He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang and was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the Commission in , after he abolished the boss of bosses title held by Salvatore Maranzano following the Castellammarese War.
He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. In , Luciano was tried and convicted for compulsory prostitution and running a prostitution racket after years of investigation by District Attorney Thomas E. He was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison, but during World War II an agreement was struck with the Department of the Navy through his Jewish Mob associate Meyer Lansky to provide naval intelligence.
In , for his alleged wartime cooperation, his sentence was commuted on the condition that he be deported to Italy. Luciano died in Italy on January 26, , and his body was permitted to be transported back to the United States for burial. His father was very ambitious and persistent in eventually moving to the United States. In The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano: The Mafia Story in His Own Words , a purported semi-autobiography that was published after Luciano's death, Luciano described how his father always had a new Palermo -based steamship company calendar each year and would save money for the boat trip by keeping a jar under his bed.
He also mentions in the book that his father was too proud to ask for money, so instead his mother was given money in secret by Luciano's cousin, named Rotolo, who also lived in Lercara Friddi. Although the book has largely been regarded as accurate, there are numerous problems that point to the possibility that it is, in fact, fraudulent.
As The New York Times reported shortly before the book's publication, the book quotes Luciano talking about events that occurred years after his death, repeats errors from previously published books on the Mafia, and describes Luciano's participation in meetings that occurred when he was in jail. In , when Luciano was eight years old, the family emigrated from Sicily to the United States. As a teenager, Luciano started his own gang and was a member of the old Five Points Gang. Unlike other street gangs, whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from Italian and Irish gangs for 10 cents per week.
