The mystery of Lucky Luciano’s ‘invaluable service’ to the country

Seventy-five years ago, Charles Luciano caught a Lucky break . . . sort of. Following several years of negotiations (and…


Ninety years later, Arnold Rothstein murder still a mystery

Ninety years ago this week, with the dying breath of New York’s most provocative Mob entrepreneur, one of America’s great…


Eighty years ago, Ciro ‘The Artichoke King’ Terranova ‘died of a broken heart’

Eighty years ago last month, one of Mob history’s oddball characters crossed into the great gangland netherworld. Ciro “The Artichoke…


Seventy years ago, Luciano’s Havana sojourn was cut short

Written February 2017 In 1946, Charles “Lucky” Luciano was persona non grata in America. Though he was granted a pardon…


Journalist tracks history of New York Mafia

In the summer of 1963, Joseph Valachi, longtime Mafia soldier involved in more than a score of gangland killings for…


Virginia Hill: ‘Queen of the Mob’ was no one’s pushover

Third in a series of profiles for Women’s History Month. On March 24, 1966, passersby walking on a footpath beside…


Eunice Carter: Key player in Luciano conviction

First in a series of profiles for Women’s History Month. Eunice Carter made history throughout her life. But the crucial…