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Topics - crazypreacher

101
General, Off Topic / Re: Just for the fun of it 3
January 25, 2012, 03:44:49 PM
[align=center:mng6vuf8]JimmyV.jpg[/attachment:mng6vuf8][/align:mng6vuf8]
102
General, Off Topic / flame and wave
January 25, 2012, 11:53:58 PM
[/img]
103
Mafia Mod Request / Some how
January 26, 2012, 02:42:31 PM
Some one made mod call Vito Vendetta


 




I would like to see Joe Vendetta
104
General, Off Topic / I just receive an FBI bulletin
January 27, 2012, 09:27:22 PM
[align=center:1cp0zgkq]wanted.jpg[/attachment:1cp0zgkq][/align:1cp0zgkq]
105
General, Off Topic / Quebec city, it the time
January 29, 2012, 05:14:34 AM
[align=center:2jvdze1c]To have fun and party for 2 weeks    " data-emoticon="" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20">   :lol:   " data-emoticon="" srcset="/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/tongue@2x.png 2x" width="20" height="20">


 









<div><iframe width="459" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MpmjN0S-IyU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div> [/align:2jvdze1c]
106
French / Famille Rizzuto
February 02, 2012, 11:20:57 AM
Le clan Rizzuto est une des principales Ãâë familles Ãâû mafieuses de MontrÃÆéal. Il est dirigÃÆé par Vito Rizzuto, prÃÆésumÃÆé chef de la mafia montrÃÆéalaise, nÃÆé en Sicile en 1946 et immigrÃÆé au Canada avec sa famille en 1954.




Le clan Rizzuto est liÃÆé au groupe Contrera-Caruana, spÃÆécialisÃÆé dans le trafic de stupÃÆéfiants. Il a ÃÆétÃÆé alliÃÆé ÃÆà la famille Cotroni, qui a contrÃÆôlÃÆé la majeure partie du trafic de stupÃÆéfiants ÃÆà MontrÃÆéal dans les annÃÆées 1970 en association avec la famille Bonanno de New York. Les Rizzuto sont considÃÆérÃÆés comme le bras armÃÆé du clan Bonanno ÃÆà MontrÃÆéal, base arriÃÆère de New York, trÃÆès surveillÃÆée par la police fÃÆédÃÆérale amÃÆéricaine, le FBI.




Dans les ann̮̩es 1980, les Rizzuto ont ̮̩merg̮̩ comme famille mafieuse dominante apr̮̬s une guerre entre factions siciliennes et calabraises au cours de laquelle a ̮̩t̮̩ assassin̮̩ Paolo Violi, un lieutenant de la famille new-yorkaise Bonanno.




Selon les autoritÃÆés canadiennes, les Rizzuto ont eu un rÃÆôle-clÃÆé dans l'importation, l'exportation et la distribution de stupÃÆéfiants (marijuana, cocaÃÆïne, hÃÆéroÃÆïne) au Canada et dans toute l'AmÃÆérique du Nord, le blanchiment de centaines de millions de dollars, le jeu illÃÆégal, la fraude, les prÃÆêts usuraires et les extorsions de fonds.




Selon les journalistes Lee Lamothe et Adrian Humphreys, les Rizzuto seraient au dÃÆébut des annÃÆées 2000 la Ãâë sixiÃÆème famille Ãâû, traitant d'ÃÆégal ÃÆà ÃÆégal avec les cinq familles de Cosa Nostra de New York1.




Depuis fin 2009, leur pouvoir est fortement ÃÆébranlÃÆé suite ÃÆà une sÃÆérie d'assassinats de ses principaux membres.


 




Le pÃÆère Nicolo Rizzuto, dit Nick Rizzuto. Abattu d'un coup de feu ÃÆà sa rÃÆésidence le 10 novembre 2010.




Les fils :




Vito Rizzuto, connu sous le sobriquet de Teflon Don. Actuel chef du clan Rizzuto et emprisonnÃÆé aux ÃÆââ¬Â°tats-Unis. Selon un entretien de Francesco Di Carlo, un repenti sicilien, avec W-Five, Vito Rizzuto reprÃÆésenterait Cosa Nostra au Canada.




Nicolo Rizzuto, assassin̮̩ en d̮̩cembre 2009




Autres membres : Paolo Renda enlev̮̩ en mai 2010 et que l'on n'a pas retrouv̮̩ fin 2010, Rocco Sollecito, Francesco Arcadi, Felice Italiano, Mike Lapolla, Giovanni Bertolo, Francesco Velenos, Sam Fasulo, Federico Del Pescio, Paolo Renda, Agostino Cuntrera abattu en juin 2010 avec son garde du corps3




4




Quelques associ̮̩s : Beniamino Zappia (Milan, Montr̮̩al)5




Nick Rizzuto et ses trois lieutenants avaient ÃÆétÃÆé arrÃÆêtÃÆés dans le cadre de l'opÃÆération ColisÃÆée et incarcÃÆérÃÆés ÃÆà la prison de Bordeaux de MontrÃÆéal. En dÃÆécembre 2010, Nick Rizzuto (fils de Vito) a ÃÆétÃÆé abattu en pleine rue ÃÆà MontrÃÆéal.


 




Activit̮̩s internationales


 




En 2007, le clan Rizzuto fait l'objet d'une enquÃÆête internationale pour le blanchiment de plusieurs centaines de millions de narcodollars (environ 600 millions d'euros, soit 900 millions de dollars). Des enquÃÆêtes contre des mafiosi liÃÆés au clan Rizzuto sont en cours en Italie, en Suisse, en France et ÃÆà MontrÃÆéal.


 




Activit̮̩s en Italie


 




Le 23 octobre 2007, la justice italienne a annoncÃÆé l'ÃÆémission de mandats d'arrÃÆêt contre 19 personnes liÃÆées au clan Rizzuto. Une dizaine de personnes sont ÃÆécrouÃÆées en Italie, en Suisse et en France. Plus de 200 policiers italiens ont effectuÃÆé 40 perquisitions et saisi ou bloquÃÆé environ 212 millions de dollars, principalement ÃÆà Rome et ÃÆà Milan.




Deux employ̮̩s de la Banca del Veneto, en Italie, auraient blanchi de l'argent du clan en Suisse et ont ̮̩t̮̩ arr̮̻t̮̩s en octobre 2007.
107
French / Lavoie (Donald)
February 03, 2012, 02:30:15 AM
Meurtrier (tueur ÃÆà gages) nÃÆé ÃÆà Chicoutimi (Saguenay) en 1942. Tueur attitrÃÆé du gang des frÃÆères Dubois pendant 10 ou 12 ans. En juin 1971, il abat Louis Fournier, le propriÃÆétaire du Jan-Lou CafÃÆé et Robert BeauprÃÆé, le gÃÆérant du cafÃÆé parce qu'ils avaient refusÃÆé la protection du clan Dubois. ArrÃÆêtÃÆé ÃÆà New York, il est accusÃÆé de meurtre, mais, ÃÆà la suite de tÃÆémoignages contradictoires, il est acquittÃÆé en 1972. Le 25 juillet 1973, lui et Claude Dubeau agissant sur ordre de Claude Dubois abattent Richard Desormiers et Jacques-AndrÃÆé Bourassa pendant que Yvon Belzile vole l'automobile de DÃÆésormiers. Lavoie assistait aux noces de Michel Dubeau au Quality Inn de la rue Sherbrooke ÃÆà MontrÃÆéal lorsqu'il entendit une conversation entre Claude Dubois et Alain Charron qui discutaient de son assassinat ; il rÃÆéussit ÃÆà s'ÃÆéchapper en se jetant dans la chute ÃÆà linge de l'hÃÆôtel. Lui et Jean Tremblay, dont les Dubois veulent aussi se dÃÆébarrasser, dÃÆécident de lutter contre eux. Le 7 dÃÆécembre 1980, pour financer leur lutte, ils kidnappent le banquier Thomas Prucha, son ÃÆépouse et sa belle-mÃÆère ; pendant que Lavoie garde les deux femmes, Tremblay conduit Pricha ÃÆà sa banque oÃÆù ce dernier retire 135 000 $ qu'il remet aux deux kidnapeurs. Le 23 dÃÆécembre 1980, la police l'arrÃÆête ÃÆà son chalet de Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez ; il passe NoÃÆël en prison et dÃÆécide de devenir dÃÆélateur pour sauver sa peau. GrÃÆâce ÃÆà son tÃÆémoignage, le clan des frÃÆères Dubois est anÃÆéanti. Il admet avoir tuÃÆé 15 personnes au cours de sa carriÃÆère de tueur, mais on croit qu'il aurait participÃÆé ÃÆà au moins 25 assassinats.
108
General, Off Topic / Technical history
February 03, 2012, 07:35:00 PM
I just baught a Blue ray burner


 




And it just trigger my memory


 




The first time i saw a computer i was about 16 and it llok like that but a little smaller


 




univac2.gif[/attachment:3ju0w7uh]


 




and they use to store information ain that:


 




carte_perforee.jpg[/attachment:3ju0w7uh]


 




Then came the floppy disk an 8 inches flooy




[attachment:3]floppy8.gif[/attachment]




and the the 5 1/2




Floppy_disk_5_25_inch.jpg[/attachment:3ju0w7uh]




and then the hard drive you need about a course to use it


 




and now on the size of a dvd you can store  50 gigs of data


 




wow
109
General, Off Topic / Carnaval time
February 04, 2012, 12:05:29 PM
It amaze me year after year  those artists are to much and they came has far has china


 




you gave them a pile of snow and they will turn it into fine art


 


 




elephants_carnaval.jpg[/attachment:35qdrqtw]


 




6a00d8341c6c1753ef0162fd3de525970d-750wi.jpg[/attachment:35qdrqtw]


 




4070119422_c26ed63e41_z.jpg[/attachment:35qdrqtw]


 




20030208-043---Canada---Quebec--QC----Winter-carnaval---Snow-sculture.jpg[/attachment:35qdrqtw]


 




4069830194_2cb7146802_z.jpg[/attachment:35qdrqtw]
110
General, Off Topic / Who never made one,
February 05, 2012, 11:40:15 AM
[align=center:1qe46b8j]Who never build a rubber bands gun to kill our toy soldiers




i found someone that took the art of rubber band gun to a superior level   hmy:   hmy:   hmy:[/align:1qe46b8j]


 


 




[align=center:1qe46b8j]




<div><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u9Bh7JqVw-o?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div> [/align:1qe46b8j] 




[align=center:1qe46b8j]PS: not to use on any life form
[/align:1qe46b8j]
111
Real Mob Stories / Green River Killer
February 05, 2012, 08:50:57 PM
GreenRiverSign.gif[/attachment:3o895azg]


 


 




Introduction:


 




Serial killers always make interesting research. Their crimes, methods, and bizarre thought behaviors never cease to amaze us. Sadly, the most interesting cases are typically the ones that baffle authorities and allow the killer to ply his trade unhindered, upping his body count as the days tick by.


 




The name of this case is derived from the Green River, a river that begins in Washington State and empties into the Puget Sound in Seattle. Near the river is the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, built in 1942. As with any international airport, the area around it quickly grew as businesses sprouted to cater to the many travelers who crossed through its gates. One major throughway that runs near the airport is Aurora Avenue.  Just off the Pacific Coast Highway, Aurora Avenue is known casually as the Sea-Tac Strip. This hustle and bustle Strip is a haven of dingy clubs, seedy motels, and of course, many prostitutes. On any given night, hundreds of prostitutes could be seen hanging around the street corners propositioning passerbys as they drove by. When a customer was found and a transaction initiated, they could simply take their tricks to one of the nearby motels or one of the many vacant buildings or empty side streets.


 




The Killings Begin


 




Our story begins on July 15, 1982 when two boys riding their bicycles noticed something in the water that caught their eye. Riding alongside the Peck Bridge near Kent, Washington, the boys found the body of a young woman floating in the Green River.  Kent County police were notified and arrived on the scene to find a 16 year old girl, later identified as Wendy Lee Coffield, with a pair of jeans wrapped tightly around her neck. She had been raped and strangled to death. Wendy, a local prostitute who had been missing for 8 days from a nearby foster home, would soon gain the unfortunate legacy of being the first official victim of the soon-to-be infamous Green River Killer.


 




GreenRiverBridge.gif[/attachment:3o895azg]


 


 




A few weeks later, on August 12, 1982, a worker at a meat packing company, just south of the Peck Bridge, was gassing up his truck when he noticed what he thought was a dead animal floating in the river water. The foam that was circulating around the body is what first drew his attention. He walked over to the body and discovered a young woman, floating dead in the water. Police identified her as 23 year old Deborah Lynn Bonner. Deborah, another known local prostitute, had been missing for over a week.
112
Real Mob Stories / Green River Killer suite
February 06, 2012, 03:45:43 AM
GreenRiverBodyBag.gif[/attachment:3p6gh4ms]




From this point on the body count grew rapidly. Three days after Deborahâââ‰â¢s body was found, three more bodies were discovered in the area. Two bodies were found, floating face down in the water, by a rafter near the Peck Bridge. When police arrived the rafter told them that just before he spotted the bodies, he had been approached by two men on the river bank. The men had asked him if he had seen anything in the water. When he responded negatively, both men hurriedly left in a pickup truck. Police investigated the scene thoroughly and later in the day they discovered another body in the grass nearby.


 




Police estimated that the two bodies in the water had been there for over a week, while the body found on the bank had been there less than a day. They presumed that the "fresher" body had been left in a hurry, possibly because the killer was spooked by the police when they arrived to investigate the two bodies discovered by the rafter. There were certain distinctive traits surrounding all the killings. The bodies had all been weighted down with rocks in their clothes and also had rocks inserted into body cavities. They had all been strangled, often with articles of their own clothing. Police were certain that the murders were related and were the result of a serial killer.


 




Surmising that a serial killer may be on the loose, the police began researching earlier case records.  After researching their earlier crime records, they discovered two more victims that were attributed to the Green River Killer.  16 year old Leann Wilcox had been found strangled in a field on January 21, 1982 and on July 07, 1982, 36 year old prostitute, Amina Agisheff had been found strangled in a similar manner.


 




Important Traits


 




There was another, more obvious trait about the victims - all of the victims had been prostitutes.  Police began staking out the Strip and casually questioning prostitutes about their activities.  Most of the prostitutes were apprehensive about talking to the police but some did offer some interesting clues.  Many of the prostitutes thought the killer was probably a policeman or someone masquerading as a policeman.  Several told stories of a man brandishing a badge and ordering them into the car.  20 years later, these would become very important clues to the identity of the killer.


 




A profiler was commissioned by the police to assist in the case. The profiler theorized that the killer was probably an organized person since he took the time to properly weight down the bodies before dumping them in the water. The profiler deduced that the killer must be confident since he reused the same location over and over again (although he also theorized that he revisited the same locations in order to relive the murders). He thought the killer must be a longstanding local resident and possibly a fisherman or hunter since he seemed to be familiar with the remote areas where the bodies were being found.  Just as the prostitutes had earlier mentioned, the profiler also thought that the killer had a strong interest in police or detective work.


 




The Killings Continue


 




Meanwhile, prostitutes continued disappearing off of the Strip at an alarming rate.  In October of 1982, Denise Bush lost a coin toss with her pimp and another prostitute, to determine who would go out and retrieve cigarettes from a local store - she was never seen alive again.  Two months later, 18 year old Rebecca Marrero disappeared on the Sea-Tac Strip.  In April of 1983, Sandra Kay Gabbert was last seen by friends, entering a pickup truck on the Strip.  That same night, about 2 hours later after Gabbert's friends noted her entering a pickup truck, Kimi Kai Pastor, a 17-year-old prostitute, was last seen entering a green pickup truck with a camper on it.


 


 




DeniseBush.gif[/attachment:3p6gh4ms]
113
Real Mob Stories / Green River Killer suite 1
February 07, 2012, 12:45:38 AM
The Marie Malvar Killing




MarieMalvar.gif[/attachment:2pilj9lb]


 




In the month of April, the case took an interesting turn. On 04/30/83, Marie Malvar and her pimp were working the Pacific Coast Highway. Marie soon left with a trick in a vehicle, described by her pimp, as a green pickup with a camper on it and a primer patch on the side (possibly blocking out a logo). Curious, the pimp followed them a short distance and noticed that they appeared to be arguing. He attempted to chase the truck down but lost the vehicle in traffic.


 




One week later, he notified the police that Marie had never returned. Fearing that the police would be of little help, he contacted Marieâââ‰â¢s father and the two began looking for Marie on their own. After searching for some time they found a pickup truck that looked like the one the pimp had seen Marie enter. They contacted the police immediately. The police arrived at the home and questioned two men located inside - Dale Wells and Gary Ridgeway. They made a cursory search and found no trace of the woman. The police explained to Marieâââ‰â¢s father that nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Marieâââ‰â¢s father accepted this without question since he was suspicious of the pimpâââ‰â¢s story anyway. Remember this âââ‰â¬Å later weâââ‰â¢ll discover there was much more to the Marie Malvar suspectâââ¬Ã¦


 




In May of 1983 a very important piece of evidence surfaced that if handled properly, could have been the biggest lead in the case - an airport maintenance man was emptying trash when he found a driverâââ‰â¢s license behind some chairs near gate B4 of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The license belonged to a Marie Malvar. The police were immediately notified but strangely, they never showed up to retrieve the evidence. Two years later it dawned on them that they could check the flight records for that departing gate and possibly even retrieve fingerprints from the license itself. They contacted the airport and were disappointed to discover that the license had already been destroyed and the flight records were no longer available.


 




Still More Victims




GreenRiverBodyRemval.gif[/attachment:2pilj9lb]


 


 




Later in the month of May 1983, a family looking for mushrooms several miles east of the Strip, discovered a womanâââ‰â¢s body. The woman was fully clothed but otherwise displayed some very unusual characteristics. The head was covered with a paper sack, the arms crossed in front of the body, and a fish was draped across the womanâââ‰â¢s throat. She had a bottle gripped tightly in her right hand and freshly ground meat clinched in her left hand. She had a driverâââ‰â¢s license in her pocket that identified her as Carol Ann Christensen.


 




The body was taken to the morgue for a more thorough examination where it was discovered that her bra was on inside out and her shoelaces were untied. They also determined that she had been strangled with a thin cord and the body immersed under water. Since the body was found several miles from the Strip and the conditions of the body were substantially different from the other killings, the police wondered if they had another killer on their hands. This was soon discounted when they tracked down the origin of the sack found on the victimâââ‰â¢s head - the sack was from a 7-11 store located on South 144th Street, a store that lies right in the middle of the Strip and often noted as the location where many of the victimâââ‰â¢s were last seen. It appeared that the killer had begun using another location to dump his victims.


 




Several other victims disappeared in May 1983. Martina Authorlee, 18 years old, was working the Strip when she was picked up by a trick and never seen again. Cheryl Wims, also 18 years old, was picked up at the same spot and never seen again. Tammy Liles, 16 years old, was picked up on the Strip and never returned. Keli Kay McGuiness left the Three Bars motel to work the Strip near 216th Street never to be seen again. And Costance Elizabeth Naon, 20 years old and strangely, the only victim that was not a prostitute, called her boyfriend from the Red Lion bar on the Strip, and told him she would be home in 20 minutes. She never made it back home.


 




Unusual Misses


 




In June of 1983 another bizarre instance occurred. A woman called the police to report a strange smell in the area of Raperâââ‰â¢s Road, a dark alley near the airport. The police investigated and reported that the smell was nothing more than a pile of dead fish. Later that month, players and parents at a little league game near Raperâââ‰â¢s Road, noticed the same foul smell. The smell was bad enough that the games for that day were called off. One month later, a man picking apples in the same area found a skeleton under a pile of brush.


 




The bodyâââ‰â¢s location was near the dividing line between the airport and King County. The two authorities argued about jurisdiction and finally called in a surveyor to determine whose responsibility the body was. The surveyor determined that the body laid in King County and not the Port Authority area. With the jurisdiction question out of the way, the investigation continued which in the end, never resulted in a positive identification of the body. To complicate matters even further, about a month later another skeleton was found in the same location. The second body found near the little league fields was eventually identified and determined to be Shawndra Summers who had disappeared while working the Strip in 1982.
114
French / La mafia et la construction a MTL
February 08, 2012, 01:25:03 AM
[align=center:c95866ba]
[/align:c95866ba]
115
General, Off Topic / Carnaval night parade
February 10, 2012, 11:55:16 AM
[sup:3nhy8cly]Full HD
[/sup:3nhy8cly]


 




[align=center:3nhy8cly]




<div><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/olVZZ4uo9Hs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div> [/align:3nhy8cly]
116
General, Off Topic / It a realy sad day
February 12, 2012, 10:31:05 AM
[align=center:3ru2ne3v]The world just lost a great artist, whitney houston was found dead at 48 in a Beverly hill hotel[/align:3ru2ne3v]




[align=center:3ru2ne3v]




<div><iframe width="459" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8QaI-M9sxW4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div>  




Rest in peace whitney, we will always love you.[/align:3ru2ne3v]
117
General, Off Topic / The story of MafiaBoy
February 12, 2012, 11:27:04 AM
MafiaBoy was the Internet alias of Michael Demon Calce, a high school student from West Island, Quebec, who launched a series of highly publicized denial-of-service attacks in February 2000 against large commercial websites including Yahoo!, Fifa.com, Amazon.com, Dell, Inc., E*TRADE, eBay, and CNN. He also launched a series of failed simultaneous attacks against 9 of the 13 root name servers.


 




Early life




Calce was born in the West Island area of Montreal, Quebec. When he was five, his parents separated and he lived with his mother after she had won a lengthy battle for primary custody. Every second weekend he would stay at his father's condo in Montreal proper. He felt isolated from his friends back home and troubled by the separation of his parents, so his father purchased him his own computer at the age of six. It instantly had a hold on him: âââ¬ÃâI can remember sitting and listening to it beep, gurgle and churn as it processed commands. I remember how the screen lit up in front of my face. There was something intoxicating about the idea of dictating everything the computer did, down to the smallest of functions. The computer gave me, a six year old, a sense of control and command. Nothing else in my world operated that way.


 




Project Rivolta




On February 7, 2000, Calce targeted Yahoo! with a project he named Rivolta, meaning âââ¬Ãâriotâââ¬
118
General, Off Topic / A bit of history
February 14, 2012, 11:45:31 AM
Today is Febuary 14:


 




Saint Valentine's Day Massacre:


 




The Saint Valentine's Day massacre is the name given to the 1929 murder of 7 mob associates as part of a prohibition era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago: the South Side Italian gang led by Al Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. Former members of the Egan's Rats gang were also suspected of having played a significant role in the incident, assisting Capone.


 




History


 




On the morning of Thursday, February 14, 1929, St. Valentine's Day, five members of the North Side Gang, plus gang collaborators Reinhardt H. Schwimmer and John May, were lined up against the rear inside wall of the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side, and executed. The murders were committed by gangsters allegedly hired from outside the city by the Al Capone mob so they would not be recognized by their victims.




Two of the shooters were dressed as uniformed police officers, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats and hats, according to witnesses who saw the "police" leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting. John May's German Shepherd, Highball, who was leashed to a truck, began howling and barking, attracting the attention of two women who operated boarding houses across the street. One of them, Mrs. Landesman, sensed that something was dreadfully wrong and sent one of her roomers to the garage to see what was upsetting the dog. The man ran out, sickened at the sight. Frank Gusenberg was still alive after the killers left the scene and was rushed to the hospital shortly after police arrived at the scene. When the doctors had Gusenberg stabilized, police tried to question him but when asked who shot him, he replied "Nobody shot me", despite having sustained fourteen bullet wounds. It is believed that the St. Valentine's Day Massacre resulted from a plan devised by members of the Capone gang to eliminate George 'Bugs' Moran due to the rivalry between the two gangs.




George Moran was the boss of the long-established North Side Gang, formerly headed up by Dion O'Banion, who was murdered by four gunmen five years earlier in his flower shop on North State Street. Everyone who had taken command of the North Siders since O'Banion's rule had been murdered, supposedly by various members or associates of the Capone organization. This massacre was allegedly planned by the Capone mob in retaliation for an unsuccessful attempt by Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter to murder Jack McGurn earlier in the year and for the North Side Gang's complicity in the murders of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo and Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo âââ‰â¬Å both had been presidents of the Unione Siciliane, the local Mafia, and close associates of Capone. Bugs Moran's muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, his takeover of several Capone-owned saloons that he insisted were in his territory, and the general rivalry between Moran and Capone for complete control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging business were probable contributing factors to this incident.




The plan was to lure Bugs Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street. Contrary to common belief, this plan did not intend to eliminate the entire North Side gang âââ‰â¬Å just Moran, and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants. It is usually assumed that they were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang, also associates of Capone's. However, some recent studies dispute this, although there seems to have been hardly any other good reason for so many of the North Siders to be there. One of these theories states that all of the victims (with the exception of John May) were dressed in their best clothes, which would not have been suitable for unloading a large shipment of whiskey crates and driving it away âââ‰â¬Å even though this is how they, and other gangsters, were usually dressed at the time. The Gusenberg brothers were also supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whiskey.




On St. Valentine's Day, most of the Moran gang had already arrived at the warehouse by approximately 10:30 AM. However, Moran himself was not there, having left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. As Moran and one of his men, Ted Newberry, approached the rear of the warehouse from a side street they saw the police car pull up. They immediately turned and retraced their steps, going to a nearby coffee shop. On the way, they ran into another gang member, Henry Gusenberg, and warned him away from the place. A fourth gang member, Willie Marks, was also on his way to the garage when he spotted the police car. Ducking into a doorway, he jotted down the license number before leaving the neighborhood.




Capone's lookouts likely mistook one of Moran's men for Moran himself âââ‰â¬Å probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build. That morning the physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress: both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats. Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan pull to a stop in front of the garage. Four men, two dressed in police uniform, emerged and walked inside. The two fake police officers, carrying shotguns, entered the rear portion of the garage and found members of Moran's gang and two gang collaborators, Reinhart Schwimmer and John May, who was fixing one of the trucks.




The two "police officers" then signaled to the pair in civilian clothes who had accompanied them. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one containing a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. They were efficient, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor. The seven men were ripped apart in the volley, and two shotgun blasts afterward all but obliterated the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner's report.




To give the appearance that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed police officers. Inside the garage, the only survivors in the warehouse were Highball, May's German Shepherd, and Frank Gusenberg. Despite fourteen bullet wounds, he was still conscious, but died three hours later, refusing to utter a word about the identities of the killers.


 




Victims




Peter Gusenberg, a frontline enforcer for the Moran organization.




Frank Gusenberg, the brother of Peter Gusenberg and also an enforcer. Frank was still alive when police first arrived on the scene, despite reportedly having fourteen bullets in his body. When questioned by the police about the shooting his only response was "nobody shot me". He died three hours later.




Albert Kachellek (alias "James Clark"), Moran's second-in-command, a retired man at the time, he was not a member of the gang himself but happened to be there at the time the killing happened.




Adam Heyer, the bookkeeper and business manager of the Moran gang.




Reinhart Schwimmer, an optician who had abandoned his practice to gamble on horse racing (unsuccessfully) and associate with the Moran gang. Though Schwimmer called himself an "optometrist" he was actually an optician (an eyeglass fitter) and he had no medical training.




Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran. His resemblance to Moran, including the clothes he was wearing, is what allegedly set the massacre in motion before Moran actually arrived.




John May, an occasional car mechanic for the Moran gang, though not a gang member himself. May have had two earlier arrests (no convictions) but was attempting to work legally. However, his desperate need of cash, with a wife and seven children, caused him to accept jobs with the Moran gang as a mechanic.


 




Investigation




Since it was common knowledge that Moran was hijacking Capone's Detroit-based liquor shipments, police focused their attention on the Purple Gang. Mug shots of Purple members George Lewis, Eddie Fletcher, Phil Keywell and his younger brother Harry, were picked out by landladies Mrs. Doody and Mrs. Orvidson, who had taken in three men as roomers ten days before the massacre; their rooming houses were directly across the street from the Clark Street garage. Later, these women wavered in their identification, and Fletcher, Lewis, and Harry Keywell were all questioned and cleared by Chicago Police. Nevertheless, the Keywell brothers (and by extension the Purple Gang) would remain ensnared in the massacre case for all time. Many also believed what the killers wanted them to believe âââ‰â¬Å that the police had done it.




On February 22, police were called to the scene of a garage fire on Wood Street where a 1927 Cadillac Sedan was found disassembled and partially burned. It was determined that the car had been used by the killers. The engine number was traced to a Michigan Avenue dealer, who had sold the car to a James Morton of Los Angeles, California. The garage had been rented by a man calling himself Frank Rogers, who gave his address as 1859 West North Avenue âââ‰â¬Å which happened to be the address of the Circus CafÃÆé, operated by Claude Maddox, a former St. Louis gangster with ties to the Capone organization, the Purple Gang, and a St. Louis gang called Egan's Rats. Police could turn up no information about anyone named James Morton or Frank Rogers. But they had a definite lead on one of the killers.




Just minutes before the killings, a truck driver named Elmer Lewis had turned a corner only a block away from 2122 North Clark and sideswiped what he took to be a police car. He told police later that he stopped immediately but was waved away by the uniformed driver, whom he noticed was missing a front tooth. The same description of the car's driver was also given by the president of the Board of Education, H. Wallace Caldwell, who had also witnessed the accident. Police knew that this description could be none other than a former member of Egan's Rats, Fred 'Killer' Burke; Burke and a close companion, James Ray, were well known to wear police uniforms whenever on a robbery spree. Burke was also a fugitive, under indictment for robbery and murder in Ohio. Police also suggested that Joseph Lolordo could have been one of the killers, because of his brother Pasqualino's recent murder by the North Side Gang.




Police then announced that they suspected Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, as well as Jack McGurn himself, and Frank Rio, a Capone bodyguard. Police eventually charged McGurn and Scalise with the massacre. John Scalise, along with Anselmi and Joseph 'Hop Toad' Giunta, were murdered by Al Capone in May 1929, after Capone learned about their plan to kill him, and before he went to trial. The murder charges against Jack McGurn were finally dropped because of a lack of evidence and he was just charged with a violation of the Mann Act: he took his girlfriend, Louise Rolfe, who was also the main witness against him and became known as the "Blonde Alibi", across state lines to marry.




The case stagnated until December 14, 1929, when the Berrien County, Michigan Sheriff's Department raided the St. Joseph, Michigan bungalow of âââ¬ÃâFrederick Daneâââ¬
119
Real Mob Stories / Montreal Mob family suite 1
February 14, 2012, 12:04:05 PM
Rizzuto crime family




The Rizzuto family is a crime syndicate that is part of the phenomenon known as the Mafia or Cosa Nostra, based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The family territory covers most of southern Quebec and Ontario. The FBI considers the family connected to the Bonanno family, but the Canadian law enforcement considers it a separate crime family. The Rizzuto family was part of the powerful Montreal Cotroni family until an internal war broke out and the Rizzutos formed their own family.


 




History




In the 1970s an internal war broke out in the Cotroni crime family between the Sicilian and Calabrian factions. The Sicilian faction was led by Nicolo Rizzuto and the Calabrian faction was led by family boss Vic Cotroni. This led to a violent Mafia war in Montreal leading to the deaths of Paolo Violi (who was acting capo and underboss for Vic Cotroni) and others in the late 1970s. The war ended when Vic Cotroni the Calabrian leader had to let go of the Sicilian faction led by Nicolo Rizzuto in control by the blessing of the Bonanno family. Today the family is considered the strongest crime family in Canada. The leader is Vito Rizzuto the son of the first, and late leader Nicolo Rizzuto.


 




Vito Rizzuto's leadership




Vito Rizzuto's style of business was a striking contrast to flamboyant American mobsters like John Gotti. He remained at the top of Canada's criminal underworld by keeping a low profile, working only with trusted people close to the family, and spreading the wealth around. He is credited with playing a major role in bringing a truce in the deadly war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine in Quebec. The Rizzutos worked with both Sicilian Mafia and Calabrian âââ¬ÃÅNdrangheta families, the Cuntrera-Caruana Mafia clan (which branched out from Sicily to Canada and South America), Colombian drug cartels and the five Mafia families of New York, in particular the Bonannos and Gambinos. Rizzuto was the mediator who oversaw the peace with the Hells Angels, the Mafia, street gangs, Colombian cartels and the Irish mobs such as the West End Gang when the order of the day was co-operation.


 




Current status




After consolidation of their power in the 1990s, the Rizzutos became over-exposed and over-extended. Vito Rizzuto was arrested in January 2004 for his involvement in the 1981 gangland killings of three rival Bonanno crime family captains (Alphonse Indelicato, Phillip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera) and was sentenced to ten years in May 2007. In November 2006 the senior leadership of the criminal organization was hit by a police operation, dubbed Project Colisee. Among the 90 people arrested were Nick Rizzuto, father of Vito Rizzuto, Paolo Renda, Vito Rizzuto's brother-in-law, and Francesco Arcadi.




On December 28, 2009, Nick Rizzuto Jr., son of Vito Rizzuto, was shot and killed near his car in Notre-Dame-de-GrÃÆâce, a borough in Montreal. The killing of Nick Jr. âââ‰â¬Å the face of the organization on the street âââ‰â¬Å illustrated the power vacuum within the upper ranks of Montreal organized crime. Since the slaying of Vito Rizzuto's son, the organisation suffered other major setbacks. Paolo Renda, Vito's brother-in-law disappeared on May 20, 2010. A month later Agostino Cuntrera, the presumed acting boss who is believed to have taken control of the family, was killed together with his bodyguard on June 30, 2010. After three decades of relative stability, the face of the city's Mafia hierarchy is subject to a major management shuffle. On November 10, 2010, Nicolo Rizzuto was killed at his residence in the Cartierville borough of Montreal with a single bullet from a sniper's rifle punched through two layers of glass in the rear patio doors of his Montreal mansion.




Calabrian mobsters in the Cotroni family are believed responsible for the murders of Rizzuto crime family members. The Rizzutos have dominated organized crime activities in Montreal since its inception and now their weakened organization is being challenged for control of rackets in the area, most notability the drug trade. It is unknown if the New York City families, historically aligned with the Rizzuto's, are supporting or against the new leadership. Salvatore Montagna, the acting boss of the Bonanno family until his deporation to Canada in 2009, was believed to be attempting to reorganize both families under his control. If so, he was unsuccessful and was murdered in November 2011. Vito Rizzuto will be released on October 6, 2012, and it remains to be seen if or how he will seek revenge and a return to power.
120
Real Mob Stories / Lucky Luciano
February 15, 2012, 02:52:49 AM
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano (pronounced "loo-tchi-a-noh") (born Salvatore Lucania; November 24, 1897 âââ‰â¬Å January 26, 1962) was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. He was, along with his associate Meyer Lansky, instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States.


 




Early life




Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily.[1] His parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippia (born 1901), and Concetta. When Charlie was 10 years old (1907), the family migrated to the United States.[2][3] They settled in New York City, on the Lower East Side at 265 East 10th Street. The neighborhood was a popular destination for Italian immigrants at the time.




While a teenager, he started his own gang. Unlike the other street gangs whose business was to pickpocket, mug, and steal, Lucania decided to offer protection to the Jewish youngsters who were picked on by their Italian and Irish counterparts. He would charge each one ten cents per week.


 




Prohibition




On January 17, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified and prohibition lasted until the amendment was repealed in 1933. The Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. As there was still a substantial demand for alcohol, this provided criminals with an added source of income. Around this time, Luciano worked for Arnold Rothstein.




Luciano had plans to expand both his territory and profits by collaborating with other gangsters to cut down the cost of political protection and reduce the likelihood of hijacked shipments. However, Joe "The Boss" Masseria prevented Luciano from taking this path.




By 1921, Luciano had met many Mafia leaders, including Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, his longtime friend, business partner, and eventually Sottocapo through his involvement in the Five Points Gang. Together they began a bootlegging operation.




By 1925, Luciano was grossing over $12 million a year; however, he was netting much less each year due to the high costs of bribing politicians and police. Luciano and his partners ran the largest bootlegging operation in New York, one that also extended into Philadelphia. He imported scotch whisky directly from Scotland, rum from the Caribbean, and whiskey from Canada. He was also involved in gambling.


 




Rise to power




At an early age Luciano had established himself as a creative criminal on the Lower East Side and eventually became a top aide to crime boss Joe Masseria who was involved in a prolonged turf war with rival crime boss Salvatore Maranzano during the 1920s.




Masseria was a Mustache Pete, an old-school mafioso who wanted to preserve the old Mafia ideals of honour, tradition, respect and dignity. Luciano and his contemporaries who had started their criminal careers in the United States were known as the Young Turks. Like the original Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire, they formed a young and ambitious group which challenged the established order. The Mustache Petes would not work with anyone who was not Italian or Italian American, and were even skeptical of working with anyone who was not Sicilian or Sicilian-American. Luciano believed that as long as money was being made, the family should deal with anyone. He was therefore shocked to hear old mafiosi lecturing him about his dealings with close friend Frank Costello whom they called "the dirty Calabrian."[5]




What became known as the Castellammarese War raged from 1928 to 1931, resulting in the death of as many as 60 mobsters.[6] The war was nominally between Maranzano and Masseria. In truth, however, there was a third, secret faction, made up of Luciano and several other Young Turks from both the Masseria and Maranzano factions. In addition to Luciano, this group included Frank Costello, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Joe Adonis, Joe Bonanno, Carlo Gambino, Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese. They believed the Mustache Petes' greed was pushing them to the fringe while the Irish and Jewish gangs got rich. Luciano was already making plans to get rid of the Mustache Petes and form a national crime syndicate in which the Italian, Jewish and Irish gangs could pool their resources and turn organized crime into a lucrative business for all.[7]




In 1929, Luciano was forced into a limousine at gun point by three men, beaten and stabbed, and dumped on a beach on New York Bay. He somehow survived the ordeal but was forever marked with a scar and droopy eye. His survival earned him the name Lucky[3] although he may already have earned this nickname in his younger days because of his luck at avoiding police.[2] After his abduction Luciano found out through Meyer Lansky that the attack had been ordered by Masseria's enemy, Salvatore Maranzano.[8] In an ironic twist Luciano later cut a secret deal with Maranzano in which he agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for being made Maranzano's second-in-command.[9] This deal would end the famous Castellammarese War.




Luciano kept up his end of the bargain on April 15, 1931, when he invited Masseria and two other associates to have lunch in a Coney Island restaurant. When they finished their lunch, they decided to play a game of cards. At that point Luciano stepped into the men's washroom. While Luciano was in the washroom, four gunmen--Bugsy Siegel, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonisâââ‰â¬Âwalked into the restaurant and shot and killed Masseria and the other two associates. Luciano then took over Masseria's crime family.[9]




Maranzano then made Luciano his number two, and set up the Five Families of New York. The newly formed families were headed by Maranzano, Luciano, Profaci, Gagliano and Vincent Mangano. Maranzano promised that they would all be equal and all be free to make money. However, while Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking than Masseria, at heart he was still a Mustache Pete. He showed this at a later meeting of the crime bosses in Upstate New York, when he declared himself capo di tutti capi (Boss of all Bosses). He also whittled down the rackets of the rival families in order to strengthen his own family. Luciano appeared to accept this, though in reality he was merely biding his time before getting rid of Maranzano as wellâââ‰â¬Âas he'd planned all along.[5]




Maranzano soon realized that Luciano was a threat, and hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, a notoriously violent Irish gangster, to kill him. However, Lucchese alerted Luciano that he was marked for death. When Maranzano ordered Luciano and Genovese to come to his office at 230 Park Avenue in New York City on September 10, Luciano suspected they wouldn't come out alive. He had four Jewish gangsters pose as government agents and show up at Maranzano's office. While two of the "agents" disarmed Maranzano's bodyguards, the other two stabbed Maranzano multiple times before shooting him.[7]




The same day, several of Maranzano's lieutenants, including James Marino, were killed by unknown gunmen. The bodies of Maranzano allies Samuel Monaco and Louis Russo were later recovered from Newark Bay, both corpses showing signs of torture. During the following days and through the remainder of the year, many old world Sicilian-born mafiosi (Mustache Petes) were killed throughout the country by the Luciano-Lansky faction, thus concluding the Castellammarese War. In mafia parlance, this series of hits, orchestrated with the help of Louis Lepke, came to be known as the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers."


 




Reorganizing the Cosa Nostra




Luciano now had businesses throughout the country. His longtime friend Meyer Lansky served as his right-hand man and adviser. When Dutch Schultz decided he was going to kill Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Dewey, in direct violation of Luciano's orders, Schultz was executed instead.




Luciano had reached the pinnacle of America's underworld, directing criminal rules, policies and activities along with the other family bosses. He ran a powerful crime family which now bore his name, and he controlled lucrative criminal rackets such as gambling, bookmaking, loan-sharking, drug trafficking and extortion. Luciano was very influential in labor and union activities and controlled the Manhattan Waterfront, garbage hauling, construction, Garment Center businesses and trucking.




Luciano abolished the title of Capo Di Tutti i Capi, insisting that the position created tension and trouble between the families. He felt that the ceremony of being 'made a soldier' in a family should be done away with. Meyer Lansky however, urged him against it, arguing that young people needed rituals to cling to. Luciano also stressed the importance of the omertÃÆà, the oath of silence, and kept the organizational structure that Maranzano had instituted.


 




The Commission




Luciano, under the urging of Johnny Torrio, set up the Mafia's governing body, organizing the Commission with the Mafia family bosses. The Commission settled all disputes between families and has been called Luciano's most important innovation. The Commission decided which families controlled which territories. If an individual was to be a "made man", his boss had to first go before the Commission and receive their approval.




The Commission was originally composed of representatives of the Five Families of New York City, the Philadelphia crime family, the Buffalo crime family, Los Angeles crime family and the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone; later, the Detroit crime family, Kansas City crime family were added. All Commission members were supposed to retain the same power and had one vote, but in reality some families and bosses were more powerful than others.


 




The original Luciano family




Luciano elevated his most trusted and loyal family members to high-level positions in the Luciano crime family. The feared Vito Genovese became his Underboss, while Frank Costello was his consigliere. Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola, Anthony Strollo, Joe Adonis, and Anthony Carfano all served as caporegimes. Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel were both unofficial advisors to the Luciano family.


 




Prosecutions and prison




Luciano's reign was relatively short-lived. Special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, a future Republican presidential candidate (later Luciano himself affirmed that the Commission had done everything they could in order for Dewey to become President in exchange for Luciano's return to the US), singled out Luciano as an organized crime ringleader and targeted him, along with others. Luciano had previously voted against Dutch Schultz's proposal to assassinate Dewey after Schultz became the repeated target of Dewey's investigations.




In a raid by Dewey of 80 New York City brothels, hundreds of arrested prostitutes agreed to turn state's evidence in exchange for not receiving prison time. Three of them implicated Luciano as the ringleader, who made collections, although David "Little Davey" Betillo was in charge of the prostitution ring in New York, and any money that Luciano received was from Betillo. But Dewey had also managed to persuade the staff at The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to lie and say that Luciano's gangster friends had often come to his room.




It is believed by almost all mob experts[who?] that Dewey framed Luciano, since Mafia did not bother with prostitution, and also Luciano meeting with hookers to collect money seemed absurd, considering his position as boss. Before he could get Luciano into court for trial, Luciano escaped to Hot Springs, Arkansas, the renowned gangster haven established by famous gangster Owney Madden. An Arkansas judge remanded Luciano to a state prison for extradition, but a local paid-off police detective bailed Luciano out of jail after only four hours. Dewey then sent detectives to Arkansas to spirit Luciano back for trial.




Dewey's efforts succeeded in Luciano being convicted on charges as leader of one of the largest prostitution rings in American history in 1936 and sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, along with Dave Betillo and others.[10] Dewey exposed Luciano for lying on the witness stand, through direct quizzing and records of telephone calls; Luciano also had no explanation for why his federal income tax records claimed he made only $22,000 a year, while it was obvious to onlookers that he was a wealthy man.[9]




Luciano continued to run the Luciano crime family from prison and his prison cell, relaying his orders through his first acting boss, Vito Genovese. Genovese had quickly lived up to his feared reputation for violence, and soon fled to Naples, Italy, in 1937 to avoid a murder indictment. The Family's third most powerful member, Consigliere Frank Costello became the new Sottocapo and overseer of Luciano's interests. It is a mystery to most organized crime historians just who it was that had replaced Costello as the family consigliere. The only hint to the Costello successor came from Joe Valachi. Valachi was a former soldier in the Genovese Family and the first major Mafia informer in the United States. Valachi mentions, in the book The Valachi Papers, written by Peter Maas, a certain "Sandino," as the Family counselor. The mysterious "Sandino" was whispered about at a meeting Valachi attended with his Capo, Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo.[11]




Luciano was imprisoned in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, where co-defendant Dave Betillo prepared special dishes for Luciano in a special kitchen set aside by authorities.[9] He would use his influence to help get the materials to build a church at the prison, which became famous for being one of the only freestanding churches in the New York State correctional system and also for the fact that on the church's altar are two of the original doors from the Victoria, the ship of Ferdinand Magellan.


 




World War II, freedom and deportation




During World War II, the U.S. government reportedly struck a secret deal with the imprisoned Luciano. United States Army Military Intelligence knew that Luciano maintained good connections in the Sicilian and Italian Mafia, which the fascist regime had tried to eradicate. Luciano considered himself to be a loyal American who was devoted to Sicily, the Mafia, and the United States alike. His help was sought in providing Mafia assistance to counter possible Axis infiltration on U.S. waterfronts, during Operation Avalanche, and his connections in Italy and Sicily were tapped to furnish intelligence and ensure an easy passage for U.S. forces involved in the Italian Campaign. Albert Anastasia, who controlled the docks, promised that no dockworker strikes would arise. Both during and after the war, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies reputedly also used Luciano's Mafia connections to root out communist influence in labor groups and local governments. In return for his cooperation, Luciano was permitted to run his crime empire unhindered from his jail cell.




Luciano would later say that his contribution to the war effort had been a sham, designed purely to obtain his release from prison. The enemy threat to the docks, he said, had been manufactured by the sinking of the SS Normandie directed by Anastasia's brother, Anthony Anastasio.[12] The Normandie, a French passenger vessel, which had been seized by the U.S. under the right of angary, was being refitted as a troop ship in New York harbor. Furthermore, said Luciano, he did next to nothing to help the war effort in Italy.[13]




In 1946, as a reward for his presumed wartime cooperation, Luciano was paroled on the condition that he depart the United States and return to Sicily. He accepted the deal, although he had maintained during his trial that he was a native of New York City and was therefore not subject to deportation. He was deeply hurt about having to leave the United States, a country he had considered his own ever since his arrival at age ten. During his exile, Luciano used to meet US military men during train trips throughout Italy, and he enjoyed being recognized by his countrymen and tourists, taking photos and even signing autographs for them.


 




The Havana Conference




Although Luciano was paroled from prison on the condition that he permanently return to Sicily, he secretly moved to Cuba, where he worked to resume control over American Mafia operations. Meyer Lansky started investing heavily in a Cuban hotel project.




In 1946, Lansky called together the heads of all the major Families, claiming that they were going to see Frank Sinatra perform. Luciano had three topics to discuss: the heroin trade, Cuban gambling, and what was to be done about Bugsy Siegel. The Conference took place at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba and lasted a little more than a week.




One of the main topics for discussion at the Havana Conference was ordering a hit on Siegel, who was unaware of this meeting. Meyer Lansky, who several times owed his life to Siegel when they were young, took a stand against the hit. He begged the attendees to give Siegel a chance by waiting until after the casino opening. Luciano, who believed Siegel could still turn a profit in Las Vegas, Nevada, and pay back what he owed the Mafia investors, agreed to postpone the hit.




To placate his investors, Siegel opened Flamingo Las Vegas, his still-unfinished casino, on the star-studded night of December 26, 1946, although he did not have as many Hollywood celebrities with him as he had hoped. Soon the Flamingo ran dry of entertainers and customers; it closed after only two weeks in order to resume construction. The fully operational Flamingo re-opened in March 1947. Still dissatisfied, the casino's gangster investors once again met in Havana in the spring of 1947 to decide whether to murder Siegel. Luckily for Siegel, the Flamingo had just turned a profit that month. Lansky again spoke up in support of his old friend and convinced Luciano to give Siegel one last chance. However, when the Flamingo still failed to turn a profit, Siegel's fate was sealed; he was killed by four shots fired through a window at his girlfriend's California home in June 1947.




The deposed Luciano asked that he be declared Capo Di Tutti i Capi. His old friends and business associates agreed that he deserved the title; all except Vito Genovese, who wanted the title for himself and is rumored to have leaked Luciano's whereabouts to the government. Luciano reportedly took him into a room and beat him severely for his betrayal.




When the US government learned of Luciano's presence in the Caribbean, he was forced to fly back to Italy. The US government threatened to stop all shipments of medical drugs to Cuba unless Luciano left.


 




Operating in Italy




While exiled in Italy Luciano left his stamp on American organized crime and the larger society for decades to come by making narcotics trafficking one of Cosa Nostra's biggest money making ventures. Between October 10 and October 14, 1957 Luciano oversaw a parley of more than thirty Sicilian and American Mafia leaders to draw up plans for the smuggling and distribution of heroin into the United States. According to Selwyn Raab, an investigative reporter for The New York Times who covered organized crime and criminal justice matters for twenty-five years, it was at the Luciano meeting, held in the Grand Hotel et des Palmes in Palermo, Sicily, that a plan was put into place through which Sicilians were responsible for distributing heroin in the U.S., while the American mobsters collected a share of the income as "franchise fees." Luciano's plan included a scheme to expand the then tiny heroin and cocaine market in the U.S. by reducing the price and focusing on working class black and white urban neighborhoods.


 




Personal life




After being deported to Italy, Luciano fell in love with Igea Lissoni, an Italian dancer 20 years his junior.[14] They lived together peacefully until they learned that there was a hit contract on Luciano, and the two went into hiding. They changed apartments many times throughout the months and moved from hotel to hotel before the hit was called off.




Barred from Rome after the hit was called off, the two lived together in Luciano's house on Via Tasso in Naples [1]. Igea was reportedly the center of Luciano's life, so when she died of breast cancer in 1958, he began to fall apart, as did his control of the American syndicate and his own projects based out of Italy. After living together for 11 years, there was never any confirmation that the two ever married. If they had, it would have been illegal, since Luciano's deportation barred him from marriage.


 




American power struggle




During his exile, Luciano missed a major power shift in America. Vito Genovese, who was at one time Luciano's Underboss, had decided that he wanted to take over the Luciano Family. After a botched 1957 assassination attempt on Costello by Vinnie "The Chin" Gigante, Costello stepped down as Don and let Genovese take over. But Genovese wanted to take out his competition.




It was at the famous Apalachin Meeting, later in 1957, that Genovese planned to propose to The Commission that Luciano be stripped of his title as Capo Di Tutti i Capi, and that he be crowned Boss of all Bosses. But he did not count on Carlo Gambino, one of Luciano's prot̮̩g̮̩s, to hold loyalty to his old Boss.




Costello, Luciano, and Gambino met in a hotel in Palermo, Sicily, to discuss their plan of action.


 




Death and legacy




Luciano was reportedly told not to promote or participate in films about his life, as it would have attracted unnecessary attention to the mob. He relented after Igea Lissoni died of breast cancer and was scheduled to meet with a movie producer arriving by plane at the Naples Airport. On January 26, 1962, Luciano died of a heart attack at Naples International Airport. Back in 1946 after serving his prison sentence, Luciano had been deported and thus denied entry into the United States, but in death his desire was granted. He was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens. More than 2,000 mourners attended his funeral. His longtime friend, Carlo Gambino, spoke at the funeral.




Carlo Gambino was the only other boss besides Luciano to have complete control of the Commission and virtually every Mafia family in the United States. Luciano, unlike many Italian gangsters in the days of his rise to the top, was prepared to do dealings with non-Italians mainly of Jewish descent. As much as it was resented by his fellow Italians, it paid dividends. With the help of his Jewish associates he reinvented the mob into the most powerful crime syndicate the United States has ever witnessed and, in the process, oversaw the golden era of the American Mafia. Lucky Luciano made what was then an unprecedented Mafia coup, facilitating the murders of two of the most feared bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. At the peak of his criminal career Lucky Luciano's influence was far reaching to the extent that the United States government through the FBI approached him for help in protecting the Navy fleet in New York and with the invasion of Italy to defeat Mussolini in World War II. Luciano's contribution led to his release from prison in February 1946. In popular culture proponents of the Mafia and its history often debate as to who was the greater between Luciano and his contemporary Al Capone. The much publicized exploits of Al Capone with the Chicago Outfit made him the most famous mobster in American history, however Capone did not command influence over other Mafia families; something Luciano did in creating and running The Commission. For being the Mafia hegemon in the era of landmark mobsters like Albert Anastasia, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Tommy Lucchese, Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese all of whom he led, Charles Lucky Luciano is thus considered by many as the most powerful Mafia boss of all time.




TIME magazine deplored Luciano as the "criminal mastermind" among the top 20 most influential builders and titans of the 20th century.



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