By Andy

FROM its beginnings early in this century, the Lucchese Cosa Nostra crime family has maintained a low profile. While the bosses of other families basked in the limelight that only New York can create, whether by design or circumstance, no Lucchese leader became really well known.

The first Lucchese boss I am aware of - undoubtedly there were others before him - was Tom Reina. His murder during the Castellammarese War in 1930 brought the team of the two Tommy's to the fore. The Reina hit had been engineered by Joe Masseria, who was trying to prevent the Reina family from teaming up with his mortal enemy, Sal Maranzano. Rather than be intimidated, Tommy Gagliano, Tommy Lucchese and their men joined the Maranzano forces.

It was a smart move. With the death of Masseria (left) and the end of the war, Gagliano and Lucchese found themselves in an excellent position. At the series of regional meetings held shortly after Masseria's death, Maranzano (right) formally recognized Gagliano as boss of the family. At La Cosa Nostra's first national meeting, held in Chicago in 1931, Maranzano confirmed Gagliano's role again.

Within a few months, sensing that the tide had changed, Gagliano and Lucchese quickly turned against Maranzano, forming a new alliance with Lucky Luciano. Soon after, Maranzano was killed in his office while Lucchese watched. Most likely, Lucchese, as a regular Maranzano visitor, arranged to be there so he could "finger" Maranzano for non-Mafia killers who had been hired to divert suspicion away from Luciano et al.

Both Gagliano and Lucchese took part in discussions that led to the creation of the Commission, La Cosa Nostra's board of directors. Once formed, Gagliano became one of its initial members, along with the heads of the four other New York families, as well as the bosses of Buffalo and Chicago.

Gagliano's initial alliance with Luciano (right) did not last long. By the mid 1930's, Luciano was jailed and eventually replaced by Frank Costello. The power on the Commission had moved into the hands of Vince Mangano (Gambino), Joe Bonanno , Stefano Magaddino (Buffalo) and Joe Profaci (left, below). Gagliano and Lucchese had to be very careful in the face of such a formidable alliance. In part, this explains their practice of avoiding both internal Cosa Nostra conflict and publicity.

By the early 1950's, a series of significant events had taken place which would drastically change this situation, and dramatically change the various alliances and eventually lead to much conflict - Lucky Luciano was finished in the United States; Vito Genovese had returned from Italy; Willie Moretti, Costello's underboss, was "mercy" killed; Albert Anastasia (right, below) had taken over the Gambino family, and Tommy Gagliano had died of natural causes.

With Gagliano's death in 1953, Tommy Lucchese took over as boss without opposition. Centered in the Bronx, the family continued it's gambling, loan sharking, labour racketeering, truck hijacking, and assorted other rackets. As with most families, a number of the Lucchese members were involved in drug trafficking "off the record." The idea was to kick a portion of the drug profits up to the boss without anyone saying where the money came from. This would allow the leaders to deny their family was violating La Cosa Nostra's "no drug" rule.

Lucchese had his own semi legitimate interests including highly profitable trucking concerns in the garment industry. Interestingly enough, these companies would eventually pass into the hands of his son in law, Tommy Gambino, who would make tens of millions off this monopoly.

A few years after taking over the top position in his family, Lucchese came close to losing both his title and his life. Frank Costello, then head of the "Genovese" family, accused Lucchese (left) of plotting against "Gambino" boss, Albert Anastasia, according to Joe Bonanno. Bonanno claims that at a Commission meeting called to hear the charges, he "saved" Lucchese's life and brought about an accord between the scheming families. Events would soon prove this "peace" was a sham.

Lucchese was deeply involved in a massive plot that succeeded in bringing both Carlo Gambino (right) and Vito Genovese to the top of their respective families by the end of 1957.

By the early 1960's, this group, despite the fact Genovese was in jail, secretly supported a revolt within the Profaci family. (now the Colombos) After a number of years of turmoil, the net result was that Joe Colombo, (left) a Gambino protege, was elected boss.

Lucchese, Gambino, Colombo, and the Genovese stand ins began to undermine Joe Bonanno. As detailed in the Bonanno section, they succeeded in deposing the long time boss and had him replaced by a leader they could manipulate. Lucchese, however, was seriously ill with cancer and by 1967 would be dead.

The early favorite to replace Lucchese was powerful capo Tony Corallo. Unfortunately for "Tony Ducks," he had been convicted in a scheme were he had bribed New York City's Water

Commissioner in order to obtain lucrative contracts to clean and repair part of the massive water reservoir system.

Gambino was now far and away the most powerful Cosa Nostra boss in New York. Gambino gave the nod to capo Carmine Tramunti, whom he knew would be very appreciative and thus cooperative. Tramunti did not last long. In 1974, he was convicted of financing a heroin smuggling ring and spent the rest of his life in prison.

In the meantime, Corallo had been released from jail and took over the top spot, holding it until the famous Commission Case in the mid 1980's. During his years in power, two major sources of income were derived from labor racketeering -- the private sanitation industry and major construction projects in Manhattan. These activities were minutely detailed by a bug state authorities placed in a Jaguar that Corallo's bodyguard/chauffeur Salvatore Avellino used to drive him around.

The family's practice of keeping a low profile continued despite the heavy publicity surrounding the Commission Case. Corallo's less than charismatic personality played a big role in this. In addition, he was just one of three bosses and a number of underlings who went to trial. The "Pizza Connection Case" and Dapper Don John Gotti grabbed the lion's share of the media attention. By the time Corallo went off to jail to begin his 100 year sentence, it was clear his era was over.

Unrest, uncertainty and betrayal marked the next decade in the Lucchese family. Vittorio Amuso was recognized as boss of the borgata whose membership had slipped from around 110 members in the 1960's to less than a hundred. In 1991, capo Peter Chiodo was shot numerous times when he fell into disfavor with Amuso and his trigger happy underboss, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, (right) like many Lucchese mobsters and associates did in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Chiodo became a cooperating witness and testified a year later against Amuso, who was convicted and sentenced to life. Meanwhile, Casso, who had gotten tangled up in a plot with Amuso and Genovese boss Vincent Gigante (left) to kill John Gotti, was nabbed on the same murder charges that had been the undoing of Amuso, and pleaded guilty, opting to become a government informer like Chiodo and former acting boss Alphonse (Litttle Al)  D'Arco and many other family mobsters.

Casso blew his chance for a sentence reduction and will be spending the rest of his life jail. Amuso, serving life, anointed capo Little Joe DeFede as acting boss, and he ran the severely weakened family until he was popped for racketeering and jailed in 1998. He followed D'Arco's lead and began cooperating in 2002. Meanwhile, Steve Crea, Defede's successor acting boss was hit with state racketeering charges, followed by similar charges by the feds. Many family members are jailed, including capos Anthony Baratta and Salvatore Avellino, who testified that he retired from the mob. Capo Joseph (Joey Flowers) Tangorra, jailed without bail as he awaited trial on three separate state and federal indictments, began seeing a prison shrink, then pleaded guilty and is serving a 16-year sentence. The family is in disarray.