WEBVTT - Ep 3: Breaking Through 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:14.840 Novel before we begin, a content warning the following episode 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:25.319 contains difficult themes and violence. After making sure my little 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:27.800 brother gets on his bus, I walk a couple of 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.680 blocks up the hill to wait on mine. It's the 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.040 fall of nineteen eighty three and I'm heading into the 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:39.160 first grade throughout elementary school. Neighborhood. Friends and I meet 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:41.720 at the driveway of some stranger's house to keep an 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.000 eye out for the big yellow school bus that will 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:50.920 take us through Nashville. 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:50.000 For the next four years. 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.279 I always sit next to the window so I can 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.800 see the city go by. The morning journey starts in 0:00:55.880 --> 0:01:00.520 North Nashville, near Jefferson Street, a black historic neighborhood. The 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.080 bus snakes through the streets of quiet homes where you 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:07.800 just knew someone's grandparents lived. There are chairs on front porches, 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.119 no matter how small, and carefully wild bushes of roses 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.480 or honeysuckle or whatever, bright colorful flowers bloom when it's 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.360 their time. Instead of taking the forty interstate that had 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.399 devastated the neighborhood with its arrival in the nineteen sixties, 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.800 the bus bounces over railroad tracks into the west side 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.640 of Nashville until we arrive in Sylvan Park, a white 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:36.080 part of town. The deeper we go, the denser the 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:40.479 trees grow, blocking the sun. Not in a menacing way, 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.560 in an undisturbed way. The houses range from quaint to 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:51.280 gingerbread to many country castles, and it's clear no one 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:56.080 is sending an inner state through this neighborhood. As the 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.840 bus glides into position in front of my elementary school, 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:00.800 I steal myself. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:02.160 For the day ahead. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.240 Inside I'll be separated from my bus friends and become 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.280 the only black girl in whatever they called gifted classes. 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.600 Back then, I only see my black friends at lunch 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.760 and pe and then again in the afternoon on the bus. 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:19.000 Ride back to North Nashville. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.239 When I became an adult, I realized I'd been part 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.640 of a long term bussing program to help desegregate schools 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:30.400 in Nashville. The rhythms of my daily school year routine, 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.560 the long winding bus journey, days split between black friends 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.440 and family and white classmates and teachers, were all part 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.359 of a bigger political project to address a deep legacy 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.840 of discrimination and segregation. And though I didn't quite realize 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:51.840 it at the time, I was learning not just about multiplications, spelling, 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.399 and how to write incursive. I was also absorbing lessons 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.880 about what it meant to succeed as a black girl 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:04.560 in America. What was expected of you, what lines and 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:13.120 worlds you had to carefully walk between. When I started 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.880 working on this podcast, I recognized this part of myself 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.840 in Unice Carter, the need to be respectable, to be 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.359 able to move in white spaces. When we last left Unis, 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.639 she had been dreaming of making an impact and had 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.960 decided the law was the place she was going to 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.880 do that. By nineteen twenty eight, Unice left her writing 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.680 and the Harlem renaissance behind. When I was separated from 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.040 my black friends in school for advanced classes, I did 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.680 not enjoy being the only black person or the only 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.360 black girl in the room. I wondered if being singled 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.280 out for her intelligence and ambition was important to Unis 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.800 as she separated herself from her parents' legacy and the 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.200 rest of her community in Harlem. It seems like she 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.880 wanted more for herself, But did she worry what would 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.760 happen if she failed. I'm Nicole Perkins and from the 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:40.080 teams at iHeartRadio and novel This Is the Godmother, Episode three, 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:41.920 Breaking through. 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.839 The gold past a point out where a lot of 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:57.960 the like clubs were compass saying Phillips the Priscopal Church reading. 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.880 During my walking tour of Harlem, one of the stops 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.839 my guide was most excited to show me was Seventh Avenue. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.960 One of start going down Seventh Avenue. Okay, we can 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.080 go by what Billie Holliday was discovered. We can go 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.040 to the home of Langston News. We'll cut across p 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.000 the avenue, go, of course of rankin Newser's house. 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.560 At the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Seventh Avenue was 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.280 the scene of some of its best night life, and 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.640 just a few blocks south of Seventh Avenue and one 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.520 hundred and thirty fifth Street was. 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.520 This large elm tree. 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.920 It had grown there for decades, and it was nicknamed 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:38.479 the Tree of Hope. 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:39.880 Or the Wishing Tree. 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.280 It gave Seventh Avenue the name the Boulevard of Dreams. 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.000 The story is that one day one of Harlem's actors 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.640 stood underneath this elm tree wishing for a job, and 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.400 then a producer walked up to offer him one. In 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.840 nineteen thirty three, America is firmly in the midst of 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.560 the Great Depression, passers by are touching that elm tree 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.160 for good luck, placing their hands on this trunk, wishing 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.920 for work, and wonder if Eunice was superstitious at all, 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.919 if she ever made a wish on the tree trunk 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.680 as she passed by. Six years have passed since we 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.960 last saw Unice. As she's looking for somewhere to hang 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.560 the shingle for her own private law practice. She'd settled 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:27.440 on an office just a little way down from the 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.240 Tree of Hope. She'd graduated law school and passed the bar. 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.200 For all intentsive purposes, she'd succeeded in her plan to 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.240 escape a more traditional life as housewife and social life. 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.880 But if some of that elmtree luck rubbed off on 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.159 Unis her first couple of years as a private practice 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.120 attorney do not show it. It was a far cry 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:54.080 from what she imagined for herself when she entered law school. First, 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.120 let's go back in time a little bit to Eunice 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:02.159 Hunting Carter arriving at the Woolworth Building downtown Manhattan on 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:10.600 a bright September day in nineteen twenty seven. The Woolworth 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:15.160 Building at two thirty three Broadway is glamorous and Gothic 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.480 imagine Westminster Abbey, but slicker and as a skyscraper. 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.120 It's got a cathedral like. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:29.800 Presence, all fifty eight floors looming over the city. Eunice 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.040 enters the lobby that day, full of hope and with 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:37.200 an ambitious plan. She needs to navigate her way out 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.800 of the monotony facing her. She's not just a writer 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:46.560 or a housewife and mother. She's not just missus Lyle Carter. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:52.520 She is more, or at least she plans to be. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.320 As Unice steps into that lobby for the first time, 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:04.720 she is surrounded by intricate gold latticework, mosaics, glossy marble stone, 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:12.560 shafts of light filtering through lead light windows. When she 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.800 enters the elevator, an attendant dings the button that will 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.640 take her up to the twenty seventh and twenty eighth floor. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:21.920 Fordham Law School. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:29.920 There's a library, three large classrooms, some offices for the 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:34.160 dean and the registrar. There's a smoking room, and the 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:42.679 most spectacular view the New York City skyline. It's around 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:47.200 six o'clock in the evening, long shadows cast by the 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.960 setting sun on the west side. 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.480 She was attending at night while still working as a 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.000 social worker. A lot of law schools made it difficult 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.719 to attend if you were working or had other obligations. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.160 So women, black people, Jewish people, Catholics. Bar was trying 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.040 to keep all these people out of the practice of law, 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.920 and so Fordham was trying to be more inclusive by 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.800 allowing people to attend night classes. 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.760 Eunice's decision to attend law school probably came with considerable debate. 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.000 She had a toddler at home, a perfectly good career 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.480 under her belt already. Eunice's own mother, Addie, preached that 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.560 the best place for a black woman was by her 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:34.760 husband's side at home, not gallivanting around Manhattan at night. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.000 A masterclass example of the do as I say, not 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:44.240 as I do lifestyle, Unice strikes me as a stubborn woman, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.359 and as a stubborn woman myself, I wouldn't be surprised 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.880 if all the possible backlash against her decision made her 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:56.160 even more determined to earn her law degree. I'm sure 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.320 there were plenty of people who doubted her ability to 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:03.840 succeed her classmates. Is she stared at as she makes 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.079 her way to class do her peers wonder whether she 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:08.480 strolled in by accident. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:11.400 She probably got that a lot in her life. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:16.160 Surprised at seeing her in predominantly white spaces. I wonder 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.439 if anyone accused her of cheating, or how many times 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.520 she remained quiet so no one thought she was trying 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.600 to prove herself better than everyone else. Maybe she had 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.160 her own doubts. As smart and determined as she is, 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:35.440 She's only human despite it all. During that first term 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:41.040 at Fordham in nineteen twenty seven, Unice's marks are unsurprisingly good. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.120 She liked the study of law a lot, found it 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.000 very interesting. She was very detail oriented. 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:51.080 Eunice's forte was doing you know, research, and she kind 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:53.720 of excelled in going through documents. 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.920 But she's not at Fordham too long when clouds appear 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.360 on the horizon and things start to slide to the left. 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:07.800 In her second year at Fordham, Unice takes a sabbatical. Publicly, 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.800 she tells people that it's because she's sick. Later she 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.079 would say it was actually her son, Lyle Carter Junior 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.679 who was ill. But there's some historical speculation over this. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.280 From everything I know about Unice, the idea of her 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.400 taking a break from law school seems unusual. Maybe the 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.280 loneliness of being the only black person and the sea 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.560 of white men was getting to her. The only reason 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.520 I question it is that she wasn't even resting during 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:38.559 that time off. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.480 And even during her time off for illness, she was 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.720 working still political activism and campaigning. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:51.400 This is Unice's first foray into politics. She's working on 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.000 the campaigns of some Republican candidates. That was probably as 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.360 much of an education as law school. Unice's leave of 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:02.040 absence was eighteen months, but something must have drawn her 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:07.240 back because eventually she returns to her evening studies. She 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.520 doesn't have the kind of instant success she's probably used to. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:13.800 So she did fail the bar exam the first time 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.240 that she took it and had to retake it and 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:17.120 passed on the second. 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.479 Try to be fair to Unice, her exam was on mortgages, 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:28.600 so she might have had trouble staying awake. In the end, 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:33.640 she does finally pass her exams. Between her education law 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.400 school and her foray into politics, Unice has to recognize 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.480 a theme. She's often the only black woman in white, 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.400 male dominated spaces. Is this what she thought she had 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.480 to deal with in order to be at the top. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.360 In nineteen thirty three, Unice becomes one of the first 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.760 black female qualified lawyers in New York. But what has 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:04.280 she sacrificed of herself to get there? Walking along the 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.040 Boulevard of Dreams, past the Tree of Hope and towards 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.880 her small private practice office in Harlem, Unice would have 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:16.120 been carrying the weight of the decisions she'd made. To 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:21.040 be a trailblazer sometimes means being so far ahead you 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:22.679 end up alone. 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:23.880 So when she. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:29.480 Does finally open up her business, things were pretty slow. 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.760 There are no professional accolades and finalizing wills. No one 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.199 is going to write an article about her for handling 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:43.560 misdemeanor charges. It's not exactly prestigious work. Unice may have 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.440 been a lawyer, but she wasn't exactly setting the world 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:48.360 of law on fire. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.600 But she sticks with us for nearly two years. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.480 Did she ever worry she had flung herself in the 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.960 wrong direction? Did she have too much pride to turn 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.080 and back? Had she sacrificed too much to retrace her steps? 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.760 I know I've made some decisions that made me question 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.960 if I'd made the right move, But I kept moving forward. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:14.760 Sometimes that's the only way to shake off self doubt. 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.080 This must have been the quote tale of long dark 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.520 years she'd imagined for others when she wrote that essay 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:28.000 of hers about blazing trails and breaking through. While she's 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.560 struggling to break through on her path, Eunice's former neighbor 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:36.800 from her Brooklyn childhood, Lucky Luciano, is succeeding beyond his 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:42.400 wildest dreams. He had chosen a very different route up 0:14:42.400 --> 0:15:01.240 the mountain. Okay, so when we last left legendary New 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:05.800 York mobster Lucky Luciano, he was graduating too, through the 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:13.600 layers of the New York underworld hierarchy and in the twenties, 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.960 as Units had been making her way in Harlem during 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.520 her years as a czarina and social climber, Lucky was 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.840 doing a similar thing, making new friends, new friends with 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:25.920 a certain status. 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.440 They called him the Broadway mob. Frank Costello, Myra Lansky, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:30.400 Benny Siegel. 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.560 Hip hop heads and fans of gangster movies alike should 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.640 recognize these names in a heartbeat. Lucky's new associates have 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.320 traveled through time to become some of the most well 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:41.960 known mobsters ever. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:46.480 What distinguished Lucky's Broadway mob from a lot of other 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:50.440 gangs was that it was multi ethnic. Mayra Lansky was Jewish, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:55.040 Benny Siegel was Jewish, Frank Costello was Italian. Unlike his 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.920 old fashioned mafia predecessors, what he called the old mustache beats. 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.480 By the nineteen thirties, Lucky and his crew are serious 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:06.480 players in the world of New York crime. And in 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.760 nineteen thirty one, as Unice is arriving downtown at the 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:14.160 Woolworth Building each evening, struggling to finish law school, Lucky 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:15.160 is finding. 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.240 Things a little easier. 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.760 Soon He's headed out each evening from an equally impressive 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:27.120 Manhattan address, the Waldorf Astoria, the largest and tallest hotel 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:32.160 in the world. This is Lucky Luciano's new home. Those 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:34.360 who catch a glimpse of him riding down the elevator 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.800 from his thirty ninth floor suite and walking confidently through 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:43.000 the luxurious lobby will see an almost unrecognizable figure. He's 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.800 no longer the scruffy street urchin from Little Italy. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:53.920 Lucky Luciano was known for silk underwear. Silk shirts, never 0:16:54.160 --> 0:17:00.880 a suit off the rack, always tailored. Pinky ring in particular, 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:06.160 was gold The shoes were always, of course, Italian leather. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.200 If they would wear a fedora, it was usually some 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:11.720 expensive fur. 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.200 Everything from head to toe, especially tailored. 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.959 This was the general dress of the guys that quote 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:24.680 unquote made it. Yes, there was vanity. Some could argue 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:26.600 it was narcissism. 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:27.760 But there was more to it than that. 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:35.280 They didn't want to look like gangsters. They wanted to 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:41.920 look like upstanding, high society citizens. They want to look 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.480 like the Rockefellers. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:49.480 Eunice and Lucky Luciano. Their journey to respectability is quite similar. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.200 Unis uses education and class status. Lucky uses a tailored 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:59.960 and expensive wardrobe to prove himself, and for now, at least, 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.280 Lucky's methods seem to be the ones getting results. 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.480 It was New York high life, if there ever was one. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.600 Traveled in the best cars, dined in the finest restaurants, 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:18.680 hobnobbed with celebrities, living high up in the Waldorf Astoria, 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.879 all the best trappings, the best parties. 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.600 For extra protection, he now uses bodyguards and uses frequent aliases. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.840 But not all of Lucky's physical changes since those days 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.080 when he and Unice were kids in Brooklyn are deliberate 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.720 He's had his own years of struggle too. Just a 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.480 few years before he came to live at the. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:51.720 Astoria, Lucky Luciano was abducted, taken to Staten Island, beaten up, scarred, bleeding, 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.679 passed out, and tossed out on a beach. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.560 Abducted by police, so the story goes. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:03.000 The reason they were beating him up, according to Lucky Luccianum, 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:07.320 is they wanted information on a criminal who was more 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:11.320 infamous than he was at that time. He wouldn't give 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.560 it up, so they beat the hell out of him. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.800 So by nineteen thirty one, Lucky's appearances also marked by 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.880 scars that line his face and a droopy eye. 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:28.560 From that moment on, the mythology of Lucky Lucciano's scars 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:29.119 was born. 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.439 You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.800 and it's no surprise Lucky's rise to the Waldorf had 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.880 caused him to get into some scrapes. Ever since Lucky 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.359 had walked away from school, he was regularly in contact 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.560 with some of the underworld's most violent citizens, and not 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:48.120 just in Little. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.399 Italy, across the country, from New York to Chicago to 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:58.720 Detroit to San Francisco. These people were all on the 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.920 same page. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.040 And that page well. 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.320 While units had been riding high on the socialized scene 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:10.399 in nineteen twenties Harlem Renaissance, Lucky and his contemporaries had 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:13.440 been getting rich supplying all the booze that had been 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:21.440 helping Harlem swing. This is the era of Prohibition, when 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:25.760 religious Zealous convinced the federal government to ban the production, sale, 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.520 and transportation of alcohol during the twenties. 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:32.240 Prohibition is the best thing that ever happened to the 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:37.720 mob because we have something that is illegal, but for 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.480 which there's still a very active and consistent market. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.200 The government had created a gold mine for all kinds 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:45.919 of outlaws. 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:51.480 Prohibition makes an entire sector of the economy, the booze sector, 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.959 illegal overnight. That means if you want a glass beer, 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.639 you're going to have to concert with criminals. All of 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:03.199 a sudden need now to be more criminals to provide 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:04.600 all this booze. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.360 Lucky isn't just any kind of outlaw. He has a 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:15.320 particular knack for making friends in useful places and keeping them. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.399 There's so many little stories, not even major things, but 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.960 there's just many stories of both men and women coming 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.080 in contact with him and singling him out for being 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:28.320 this very charismatic man. 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.440 His experience of striving for more in multi ethnic Little 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.240 Italy has given him a special appreciation for working across 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:37.080 different gangs. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.800 He certainly wanted as much power for himself as possible, 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.520 but if it benefited him, he did not see any 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:47.880 problem with crossing ethnic lines. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:50.919 Lucky was able to make the kind of connections necessary 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.240 when sourcing booze from across the country. 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.639 That's where you see the rise of modern organized crime 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.520 starting to work across state lines, across city line with 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:05.399 bosses beginning to collaborate. Because it's very expensive and very 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:07.919 difficult to move a lot of liquor, you need to 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:12.400 have really good connections. 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:12.840 To supply. 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:18.040 For example, a Harlem speakeasy where jazz pioneer Fletcher Henderson 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.480 might pop in to pass the time between sets. Maybe 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.760 he sweet talks a young legal student who stopped by 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.119 on her way home from her evening classes at the 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:33.120 Woolworth Building, so the rumor goes something to help them 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.199 both ignore that ring on her finger. 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:41.720 Prohibition provides the opportunity for mobsters to become millionaires. Literally, 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.560 these are men in their twenties and thirties that are 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.480 making millions of dollars when the average salary is a 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:49.960 couple thousand dollars in the United States. 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.600 And that's how Lucky came to be living it up, 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:57.240 riding high on the boozy wave of Prohibition, a wave 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.000 that sweeps him as high as the thirty ninth floor 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:07.840 of the Waldorf Astoria in nineteen thirty one. He's far 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:12.040 from done riding that wave, but all waves eventually break. 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:19.880 Lucky's existence in the early nineteen thirties isn't all high life. Yes, 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:25.160 there's the jewelry, the silk shirts, the opium parties, the showgirls, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.200 but the scars that he sees on his face each 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:32.639 morning in the mirror are likely an unnecessary reminder. Lucky 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.960 operates in a high stakes business full of danger, death, 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:43.439 and betrayal. At the start of nineteen thirty one, there 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:46.120 are still those above Lucky in the mob food chain. 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:50.040 Because New York is reaching the climax of an especially 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:55.560 bloody mob feud, something that will be known as the Castella. 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:56.000 Maes A War. 0:23:57.480 --> 0:23:59.960 Lucky is going to use that war to catapult himse 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:03.840 to the top of the underworld food chain and unbeknownst 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:06.119 to him, right into Eunice's orbit. 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:12.160 So this Caste La Maries War. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:17.480 From nineteen thirty to nineteen thirty one, Lucky and many 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:22.320 of his brethren are fighting against each other in a 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:27.639 two pronged war between two would be mob bosses in 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:28.240 New York. 0:24:28.800 --> 0:24:34.199 Two prongs, two mob bosses, Joe Mazzaia and Salvatoria Marizano. 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:37.399 But you don't need to remember them. They're both about 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:40.560 to die. These two guys have been the main New 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:44.119 York mob powers for quite a while, so gangsters know, 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.000 if you're involved in crime in New York, you've generally 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:50.040 got to be kicking up some of your profits to 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:51.120 one of them. 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:57.240 And Lucky he was working from Masorea and realized, as 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:00.800 did his brethren, Masoi was weak. 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:11.560 On an April morning in nineteen thirty one, Lucky heads 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:14.000 over to Coney Island for a spot of lunch with 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:19.320 the boss Massaia. Legend has it he is at the 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:24.399 table when gunmen roll into the restaurant, aim their guns 0:25:24.400 --> 0:25:29.679 at Joe Massaia and shoot, and. 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:31.640 That ended the cast On Larrazi War. 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:38.760 You might be wondering how Lucky made such a lucky escape. 0:25:38.800 --> 0:25:42.760 From lunch that day. But don't worry, he actually organized 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:44.520 the whole assassination himself. 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:50.760 Lucky Luciano agreed to kill Joe the Boss Massarea and 0:25:51.080 --> 0:25:53.280 throw his lot in with Salvatory Marenzano. 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:58.000 And now, in this act of Macavelian betrayal, Lucky Luciano 0:25:58.240 --> 0:26:02.639 is an even more powerful mandebster. But he's not done there, 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:07.440 especially when word reaches him that luck might not last 0:26:07.560 --> 0:26:08.439 with the new boss. 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:12.640 Marenzano put a nail in his own coffin when he 0:26:12.720 --> 0:26:16.120 wrote a list of all the people he wanted knocked off, 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:19.920 and on that list was Lucky Luciano. 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:25.280 This mobster Marenzano had written down an actual hit list. 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:28.399 It doesn't seem like a very wise thing for a 0:26:28.440 --> 0:26:32.440 wise guy to do. And in September nineteen thirty one, 0:26:32.640 --> 0:26:37.760 Mafia lore says that associates of Lucky's disguised themselves as 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:38.920 treasury agents. 0:26:39.720 --> 0:26:44.880 They entered Maronzano's office, stabbed and shot him to death. 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:51.400 Put yourself in lucky shoes. You've just portrayed your first boss, 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:54.560 and now the man you've done it for is journaling 0:26:55.000 --> 0:26:58.320 about having you killed. He might not have felt he 0:26:58.359 --> 0:27:00.480 had any choice. Left, but to take some kind of 0:27:00.560 --> 0:27:04.920 action anyway. By the fall of nineteen thirty one, Lucky's 0:27:05.000 --> 0:27:07.840 taken out two bosses of New York's underworld. 0:27:08.640 --> 0:27:12.320 When the smoke cleared in nineteen thirty one, Lucky Luciana 0:27:12.400 --> 0:27:13.960 was a head of organized crime in New York. 0:27:16.240 --> 0:27:20.000