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Speaker 1: Okay, this is a story that sounds too wild to

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Speaker 1: be true. How one of the most notorious gangsters in

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Speaker 1: American history helped the US win World War Two. It

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Speaker 1: was Lucky Luciano, the guy who rewrote the playbook for

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Speaker 1: the American mafia, ruled the underworld with an iron fist,

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Speaker 1: and I meet an iron fist and then somehow found

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Speaker 1: himself working for the US government. How did it happen?

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Speaker 1: Was he forced to do it? And if so, why

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Speaker 1: and what happened to him after the war? I'm Patti Steele.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, this is one story you will not believe.

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Speaker 1: And it's next on the backstory. The backstory is back.

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Speaker 1: Charles Lucky Luciano was born Salvatore Lukena in eighteen ninety

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Speaker 1: seven in Sicily. When he was just nine and his

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Speaker 1: family immigrated to New York City, settling on the Lower

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Speaker 1: East Side. It didn't take long for this kid to

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Speaker 1: realize that playing by the rules wasn't going to get

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Speaker 1: him very far. By his teens, he'd dropped at a

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Speaker 1: school started running with gangs. He made a name for

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Speaker 1: himself running illegal gambling operations and extortion rackets. But what

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Speaker 1: really set him apart was his vision for the future

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Speaker 1: of organized crime. Imagine the confidence it took that young

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Speaker 1: kid to play on that level. Unlike the old school

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Speaker 1: mafia bosses who were dedicated to Sicilian tradition and to

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Speaker 1: long standing feuds, Luciano wanted to run the mob like

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Speaker 1: a business, and that's exactly what he did. By the

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, he becomes the absolute king of the East

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Speaker 1: Coast underworld. He's controlling gambling, drug trafficking, and most profitably

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Speaker 1: of all, bootlegging liquor. During Prohibition, Hick was on gold mine.

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Speaker 1: On top of that, he sets up the Commission, which

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Speaker 1: was kind of a governing body for the mafia, making

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Speaker 1: sure there was cooperation between crime families instead of wasting energy, money,

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Speaker 1: and manpower through constant bloodshed. But, like everything else, despite

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Speaker 1: all his success, his reign wouldn't last forever. Now it's

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six and New York Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey

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Speaker 1: makes it his mission to bring Luciano down, and he

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Speaker 1: did it on prostitution charges. Prostitution really, with everything else

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Speaker 1: he did, that's what got him. Oh here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Dewey is relentless as he gathers enough evidence to charge

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Speaker 1: Luciano with running a massive prostitution ring, and he wins

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Speaker 1: the day lucky. Not so lucky, He's convicted and sentenced

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Speaker 1: to thirty to fifty years in prison. But of course,

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Speaker 1: like any good mob boss, Luciano continues to run his

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Speaker 1: crime syndicate from prison. His orders are passed to his

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Speaker 1: contacts on the outside, mostly the Genevi's acting boss at

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Speaker 1: that time. Amazingly, Luciano has so much influence even behind

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Speaker 1: bars at the Clinton Correctional Facility that he has a

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Speaker 1: separate kitchen and cook preparing lavish meals for him. Can

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Speaker 1: you believe it? He even convinces the Department of Corrections

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Speaker 1: to let him build a church on the prison grounds,

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Speaker 1: one of the only freestanding churches in the New York

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Speaker 1: prison system. And it wasn't just any building. The church

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Speaker 1: was famous for having two doors from Ferdinand Magellan's ship,

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Speaker 1: the Victoria, one of his flotilla from the very first

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Speaker 1: trip around the world in the early fifteen hundreds. How'd

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Speaker 1: he get those? Now the nineteen thirties are ending, Luciano

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Speaker 1: knows the longer he's locked up, the more his power

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Speaker 1: will wane. But then he's luck turns. World War Two

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Speaker 1: gets underway, and suddenly the US government needs a favor

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Speaker 1: from their still very powerful prisoner, and he needs them.

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Speaker 1: It's the early nineteen forties. America's in the war, and

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Speaker 1: one of its biggest vulnerabilities is right in its own backyard,

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Speaker 1: New York Harbor. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Washington

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Speaker 1: was terrified of German yu U boats and spies sneaking

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Speaker 1: into the country. In nineteen forty two, something happened that

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Speaker 1: sent them into full on panic. The French ocean liner Normandy,

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Speaker 1: which had been seized by the US and was being

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Speaker 1: converted into a troop transport ship, mysteriously caught fire and

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Speaker 1: capsized in New York Harbor. They never did figure out

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Speaker 1: the cause of the fire, but the powers it be

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Speaker 1: suspected enemy sabotage. The Navy and military intelligence needed to

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Speaker 1: secure the docks. But here's the thing. Only one group

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Speaker 1: really controlled the docks along New York Harbor, the Mafia.

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Speaker 1: Enter Operation Underworld, a top secret collaboration between the US

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Speaker 1: government and the Mob. And who was the key guy

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Speaker 1: to make it happen, Yeah, Lucky Lujiano and of course

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Speaker 1: his trusty associates and henchmen. That's where the infamous Meyer Lansky,

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Speaker 1: one of the main bosses of the Jewish Mob, came

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Speaker 1: into play. He had great relations with the US government,

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Speaker 1: so behind closed doors, Lansky successfully brokers a deal with

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Speaker 1: the Navy for Luciano to gather naval intelligence with his

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Speaker 1: henchmen keeping an eye on New York's ports for any

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Speaker 1: enemy spies trying to get into the country. Luciano agrees,

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Speaker 1: and through his contacts, especially mafia boss albert Anastasia, who

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Speaker 1: runs the long Shoreman's Union, the mob starts keeping a

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Speaker 1: close watch over the waterfront with Luciano at the helm.

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Speaker 1: The mafia helps prevent sabotage, cracks down on labor disputes

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Speaker 1: that could cause problems for military shipments, and even provides

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Speaker 1: intelligence on potential enemy activity. They're so effective that by

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, US intelligence agencies are crediting the mafia

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Speaker 1: with helping to protect vital war efforts. And it didn't

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Speaker 1: stop there. Luciano's connections extended all the way to Sicily,

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Speaker 1: a critical target in the Allies war on the Axis Powers.

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Speaker 1: When the US plans the invasion of Sicily in nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty three, they need info on geography, enemy defenses, and

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Speaker 1: local politics. Luciano, with deep ties to his homeland, gets

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Speaker 1: the Sicilian mafia to work with the Allied forces. It

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Speaker 1: was a win win. So what happens to Luciano after

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Speaker 1: the war? Well, remember he had a deal with the government, right,

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen forty six, New York Governor Thomas Dewey,

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Speaker 1: same guy who put Luciano behind bars years earlier, commuted

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Speaker 1: his sentence in recognition of his help during the war.

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Speaker 1: Just one catch. Luciano gets deported back to Italy, but

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Speaker 1: he doesn't fight it. Not much choice, right, he boards

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Speaker 1: a ship back to Naples. He's officially banned from returning

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Speaker 1: to America, but naturally he made sure he wasn't out

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Speaker 1: of the game. Even in exile, he's still a pretty

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Speaker 1: powerful figure in the mafia. He spends years trying to

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Speaker 1: regain control over international drug trafficking, and he frequently meets

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Speaker 1: with mobsters from America, Cuba and beyond. In fact, he

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Speaker 1: plays a role in setting up the nineteen forty six

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Speaker 1: Havana Conference, which was a major summit of the top

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Speaker 1: mafia bosses in the Western hemisphere. But his power wasn't

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Speaker 1: exactly what it used to be. Washington keeps an eye

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Speaker 1: on him. He's under constant surveillance. Finally, in nineteen sixty two,

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Speaker 1: he's at the airport in Naples, Italy, to meet with

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Speaker 1: an American film producer who wants to make a movie

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Speaker 1: about Luciano's life. Lucky Luciano actually dies of a heart

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Speaker 1: attack while at the Naples airport. He was sixty four

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Speaker 1: years old. Interestingly, he'd always turned down requests to have

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Speaker 1: movies made about him, but as he got older, he

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Speaker 1: thought what the heck and decided to make it happen. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: his heart attack put an end to that project. There

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Speaker 1: have been a couple of movies made about him, including

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Speaker 1: one called Mobsters with Christian Slater playing Lucky, but it

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Speaker 1: was really a no show at the box office. So

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Speaker 1: what's the deal with Lucky Luciano? He clearly didn't help

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Speaker 1: the US out of a feeling of patriotism. He got

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Speaker 1: something in return, right, But he definitely played a role

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Speaker 1: in securing America's war effort, which not many mobsters can claim.

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Speaker 1: Lucky Luciano has a complicated legacy. He built the modern mafia,

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Speaker 1: spent time in prison as a convicted Felon worked with

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Speaker 1: the US government during a very dark time and finally

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Speaker 1: ended his life in exile while still pulling strings from

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Speaker 1: the Shadows. Hope you liked the Backstory with Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: dm me if you have a story you'd like me

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Speaker 1: to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram

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Speaker 1: Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Sturan Group, and

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Speaker 1: Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer

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Speaker 1: Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday.

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Speaker 1: even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and

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Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the

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Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you didn't

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Speaker 1: know you needed to know.