Sicilian-born Charles "Lucky" Luciano is renowned for initiating a new era in organized crime in the United States by establishing a national syndicate that aligned the Italian mafia with Jewish and Irish crime organizations in the 1930s. After his family immigrated to the United States, Luciano began his criminal career by bullying school-children into paying him not to beat them up. He reportedly met his lifelong affiliate Meyer Lansky when Lansky refused to pay him. He began dealing narcotics as a teenager, and as a member of the notorious Five Points gang, Luciano is reputed to have participated in numerous beatings and murders. In addition to gambling and drug peddling, Luciano gained power and wealth during the Prohibition era as a successful bootlegger and used a combination of violence and extortion to gain control over prostitution in Manhattan.

In October 1929, Luciano was kidnapped and...