Original subtitles

Previously on 'The Making of the Mob: New York'...

After rising in the ranks of the New York underworld

for two decades,

Charles 'Lucky' Luciano makes a decision

that could bring down the Mafia...

Mr. Luciano...

...when he takes the stand in his own defense

against Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey.

Do you really expect this jury to believe

that you are telling the truth?

They believe what they're led to believe.

After Dewey puts him away for 50 years...

I gotta get the hell out of here.

...Luciano must run his crime family from behind bars.

I'm naming Vito head of the Luciano family.

And he picks Vito Genovese as his acting boss.

You won't regret this.

But Genovese lets the power go to his head...

He's greedy, he's reckless, he's careless.

...and Luciano's empire starts to fall apart.

Who're you calling stupid, Frank?

Listen, I'll put two in your head, you understand me?

When Genovese flees the country on murder charges...

That stupid prick.

...Frank Costello is named acting boss of the family.

But a snitch emerges from within...

Reles is talking, Charlie.

What are you waiting for, Frank?

Get it done now.

...forcing Luciano to order a hit...

Reles, come check out the view.

...that keeps his empire intact...

Salute.

...but brings him no closer to freedom.

♪ This ain't no time ♪

♪ To feel sorry for myself ♪

♪ I can't help it ♪

♪ 'Cause there's nobody else ♪

♪ And I'll walk these streets ♪

♪ With your name on my tongue ♪

♪ I dare not speak ♪

♪ Only there it belongs ♪

♪ There's got to be a better way... ♪

♪ Better way. ♪

Charles 'Lucky' Luciano,

the most powerful Mob boss in America,

remains locked up in a maximum security prison

in upstate New York.

And while he's managing to keep his operation under control,

Luciano fears the other New York families

will try to grab hold of his power

if he doesn't get out soon.

A Mob boss in prison

probably could maintain his position and his power for a while.

But it was always so competitive, it was always so vicious

that eventually there's always somebody hungry to move up.

I've been in here too long.

Time for something to happen.

Charlie, what do you want us to do?

What about these whores?

Can we get to them?

The problem is finding them.

No one knows where they're at, Charlie.

They're in protection, can't get to them.

But we're working on it.

We got every cop and politician paid on the street except for Dewey.

We can't find three hookers?

Is that what you're telling me?

On orders from Lucky Luciano,

Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky orchestrate a nationwide search

for the prostitutes whose testimony put Luciano in jail.

It's only a matter of time before their efforts pay off.

Hello?

Good job.

After the trial,

three of the prostitutes escaped to California...

...where they thought they were going to live free and clear.

Florence Newman?

Cokey!

Unfortunately, Lucky's men more or less

kidnapped the prostitutes.

They were taken to a law office and told to sign a paper

that stated they had lied during the trial.

Thomas Dewey isn't about to let his case against Luciano fall apart.

So he takes matters into his own hands.

There were allegations

that there had been some sort of improper conduct

in securing some of the testimony.

Clearly, what had happened

is that the Mob had gotten to some of the witnesses

and gotten them to flip their stories.

It is... difficult to imagine

the paralyzing fear

expressed by nearly every witness in this case

at the prospect of testifying against a man

as ruthless and as violent

as Lucky Luciano.

Lucky Luciano is the ruler

of the most powerful criminal organization

this city, this country has ever known.

These witnesses...

were abused and exploited young women

who were coerced into selling their bodies

to satisfy the lusts of depraved men

while Lucky Luciano and his gang

got rich off of it.

My office acted only to protect these women

so that they could tell the truth

and escape the horrific life

Lucky Luciano had subjected them to.

Dewey convinces the judge to dismiss the allegations,

and Lucky Luciano's appeal is denied.

Lucky Luciano has bribed judges and juries,

intimidated witnesses,

and attempted to play the legal system in his favor.

But all of his efforts have failed.

He's now faced with the realization

that he might spend the rest of his life behind bars.

See, this one, these dates are not matching up.

Make sure you get the dates to match, please.

After ensuring Luciano remains locked up...

Thomas Dewey sets his sights

on his next target in organized crime...

one of the founding members of Murder, Inc.

For years, the highly trained group of assassins...

has worked for the New York Mafia...

carrying out hits approved by the Commission

without leaving a trace.

But when hit man Abe Reles is tied to a murder,

he starts ratting out members of Murder, Inc.

I'll give you 50 guys.

Before the Mafia takes him out,

Reles names one of the hit squad's top killers, Louis Lepke.

Lepke has evaded the law for nearly two years.

The feared Jewish gangster has a garment industry racket

worth the modern-day equivalent of over $17 million per year.

Louis Lepke lived in a big, fancy apartment on the Upper West Side.

He lived in the equivalent of the Dakota.

Lepke, however, had a real bad temper

and he would do things himself.

Thomas Dewey believes if he can gather enough evidence

and pin murder charges on Lepke...

he'll be able to bring down the rest of Murder, Inc.

How many witnesses?

We have seven witnesses ready to testify.

All right.

Issue the charges. - Yes, sir.

Dewey orders his men to sweep the city.

But with the Mob's connections

and hideouts throughout New York...

the professional assassin disappears.

While Dewey's men search for Lepke...

the Federal Bureau of Investigation

is also looking to arrest him on a separate narcotics charge.

And the FBI joins in on the international manhunt.

Lepke spent about a year in hiding

where there was a search for him all over the world.

People saw him in Australia, Hawaii, South America.

Turned out he was in a basement apartment in Brooklyn the entire time.

Before the authorities can find him,

Lepke begins to take out anyone who could connect him to a murder.

Lepke had this philosophy... no witness, no case.

He was killing everybody...

and he was psychotic and he was crazy.

And the feeling was if you hang around long enough,

Lepke will kill you, too.

The longer Louis Lepke remains at large,

the more of a mockery he's making of this agency.

Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover

knows he could put Lepke away for narcotics charges.

But with the gangster in hiding...

he'll need the help of an unlikely ally.

You'll never guess who I got a call from.

Who?

The FBI.

They want us to help them find Louis Lepke.

By 1939...

...the New York Mafia's most dangerous hit man, Louis Lepke,

is being hunted by the FBI on drug charges

and by Thomas Dewey for murder.

Lepke has evaded the law for nearly two years.

So in a last-ditch effort to bring him in,

the feds have reached out to an unexpected ally...

Lucky Luciano.

Luciano was approached by our government.

There was that whole thing of some... every once in a while,

the two sides try to do something together

for the benefit of everyone.

Luciano is serving the third year of his 50-year sentence

and has tried everything to get out.

Now with the FBI asking for help,

he sees the opportunity he's been looking for

and meets with his closest advisor, Meyer Lansky.

What do you wanna do about it?

Maybe you could talk to Lepke.

You tell him...

he's gotta take...

the rap on the heroin.

We give him over to Hoover...

and he'll pin the murders on him, too.

Then he goes away forever

and we buy favor with Hoover and Dewey.

'Notorious Killer Louis Lepke

Put Away by J. Edgar Hoover.'

Luciano knows that giving up Lepke

would be a huge gamble,

as the feared killer could easily snitch on the Mob.

But for the criminal kingpin, getting out of prison

and reclaiming his place at the head of his family

is more important.

In the fall of 1939,

Luciano and Lansky set a plan in motion

to double-cross Louis Lepke.

After Lucky Luciano went to jail,

Meyer Lansky's power had to become more Machiavellian.

He had to work the angles, pit people against people,

and I think that he...

really wanted to get Luciano out of prison

because I think that the best days of his life

were when Luciano was on the street and they were together.

If they can convince Lepke to turn himself in

on lesser drug charges,

the feds will hand him over to Dewey for murder,

giving Luciano the leverage he thinks he needs

to get out of prison.

To carry out the plan,

Lansky sends Lepke's trusted associate...

Murder, Inc. cofounder Albert Anastasia.

Well, Albert, it's been a long time.

Listen, Lou, I can help you out, but you gotta trust me on this.

I don't trust anybody.

We can make the Dewey murder rap go away.

How?

The FBI is how.

Hoover's got you on the high-profile list.

He wants a high-profile bust.

Turn yourself in to Hoover on the heroin thing,

two, three years in the can, tops.

The FBI?

If Dewey's guys find you hiding out here,

they're gonna throw you right in the electric chair.

Use your head.

It's a good deal, Lou.

Lepke wanted to surrender himself to the federal government.

He didn't want the New York police to get him

and end up in the electric chair.

You got Lepke?

Because of the high-profile nature of the arrest...

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

personally wants to bring the most wanted man in America

into custody.

Louis Lepke, you're under arrest for murder.

Murder? You didn't say anything about...

Albert, what is this?!

What is this?! Bastard!

What'd those... ah! Get your hands off of me.

Filthy pigs! Where are you... ah!

After a two-year search,

J. Edgar Hoover finally has his man...

thanks to Lucky Luciano.

Lucky Luciano, he understood that in life,

if I really help you out,

that when you see an opportunity, you'll look out for me.

Well, that's what this is all about.

In addition to gaining leverage with the FBI,

Luciano's just given Thomas Dewey

a huge victory.

And on December 2nd, 1941...

Louis Lepke is sentenced to death.

Hoover turned him right back to Dewey and Dewey executed him.

Louis Lepke, only Mob boss to ever be executed.

Dewey has taken down another high-profile gangster.

And under a national spotlight,

he launches a campaign to become the next governor of New York.

Luciano's certain if Dewey wins,

he'll sign a pardon freeing him from prison.

But while he waits for word from Dewey,

a violent attack almost 5,000 miles away

is about to change everything.

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941...

a date which will live in infamy.

For three years,

the violent conflict has been raging throughout Europe.

During most of the 1930s,

Americans had ignored what was going on in Europe

as Hitler ramped up

and began rampaging around Europe.

Until Pearl Harbor.

A date which will live in infamy.

The United States of America...

While Lucky Luciano is in prison in upstate New York...

the country braces for another attack on American soil,

and New York could be the first target.

It was known that there were German submarines

that were prowling along American shores.

And the United States didn't have the naval force yet to counteract that,

so Americans were deeply concerned.

Just two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor...

America's worst fear is realized

as a massive fire breaks out on a naval troop ship

on the docks along the west side of Manhattan.

As the SS Normandie burns,

fear spreads that war has reached New York City.

The government was very worried

about sabotage on the waterfront.

The government couldn't figure out what to do

until someone suggested

get to the union leaders and get to the Mob guys

who really run the waterfront.

Since Prohibition,

organized crime has asserted its power over New York's harbor

and now has control of more than 200 ports.

Now at war,

the federal government is forced to make another unlikely alliance.

The Mafia's control

and their affiliations with the longshoremen's union

meant that they had a hand in everything coming into the country.

And the government had to reach out to the Mafia

to prevent sabotage on the waterfront.

And they had to reach out to Lucky Luciano.

Mr. Lansky, we need your help.

Well, listen, sir, just because we're, um, businessmen...

doesn't mean we're not patriots.

We'll lock down the docks.

Nothing gets in or out of New York Harbor

without us knowing about it.

Nothing.

Thank you.

Don't thank me.

Thank Lucky Luciano.

Now, this is an example of how powerful

by 1941 the American Mafia was.

Lansky reports back to Luciano with a deal.

In exchange for the Mob's help,

the Navy agrees to work to reduce Luciano's prison sentence.

With Luciano calling the shots from prison,

Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello orchestrate a citywide plan...

paying heavily armed guards to work around the clock

and putting a system in place to keep track of all shipments

so that nothing gets in or out of New York

without the Mafia's approval.

When you hear that Lucky

helped the American government...

protect the New York harbors from prison,

how could you dislike a guy who protected New York City?

Mobsters can be patriots.

They're human beings like the rest of us.

And there are stories that Lucky and other mobsters

helped keep the docks clean.

Well, why not? They're... they're Americans, too.

At the same time, being intelligent businesspeople,

there is an element in their thinking, 'If I do this for my government,

the government might do something for me down the line, too.'

While Luciano is doing his part in the American war effort...

4,000 miles away...

Vito Genovese is about to strike a deal...

with the enemy.

After fleeing to Italy to escape a murder charge,

Vito Genovese has been forced to abandon his dream...

of ruling the Luciano crime family.

Now Genovese is determined to exploit a new opportunity.

But before he can lay the groundwork,

he'll need to go through one man...

Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Sir.

Just a small sample.

Over the next few years,

Genovese donates the modern-day equivalent

of $3.6 million to Mussolini's Fascist Party.

There's plenty more where that came from.

What Genovese did in a very patriotic mode,

he became an arch Fascist in support of Mussolini

while he was in Italy during the entire war.

In fact, he made major contributions.

So there was no question.

He had suddenly forgotten all about his American patriotism.

With the dictator on his side,

Genovese has the freedom to set up a lucrative racket

in an industry he's known for years.

Vito Genovese was involved in the heroin trade.

You go all the way back to the early days

and he was moving opium around.

In the 1940s, heroin is legal in Italy.

And Mussolini allows Genovese to export narcotics freely...

smuggling drugs out of the country in small packages

disguised in luggage and automobiles.

For almost a year,

Genovese builds up his heroin racket throughout Italy.

But in July of 1943...

in the midst of the global war,

the Allies invade Sicily.

There has been a lot of reports

that Luciano was helpful in the invasion of Sicily in 1943,

and that's a myth.

Luciano, through his own public relations efforts,

tried to create the myth

that would help him get the pardon from Dewey.

In fact, Frank Costello

tipped off Walter Winchell, a very important columnist,

and Winchell reported this,

that Luciano helped the invasion of Sicily.

Total fabrication.

The Allied invasion of Sicily is a success.

And so is Luciano's play for public goodwill.

As the Allies sweep across Italy,

Genovese is suddenly on the losing side.

He quickly switches his allegiance

and becomes a translator for the American Army.

Guys, what's goin' on here?

Crates have been here for weeks.

But true to form, Genovese betrays his new allies.

When the Americans come and take over Sicily,

he disavows the Fascists

and he cuts a deal with the American Army.

And then we find out that he's diverting illegal supplies

from the American Army to sell on the black market.

This was a guy that would cut a deal with anybody and then betray them.

Come on, let's go! We can move faster.

During World War II,

Genovese just capitalized on food stamps, or rationing stamps...

whether it was gasoline...

many of the Mob guys were excitement junkies,

addicted to certain types of, you know, behavior,

whether it was stealing, power.

We gotta paint them and get 'em out of here, all right?

I need this warehouse clear.

Freeze! - Don't move, don't move, don't move!

Come on, let's move.

The real smart guys,

they know not to mess with the government.

This wiseguy once told me, he said,

'Chazz, one thing you don't do... you don't mess with the government.

They got the toughest mob in the world.'

To the right. You understand me?

'They won two world wars and they print their own money.

You don't mess with them.'

Once Genovese is in Army custody,

the military learns that he's wanted for murder in the US

and quickly sends him back to New York to stand trial.

With two of the most powerful gangsters

in the Luciano crime family behind bars,

the fate of the operation is at stake.

And Lucky Luciano begins to realize

that if Genovese turns on the Mob,

he could once again risk everything

Luciano's worked so hard to build.

After seven years on the lam in Italy...

Vito Genovese is in federal custody

and on his way back to America,

facing the murder charge he tried to dodge.

Frank.

That murder charge?

The D.A.'s got a witness.

Some guy named Pete LaTempa.

It's true, Vito.

He's gonna testify.

How could you be so stupid?

You gotta get to this guy, Frank.

If he talks, I'm done.

The man with evidence against Genovese

is Peter LaTempa,

a low-level gangster willing to exchange his testimony

to reduce his sentence.

This is not good.

Doing the best I can. - It's not good enough, Frank.

What are we gonna do?

To Luciano, Genovese has been a liability for years,

failing as a boss and drawing attention to the Mob.

Now if Genovese snitches to the feds,

he could destroy everything Luciano has built.

During the war, Genovese was working with Mussolini.

Luciano's a patriot.

And Luciano hated him.

If he could have, he would have had him killed.

Despite their differences,

Luciano knows he and Genovese have built a criminal empire together,

and he refuses to turn his back on one of his inner circle.

LaTempa, time for your daily dose.

On January 15th, 1945,

Pete LaTempa is found poisoned in his cell.

Lucky Luciano has saved Vito Genovese.

And without a key witness, the feds may no longer have a case.

Just four months later...

the Allies declare victory in Europe.

And soon after, victory in Japan.

After six long years of fighting across the globe,

World War II is finally over.

And now Luciano wants to make sure

the valuable help he's given to the war effort

doesn't go unrewarded.

Luciano thought of himself as an American patriot.

The United States was getting lots and lots of assistance from Luciano,

and he thought that as a reward for his service in World War II,

he would be allowed to resume his power.

Luciano drafts a letter pleading his case for parole.

He addresses it to the one man with the power to grant him clemency...

New York's newly elected governor,

the man responsible for putting Luciano in prison, Thomas Dewey.

But Dewey has no reason to grant Luciano a pardon

and every reason to keep him behind bars.

Five months go by without word from Dewey.

By now, Luciano has been in prison for nearly 10 years.

The entire time, he's been scheming to find a way out.

Lucky wants out of jail.

He wants to go back to making money

and running his organized crime syndicate.

Lucky Luciano is willing to do anything

to stay in power.

In his quest to gain his freedom,

Luciano has done favors for the FBI...

the United States Navy,

and even Thomas Dewey.

But with no response to his quest for parole...

it seems it's all been for nothing.

In 1945, Lucky Luciano has sent a letter requesting parole

to New York's governor, Thomas Dewey.

It's been seven months and still no response.

When will we know?

Well, that's up to Dewey.

Soon, Charlie.

I'll push it, soon.

I've been talking to my guys in the Navy

and they're leaning on him real hard.

That doesn't mean he's gonna sign it.

All we can do is try to push all the right buttons

and hope for the best.

With Luciano's request for a pardon in hand,

Thomas Dewey must make a crucial decision.

He's built his political career on the back of Luciano's conviction.

But now he's getting pressure to free Luciano

from the United States Navy.

Pressure was put on Dewey because of Luciano's war service,

which was extensive.

But Luciano's work on behalf of the military is classified.

If Dewey does pardon Luciano,

he won't be able to reveal the reason.

And for a politician with presidential aspirations,

releasing America's most notorious gangster

could be a major liability.

The commutation of Luciano's sentence

was a politically controversial issue at the time...

and it was a difficult one for him politically.

With pressure mounting on all sides,

Thomas Dewey comes up with a solution to appease the military,

protect his political future,

and deal with Luciano once and for all.

I, uh, came as soon as I got word.

Dewey signed the papers.

But, um...

you can't stay here.

They're deporting you.

To Italy.

I'm an American.

Based on the help that Luciano had given

to the government during the war,

my grandfather commuted his sentence with the additional condition

that he be deported and not return to the United States.

I guess I'll go back.

After 10 years, Luciano has finally won his freedom.

But it's come at a steep price.

For the first time since his incarceration,

Luciano's original crew is together again.

Benny, you came all this way to see me go.

Had to say goodbye.

Francesco. - Charlie.

I just got word.

The D.A.'s gonna drop the charges against Vito.

He's being released.

Just keep an eye on him.

Meyer.

I'm gonna miss you. - I'm gonna miss you, too.

Come visit me sometime, huh?

40 years after he arrived in New York,

a penniless immigrant from Sicily...

Lucky Luciano is being forced to leave

the country he considers home.

Luciano thought of himself as an American.

This is where he had made it.

This is where he wanted to be.

And he thought that he would be allowed

to stay here and resume his power.

Luciano and his crew

have climbed their way to the top of the New York underworld,

amassed a fortune most men can only dream of,

and built a criminal empire together.

Now Lucky Luciano must leave it all behind.