Lucky Luciano

Charley “Lucky” Luciano was instrumental to the development of the American Mafia and supervised the attempt to dominate prostitution in New York City. Not surprisingly, he has been the subject of numerous biographies, exposés, and various works of urban folklore since his death in 1962. This book takes scholarship on Luciano to a new level, using fresh research on the investigation, arrest, and conviction of Lucky Luciano to delve deep into the sexual and criminal underworld of New York City. Topics include the complex structure of the New York City bordellos and the takeover that resulted in Luciano’s 1936 arrest; his considerable role in the expansion of the international heroin trade; and the shocking attempt to sexually frame a member of prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey’s staff in a desperate bid to overturn Luciano’s conviction.

William Donati is a professor in Las Vegas, Nevada.

William Donati
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 303
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4666-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9343-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix
Preface      1
Introduction: Charley Lucky      5

1. City of Vice      9
2. Rise to Power      19
3. Love’s Illusion      36
4. Sex Underworld      47
5. The Takeover      63
6. Rotten to the Core      87
7. Soulless Creatures      98
8. Lamster      113
9. The Big Pinch      125
10. The Trial      147
11. The Verdict      179
12. Betrayal      206
13. Poisonously False      217
14. No. 92168      230
15. Cuba      243
16. The Final Years      255

Notes      273
Bibliography      281
Index      283

“those interested in taking a closer look at New York’s heyday as ‘Sin City’ will certainly get their fix in this book”—Epoch Times.