"FRANK LUCAS" (DRUG OVERLORD)

After "Bumpy"

Johnson's death, Lucas traveled around and came to the realization that to be successful he would have to break the monopoly that the Italian mafia held in New York. Traveling to Stilwell, Oklahoma, he eventually made his way to Jack's American Star Bar, an R&R hangout for black soldiers.[6] It was here that he met former U.S. Army sergeant Leslie "Ike" Atkinson, a country boy from Goldsboro, North Carolina, who happened to be married to one of Lucas' cousins. Lucas is quoted as saying, "Ike knew everyone over there, every black guy in the Army, from the cooks on up."[6]
When interviewed for a magazine article published in 2000, Lucas denied putting the drugs among the corpses of American soldiers. Instead he flew in a North Carolina carpenter to Bangkok and:
“
We did it, all right...ha, ha, ha... Who the hell is gonna look in a dead soldier's coffin? Ha ha ha. . . .We had him make up 28 copies of the government coffins . . . except we fixed them up with false bottoms, big enough to load up with six, maybe eight kilos . . . It had to be snug. You couldn't have shit sliding around. Ike was very smart, because he made sure we used heavy guys' coffins. He didn't put them in no skinny guy's . . ."
”

"BENJAMIN "BUGSY" SIEGEL

Halfway through his teen years he met Meyer Lansky, with whom he formed the Bug & Meyer Mob, a gang that dealt in gambling and car theft. The gang became involved in bootlegging in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The Bug & Meyer Mob teamed up with Albert Anastasia and Lucky Luciano in a gang led by Joe "The Boss" Masseria, in 1930. Luciano allegedly used Siegel to kill Joe Masseria, a move that ended that Castellammarese War for power of the New York mob, in 1931. Siegel continued to carry out murders for Luciano and by 1937 there were a number of contracts out on Bugsy, because he had angered several bosses. Incidentally, Siegel loathed his nickname, Bugsy, which derived from his violent temper: some who dared to call him by his nickname to his face, reportedly, did not live to repeat the address.

"LUCKY LUCIANO"

Name at birth: Salvatore Lucania

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was one of the most famous gangsters in the U.S. during most of the 20th century, credited with turning syndicated crime into a nation-wide organization based on legitimate business models. Born in Sicily, he and his family moved to New York City in 1906. At an early age he established himself as a creative thug on the Lower East Side and eventually worked his way up to being a top aide to crime boss Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. In the 1920s Masseria was involved in a prolonged turf war with rival crime boss Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano, who by this time had earned the nickname "Lucky" (supposedly by surviving a brutal attack on his life), made a deal with Maranzano and arranged for Joe the Boss to be assassinated in 1931. Luciano then arranged for the murder of Maranzano and became the biggest boss in New York City. With the help of childhood friend Meyer Lansky and strongman Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Luciano then restructured organized crime. Together they created an organization that had a board of directors that focused on profits instead of traditional ethnic loyalties.