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CHAPTER 11: TALKING TO THE DEVIL HIMSELF
For the burning of the
Normandie,
see “12-Hour Fight Vain,”
New York Times,
February 10, 1942, and “Giant Vessel Afire at Pier, Is Kept Afloat,”
New York Herald Tribune,
February 10, 1942. The primary source for the deal between Lucky Luciano and U.S. Naval Intelligence is the Herlands Report of 1954 in the Thomas E. Dewey archive, University of Rochester Library, New York. Produced as a secret report, it was never published. New York State Commissioner of Investigation William B. Herlands was one of Dewey’s original racketbusting legal team in the 1930s and headed the inquiry at the request of Dewey to scotch rumors of duplicity following the early release of Luciano. Some fiftyseven major witnesses were interviewed—including Haffenden, MacFall, Marsloe, Hogan, Gurfein, McCook, Polakoff, Lanza, and Lansky—giving sworn testimony of their involvement and producing a total of 2,883 pages of evidence, which was edited down to a 101-page report with appendices. Lansky’s recollection of conversations with Haffenden and the whole World War II project come from the Herlands investigation interview conducted on April 13, 1954. FBI report on Luciano in Great Meadow prison, June 25, 1942. For more detail and extensive documentation, see T. Newark,
Mafia Allies,
St. Paul: Zenith Press, 2007. Haffenden’s son, Charles Radcliffe Haffenden Jr., says of the whole affair: “I was but a young lad of fourteen when all of this occurred. U.S. Naval Intelligence would not support my father in this effort, and basically turned their back on what he was doing.”
CHAPTER 12: LUCKY GOES TO WAR
Naval Intelligence gathering of information about Sicily is based on the findings of the 1954 Herlands Report, including quotes from Haffenden, MacFall,
Wharton, Marsloe, Polakoff, and Lansky. For Marsloe’s testimony regarding Sicily and working with underworld contacts, see Herlands investigation interview with him on June 3, 1954. For Wharton’s claim that Luciano was prepared to go to Sicily to help the war effort, see Herlands investigation written statement by Captain Wallace S. Wharton, June 23, 1954. Del Grazio story comes from Kefauver, E.,
Crime in America,
London, 1952, based on testimony taken during the Kefauver Senate Committee inquiry into organized crime in 1950.
A copy of the
Special Military Plan for Psychological Warfare in Sicily,
a report prepared by the Joint Staff Planners for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, April 9, 1943, is in the British National Archives: WO 204/3701. The British SIS
Handbook on Politics and Intelligence Services
for Sicily in 1943 is in WO 220/403.
The Don Calo Vizzini/Luciano handkerchief story originates with M. Pantaleone,
The Mafia and Politics,
London, 1966; N. Lewis repeats it in
The Honoured Society,
London: Collins, 1964. “The Daily Journal” of the Forty-fifth Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, the Operations Report of the Third Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, and the narrative of the Operations of the Third Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop Mechanized are all in Modern Military Records, NARA, College Park, Maryland. Luigi Lumia’s memory of Don Calo interrogated by U.S. troops at Villalba appears in L. Lumia,
Villalba, storia e memoria,
Caltanissetta, 1990, a copy held in Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana. For more detail and extensive documentation, see Newark,
Mafia Allies.
For Dewey’s statement on Luciano’s deportation see Herlands Report, and “Dewey Commutes Luciano Sentence,”
New York Times,
January 4, 1946, also M. Berger, “Deportation Set for Luciano Today”
New York Times,
February 9, 1946, “Luciano Taken on Ship,”
New York Times,
February 10, 1946, “Luciano Departs for Italy with 3,500 Tons of Flour,”
New York Herald Tribune,
February 11, 1946, “Pardoned Luciano on His Way to Italy,”
New York Times,
February 11, 1946. FBI teletype memorandum dated February 25–27, 1946, gives a detailed report of an anonymous FBI agent visiting Luciano on board the
Laura Keene.
All FBI Rosen memoranda, as dated in main text, addressed to E. A. Tamm, also an assistant director of FBI, who passed them on to Hoover.
In January 1953, New York radio station broadcaster Michael Stern claimed that Governor Dewey had been paid large sums of money to give Luciano his parole. When Dewey set a lawyer on Stern, the broadcaster implied that Hoover had given him the information while dining with him at the Stork Club. Hoover was furious to be caught up in the allegations, denied knowing Stern or meeting him at the Stork Club, and called him a “name dropper who should be told to put up or shut up” (FBI memorandum from director, March 10, 1953). Memorandum of January 5, 1953, says that Haffenden was helping his associates get a cut from their half-million-dollar corporation known as the Sightseeing Yachts Incorporated, which had a monopoly over mooring rights in New York City.
CHAPTER 13: CUBA FIASCO
The majority of this chapter is based on memoranda held in the FBI files on Luciano. FBI Rosen report on Luciano in Mexico dated July 10, 1946; see also
Excelsior
newspaper article, March 26, 1946, “Vice Czar Intends to Return to Mexico,” and
New York Journal American
story on Luciano on September 5, 1946. “Italy’s dead” quote is from “City Boy,”
Time
, July 25, 1949.
February 10, 1947, memorandum from Rosen to Tamm recording Luciano observed by two SIS FBI agents on February 8 in Havana. Feature on crooked gambling in Cuba,
Tiempo en Cuba,
February 9, 1947. “‘Lucky’s’ Luck Runs Out Again,” by Henry Wallace,
Havana Post,
February 23, 1947. Letter of February 25 from U.S. embassy in Havana to FBI director, says Luciano arrived in Cuba on October 29, 1946. Special agent James P. McMahon and another unnamed agent are credited with spotting Luciano on February 8 and were recommended for letters of commendation. Undated FBI radiogram received late February stated that U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics was taking action to get Luciano out of Cuba. “Wrong Friends,” syndicated column by Robert C. Ruark about Sinatra, February 20, 1947. “Linked to Luciano—Three Name Suspect in Ragen Death,”
Washington Post,
March 14, 1947; Mob interest in Ragen explained in FBI profile of Bugsy Siegel dated July 22, 1946. Second Luciano interview with FBI dated March 19. See also FBI report on whole affair sent from Havana, March 22, 1947. Stacher quotes from Eisenberg et al.
CHAPTER 14: COLD WAR WARRIOR
Luciano in Palermo and his possible Cold War involvement is noted by A. E. Watkins of the British Consulate, Palermo, in a report dated July 5, 1947, now in the British National Archives: FO 371/67786. For Luciano’s arrival in Italy, see “Luciano Reaches Naples,”
New York Times,
March 1, 1946. For Tresca murder see “Carlo Tresca Assassinated on Fifth Avenue,”
New York Herald Tribune,
January 12, 1943; for claim that Luciano knew the identities of Tresca’s murderers and was willing to trade this information, see Herlands investigation interview with Anthony J. Marsloe, July 20, 1954.
For an account of Genovese’s black market activities in Italy, see FBI File No: 58-7146. For British criticism of Poletti, see telegram from “Resident Minister, Algiers, to Foreign Office,” January 16, 1944, and Lord Rennell’s comments on Macmillan’s telegram, both in British National Archives: FO 371/43918. An August 27, 1944, report from Captain J. Kane, Allied provincial public safety officer in Viterbo, trying to identify Vito Genovese with another bad character comes from the collection of Poletti’s papers and letters lodged at the Herbert H. Lehman Suite and Papers, Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (AMG file, S9).
Not everyone, however, has bad words to say about Poletti. Lawrence L. Miller, a major in the U.S. Fifth Army AMG from 1943–47, worked directly for Poletti and said, “Charlie Poletti was a very good lawyer and a very smart
man. He did have great connections and political friends in New York State and they gave him positions of great responsibility. I can’t believe he would ever do anything illegal.” Thanks to his son, Robert Miller, for this quote.
References to Nick Gentile and an American colonel occur in memorandum on “Sicilian Separatist Disturbances” by special agents Gabriel B. Celetta and Saverio Forte for U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) Naples Detachment, January 29, 1946, British NA: WO 204/12619. CIA Cold War strategy comments come from
The Current Situation in Italy,
Central Intelligence Agency, October 10, 1947. Link between CIA and Corsican Mob mentioned in Scheim, D. E.,
The Mafia Killed President Kennedy,
London: W. H. Allen, 1988. Death of Giuliano reported in “Sicilian Bandit Shot Dead” London
Times,
July 6, 1950. See also April 1949 issue of
Esquire
magazine that links Luciano with Giuliano, “Lucky and the Angel.” For more detail and extensive documentation on all the subjects covered in this chapter, see Newark,
Mafia Allies
.
CHAPTER 15: NARCOTICS OVERLORD
For a good overview of the world situation in illicit drug trafficking, see “Traffic in Narcotics,” London
Times,
November 15, 1947, and “World Traffic in Drugs,” London
Times,
September 19, 1951. For British embassy comments on illicit traffic in narcotics, January 15, 1954, and “Remarks of the Honorable Harry J. Anslinger, United States Representative on the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Eighth Session,” April 15, 1953, see British National Archives: FO 371/112506. See New York
Daily Mirror
“Link Luciano to $300,000 Dope Seizure,” January 1948. Luciano “banana” quote from “City Boy”
Time,
July 25, 1949. Newark-Luciano heroin connection appears in FBI report on Zwillman dated June 7, 1950. Collace reference in FBI monograph on the Mafia, July 1958, Section II. Gentile quotes from previously citied source. Lansky account of meeting Luciano in Rome, Kefauver Committee hearings, February 14, 1951 (part 7-K609).
International Criminal Police Commission Reports from 1952 and 1956 listing major narcotics arrests in Italy contained in British National Archives: MEPO 3/2954. Correspondence and reports regarding alleged drug smuggling based in Allied administered Trieste, including criticisms from Venezia Giulia Police Force, in British National Archives: FO/371/112506. For a short profile of Charlie Siragusa, see “One-man Narcotics Squad” by Andrew Tully in J. D. Lewis, (editor),
Crusade Against Crime II,
London: T. V. Boardman, 1965. Giuseppe Dosi memorandum to Anslinger quoted in K. Meyer, and T. Parssinen,
Webs of Smoke,
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Many anecdotes relating to Luciano in Naples come from a five-page letter written by Siragusa to Anslinger in January 5, 1954, reporting information coming from two undercover FBN agents who had befriended Luciano in Naples, see NARA, RG 170, DEA Files, entry 71A-3555. Quotes from Giannini letters to FBN come from F. Sondern,
Brotherhood of Evil: The Mafia,
London: Victor Gollancz, 1959.
See also H. J. Anslinger, and W. Oursler,
The Murderers,
London: Arthur Barker, Ltd., 1962.
Rago/Scibilia story and related anecdotes come from an FBI summary of a three-part article appearing in
L’Europeo,
January 11, January 18, and January 25, 1959, entitled “The Secret Life of Lucky Luciano”; this article is probably the source for the similar stories later told in
The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano.
The Antonio Calderone slap anecdote is told in P. Arlacchi,
Gli uomini del disonore—vita del grande pentito Antonio Calderone,
Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1992; see also S. Lupo,
Storia della mafia,
Rome: Donzelli Editore, 1993; although it is a little suspicious that this incident is recalled twenty years after it appears in the Francesco Rosi movie. Valachi, Lansky, and Bonanno quotes from previously cited sources. Monzelli quotes from D. Hanna,
Vito Genovese,
New York: Belmont Tower Books, 1974.
Bonanno’s Palermo Mafia conference is described in Sterling, C.,
Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia,
New York: WW Norton & Co., 1990; see also P. Arlacchi,
Addio Cosa Nostra: La vita di Tommaso Buscetta,
Milan: Rizzoli, 1994. But Sterling gives too much weight to Buscetta’s claim that Luciano set up the conference and quotes too frequently from Hammer and Gosch.
CHAPTER 16: GENOVESE’S GAME
Kefauver quotes come from E. Kefauver,
Crime in America,
London: Victor Gollancz, 1952. Costello quotes from Wolf. Torriani quotes from Hanna. Bugsy Siegel hit on Goering and Goebbels story comes from D. Jennings,
We Only Kill Each Other,
New York, 1968, but the ultimate source is the Countess di Frasso talking to Hollywood mogul Jack Warner. Valachi, Bonanno, Stacher, and Lansky quotes from previously cited sources. See “Anastasia Slain in a Hotel Here,”
New York Times
, October 26, 1957, and “Apalachin Story Still Unresolved Mystery,”
New York Times,
December 22, 1957.
CHAPTER 17: LUCKY IN LOVE
Lissoni quotes from Scaduto and
Time
article, cited previously. Dorothy Kilgallen’s Broadway column and Seattle office memorandum both in FBI files on Luciano, along with Times Union clipping, “White Slavery Foe in Italy names Luciano,” March 19, 1956. Naples court ruling reported in “Lucky Luciano Wins Freedom Ruling in Court,”
Washington Post,
March 21, 1958. On December 14, 1952, the
American Weekly
carried an interview with Luciano by Llewellyn Miller in which she talked to the mobster in the Turistico Hotel in Naples. WMCA radio series on Luciano broadcast on March 23 and 30, 1959. For Vizzini meetings with Luciano and quotes, see S. Vizzini, O. Fraley, and M. Smith,
Vizzini: The Secret Lives of America’s Most Successful Undercover Agent,
London: Futura, 1974. Several anecdotes relating to Luciano and Lissoni in Naples come from Siragusa letter to Anslinger, January 5, 1954, cited elsewhere.
For Colleen Lanza anecdote see R. Strait,
Star Babies,
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979; see also G. C. Kohn,
Encyclopedia of American Scandal,
New York: Facts on File, 1989.
Scarface
quote from B. Hecht,
A Child of the Century,
New York: New American Library, 1955. FBI analysis of
The Luciano Story
dated March 7, 1955. Glassman quotes come from Scaduto and it should be noted that he is very anti-Gosch. For Gosch version see introduction to
The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano
. Jack Anderson’s
Washington Post
article “The Last Days of Lucky Luciano” seems to be very much the source for the final conspiracy described by Gosch and Hammer in
The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano;
they merely give it a twist by saying that it is all part of Genovese’s vendetta against him.

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