Background
Tommy Luchese was born Gaetano Luchese (sometimes spelled Lucchese) in 1899 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
Tommy Luchese was born Gaetano Luchese (sometimes spelled Lucchese) in 1899 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
In 1911 Luchese immigrated to the United States, and by 1919 he had employment as a plumber's helper and machinist in the East Harlem section of New York City. That year he lost his right index finger in a machine-shop accident, which led to his being nicknamed Three-Finger Brown--a reference to a famous baseball player of the early twentieth century, Mordecai ("Three-Finger") Brown--by a policeman who arrested him two years later. Luchese hated the nickname and would not allow anyone to call him that to his face. However, he did go by the name Tommy Brown in his dealings as a garment manufacturer. Luchese's accident was the catalyst in turning him from honest labor to working with the New York City underworld.
In 1921 he was arrested for car theft, and he spent three years in jail, the only time he was ever convicted of a crime, although he was later arrested twice in homicide investigations. Luchese's first membership in a "Mafia family" was in that of Gaetano Reina, whose death set off the "Castellammare war" between leading crime organizations in 1930-1931. Luchese was next put under Gaetano Gagliano, one of Salvatore Maranzano's top loyalists and head of one of the "five families" of New York. Maranzano's forces prevailed over those of Joe ("The Boss") Masseria in the Castellammare war, but Maranzano's reign was short-lived. He was assassinated on September 11, 1931, and Charles ("Lucky") Luciano became the top boss of the New York families. Gagliano and Luchese, his second in command, had aided Luciano's plots; in fact, Luchese may have been the insider who tipped off Maranzano's movements the day of his death. The position of Luchese was secure within the overall organization, and for over twenty years he loyally served Gagliano and a series of top bosses--Luciano, Frank Costello, and Vito Genovese.
Although Luchese did not succeed to the head of the family until 1953, when Gagliano died a natural death, his power and influence within the organization grew steadily. Unlike some of his cohorts, Luchese moved easily with the political powers in New York, and he had significant friends in high places, including Congressman Vito Marcantonio, Congressman Louis Cappozzoli, United States attorney Myles Lane, and Thomas Murphy, the prosecutor of the Alger Hiss case. Luchese arranged key political support for his friends and received various forms of protection for his own activities, which used legitimate businesses as a cover. Among Luchese's operations as "legitimate businessman" was principal ownership of Braunell, Ltd. , a ladies' garments manufacturer on Seventh Avenue; he was also involved in real estate, sand and gravel supplies, a hoist company, and several service firms.
Before Luchese became one of the five family heads in New York, he was instrumental in picking the mayor of New York City. In 1950, Mayor William O'Dwyer resigned his office, and Vincent R. Impellitteri, the president of the City Council, became mayor. Impellitteri had been selected for City Council president at the insistence of Marcantonio, who was returning a favor for Luchese. In spite of press revelations about Luchese's role as the power behind the mayor, Impellitteri won election to a full term in November 1950, running as an independent when Tammany boss Carmine De Sapio refused him the Democratic nomination. The full range of Luchese's activities will never be known, but he was accused at various times of involvement in narcotics distribution, gambling, numbers running, and racketeering. When called on to testify before the New York State Crime Commission in 1952, he portrayed himself as a falsely accused businessman. "The only thing I belong to is the Knights of Columbus, " he later claimed. And when confronted with allegations of controlling the narcotics vendors in the city, he reacted with injured pride. "Any man who got a family should die before he goes into any of that kind of business, " Luchese said.
From 1953 until his death, Luchese was a leading member of the "Commission, " the top bosses who decided the group's policies and tried to iron out differences. Although his role was generally well known to law enforcement officials, he escaped the indignity of harassment and jailings that other organized-crime leaders of that time faced. When sixty-five crime bosses from around the nation converged at the home of Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York, in November 1957, the police apprehended a large number of them. Luchese escaped detection, however, by heading into the woods as he approached the Barbara house and saw police cars. According to Joseph Bonanno, Luchese faced his most dangerous moment in the mid-1950's when Frank Costello accused Luchese of plotting to kill Costello's top ally, Albert Anastasia. The Commission held what became known as the Luchese Tribunal, to judge whether Luchese should die. Luchese used his wits to save his life, by refusing to say if the charges were true and then appealing directly to the honor of Anastasia: "You, Albert, only you have the right to say if I should die. " With the support of Bonanno and the reluctance of Anastasia to openly call for the death of a longtime colleague, Luchese survived. Of the five families in New York, Luchese's was the smallest. Estimated figures for 1963 listed his at 150 members, out of a total of 2, 350 for all five. But Luchese's influence, while never as well publicized as that of his fellow bosses, was substantial, in large part because of his political contacts. Indeed, it was his political connections that enabled him to be naturalized in 1943, thirty-two years after his arrival, and that allowed him to receive a certificate of good conduct from the New York State Parole Board on April 18, 1950, allowing him, as an ex-convict, to vote.
Luchese's last years were spent in seclusion at his luxurious home on Long Island. He was ill for over a year before his death at Lido Beach, Long Island. His control of the family passed to Carmine Tramunti.
Luchese was well-known as the head of the Lucchese crime family during the 1950s and 1960s, one of the Five Families that ruled the organized crime in New York City. Under his leadership, the Lucchese syndicate expanded their business holdings which included garment businesses, trucking companies, and trade associations.
Luchese was popular and well respected among his men, but was also capable of ruthless violence.
