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So you're Charles Lucky Luciano at the end of the 1930s.

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You're a brutal gangster, a pimp, a racketeer, a murderer,

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and the father of modern-day organized crime.

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Lucky Luciano was the father of organized crime here in America.

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Before him, mob crime was just crime.

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It didn't become organized until Lucky Luciano came along.

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To get to the top, you had your own mafia boss executed,

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and you were the most feared man to walk the streets of New York City.

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But there was only one problem.

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You're in jail.

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In 1936, Lucky Luciano had been caught, tried, and found guilty of forced prostitution.

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The sentence, 30 to 50 years in jail.

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For a few years, you tried running your mafia out of jail, but things were tough.

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It seemed like there was nothing for you to do

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but wait and hope for an early parole that would probably never come.

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But then, just three years later, you come across some luck once more.

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World War II hits Europe, and chaos breaks out across the globe.

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Suddenly, you're presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

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You see, America quickly joined the side of the Allies, like England and France,

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which meant the U.S. was fair game for attacks from the Germans.

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And one of America's most valuable, most vulnerable points of attack from German submarines

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was the New York Harbor.

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The same harbor America was using to ship millions of tons of food, equipment, tools, and weapons to London.

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Take out the harbor and wipe out most of the Allies' supplies in Europe.

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So every spy and agent in the city was on high alert,

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trying to figure out whether the Germans were planning attacks or if they had spies on the docks.

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Which was great for the mafia, because you had complete control over those docks.

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Your crime family was in charge of the dock workers' union,

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and with it came full control of anything and everything that was happening there.

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And what do you know?

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The U.S. government came crawling right back to Lucky Luciano

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to help protect the vital New York Harbor.

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And what resulted was one of the most unexpected partnerships of World War II

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and in the history of organized crime.

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A secret partnership between the U.S. military and America's public enemy number one,

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Lucky Luciano and the Italian-American Mafia.

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The U.S. military and America's public enemy number one,

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was an unlikely war hero.

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Charles had arrived in the U.S. as a child in 1907.

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Settling in New York City,

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he quickly got involved in all sorts of illegal low-level mafia hustles.

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Stealing, fighting in the streets,

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and threatening his schoolmates so they gave up their lunch money.

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You know, regular poor kid in the early 1900s New York City kind of stuff.

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And once Prohibition hit the U.S. in 1920,

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you upped your game.

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Instead of petty theft and street brawls,

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you switched to bootlegging,

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smuggling illegal alcohol.

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They became involved in prostitution rings,

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extortion, blackmail, and bootlegging.

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In fact, Lucky Luciano very quickly became one of the big six

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in bootlegging on the East Coast.

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While also taking over most of the operations in the city

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for the world's oldest profession, wink wink.

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You were doing so well for yourself that near the end of the 20s,

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you had a much grander vision for power and prestige.

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At the time, the mafia, more than half of which was Sicilian like you,

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was completely unorganized.

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Different families were fighting with each other,

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and instead of working together to get richer and more powerful,

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the fighting between mafias was only making all of you weaker.

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A house divided cannot stand,

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so you decide to end the fighting once and for all.

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1931, Lucky Luciano facilitated the killing of the two mob bosses in New York,

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Joe Masseria and Mr. Maranzano.

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With his rivals removed, Luciano became New York's top mob boss.

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So after a few assassinations,

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you brought the other four big mafia families in New York together to create a pact.

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A cartel where each family would get their own parts of the cities to rule over,

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and to make sure that they crush all the other existing New York crime families at the time,

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so they wouldn't have to put up with any competition.

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These five families would later grow to dominate and completely control New York,

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and would become known as simply the Five Families.

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Together, each of the five families were referred to by their most famous ruling godfather,

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but now no Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese.

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But Lucky's most defining moment was the creation of the commission,

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a national governing body,

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where all the major mafia families in the U.S. would come together,

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where all the big decisions and new rules would all come down to a vote,

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with each family having one vote,

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bringing order to chaos.

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And with the commission formed and the rules set,

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the American Mafia became custom designed from the ground up to efficiently plunder the U.S.

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And it was all possible because of Lucky Luciano,

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who became the boss of bosses.

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The amount of power you wielded was unmatched,

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no one in the city could touch you.

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But then,

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Lucky Luciano was arrested.

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You had become public enemy number one,

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and the NYPD and politicians were gonna make an example of you.

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So you started your 30 to 50 year stint in Dannemora,

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a jail so brutal and godforsaken that it was known as Little Siberia.

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But while you sat in prison with little hope of seeing freedom ever again,

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the Germans started infiltrating America.

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Lucky Luciano became the boss of bosses for the mafia because of his skills.

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To rise to the top of his industry,

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he had to have negotiation skills, leadership skills, and be a quick thinker.

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And believe it or not,

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all those skills are learnable and vital for whatever business you're in.

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Around the same time you were languishing in Little Siberia,

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a group of German spies, known only as the Duquesne Spy Ring,

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had arrived on American soil.

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They weren't the only German agents to infiltrate the U.S.,

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but they were by far the most dangerous.

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The group was led by a veteran spy, Friedrich Duquesnes,

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and their mission?

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Locate and destroy as many vital American infrastructure sites as possible.

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But before they could implement their plans,

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most of them were caught.

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But this revelation only made U.S. officials more paranoid.

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On January 2, 1942,

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33 members of the Duquesne Spy Ring

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were sentenced to a collective 300 years in jail.

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Police have found maps and pictures of industrial plants,

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information about a new bomb the U.S. was making,

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and hundreds of notes on how to start fires to burn out infrastructure.

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If these 33 spies had gotten this close,

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who's to say they were the only ones?

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For all the U.S. authorities knew,

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there could be hundreds of spies crawling across New York alone,

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just waiting to cause chaos.

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Predicting this fear,

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you as Lucky Luciano set in motion

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the most daring and rewarding plan of your life.

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The U.S. joined World War II in December 1941.

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As soon as the announcement was made,

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American ships became a target.

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In the first few months after joining,

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German U-boats or submarines

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were sinking 80 ships a month.

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No one in the military or government

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could figure out how the Germans knew where the ships were

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and when to attack.

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Naturally, they assumed they had to be spies.

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So the Navy and military sent its people to the New York docks.

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Their job?

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Figure out where the Germans were getting their information from,

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and identify the traitors who were giving it to them.

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With Italy being controlled by a fascist government,

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and most of the dock workers being Italian,

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there must have been someone feeding the Germans information.

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Simple enough, right?

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Except like we mentioned earlier,

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Lucky Luciano had control of the docks.

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And thanks to the mafia's threat of violence against rats,

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not a single worker said a word.

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The government was frustrated.

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They needed to know how to stop the Germans from destroying their ships,

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and you were the only one standing in their way.

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But that didn't bother you much.

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Because you had seen a way out.

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A way to get free from your doomed jail sentence.

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All you had to do was make the U.S. government realize just how much they needed you.

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On February 9, 1942,

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something happened that pushed the government over the edge.

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The USS Normandy,

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a French cruise ship turned into a troop carrier,

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caught fire while docked in the harbor.

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The paper said it was an accident.

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A worker's torch had made too many sparks or something along those lines.

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But everyone knew the truth.

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It was arson.

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Whether it had been the Germans,

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or the mafia's own men was irrelevant.

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You just needed the authorities to believe it had been your people.

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So you made a crazy claim.

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That it was your men.

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They torched the Normandy on your orders.

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Albert figures that if something could happen to the Normandy,

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that would make everybody crap in their pants.

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It was a great idea.

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So I sent back word to Albert to handle it.

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A couple of days later,

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I heard on the radio where the Normandy was on fire.

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And it didn't look like they could save her.

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And goddamn Albert,

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he really done a job.

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If the U.S. government wanted to get back control of the docks,

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they would have to go through you.

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Unwilling to deal with America's public enemy number one,

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the police first went to your guy in the docks,

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Joseph Sox Lanza.

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He agreed to try to get information and cooperation out of the dock workers,

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and Operation Underworld officially began.

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But the workers were still suspicious.

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If the orders didn't come directly from Luciano,

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they would be in danger of getting killed or beat up

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if he found out they ratted.

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Eventually getting nowhere on his own,

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Sox Lanza admitted he would need your permission.

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And so in May 1942,

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a group of lawyers, police officers,

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naval officers, and mobsters headed for Little Siberia.

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It was time to make a deal with the devil himself.

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Even after six years of rotting in jail,

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you still wielded absolute power over the New York docks.

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After what the U.S. government had thought been your little fireworks show on the USS Normandy,

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you were hated now more than ever by the Navy and Naval officers,

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but that didn't matter.

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They needed you.

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And even if they promised you wouldn't get any special treatment for helping them,

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you knew your chance had finally come.

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Lieutenant Haffenden from the New York Naval Office was in charge of Operation Underworld,

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and he held most of the negotiation power.

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Without a single promise to let you out early or make your life easier,

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Haffenden never expected you to agree to help.

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But you did anyways.

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Unminous the thumb,

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you were playing the long game.

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So you set out the word.

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There was to be no more burning of ships,

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no more rioting,

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and the dock workers had to give New York authorities any information they needed

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about potential German activity around the harbor.

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The order was immediately obeyed.

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You didn't need the authorities to agree to a deal right away.

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You just needed to get your foot in the door

249
00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:52,740
to open up the dialogue and build some trust.

250
00:11:53,260 --> 00:11:55,000
Not long after helping them at the docks,

251
00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:56,580
you got one of the things you wanted.

252
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,820
You were transferred from Little Siberia to Great Meadow Prison,

253
00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:01,740
which like its flowery name suggests,

254
00:12:02,020 --> 00:12:04,120
was one of the easiest-going prisons in the U.S.

255
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:21,180
While America's biggest worry was a ship sinking faster than it could make new ones,

256
00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:23,780
the people in Sicily were having problems of their own.

257
00:12:24,060 --> 00:12:26,300
For years, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini

258
00:12:26,300 --> 00:12:28,740
had been trying to get control of the island of Sicily.

259
00:12:29,060 --> 00:12:30,980
When he took over Italy in 1922,

260
00:12:30,980 --> 00:12:35,100
he hated the idea that any power other than fascism could control Italy,

261
00:12:35,460 --> 00:12:36,820
which was a problem for Sicily,

262
00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:38,940
where most of the island was run by the mafia.

263
00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:43,060
So Mussolini set soldiers to torture and kill every mafia boss and member

264
00:12:43,060 --> 00:12:44,140
they could get their hands on.

265
00:12:44,420 --> 00:12:47,340
Those that didn't die in the hands of Mussolini's army went into hiding,

266
00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:49,060
waiting for the chance to fight back.

267
00:12:49,340 --> 00:12:51,560
And in 1943, that chance arrived.

268
00:12:51,560 --> 00:13:03,860
The U.S. Navy was planning to invade Sicily,

269
00:13:04,140 --> 00:13:06,560
hoping it would serve as a gateway into the rest of Europe.

270
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:08,080
The only issue was,

271
00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:10,620
they had very little time and even less information.

272
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:12,420
To successfully take over Sicily,

273
00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:13,940
they would need contacts on the ground,

274
00:13:14,180 --> 00:13:15,860
maps of the island and surrounding waters,

275
00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:18,460
a clear picture of the terrain they were going to be fighting on.

276
00:13:18,460 --> 00:13:20,040
And with no time to waste,

277
00:13:20,380 --> 00:13:22,380
the Navy turned to Sicilian immigrants for help.

278
00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:23,800
But just like the dock workers,

279
00:13:24,140 --> 00:13:26,200
they wouldn't cooperate without the mafia's permission.

280
00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,160
So the group of lawyers, mobsters,

281
00:13:28,380 --> 00:13:30,200
naval officers, and policemen once again,

282
00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:32,420
came crawling back to Lucky Luciano.

283
00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:33,980
Just as expected.

284
00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:35,280
This time,

285
00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,280
they wanted you to get the Sicilians to share vital intel and contacts in Sicily with the Navy.

286
00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:39,940
Again,

287
00:13:40,020 --> 00:13:41,740
they emphasized over and over again,

288
00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:43,300
that you would get nothing from the deal.

289
00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:44,020
But again,

290
00:13:44,100 --> 00:13:44,460
by now,

291
00:13:44,540 --> 00:13:45,780
you already had your hooks in.

292
00:13:45,780 --> 00:13:49,440
This would be a great chance to build both more trust in the U.S. governments

293
00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:52,660
and help the mafia take back control of Sicily too in the process.

294
00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:54,540
So you gave the orders again.

295
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:57,500
Cooperate with the Navy under the orders of Lucky Luciano.

296
00:13:58,840 --> 00:13:59,960
And as expected,

297
00:14:00,300 --> 00:14:02,780
intel from hundreds of Sicilians suddenly came flooding in.

298
00:14:03,180 --> 00:14:05,020
By the time Operation Husky was launched

299
00:14:05,020 --> 00:14:08,460
and U.S. troops landed on the beaches of Sicily on July 10, 1943,

300
00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:12,440
the U.S. Navy had every piece of intel about the island they could have ever wanted.

301
00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:13,680
Maps of the beaches,

302
00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:14,700
maps of the towns,

303
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,440
names of the mafia bosses who would help them once they arrived,

304
00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:19,900
detailed information about the waters surrounding the island,

305
00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,160
and cooperation with dozens of Sicilian American mafia members

306
00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,160
who wanted to make the trip to Sicily to help.

307
00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:28,660
Lucky came up with a plan that I thought was pretty wild.

308
00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:31,660
He wanted to join up with an invaded army.

309
00:14:32,380 --> 00:14:36,180
Operation Husky resulted in the biggest beach landing in U.S. history at the time.

310
00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:40,720
The mafia in Sicily hated the fascist government about as much as the American troops did.

311
00:14:41,020 --> 00:14:43,020
And with full cooperation of most of the island,

312
00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:45,800
it didn't take long for American troops to start making progress.

313
00:14:46,340 --> 00:14:47,300
On the very first day,

314
00:14:47,580 --> 00:14:49,620
several Navy lieutenants with the help of the mafia

315
00:14:49,620 --> 00:14:53,200
were able to capture the headquarters of the Italian Naval Command on the island.

316
00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:57,320
Inside, they found maps of minefields in the ocean around Italy and Europe,

317
00:14:57,660 --> 00:15:00,560
among other documents that were priceless to the U.S. naval intelligence.

318
00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:02,300
Armed with inside information,

319
00:15:02,300 --> 00:15:06,960
the U.S. military secured the entire western side of the island just two weeks after landing.

320
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:08,740
They were making fast progress.

321
00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:13,080
And this huge military success was all thanks to America's public enemy number one.

322
00:15:13,500 --> 00:15:16,640
And back in the U.S., it was time for the government to pay its dues.

323
00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:33,040
As lucky Luciano, you were convinced that you were the man who won the war.

324
00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,220
Without you, the U.S. would have never conquered Sicily or Italy.

325
00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:39,600
Without you, they would have been defeated within days of arriving on the island.

326
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,940
You had done the government an enormous favor by helping them win the war.

327
00:15:43,220 --> 00:15:45,320
And now it was time for them to show you their gratitude.

328
00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:47,900
Help from the mafia never came without a price.

329
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:49,640
And it was America's time to pay up.

330
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:54,480
At first, the notion of letting one of America's most notorious mobsters walk free was unthinkable.

331
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:55,780
It was 1945.

332
00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:57,800
The war was close to being won.

333
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,320
But there was no way they were going to give you credit for winning it.

334
00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:01,480
Then the war ended.

335
00:16:02,220 --> 00:16:04,060
It was a sweet victory for the Allies.

336
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,140
And a crushing defeat for the Axis powers.

337
00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,060
The U.S. government was high on its success as the superpower of the world.

338
00:16:10,300 --> 00:16:12,160
And lucky Luciano's time had finally come.

339
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:17,480
America's number one criminal, the father of organized crime as we know it, had his jail time commuted.

340
00:16:18,140 --> 00:16:18,960
The only condition?

341
00:16:19,420 --> 00:16:23,520
Luciano had to be deported back to his homeland and never set foot in the U.S. again.

342
00:16:23,860 --> 00:16:26,240
Not a bad trade when the alternative was life in prison.

343
00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:30,300
So in 1946, Charles' lucky Luciano got lucky one last time.

344
00:16:30,700 --> 00:16:32,940
He boarded a ship back to Italy as a free man.

345
00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:37,060
And if the government thought sending him away would keep him out of trouble, they were sadly mistaken.

346
00:16:37,060 --> 00:16:42,860
With the mafia taking back power in Sicily, Luciano got right back into business as soon as he arrived.

347
00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:46,220
Soon, Lucky Luciano was back in business.

348
00:16:46,700 --> 00:16:55,220
With Sicily now back under mob control, he massively strengthened his criminal links across the Atlantic and expanded the influence of the New York mafia.

349
00:16:55,960 --> 00:17:01,280
Lucky Luciano would spend the rest of his life in his beloved homeland, dying of a heart attack in 1962.

350
00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:07,480
In Operation Underworld, it was kept a secret for decades until the mid-70s, when the report was finally released.

351
00:17:07,740 --> 00:17:11,620
And the world came to learn about one of the strangest government collaborations in U.S. history.

352
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:33,820
All of this, I'm in London right now, by the way.

353
00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:35,980
You can follow me on Instagram at jiketrend.io.

354
00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:36,940
That's gonna wrap it up.

355
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:37,760
Keep sure I'll bring it up in line.

356
00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:38,560
Stay dangerous out there.

357
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:39,900
And I will see you guys in the next one.

358
00:17:39,900 --> 00:17:43,900
Bye.

359
00:17:43,900 --> 00:17:44,400
Bye.

360
00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:47,780
Bye.

361
00:17:47,780 --> 00:17:49,380
Bye.

362
00:17:50,120 --> 00:17:51,640
Bye.

363
00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:53,300
Bye.

364
00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:55,700
Bye.

365
00:18:00,060 --> 00:18:00,640
Bye.

366
00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:00,860
Bye.

367
00:18:00,860 --> 00:18:01,820
Bye.

368
00:18:01,820 --> 00:18:02,000
Bye.

369
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:02,720
Bye.

370
00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:02,940
Bye.

371
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:03,100
Bye.

372
00:18:03,700 --> 00:18:05,000
Bye.

373
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:05,040
Bye.

374
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:05,220
Bye.

375
00:18:05,220 --> 00:18:05,920
Bye.

376
00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:06,260
Bye.

377
00:18:06,260 --> 00:18:06,280
Bye.

378
00:18:06,280 --> 00:18:06,360
Bye.

379
00:18:06,740 --> 00:18:06,840
Bye.

380
00:18:09,100 --> 00:18:09,180
Bye.

381
00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:09,880
Bye.