Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born in 1897 in Sicily, Italy. He lived there until 1906, in that year Lucky and his family moved to the United States looking for a better life. Pretty soon after arriving Lucky got into trouble with the law. In 1907 he was arrested for shoplifting, it would be his first arrest. In that same year Lucky also had a nice racket going. For a few pennies a day, Luciano offered younger and smaller Jewish kids his personal protection against beatings on the way to school and if they didn’t pay, he beat them up. Things went great for the young Lucky until he came across a boy who wouldn't pay. The boy was called Meyer Lansky, a Jewish kid from Poland. Lucky went to work and fought the young Lansky but couldn't beat him. Lansky put up a hell of a fight and Lucky was impressed, he asked Lansky to join him and his rackets and become friends, Lansky accepted. As he grew older Luciano went into more serious rackets and committed more serious crimes. When he was 18 years old he was arrested for peddling heroin and morphine, was convicted and was committed to a reformatory for 6 months. Upon his release he resumed narcotics dealing. By 1916 Luciano was a leading member of the notorious "Five Points Gang" and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders.

When the year turned 1920 Luciano had joined the largest crime Family of the country: The Family led by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and under him had set up major bootlegging rackets and had made contacts among other important gangsters of those days, among those: Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Costello introduced Luciano to some non Italian gangsters like: "Big Bill" Dwyer and Jews like Arnold Rothstein, Dutch Shultz and Dandy Phil Kastel. Luciano was impressed by the way Costello bought protection from city officials and the police. Luciano told his boss about Costello's way of conducting business but Masseria would not listen. His boss Masseria had the belief that only Sicilians can be trusted and become a member of the organization. Not even people who were Italian (like Costello) but not from Sicily were allowed in. This angered Luciano who saw his boss as an obstacle in the way to taking Organized Crime to the highest level. Masseria must have felled some bad vibes coming from Luciano because he would soon send him a message.

One day Luciano was standing on Six Avenue in New York when a limousine rolled up beside him. Three men leaped from the vehicle and grabbed Luciano and dragged him into the limo. Luciano was kicked, punched, stabbed and sliced, he felt like he was going to die and after some more punches he went knock out. Hours later he woke up on the beach. After walking for about a mile before he reached the police booth at the Tottenville Precinct. "Get me a taxi," Luciano pleaded. "I’ll give you fifty bucks if you do and let me go on my way." One of the cops ignored the offer and took Luciano to the hospital instead. At the hospital Luciano was questioned and asked who was behind this murder atempt but Luciano kept his mouth. When he got out of the hospital Luciano had no idea who was behind the attempted hit and asked his friend Meyer Lansky to ask around. Soon Lansky came back with the answer, Masseria was behind the hit. Lansky told Luciano right away that it would be smart to join Masseria's enemy Sal Maranzano who was the boss of the second biggest Family of New York, Luciano agreed. Several months later, after recovering from the beating, Luciano did just that. He met secretly with Maranzano and agreed to betray Masseria.

A war erupted between Maranzano and Masseria. The war would become known as the Castellammarese War. The war started in 1928 and would rage on for over two years. During these two years Luciano kept a low profile, spending a lot of time with the Caporegimes under Maranzano. He himself a youngster in those days became friendly with them and soon found out that younger mobsters in both camps were waiting for one boss to kill off the other. Then the second-line could dethrone the remaining boss. Pretty soon Luciano became the leader of this group. When the war reached a climax in 1931, Maranzano was winning, Masseria still held a lot of power though. Luciano decided it was time to make his move. He requested a sit down with his old boss Masseria. At this sit down Masseria was whacked by four men (which men exactly is a topic of argument among many mob historians.) The assassination made Maranzano the victor in the Castellammarese War and Maranzano made Luciano the Number Two man in his new Mafia empire. Maranzano proclaimed himself the "Boss of Bosses" in New York and set up five crime families under him. Maranzano didn't have much time to enjoy his newfound power Luciano had sent some guys over to his office and whacked him at the spot. Charles "Lucky" Luciano was boss of bosses of New York.

Now Luciano could finally get to work and push the Mafia to enormous heights. Together with Meyer Lansky Luciano began setting up businesses everywhere. They moved into Cuba, setting up casinos and brothels. They were the most powerful gangsters of the U.S. more powerful than Al Capone. Luciano and Lansky even decided it was time for a special hitteam that would take care of mobsters who fell out of favor or might snitch, they decided to start Murder Incorporated. Murder Inc. was available to every Mafia Family in the U.S. but it could only be hired for pressing business reasons, and was never to be brought into action against political figures, prosecutors or reporters.

The 1930s were great for Luciano, he was on top of his game and while the rest of the U.S. was struggling to get by he himself was making more money than ever before and enjoying himself with women and booze. But Luciano's good times ended in 1936 when he was arrested and later convicted on prostitution charges. A thing Luciano had feared. Luciano made all the brothels in the city pay him, he once told his soldiers: "We’ll run them like chain stores," And that's what he did, he treated the girls like fast food, according to one of the girls: "They worked us six days a week, the Syndicate did. They worked us like dogs and then they kicked us out." When Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey and his team of twenty racket busters went after a conspiracy in the prostitution racket, they secretly set up a massive raid on approximately 80 brothels. 40 of the raids were successful. Almost a hundred madams and girls were brought in and began to talk. At the trial Luciano (at the time 38) was convicted to 50 years in prison.

Luciano still managed to run his criminal empire from prison through Costello and Lansky. Things looked bad for Luciano there was no way he could get himself out. Then the Second World War began. By the spring of 1942 Luciano had enough of his prison cell and would do anything to get out. Lansky had a plan: sent out a message that Lucky could help the United States war effort in Sicily and at home. Some serious thought was made to enlist Luciano’s help in securing the waterfront docks in New York from Nazi saboteurs. Naval Intelligence decided to approach Luciano with their proposal. But first, they needed to get him out of Dannemora and send him to a more secure location. The place they had in mind was Great Meadow Prison in Comstock, New York. Luciano was ecstatic and couldn't wait to leave Dannemora to what he felt like was a country club. On May 12, 1942, he was headed for Great Meadow Prison. Naval Intelligence made numerous unrecorded visits to Great Meadow to solicit help from Luciano. Luciano gave them all the help they needed and when the war was over felt that he deserved to be set free. But the only person who could set Lucky free was the one person who had put him in prison in the first place: Thomas Dewey. Dewey had become governer of New York and in January, 1946, Dewey granted commutation of sentence with the condition that he be deported to Italy. At 8:50 a.m., Sunday, February 10, 1946, Charles "Lucky" Luciano set sail away from America aboard the S.S Laura Keene.

The Italian government gave strict rules on Luciano’s livelihood. He could venture no more than a few miles from Naples and had to tell them about any visitors from outside Italy. That was a rule he broke frequently. He still conducted business back in the states through runners and even the telephone. His friendship with Meyer Lansky began to sour in the late 1950s, because he felt Meyer was cutting him out on more lucrative deals back in the States. Regardless, Lucky remained a very rich man. Lucky’s heart was weak and he suffered several heart attacks. On January 26, 1962, he was scheduled to meet a scriptwriter who was to do a story about him. Upon greeting him at the Naples airport, he clutched his chest, face contorted, and died of a massive heart attack. Only after his death was Lucky Luciano allowed to come back to the United States. He is buried at St. John’s Cemetery in New York City.