Lucchese crime family

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Lucchese crime family

Named after Gaetano Lucchese
In: Flag of the United States New York City, New York
By: Gaetano Gagliano
Years active: 1931-present
Territory: Various neighborhoods over NYC
Ethnic makeup: Italian, Italian-American
Membership: 150 - 200 made members, 500 associates approx
Criminal activities: Racketeering, conspiracy, loansharking, money laundering, murder,narcotics,gambling,waste management and extortion.
Allies: Gambino, Bonanno, Colombo, and Genovese crime families
Rivals: Various gangs over NYC including their allies

The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that controls organized crime activities in New York City, USA, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia.

Contents

With the creation of the Five Families as the pillars on which the strength of the American Mafia was based, the new head of the branch previously led by Gaetano "Tom" Reina and then "Fat Joe" Pinzolo, was Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano, with Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese as his underboss. The pair led the family into profitable areas of the trucking and clothing industries, and looked after their men in a way that other mob bosses would have done well to replicate.

When Gagliano died in 1953, Lucchese, who had been loyal to his boss from beginning to end, took over as boss, and carried on the traditions Gagliano had established, making the family which now bore his name one of the most profitable in New York. Lucchese further developed the family's interests by controlling Teamsters unions, workers' co-operatives and trade associations, and racketeering at the new Idlewild Airport. He also developed close relationships with politicians and members of the judiciary, which aided the family on numerous occasions. All this while keeping the low profile for which he became lauded in Mafia circles. Lucchese spent 44 years in the mafia without receiving a single criminal conviction.

Toward the end of his life, Lucchese suffered various health problems and his heart finally gave up July 13, 1967. The man who took over at the head of the family was Carmine "Gribbs" Tramunti. At the time, Tramunti was almost 70 years old and himself suffering from ill health, but with boss-in-waiting Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo in prison, Tramunti was chosen as caretaker boss while Corallo served out his sentence. Tramunti faced a number of criminal charges during his time at the head of the family and was eventually convicted of financing a large heroin smuggling operation. This also included the arrests and convictions of Vincent Papa and Anthony Loria Sr. in the infamous French Connection. This scheme was responsible for distributing millions of dollars in heroin up and down the East Coast during the early seventies, which in turn led to a major NYPD corruption scheme. The scope and depth of this scheme is still not known, but officials suspect it involved a corrupt NYPD officer/officers who allowed access to the NYPD property/evidence storage room, where hundreds of kilograms of heroin lay seized from the now-infamous French Connection bust, and then replaced the missing heroin with white baking flour. The substitution was only discovered when officers noticed insects eating all the bags of "heroin". By that point an estimated street value of approximately $70 million worth of "smack" had already been taken. The racket was brought to light and arrests were made. Certain plotters received jail sentences, including Papa. (Papa was later assassinated in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia; several conflicting reasons why have been suggested). These were the times of Serpico and the DEA's Knapp Commission. Corallo took over upon Tramunti's incarceration in 1974.

Tony Corallo was born in 1913. He received the nickname "Tony Ducks" from a reputation of 'ducking' criminal conviction, Corallo was a boss squarely in the Tommy Lucchese mold. He was heavily involved in union control and worked closely with Jimmy Hoffa, the international president of the Teamsters union. The family prospered under Corallo's leadership, particularly in the trafficking of narcotics, but the authorities had him in their sights.

The FBI had managed to plant a bug in Corallo's car in the early 1980s - this was where he conducted most of his meetings and he was duly overheard talking at great length about mob affairs. The RICO trial that followed saw Corallo convicted on numerous charges and sent to prison, where he would spend the rest of his life (he died in 2000). Corallo's second choice as successor was, after the dissapearing of acting boss Anthony "Buddy" Luongo in 1986, Vittorio "Vic" Amuso.

The period that followed was one of the most turbulent the Lucchese family had seen, given the relative calm under previous bosses. Amuso and his underboss, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso were implicated in a case involving the fitting of thousands of windows in New York at over-inflated prices, and the pair went into hiding in 1990, ruling the family from afar and ordering the execution of anyone they deemed troublesome, including the entire New Jersey branch of the family run by Michael Taccetta, who had allegedly been withholding payment from Amuso.

What followed was a series of botched hits leading to members of the family turning informant to save their own lives. The planned executions went as high as Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco, the acting boss while Amuso was in hiding, who had little choice but to turn himself over to the authorities to spare him and his family from Amuso and Casso and their increasingly erratic demands.

On July 29, 1991, the FBI captured Amuso in Pennsylvania, and two years later Casso was caught in New Jersey. Amuso had resisted all attempts by the police to turn on the mob, but Casso wasted little time in doing so. Unfortunately for Casso, his testimony proved so inconsistent that he was ultimately accused of having gone back on his deal to help the authorities and refused leniency in sentencing for his various crimes.

Joseph "Little Joe" Defede was chosen as the acting boss of the Lucchese family, though Amuso continued to pull the strings from behind bars. When Amuso came to the belief that Defede was stealing money from his own family, Defede decided to turn state's witness to spare himself the boss' wrath. Steven Crea was the next man to take charge, but he lasted no more than a few months before being sent down on racketeering charges. To complete a fairly hapless trio of acting bosses, Louis Daidone, was convicted of murder following testimony from D'Arco in September 2004.

In April 2006 it was revealed that two respected New York city police detectives were also working as hired hitmen and informants for Casso. Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa had spent much of their combined 44 years with the NYPD committing murders and leaking confidential information to the Lucchese crime family. They participated in eight murders between 1986 and 1990, and over a period of six years were paid $375,000 by Casso in bribes and as payment for murder 'contracts'.

Among their contracts was putting James Hydell into the trunk of a car and handing him over to Casso for torture. Hydell's body has never been found. They also shot Bruno Facciolo, who was found in Brooklyn, in the trunk of a car, with a canary in his mouth. After having been pulled over for a routine traffic check, Eddie Lino was killed on the hard-shoulder of a freeway in his Mercedes-Benz.

As well as his role as a hitman, Eppolito was also a member of the cast of the 1990 film GoodFellas.

Vittorio "Vic" Amuso, 72, remains the official boss of the Lucchese crime family despite serving a life sentence. It is unclear how much influence he has over the family from his prison cell. In the last few years, a three man ruling panel, Joseph "Joey Dean" DiNapoli, 71, Aniello "Neil" Migliore, 73, and Matthew Madonna, 72, has been running the family. All three are long time capos in the family, but Migliore is believed to have the final say on things. Migliore has been a major player in the family for more than 30 years and is said to have huge respect on the street.

Recently though former acting boss Steven Crea was released from jail after serving a four year prison sentence. Nicknamed "Stevie Wonder," Crea was heavily involved in construction and is considered a capable "stand-up guy." Still under parole restrictions it remains to be seen what role Crea will play for the Luccheses in the future.

In the last few years, after suffering greatly from turncoats, federal prosecution, and internal conflicts due to bad leadership, the Lucchese family has avoided further dramatic federal indictments. Arguably, Migliore and his crew have managed to bring some stability to the Lucchese family.

  • 1920–1930 — Gaetano "Tommy" Reina (murdered February 26, 1930 during the Castellammarese War by the Masseria faction. * some believe his murder sparked the shooting war between the Masseria and Maranzano factions, others believe the war truly started with the murders of Castellammarese Clan leaders in Detroit and Chicago the following May and October.)
  • 1930– Bonaventura "Joseph/Fat Joe" Pinzolo (murdered September 5, 1930 by the Gagliano/Lucchese faction of the Reina crime family.)
  • 1931–1953 — Gaetano "Tommy" Gagliano (allegedly semi-retired due to ill health sometime in 1951, died February 16, 1953. * others speculate he died in 1951.)
  • 1951–1953 — Gaetano "Tommy Brown" Lucchese (acting boss) (official underboss and the long the acknowledged successor to Gagliano.)
  • 1953–1967 — Gaetano "Tommy Brown" Lucchese (by 1966 he was basically incapacitated and semi-retired due to terminal illness, died of brain tumor on July 13, 1967.)
  • 1966–1967 — Carmine "Mr. Gribbs" Tramunti (acting boss) (he became commission substituto and an intern boss for a year when Lucchese was unable to continue as an active leader, stepped down for a short period of time.)
  • 1967– Ettore "Eddie" Coco (acting boss) (he was Luchese's second choice as successor, but like Lucchese's first choice Coco was imprisoned in 1967 and had to step down.)
  • 1967–1973 — Carmine "Mr. Gribbs" Tramunti (due to Coco's imprisonment Tramunti was once again chosen as an acting leader until Luchese's first choice was released from prison. Tramunti himself was imprisoned in October of 1973 and died in prison October 15, 1978.)
  • 1973–1986 — Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo (he was Luchese's first choice for successor, but at the time of Luchese's death Corallo was on trial, soon convicted in 1968 and sentenced to 2 years in prison. indicted in the famous commission case on February 15, 1985, convicted on November 19, 1986 and on January 13, 1987 he was sentenced to 100 years in prison, died in prison August 23, 2000.)
  • 1986– Anthony "Buddy" Luongo (Luongo was named Coralla's successor soon after the verdicts of the commission case were rendered in late 1986, but sometime in December of 1986 Luongo, a Bronx faction leader was murdered by Brooklyn faction leaders Vic Amuso and Tony Casso.)
  • 1987–present — Vittorio "Vic" Amuso (former Brooklyn faction leader and consigliere Chris Furnari convinced Tony Corallo to make Furnari's proteges Vic Amuso and Tony Casso the new bosses in early 1987. former Bronx faction leader and underboss Tom Santoro advised against it knowing the succession of Amuso and Casso would be the biggest mistake in the crime family's history.)
  • 1990–1991 — Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco (street boss) (a caporegime who was promoted by Amuso, held the position from May 1990 - January 1991, then promoted once again.)
  • 1991– Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco (acting boss) (held the position from January 1991 - September 1991, he was then demoted by Amuso, but held a position within the crime family's ruling panel/committee until he defected to the government on September 21, 1991.)
  • 1991–1993 — 4 Man Ruling Panel/Committee, with help from the family consigliere, various capos, Salvatore "Sal" Avellino, Anthony "Bowat" Baratta,Steven "Wonderboy" Crea, Domenico "Danny" Cutaia, and consigliere, Frank "Big Frank" Lasterino
  • 1993–1998 — Joseph "Little Joe" DeFede (acting boss) (a caporegime and close associate who was promoted by Amuso and was eventually jailed in 1998. DeFede defected to the government soon after being released from prison in early 2002 fearing Amuso had sanctioned his murder.)
  • 1998–2001 — Steven "Wonderboy" Crea (acting boss) (the official underboss who was promoted by Amuso and eventually indicted and jailed on September 6, 2000 on extortion charges. Crea was eventually convicted in 2001 and sentenced to 5 years in prison.)
  • 2001–2003 — Louis "Louie Bagels/Crossbay Louie" Daidone (acting boss) arrested March of 2003 and sentenced to life in prison January of 2004)
  • 2003–2006 — 3 Man Ruling Panel/Committee , top capos Aniello "Neil" Migliore , Joseph DiNapoli , Matthew Madonna (street bosses) (allegedly after the new acting boss was chosen sometime in 2006 it was decided that the 3 man ruling panel/committee would be substituted for the official underboss position for the time being and act as street bosses in assisting the acting boss.)
  • 2006–present — Steven "Wonderboy" Crea (acting boss) (released from prison August 24, 2006 under strict parole restrictions.)
  • 2007–present — Vittorio "Vic" Amuso (imprisoned boss), Steven "Wonderboy" Crea (acting boss), Aniello "Neil" Migliore, Joseph "Joey Dean" DiNapoli, Matthew "Mattie Nattie" Madonna (street bosses/top caporegimes in place of official underboss, report to Crea), Joseph "Joe C." Caridi (imprisoned consigliere) (present regime-hierarchy 2007)

Former members of the Lucchese crime family who have agreed to become government informants or have testified against their former associates.

  • Dean Spong, soldier dropped out of witness protection program and fled to Australia.

v • d • e
The Five Families of New York City
Bonanno • Colombo • Gambino • Genovese • Lucchese
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucchese_crime_family"
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