In 1929, Luciano lived up his nickname "Lucky" by surviving a savage attack. Luciano was also an associate of Arnold Rothstein, also known as the Big Bankroll, who had gambling and bootlegging operations. These unscrupulous characters dominated the illegal liquor trade on the East Coast. Luciano became one of the "Big Six" of bootlegging along with childhood friend Lansky, Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Abner "Longy" Zwillman. The 'Big Six' of Bootleggingĭuring the 1920s, the prohibition of alcohol created opportunities for criminals to make a lot of money. He was caught selling heroin and served six months at a reformatory for the crime. Luciano got involved in dealing drugs, which led to his first major run-in with the law in 1916. He also became affiliated with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria's criminal operation. The teenaged Luciano befriended Jewish gang members Meyer Lansky and his associate Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who would become two of his most important allies. While he worked as a clerk for a hat company for some time, he managed a budding criminal career as well. Luciano dropped out of school in 1914 and graduated from other offenses. If they didn't cough up the money, he was liable to give them a beating himself. One of Luciano's first rackets was getting his schoolmates to pay him for protection. He preferred to learn how to make it on the streets of New York's Lower East Side. Not able to speak English, Luciano struggled in school. ![]() He came to the United States with his family in 1906. Early Lifeīorn Salvatore Lucania in Sicily in 1897, Luciano became one of the most notorious criminal figures of the 20th century. Luciano moved to Havana and was later deported to Italy, living out his final years in Naples. He also initiated The Commission, which served as a governing body for organized crime nationwide. Charles "Lucky" Luciano is an American mobster who split New York City into five crime families, heading the Genovese crime family himself.
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