
of control from the Western Hemisphere.
21:00
Eight months that had reshaped the
21:02
future of international organized crime.
21:06
And now
21:08
Luciano was being sent back to Italy.
21:11
But pay attention to what didn't happen.
21:14
No arrests, [snorts] no indictments, no
21:18
charges filed. Luciano walked out of
21:21
that hotel a free man. He boarded
21:23
[music] a Turkish freighter called the
21:25
Beakir and he sailed back across the
21:28
Atlantic [music] with everything he had
21:30
built still intact. The heroine pipeline
21:33
was operational. [music] The commission
21:36
had reaffirmed its structure. The
21:39
decisions made in Havana [music] would
21:41
continue to generate billions for
21:43
decades. The American government had won
21:46
a battle, a symbolic victory, a
21:50
newspaper headline. But Luciano had won
21:53
something far more important. He had
21:56
proven [music] that deportation was
21:58
theater. That 4,000 mi of ocean [music]
22:01
was an inconvenience, not an obstacle.
22:04
That the system he had built would
22:06
function whether he was in New York,
22:08
Havana, or Naples. And back in the
22:11
United States, one man watched Luciano's
22:14
departure from Cuba with particular
22:17
interest. Veto Genevies. He had been at
22:21
the Havana conference. [music] He had
22:23
sat at that table and voted with the
22:26
others. He had smiled and raised his
22:28
glass to lucky Luciano's health. But
22:31
Genevies was patient. He had waited
22:33
[music] 15 years already. He could wait
22:37
longer. Because Genevies understood
22:39
something that even Luciano might not
22:42
have fully grasped. The system Luciano
22:46
had built required one thing above all
22:48
else. Trust. The bosses needed to trust
22:52
that the man at the center was looking
22:55
out for the whole, not just himself. And
22:59
trust.
23:01
Trust could be poisoned. [music]
23:03
Genevies wasn't going to challenge
23:05
Luciano directly. Not yet. He was going
23:08
to do something [music] far more
23:10
dangerous. He was going to make the
23:12
other bosses question whether Luciano
23:15
still had their best interests at
23:17
[music] heart. Whether an exile in Italy
23:19
could really understand the pressures
23:21
facing families in New York. Whether
23:24
perhaps
23:26
perhaps it was time for new leadership.
23:28
The campaign wouldn't be loud. It would
23:31
be [music] whispered. A suggestion here.
23:34
A doubt planted there. the slow erosion
23:38
of faith that precedes every coup. And
23:42
Luciano, sitting in his apartment in
23:44
Naples, wouldn't see it coming. But that
23:47
betrayal was still years away. Before it
23:50
could happen, another drama needed to
23:52
play out. [music] On June 20th, 1947,
23:57
four months after Luciano was expelled
23:59
from Cuba, Bugsy Seagull sat in the
24:03
living room of his girlfriend's house in
24:04
Beverly Hills. The flamingo had finally
24:07
opened. [music] It had lost money at
24:09
first, then slowly turned profitable.
24:13
The crisis seemed to be [music] passing.
24:15
Seagull was reading the Los Angeles
24:18
Times. The curtains were open to the
24:20
California night. At 10:45 [music]
24:23
p.m., someone fired a 30 caliber
24:26
military carbine [music] through the
24:27
window. Nine rounds, two of them struck
24:31
Seagull in the head. He was [music] dead
24:33
before he hit the floor. No one was ever
24:36
arrested. No one was ever charged. The
24:40
official [music] investigation went
24:42
nowhere. But everyone in the underworld
24:45
knew [music]
24:46
who had given the order. The decision
24:48
had been made in Havana. The sentence
24:51
had merely been delayed. And if anyone
24:54
doubted that [music] Lucky Luciano still
24:56
controlled the American mafia from 4,000
24:58
mi away, [music] those doubts died with
25:01
Bugsy Seagull on that living room floor.
25:04
[music] Naples,
25:06
Italy, 1948. [music] Lucky Luciano sits
25:10
at a cafe table overlooking the Bay of
25:13
Naples. The Mediterranean sun warms his
25:16
face. [music] A waiter brings espresso
25:19
without being asked. Local police nod
25:21
respectfully as they pass. To anyone
25:24
watching, he looks like a retired
25:27
businessman enjoying his golden years. A
25:30
man who has left his troubles behind.
25:33
But the troubles haven't left him. And
25:35
he hasn't [music] left them either.
25:37
Every week, couriers arrive from [music]
25:41
America. They carry cash. They carry
25:44
messages. They carry news of an empire
25:47
that still belongs to him. [music] And
25:49
every week, Luchiano sends them back
25:52
with instructions. Stop. Rewind [music]
25:55
that in your mind. Because it matters.
25:59
The American government had deported
26:01
Luciano to end his influence. Instead,
26:04
they had given him something invaluable,
26:07
invisibility. [music] In New York, the
26:10
FBI watched every known mobster. Phone
26:14
lines were [music] tapped. Meetings were
26:16
photographed. Informants were
26:19
everywhere. But in Naples, Luciano was
26:23
beyond their reach. Italian authorities
26:26
had no interest in prosecuting American
26:28
crimes. And as long as Luciano kept a
26:31
low profile on Italian soil, they were
26:34
content to leave him alone. He had
26:37
become a ghost. A ghost who still
26:40
controlled a kingdom. The heroin
26:42
pipeline that Luciano had proposed in
26:45
Havana was now fully operational.
26:48
Turkish opium moved to laboratories in
26:50
Marseilles. [music] French chemists,
26:53
many of them Corsicanin, processed it
26:55
into pure heroin. The product then
26:58
traveled to Sicily where [music] local
27:00
families handled trans shshipment. From
27:02
Sicily, the heroine crossed the
27:05
Atlantic, hidden in legitimate cargo,
27:08
[music] concealed in the luggage of
27:10
unsuspecting travelers, smuggled on
27:13
fishing boats that met larger vessels at
27:16
sea. [music] By 1950, according to
27:19
Bureau of Narcotics estimates, Luciano's
27:22
network was responsible for the majority
27:24
of heroin entering the United States.
27:27
The street value ran into hundreds of
27:30
millions of [music] dollars annually.
27:32
Federal investigators would spend the
27:34
next two decades trying to dismantle
27:36
what became known as the French
27:38
Connection. [music] They would make
27:40
arrests. They would seize shipments.
27:43
They would win temporary victories.
27:45
[music]
27:46
But the pipeline that Luciano built from
27:48
his cafe table in Naples would continue
27:51
operating until the early 1970s.
27:54
25 years. billions of dollars, an
27:58
epidemic of addiction that reshaped
28:01
American cities. All of it traced back
28:03
to a single meeting in a Havana hotel
28:06
room. Meer Lansky visited Naples
28:09
regularly. The trips were disguised as
28:12
European vacations, [music] art tours,
28:15
medical consultations. The cover stories
28:18
varied, but the purpose was always
28:21
[music]
28:21
the same. face
28:24
to face communication that no wiretap
28:28
could capture. [music] Lansky would
28:29
arrive with a suitcase. Sometimes it
28:33
contained cash, Luciano's share of
28:36
gambling profits from Havana and Las
28:38
Vegas.
28:39
>> [music]
28:39
>> Sometimes it contained documents,
28:42
financial records, investment
28:44
opportunities, problems that required
28:47
the boss's attention, and always [music]
28:50
it contained information. Who was loyal,
28:55
who was wavering, who was talking to the
28:58
wrong people, who needed to be rewarded,
29:01
who needed to be reminded of their
29:03
obligations. Luciano processed it all.
29:06
He made decisions. He sent Lansky back
29:10
with answers. The distance was real. The
29:13
control was absolute. But this next
29:16
detail changes everything [music] we
29:19
thought we knew. While Luciano managed
29:21
his empire from exile, Veto Genevies was
29:25
quietly repositioning himself in New
29:27
York. Genevies had a problem. Frank
29:30
Costello was the acting boss. He had
29:33
Luciano's blessing. [music]
29:35
He had the support of the other families
29:39
and he wasn't going anywhere. So,
29:41
Genevies did what [music] ambitious men
29:44
have always done. He waited for an
29:46
opportunity and when none [music]
29:48
appeared, he created one. In the early
29:52
morning hours of May 2nd, [music]
29:54
1957,
29:56
Frank Costello walked into the lobby of
29:58
his apartment building on Central Park
30:01
West. [music] A large man in a dark hat
30:04
was waiting for him. The man raised a
30:06
pistol and fired once. The bullet grazed
30:10
Costello's head, leaving a wound that
30:12
bled dramatically but caused no serious
30:15
damage. Costello survived. The shooter
30:19
latter identified as Vincent the Chin
30:21
Gigante. [music] A Genevies loyalist
30:24
fled into the night. The message was
30:27
clear. [music] Genevies was making his
30:29
move. Costello understood what that
30:32
bullet meant. He was 66 years old.
30:35
[music] He had survived decades in the
30:38
underworld. And now he faced a choice.
30:41
Fight back and risk a war that would
30:43
destroy everything [music] or step aside
30:46
and live out his remaining years in
30:49
peace. According to accounts that
30:51
emerged later, [music] Costello reached
30:53
out to Luciano through intermediaries.
30:56
He asked for guidance. [music] He asked
30:59
for protection, but Luchiano was 4,000 m
31:03
away. His power was real, but it had
31:06
limits. [music] He couldn't stop a
31:08
bullet in a Manhattan lobby. He couldn't
31:11
be present when decisions needed to be
31:13
made in seconds rather than weeks.
31:16
Costello made his choice. He announced
31:19
his retirement from active leadership.
31:21
He would serve as an adviser,
31:24
a senior statesman. [music] But the day
31:29
today control
31:31
[music] that would pass to someone else.
31:34
Veto Genevies had won his first victory.
31:36
[music]
31:37
But Genevies wasn't finished. There was
31:40
another obstacle in his path. Albert
31:43
Anastasia, the Lord High Executioner,
31:47
the man whose murder incorporated had
31:49
enforced commission discipline for two
31:51
[music] decades. Anastasia was
31:54
unpredictable, violent, and absolutely
31:58
loyal to Luciano. On October 25th, 1957,
32:04
Anastasia walked into the barber shop of
32:06
the Park Sheritan Hotel in Manhattan. He
32:09
settled into chair number four. He
32:12
closed his eyes as the barber draped
32:14
[music] a cloth over his chest. Two men
32:17
entered the shop. They pushed the barber
32:19
aside and they emptied [music] their
32:21
revolvers into Albert Anastasia. He died
32:25
slumped in that chair, blood pooling on
32:28
the [music] white tile floor. The
32:30
barbercloth still around his neck. No
32:33
one was ever convicted, but the
32:36
underworld knew. Genevies had eliminated
32:39
another rival. Pay attention to what
32:42
happens next. It's easy to miss. [music]
32:45
2 weeks after Anastasia's murder,
32:48
something unprecedented occurred. On
32:50
November 14th, [music] 1957,
32:54
New York State police stumbled onto a
32:57
gathering at [music] a farmhouse in the
32:59
small town of Appalachin. Ah, pa le
33:04
Shin, [music] upstate New York, middle
33:07
of nowhere. What they found would
33:10
reshape American law enforcement for a
33:12
generation. 63
33:16
men, Italian names, expensive suits,
33:20
[music] exposed to a single state
33:22
trooper who noticed too many Cadillacs
33:24
without of state plates. [music] They
33:26
ran into the woods, through the fields.
33:31
Men in silk suits and leather shoes
33:33
stumbling through November mud. 20
33:36
[music] were caught, the rest escaped,
33:39
but the damage was done for decades.
33:44
J. Edgar Hoover had denied the existence
33:47
of a national organized crime syndicate.
33:50
[music] The mafia was a myth, he
33:52
claimed. A fantasy of sensationalist
33:56
journalists. Appalachin made that denial
33:59
impossible. [music]
34:00
Here was proof. 63 bosses and
34:04
underbosses from across the country
34:06
meeting in secret. [music] A national
34:09
conspiracy
34:11
exposed by accident. The meeting [music]
34:14
had been called by Genevies. His agenda
34:17
to formally announce his ascension to
34:20
boss of the Luciano family.
34:23
Soon to be renamed the Genevies family
34:26
to receive the commission's blessing to
34:29
solidify his power. Instead, [music]
34:31
he had created a catastrophe. In the
34:35
aftermath of Appalachin,
34:37
everything changed. Congress launched
34:40
investigations. [music] The FB I finally
34:43
acknowledged what it had denied for 30
34:46
years. New laws were drafted. New task
34:50
forces were formed. And Veto [music]
34:52
Genevies,
34:55
Veto Genevies suddenly found himself
34:58
[music] the most watched man in America.
35:01
The other bosses were furious. The
35:04
exposure threatened everyone. [music]
35:06
Operations that had run smoothly for
35:08
decades were now under scrutiny.
35:11
Politicians who had been reliable
35:13
suddenly couldn't [music] be seen with
35:15
known associates. Genevies had wanted to
35:17
be king. Instead, he had become a
35:20
liability. And 4,000 mi away.
35:25
In his apartment in Naples, Lucky
35:27
Luciano received the news with what
35:30
witnesses described as quiet
35:32
satisfaction.
35:33
Now, here is where the story takes a
35:35
turn. No one expected. [music] In 1958,
35:40
federal agents arrested a Puerto Rican
35:42
drug dealer [music] named Nelson
35:44
Cantalops. He was facing decades in
35:47
prison and he was willing to talk.
35:50
Cantalops testified that he had
35:53
personally delivered heroin payments to
35:56
Veto Genevies. [music]
35:57
that Genevies was the mastermind of a
36:00
massive narcotics conspiracy that he
36:03
could identify times, places, [music]
36:06
and amounts. The testimony was
36:09
devastating. In April of 1959,
36:12
Genevies [music] was convicted of
36:14
conspiracy to violate federal narcotics
36:17
laws. The sentence
36:20
15 years in federal prison. The man who
36:24
had shot [music] his way to the top of
36:25
the American mafia would spend the rest
36:28
of his life behind bars. He died in
36:31
prison in 1969.
36:34
Never a free man again. Harry's what
36:37
federal investigators never fully
36:39
understood. [music] What historians
36:42
still debate. What remains one of the
36:44
great mysteries of organized crime
36:47
history. [music] Was Genevie set up?
36:50
Some researchers have suggested that
36:52
Cantalops didn't stumble into federal
36:55
custody [music] by accident, that his
36:57
testimony was too perfect, too specific,
37:00
too convenient. According to these
37:03
accounts, never proven, always denied.
37:08
Luciano and Lansky had orchestrated the
37:11
entire thing. They had found a witness.
37:14
They had prepared his testimony. They
37:17
had delivered Genevies [music]
37:18
to the federal government on a silver
37:21
platter. The evidence for this theory is
37:23
circumstantial. No documents exist, no
37:27
recordings, [music] no confessions. But
37:30
consider the outcome. Genevies.
37:35
The man who had tried to take Luciano's
37:37
throne would die in a prison [music]
37:39
cell. Costello, who had stepped aside,
37:43
would live peacefully until 1973.
37:46
Lansky would continue operating for
37:48
another two decades. [music]
37:50
And Luciano, Luciano would remain the
37:53
shadow boss until his final breath. If
37:56
it was orchestrated, [music] it was the
37:58
perfect crime. using the American
38:01
justice system to eliminate arrival,
38:04
letting federal prosecutors do what
38:07
Luciano couldn't do from 4,000 mi away.
38:10
[music] If it wasn't orchestrated, it
38:13
was the luckiest coincidence of
38:15
Luciano's life. And Lucky Luciano had
38:19
never believed in coincidences. [music]
38:22
But even as Genevies was led away in
38:24
handcuffs, a larger truth was becoming
38:27
clear. The world Luciano had built was
38:30
changing. [music]
38:31
The old ways, the handshake deals, the
38:35
code of silence, [music] the loyalty
38:37
that transcended borders were under
38:39
pressure they had never faced before.
38:42
Robert Kennedy was attorney general. His
38:45
brother [music] was president. And both
38:48
of them had made organized crime a
38:50
personal crusade. [music] New tools were
38:53
being deployed. electronic surveillance,
38:56
witness protection programs, RICO
38:59
statutes that could [music] dismantle
39:01
entire organizations rather than just
39:04
individual members. Luciano was 62 years
39:08
old. He had been in exile for 13 years,
39:12
and for the first time since that ship
39:14
left Brooklyn, [music] he could feel the
39:16
future slipping away. Not his personal
39:19
power, [music] that remained intact. The
39:22
heroin still flowed. The messages still
39:25
[music] traveled. The bosses still
39:28
consulted him on matters of importance.
39:31
But the system itself, the beautiful
39:34
machine he had spent 30 years building,
39:37
the commission, the territories, [music]
39:40
the structure that had made the American
39:42
mafia the most successful criminal
39:44
organization in history. That system was
39:47
under siege. And the question that kept
39:49
Luciano [music] awake in his Naples
39:51
apartment staring at the Mediterranean
39:54
darkness was whether his creation would
39:56
outlive him or whether [music]
39:58
everything he had built would crumble
40:01
the moment he was gone. He wouldn't have
40:03
[music] to wait long for an answer.
40:06
Because on a January evening in 1962 at
40:09
the Naples airport, surrounded by
40:12
journalists and photographers, [music]
40:14
Lucky Luciano's heart would stop beating
40:17
and the war for his legacy would begin
40:19
before his body was cold. January 20s
40:23
[music] 6th, 1962,
40:26
Naples International Airport. Lucky
40:29
Luciano is [music] 64 years old. His
40:33
hair has gone gray. His face has
40:36
softened, but his eyes
40:39
his eyes are still the eyes of the man
40:42
who [music] built an empire. He has at
40:44
the airport to meet a film producer, an
40:48
American named Martin Gosh, who wants to
40:50
make a movie about Luciano's life, the
40:53
authorized version. The story told the
40:57
way Luciano wants
40:59
it [music] told. They've been talking
41:02
for months, letters back and forth,
41:05
negotiations over rights and money and
41:08
creative control. Today is supposed to
41:11
be [music] the first face
41:13
to face meeting. Luciano arrives early.
41:17
[music] He waits in the terminal.
41:19
Photographers are there.
41:22
They're always there. When Luciano
41:24
appears in public, [music] he poses for
41:26
a few pictures. He lights a cigarette
41:30
[music] and then
41:32
he collapses. But before we go further,
41:35
Theres something that happened in his
41:37
final years that most accounts overlook.
41:40
Luchiano had started talking not to law
41:43
enforcement, [music] never to law
41:46
enforcement, but to journalists, to
41:49
writers, to anyone who might tell his
41:52
story after he was gone. He gave
41:55
interviews. He corrected myths. He
41:58
explained [music] in his own words how
42:00
he had built what he built, why he had
42:03
made the choices he made, what the
42:06
American mafia really was beneath the
42:08
newspaper headlines and the Hollywood
42:11
fantasies. Some of these conversations
42:13
were recorded. Others existed only in
42:17
notes. Much of it would later appear in
42:20
books published [music] after his death.
42:22
And in those conversations, Luciano
42:25
revealed something that explains
42:27
everything we've covered [music] in this
42:29
documentary. He never thought of himself
42:31
as a criminal. He thought of himself as
42:34
a businessman, an executive, [music]
42:37
a man who had identified an opportunity,
42:40
prohibition, gambling, narcotics, labor,
42:44
and built an organization to exploit it.
42:46
The violence was regrettable, [music]
42:49
but necessary. The corruption was simply
42:51
the cost of doing business. The loyalty
42:54
he demanded was no [music] different
42:56
from what any corporation expects from
42:58
its employees. He had taken the chaos of
43:01
the old Sicilian gangs and turned it
43:03
into something rational, something
43:06
modern, something that worked. And that
43:09
transformation,
43:11
that was his real legacy. The paramedics
43:15
reached Luciano within minutes, but
43:17
there was nothing to be done. A heart
43:20
attack, massive, instant. The man who
43:24
had survived a throat,
43:26
slashing, who had outlasted prosecutors,
43:29
[music]
43:30
rivals, and governments, who had run an
43:33
empire from 4,000 mi away for 16 years,
43:37
dead on the floor of an airport
43:39
terminal. The photographers who had been
43:42
taking his picture moments earlier now
43:44
captured something else entirely. Lucky
43:47
Luciano [music] sprawled on the tile,
43:49
his cigarette still smoldering nearby,
43:53
his eyes open, but seeing [music]
43:55
nothing. Those photographs would appear
43:58
in newspapers around the world the next
44:00
[music] morning, and that silence said
44:02
everything. The funeral was held in
44:05
Naples. Hundreds attended, old
44:08
associates,
44:10
Italian officials, [music]
44:12
curious locals who had grown accustomed
44:14
to the famous American exile living
44:16
among them. But the men who mattered
44:18
most [music] weren't there. Meer Lansky
44:21
didn't come. Frank Costello didn't come.
44:25
The bosses of the American families sent
44:27
flowers and condolences, but they stayed
44:30
home. It was too risky, too visible. the
44:34
fbby by I was watching every known
44:38
associate. Any trip to Naples would
44:40
invite surveillance and questions that
44:43
no one wanted to answer. So Luciano was
44:47
buried without the men he had commanded
44:49
for 30 [music] years. Without the
44:51
friends he had made rich, without the
44:54
empire he had built, [music] just a body
44:56
in a coffin lowered into Italian soil.
45:00
But here is what the newspapers [music]
45:02
missed. What the orbituaries failed to
45:05
understand. Luciano's death [music]
45:07
changed nothing. The heroin pipeline
45:10
continued operating. [music] The
45:12
commission continued meeting. The
45:14
families continued generating billions
45:17
in illegal revenue. The system he had
45:20
built [music] didn't require him
45:21
anymore. It had never required him.
45:25
Not physically. That was the whole
45:28
point. That was what he had proven in 16
45:31
years of exile. He had created something
45:34
that transcended any individual. A
45:37
structure, a set of rules, a way of
45:41
doing business that could survive the
45:43
death of [music] its founder. And that
45:45
structure would persist for another
45:48
three decades through the RICO
45:50
prosecutions of the 1980s through the
45:54
informants and the turncoats and the
45:56
government task forces dedicated to
45:58
destroying it. Weakened,
46:02
[music]
46:02
yes, diminished
46:06
certainly, but never eliminated [music]
46:08
because you can arrest a man. You can
46:12
deport him. You can even kill him, but
46:16
you cannot arrest an idea. You cannot
46:19
deport a system. You cannot kill a
46:22
method that has been learned [music] and
46:24
replicated and passed down through
46:26
generations. And that
46:29
that [music] is the silence that
46:32
followed Lucky Luciano into his grave.
46:35
The question of whether Veto Genevies
46:37
was set up has never been definitively
46:40
answered. The theory persists.
46:43
Researchers have traced connections
46:45
between Cantalops and figures [music]
46:47
close to Lansky. Timing that seems too
46:50
convenient, testimony that seems too
46:53
perfect, [music] but no document has
46:55
ever surfaced. No witness has ever
46:58
confirmed. [music] Lansky went to his
47:00
grave in 1980 three without ever
47:03
addressing the accusation directly. What
47:06
we know is this.
47:09
Genevies died in prison. Luciano died
47:13
free and the men who remained loyal to
47:15
Luciano Costello Lansky the old guard
47:19
outlived them both. Viewers can draw
47:22
their own conclusions about what that
47:24
pattern suggests. Theres a larger truth
47:27
here, [music] one that extends far
47:29
beyond the American mafia. Every
47:32
transnational criminal organization that
47:34
emerged in the decades after Luciano's
47:37
death followed his blueprint. [music]
47:40
The Colombian cartels of the 1980s, the
47:43
Russian mafia that exploded [music]
47:45
after the Soviet collapse, the Chinese
47:48
triads that adapted to global commerce,
47:50
[music]
47:51
the Mexican organizations that now
47:54
dominate the drug trade. All of them
47:57
learned the same lessons Luciano had
47:59
pioneered. Build infrastructure, not
48:02
personality cults. [music] Create
48:04
systems that function without your
48:07
presence. Make distance an advantage
48:10
rather than an obstacle. Corrupt the
48:13
institutions meant to [music] stop you.
48:15
And above all, make the people around
48:18
you need you more than they fear you.
48:20
The methods evolved. The technology
48:23
changed. [music] The borders shifted,
48:26
but the architecture remained the same.
48:28
The architecture Luciano had designed in
48:31
the 1930s and perfected from his exile
48:35
in the 1950s. [music]
48:37
He didn't just build the American Mafia.
48:40
He built the template for organized
48:42
crime in the modern world. And that
48:44
[music] template is still in use today.
48:47
Let that satisfying silence sit for a
48:49
moment. [music] What do we make of a man
48:52
like Lucky Luciano? The easy answers
48:55
don't satisfy. Monster.
48:59
Yes. He facilitated the heroin epidemic
49:02
[music] that devastated American cities.
49:04
He ordered murders. He corrupted
49:07
democracy. He built an organization
49:10
dedicated to exploiting human weakness.
49:13
Genius
49:16
also. [music]
49:18
Yes. He saw what others couldn't see. He
49:21
built what others couldn't build. He
49:24
maintained control under circumstances
49:27
that should have made control [music]
49:28
impossible. The truth, if truth is even
49:33
the right word,
49:36
is that he was both simultaneously
49:40
inseparably. He was a product [music] of
49:43
his time, a child of immigration and
49:45
poverty, who found that the legitimate
49:47
paths to success were closed to people
49:50
like him, who discovered [music] that
49:52
the illegitimate paths were wide open.
49:56
if you were smart enough and ruthless
49:58
enough to walk them. He didn't create
50:00
the demand for alcohol during
50:02
prohibition. He didn't create the demand
50:05
for gambling or narcotics or the other
50:07
vices he sold. He simply met that demand
50:11
more efficiently than anyone [music]
50:13
before him. And more lastingly, the
50:16
American government spent 30 years
50:18
trying to destroy what Luciano built.
50:21
They deported him. He ran the empire
50:23
from Italy. [music] They expelled him
50:26
from Cuba. He returned to running it
50:28
from further away. They imprisoned
50:30
[music] his successors. New successors
50:33
emerged. They passed laws designed
50:36
[music] specifically to dismantle
50:38
organizations like his. The
50:41
organizations [music] adapted. It wasn't
50:43
until the 1980s and '90s, a full
50:47
generation after Luciano's death, that
50:50
federal prosecutors finally developed
50:53
the tools and the persistence [music] to
50:55
seriously damage the American mafia. And
50:59
even then,
51:01
even [music] then,
51:03
they didn't destroy it. They reduced it.
51:06
They weakened it. They forced it to
51:09
evolve. But the families still exist.
51:12
smaller, more [music] careful, less
51:15
visible, but present. The machine
51:19
Luciano built is still running quietly
51:23
in the shadows where it has always
51:24
operated best. So, here is the question
51:28
this documentary cannot [music] answer.
51:30
Was Lucky Luciano a warning or a
51:33
prophecy? A warning about what happens
51:36
when legitimate society fails its most
51:38
ambitious members? When poverty and
51:41
discrimination create the conditions for
51:43
criminal enterprise to flourish. When
51:46
the gap [music] between law and reality
51:49
becomes wide enough for empires to grow
51:51
in the darkness. [music] Or a prophecy
51:53
about the future of organized crime
51:56
itself. About a world where borders mean
51:59
nothing. Where technology makes distance
52:02
[music] irrelevant. Where the methods
52:04
Luciano pioneered become the operating
52:07
system for criminal organizations. We
52:10
haven't yet imagined. Perhaps both.
52:12
[music] Perhaps neither. What is certain
52:15
is this. On a February morning in 1946,
52:19
the American government put Lucky
52:21
Luciano on a boat and told him he would
52:24
never return. They believed they were
52:26
solving a problem. [music] Instead, they
52:29
were proving a principle, one that every
52:32
criminal organization since has
52:34
understood. Power doesn't require
52:37
presence. Control doesn't require
52:40
proximity. And the most dangerous
52:42
criminal isn't the one in the room with
52:44
you. [music] It's the one who built the
52:47
room itself. The mafia didn't learn to
52:50
cross borders from globalization.
52:53
Globalization learned from the mafia.
52:55
This has been global mafia universe.
52:58
[music] Lucky Luciano died in 1962.
53:02
But the system he created, the
53:05
structure, the methods, the [music]
53:07
blueprint,
53:08
that system is still shaping the
53:11
criminal underworld today. So we leave
53:13
you with a question that only you can
53:16
answer. Was Luciano a monster who
53:19
corrupted everything [music] he touched?
53:21
Or a genius who simply understood power
53:24
better than the people trying to stop
53:26
him? Comment one word,
53:30
monster or genius. If this story made
53:34
you think differently about power,
53:36
control, [music] and what it really
53:38
means to lead, we go deeper into these
53:41
questions every [music] week. Stories
53:43
about the men who built empires from the
53:45
shadows. Stories the history books don't
53:48
tell. Subscribe, hit the bell. The next
53:52
story is already [music] waiting. Until
53:55
then,
53:57
remember, the most powerful man in the
54:00
room isn't always the one [music] you
54:02
can

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