The World's Most Evil Gangs Read Online Free Page B

person Meyer recruited was fellow Brooklyn boy Benjamin Siegel, also ofRussian Jewish descent, though born in New York in 1906. Siegel had already devised his own protection racket, forcing Manhattan pushcart merchants to pay him a dollar or he would incinerate their merchandise. From his teenage years, the tough thug was building a criminal record that included armed robbery, rape and murder.
    Siegel, Meyer and Luciano formed a firm friendship, reinforced when Siegel saved Lansky from beatings and when Lansky helped Luciano organise his rackets to the best financial advantage without interference from the tax authorities. It could hardly be said they were ‘life-long’ friends, however, for two of them would end up sending a hitman to ‘rub out’ the third. But the years following the World War One were boom times for the trio.
    Their key to untold riches came on 17 January 1920. When the Prohibition law banning alcohol was introduced, the trio went into the bootleg booze business big-time, teaming up with tommy gun wielding thugs to ensure a constant supply of illicit alcohol to New York. Principal among their associates in the northern states was Alfonso Capone, who was fiercely loyal to Lansky and Luciano.
    In 1927 the evil duo were joined by a third ruthless killer and future crime czar, Vito Genovese. Born in Naples in 1897, Genovese had been a friend and neighbour of Luciano since the former’s arrival in New York. A petty thief with only one arrest, for carrying a revolver, he too had graduated to organised crime while working under contract to Jacob Orgen. Despite the combined reputations of Lansky, Luciano and Genovese, the gang of three were still not the most powerful mobsters in New York. That accolade was being fought for between two old-style Mafia leaders, Salvatore Maranzano and Giuseppe Masseria,bitter rivals whose territorial battles had left as many as 60 of their ‘soldiers’ shot dead in a single year.
    Individually, both Maranzano and Masseria tried to woo Luciano, Lansky and Genovese into their organisations, probably fearful of the trio’s growing power. They refused. By way of persuasion, Maranzano lured Luciano to an empty garage, where a dozen masked men lay in wait. Maranzano had him strung up by his thumbs from the rafters and punched and kicked until he lost consciousness. Luciano was repeatedly revived so that the torture could continue anew. Finally, Maranzano slashed him across the face with a knife. The wound required 55 stitches.
    Unsurprisingly, Luciano told his tormentor that he had changed his mind and was now happy to join his Mob. Maranzano relented and offered him a role as his associate – but only if he would first dispose of his Mafia rival, Masseria. With little choice in the matter, Luciano agreed. In April 1931 he approached Masseria, pretending that he was now keen to join forces with him, and invited the Mafioso for a meal. They sealed the deal and toasted one another across the table at his favourite restaurant, Nuova Villa Tammaro, on Coney Island. When Luciano retired to the bathroom, four gunmen burst in. Masseria must have known his fate the moment he saw them. They were Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel and two other Lansky men, Albert Anastasia and Joe Adonis. Masseria was cut down in a hail of bullets as he tried to flee the restaurant.
    Salvatore Maranzano was delighted with the result and paid due tribute to Lansky and Luciano for their handiwork. The 63-year-old Mafia boss could now claim to be the first true Godfather. After Masseria’s death, this elegantly dressedSicilian, who had once trained to become a priest, called a meeting of the New York families in a hall where the walls were hung with crucifixes and other religious emblems. He drew up a constitution in which he proclaimed himself the effective ‘Capo di Tutti Capi’ of what he termed ‘La Cosa Nostra’.
    These and other terms that are such an intrinsic part of the Mafia vocabulary were becoming