Once Luciano got rid of the
Mustache Petes, who were an obstacle in his plans, the main one being
Maranzano, the Boss of Bosses, the door was wide open for him to become the top
boss and break ethnic barriers, as he had always wanted.
Now, being the head of the La
Nova Costra, Luciano had reached the top of America’s Underworld, and he proceeded
to fulfill his dream of creating a National Crime Syndicate without any ethnic barriers
which would be extremely lucrative for all involved. He started directing
criminal rules, policies and activities along with other family bosses. Luciano
made some amendments to the National crime Syndicate, which was setup by
Maranzano. He now welcomed Jewish and Irish mobsters to be part of the
Syndicate as non-member associates, something that Maranzano did not allow. He
also inserted the position of consigliere(advisor) to the family structure.
Meyer Lansky served as his consigliere.
Luciano’s crime family which now
bore his name controlled lucrative criminal rackets such as bootlegging,
prostitution, gambling, bookmaking, drug trafficking, loan-sharking and extortion. Luciano was also very
influential in labor and union activities and controlled the Manhattan
waterfront, garbage hauling, construction, Garment Center businesses and
trucking.
While Luciano stressed the
importance of some old school mafia traditions like the omerta, the oath of
silence, there were other traditions such as the ceremony of being “made a
soldier”, which he wanted to abolish. However, Meyer Lansky advised him against
it, arguing that young people needed rituals to cling to. The position of Capo Di Tutti I Capi, which was
previously held by Maranzano, was abolished by Luciano. He insisted that the
position created tension and trouble between the families. As a replacement for
the title Capo di Tutti Capi, he
built the commission.
The Commission, the Mafia’s
governing body, was set up, under the urging of Johnny Torrio, by Lucky
Luciano. The Commission has been called Luciano’s most significant invention.
It was established, in a meeting of the Mafia families in Chicago, which took
place after Maranzano’s murder in 1931. The idea was to replace the old
Sicilian Mafia regime, which the Mustache Petes put in place, with a board of
directors of Mafia members, who would control all Mafia activities and resolve
conflict between families by a notion of consensus.
The commission originally,
comprised of representatives of 9 families, the Five Families of New York, the
Buffalo Crime Family, the Philadelphia Crime Family, Los Angeles Crime Family
and the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone. Later representatives of the Detroit Crime
family and Kansas City Crime Family were added. Charles “Lucky” Luciano was
appointed the chairman and all members were given one vote and supposedly had
the same power, but, in reality some families and bosses were more powerful than
others. The Commission decided to hold meetings every 5 years or when they needed
to resolve family problems.
Among the Commission’s duties
were to settle all disputes between families, decide which families control
which territories and in order for an individual to become a “made man”, his
boss had to first go in front of the Commission and receive their approval. The
Commission also had to approve a new boss before he could officially take over.
Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis
"Lepke" Buchalter, Dutch Schultz and Abner "Longie"
Zwillman, who were Jewish mobsters, were permitted to work along with the Commission
and participate in meetings. The commission had a lot of power and when their
authority was questioned in 1935 by David Schultz, when he wanted to have
prosecutor Thomas Dewey assassinated, he instead was killed. The Commission
used Murder Inc to carry out the hit. Murder Inc was often used by the Commission
to discard their anyone opposed tho their authority.
