Great story :)
Actualy it was MEYER who wanted to give it the italian image.
Lucky wanted it to just be a business with no ethnic attachments, such as the drawing of blood, swearing the oath, and the other stuff they brought over from Italy.
Meyer was smart. Keeping it an italian thing gave cover to the Jewish gangsters.
But Jewish gangsters didn’t get their sons involved. They went straight to college.
Too many ITalian mobsters brought their sons into the trade, or the family. That was a shame.
I could tell you some stories about when i had my vending machine route. Forget about it. Always trouble with somebody.
And then the people you knew had to sit down with the people they knew and whatever was decided, that was law.
I bet you could write a book!
If you dared.
I remember Lucky wanted to unite the families and run things like one big business.
He knew blood in the streets was bad for business.
There was a special about Lucky that was actually pretty evenhanded considering he was a guy who went from a street tough to the Boss of Bosses.
When WW2 started he was in prison in upstate NY.
The German U boats were sinking shipping right outside NY harbor.
The military tried to infiltrate the docks but got nowhere.
Finally an officer came up with the idea of appealing to Luciano.
The officer talked to Meyer who talked to Lucky.
Lucky said if he was transferred to a nicer prison he would talk to them.
Lucky gets sent to a better prison closer to NYC on condition he help.
One week later the sinkings dropped markedly.
Word got out that too many ships were still being sunk within sight of the harbor.
Lansky tells the dock workers if the sinkings continue “Lucky will not be happy.”
The sinkings dropped to just a few.
Strangely, Lucky Luciano was released from prison after the war and deported to Sicily.
Just strange enough to have happened just that way.