The Case Against Lucky Luciano

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This book relates the 1936 trial of Lucky Luciano, through the experience of the witnesses. The most notorious of these were the women who worked as New York syndicate madams and prostitutes in 1933-1936.

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Lucky Luciano

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On April 1, 1936, New York Detectives arrested him in Hot Springs. A tug of war ensued as Dewey's district attorneys wrestled with Hot Springs authorities to keep the gangster in custody. On April 18, 1936, Arkansas Governor J. Marion Futrell signed the extradition papers that forced Luciano back to New York.
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Recommended Reading

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Book recommendations: Thee best nonfiction reads about Dillinger and other early 1900s gangsters.
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This book relates the 1936 trial of Lucky Luciano, through the experience of the witnesses. The most notorious of these were the women who worked as New York syndicate madams and prostitutes in 1933 – 1936

Thomas DeweyAside from respect and admiration for the strategy conceived by Thomas Dewey, the tone is not strongly in favor of the prosecution. The book makes it clear that Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey had an innate advantage against the witnesses: social position and old money, which helped to catapult him to a position of special prosecutor in New York City.

As a result of that conclusion, the book asks the reader to weigh the power of the special prosecutor against the obscurity and powerlessness of the witnesses.

An artist’s rendition of the witnesses’ testimony in the Luciano trial, as portrayed in a 1930s detective magazine.

Email Ellen at: ellenpoulsen@aol.com. Read archived blogs at The Mob Museum