29 Facts About Tommy Lucchese

Gaetano Tommy Lucchese was born on December 1,1899, to Baldassarre and Francesca Tommy Lucchese in Palermo, Sicily.

The surname "Tommy Lucchese" suggests family origins from the Sicilian city of Lucca Sicula.

In early 1911, the Tommy Lucchese family emigrated to the United States, settling in Manhattan's Italian neighborhood of East Harlem.

Tommy Lucchese had three brothers Joseph, Vincent and Anthony who all followed him into a life of organized crime.

In 1943, Tommy Lucchese became a naturalized citizen of United States.

Tommy Lucchese married Catherine and they had two children, Frances and Baldesare.

Tommy Lucchese sometimes operated out of a political club off East 106th Street in East Harlem.

In 1920, Tommy Lucchese was arrested in Riverhead, Long Island, on grand larceny charges after stealing a car.

In January 1921, Tommy Lucchese was convicted of auto theft and sentenced on March 27,1922 to three years and nine months in prison.

Tommy Lucchese served thirteen months at Sing Sing Correctional Facility before he was paroled.

Tommy Lucchese was released from prison in 1923, three years into prohibition.

On July 18,1928, Tommy Lucchese was arrested along with his brother-in-law, Joseph "Joe Palisades" Rosato, for the murder of Louis Cerasuolo; the charges were later dropped.

Tommy Lucchese was arrested on three other occasions in his lifetime: in 1930 for murder, in 1931 for an investigation, and in 1935 for vagrancy, but in all three arrests he was released and all charges were dropped.

In September 1931, Luciano and Genovese planned the murder of Salvatore Maranzano after Tommy Lucchese had previously alerted Luciano that he was marked for death, and prepared a hit team to kill Maranzano first.

Tommy Lucchese Gagliano had risen to leadership of the Reina family with the assassination of Gaetano Reina at the outset of the Castellammarese War and retained that position after Luciano's ascension.

Tommy Lucchese preferred to issue his orders through close allies, particularly Lucchese, who was his underboss and the family's public face.

In 1946, Tommy Lucchese attended the mob's Havana Conference in Cuba as Gagliano's representative.

Tommy Lucchese appointed mobsters Stafano LaSalle as underboss and Vincenzo Rao as consigliere.

That same year, Tommy Lucchese formed an alliance with Luciano crime family underboss Vito Genovese and Anastasia crime family underboss Carlo Gambino with the long-term goal of gaining control of the Commission.

Tommy Lucchese became one of the most well-respected Cosa Nostra bosses of the Post-War era.

Tommy Lucchese concentrated on the core Cosa Nostra values of making money, keeping a low public profile, and avoiding criminal prosecution.

The Tommy Lucchese family came to dominate Manhattan's garment district and the related trucking industry by gaining control of key unions and trade associations.

On January 25,1943, Tommy Lucchese became a naturalized United States citizen in Newark, New Jersey.

Tommy Lucchese had not yet arrived in Apalachin and therefore avoided arrest.

Genovese's humiliation motivated the new alliance of Luciano, Costello, Lansky, Gambino and Tommy Lucchese to set up Genovese's later elimination.

In return, Lucchese gave Gambino a part of his rackets at Idlewild Airport.

Tommy Lucchese exercised control over airport management security and all the airport unions.

On July 13,1967, Tommy Lucchese died of a brain tumor at his home in the Lido Beach area of Long Island.

Tommy Lucchese is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.