Chapter . . . . .5 ........................................ Lucky Luciano in Cuba
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n 1936, Salvatore Lucania, better known as Lucky Luciano, was convicted on charges of running a prostitution ring in New York City and sentenced to between thirty and fifty years in prison. Luciano had been born in Sicily but in 1906 moved with his family to the United States, where he climbed through the ranks of organized crime to become the head of the New York syndicate. The man who prosecuted the case against Luciano and fifteen of his mobster associates was Thomas E. Dewey, then serving as New York City’s district attorney, and the long sentences the men received were intended to cripple the mob by removing some of its top overlords. In early 1946, however, Dewey, now the governor of the state of New York, agreed to commute Luciano’s sentence on the condition that he be deported immediately to Italy. According to two members of the U.S. armed forces, Murray I. Gurfein and Charles R. Haffenden, Luciano had in effect bargained for his freedom by lending support to the American war effort against Germany and Italy. Though imprisoned, the mafia boss still controlled the New York city waterfront, and he had used his influence and underworld contacts to obtain and share with U.S. officials information about potential American collaborators in the German campaign to sink ships crossing the Atlantic. Luciano also used his contacts in Italy to obtain information that would help the U.S. Navy coordinate the logistics of landing Allied troops in Sicily. Dewey maintained, however, that the commutation of Luciano’s sentence was purely a routine matter, in keeping with the state’s established policy of deporting foreignborn prisoners as a way to save money. The governor, in fact, had done nothing more than follow the recommendation of the state parole board.1 After Luciano’s deportation, rumors began to circulate that he wanted to leave Italy and return to the Western Hemisphere to coordinate and maintain control over his U.S. business interests. Cuba and Mexico were among the
