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Lucky Luciano: The Real and the Fake Gangster
For the first twenty-five years of his criminal career, Charles “Lucky” Luciano was a vicious mobster who rose to become the multimillionaire king of the New York underworld. For the next twenty-five years of his life, Luciano was a legend---but a fake master criminal without real power, his evil reputation manipulated and maintained by the government agents who had put him behind bars. Drawing on secret government documents from archives in the United States and Europe, this myth-busting biography tells the real story from Luciano’s early days as a top hit man for the Mob to his exploits running sex and narcotics empires. His criminal career abruptly ended with conviction and imprisonment, but his reputation was only enhanced by rumors that he was winning World War II for the Allies in Sicily and the Mediterranean. Now, for the first time, author Tim Newark exposes the truth about what Luciano really did do to help the Allies in the war. With his expulsion from the United States after the war ended, Luciano returned to Italy. He was reputed to have overseen a massive transatlantic narcotics network and became the arch-villain for international law enforcement agencies. But Newark reveals how Luciano really spent his twilight years. Lucky The Real and the Fake Gangster turns accepted Mafia history on its head with an extraordinary story that has never been told before.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published August 31, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 16, 2016
The title should have been the giveaway, capitalizing on a fictionalized Luciano as a character in "Boardwalk Empire." The book itself is readable and I had no problem staying with oit until the end, but basically the first half is a retelling of early NYC mob history that has been retold already in countless books. I guess if this happens to be the first book on the New York mob that you are reading it will serve a purpose. the second half is interesting but is mostly speculation. Nothing to really hang your hat on.
October 17, 2014
I'd like to give this book a higher rating but I gotta be honest, it kinda bored me.
I will say, as much as I THOUGHT I knew about Luciano, I don't think this should be anyone's first read on the notorious mobster. It's obvious it was intended to dispel a lot of the accepted truths about the man and therefore comes off as a very uneven read.
It doesn't really give a complete picture of the Lucky Luciano story. It started well but I found my attention wandering, unusual as I usually lap up Cosa Nostra related material.
Read by all means - but maybe it should be the third or fourth read on Charlie Luciano's tangled history.
I will say, as much as I THOUGHT I knew about Luciano, I don't think this should be anyone's first read on the notorious mobster. It's obvious it was intended to dispel a lot of the accepted truths about the man and therefore comes off as a very uneven read.
It doesn't really give a complete picture of the Lucky Luciano story. It started well but I found my attention wandering, unusual as I usually lap up Cosa Nostra related material.
Read by all means - but maybe it should be the third or fourth read on Charlie Luciano's tangled history.
January 26, 2015
Like so many, I was absolutely riveted to HBO’s stellar Prohibition era crime drama, BOARDWALK EMPIRE. In fact, I can’t begin to tell you how sad I was to see it go after five incredible seasons. Sure – like any drama – it had some highs and lows stretched out over so many hours, characters, and plotlines; but it still managed to make such an indelible imprint on me that I’m still reading books and biographies exploring so many of the program’s primary and secondary characters.
In fact, that’s precisely what brings me to BOARDWALK GANGSTER: THE REAL LUCKY LUCIANO. On the HBO show, the young Luciano is played with delicious cunning by Vincent Piazza. While Lucky wasn’t the character I found most fascinating throughout this five season exploration, I saw enough of him that I wanted to know more. Consequently, I did some research, and – while a few other books came back with stronger recommendations than this one – I eventually settled on this one because it promised to go into some depth beyond the events of the TV series, leading to some developments beyond Luciano’s criminal career that I knew little to nothing about.
Author Tim Newark has clearly done his work in studying the life as well as the legend built up around one of gangdom’s seminal figures. In fact, Newark rather deftly navigates through much of controversy surrounding Luciano’s purported legacy – was he really as instrumental after his capture, conviction, and expulsion from the United States as the mobster and his accomplices would have you believe. Much of this is due to the fact that the author managed to uncover a veritable mountain of previously undisclosed details involving Lucky’s long alleged ‘cooperation’ with the United States government largely involving World War II and the subsequent Cold War. I think it’s clear that Newark’s only intellectual intent here is to finally dispense with the myths long attributed to the gangster and set the record straight; while others may disagree with the writer’s conclusion, it’s certainly difficult to ignore the evidence.
Definitely, Newark has gone a long way toward crafting what may eventually be regarded as a definitive take on Lucky, but – in the short term – I wonder if others will still cling to the far more romanticized version of the events because (A) it’s always easier to accept the myth and (B) so much of who the man was remains lost to the vaults of history.
Decades have passed since Luciano’s days, and with that passage those who knew him best have slipped off their mortal coil; when no one’s left to validate the paperwork, then we’re left with the cold, dry facts of government records. No matter how hard Newark tries, I felt that something was lost in these pages, and I think what I missed was the personality – the charm, good or bad – of the individual. Don’t misunderstand: I have no reason to disagree with anything the writer says … but instead of growing closer to understanding Luciano I think I only left this tale with a clearer understanding of (pardon the euphemism) ‘the bullet points’ of a life spent in crime. True, that’s naturally the end result of debunking the mythology, though I’ve still no reason to accept that Luciano was any less a mover and a shaker in the days when he walked New York’s city streets.
Somehow, the more I got to know the facts, the less I got to know the man.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Coming off my reading of any entire slew of true crime ‘gangster’ bios, maybe BOARDWALK GANGSTER: THE REAL LUCKY LUCIANO seemed a bit light by comparison. Sure, it read like some truly great scholarship, but – for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on – Charlie never really came alive for me as a person as has happened in other books. It could be that his character ended up being lost a bit between author Newark’s work here and the obvious obfuscation accomplished by other tomes; or it could be that, sadly, the man who was so ‘Lucky’ is simply lost to history. Still, it gets a solid recommendation from me; it just doesn’t hold up as memorably as do some other mob bios.
In fact, that’s precisely what brings me to BOARDWALK GANGSTER: THE REAL LUCKY LUCIANO. On the HBO show, the young Luciano is played with delicious cunning by Vincent Piazza. While Lucky wasn’t the character I found most fascinating throughout this five season exploration, I saw enough of him that I wanted to know more. Consequently, I did some research, and – while a few other books came back with stronger recommendations than this one – I eventually settled on this one because it promised to go into some depth beyond the events of the TV series, leading to some developments beyond Luciano’s criminal career that I knew little to nothing about.
Author Tim Newark has clearly done his work in studying the life as well as the legend built up around one of gangdom’s seminal figures. In fact, Newark rather deftly navigates through much of controversy surrounding Luciano’s purported legacy – was he really as instrumental after his capture, conviction, and expulsion from the United States as the mobster and his accomplices would have you believe. Much of this is due to the fact that the author managed to uncover a veritable mountain of previously undisclosed details involving Lucky’s long alleged ‘cooperation’ with the United States government largely involving World War II and the subsequent Cold War. I think it’s clear that Newark’s only intellectual intent here is to finally dispense with the myths long attributed to the gangster and set the record straight; while others may disagree with the writer’s conclusion, it’s certainly difficult to ignore the evidence.
Definitely, Newark has gone a long way toward crafting what may eventually be regarded as a definitive take on Lucky, but – in the short term – I wonder if others will still cling to the far more romanticized version of the events because (A) it’s always easier to accept the myth and (B) so much of who the man was remains lost to the vaults of history.
Decades have passed since Luciano’s days, and with that passage those who knew him best have slipped off their mortal coil; when no one’s left to validate the paperwork, then we’re left with the cold, dry facts of government records. No matter how hard Newark tries, I felt that something was lost in these pages, and I think what I missed was the personality – the charm, good or bad – of the individual. Don’t misunderstand: I have no reason to disagree with anything the writer says … but instead of growing closer to understanding Luciano I think I only left this tale with a clearer understanding of (pardon the euphemism) ‘the bullet points’ of a life spent in crime. True, that’s naturally the end result of debunking the mythology, though I’ve still no reason to accept that Luciano was any less a mover and a shaker in the days when he walked New York’s city streets.
Somehow, the more I got to know the facts, the less I got to know the man.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Coming off my reading of any entire slew of true crime ‘gangster’ bios, maybe BOARDWALK GANGSTER: THE REAL LUCKY LUCIANO seemed a bit light by comparison. Sure, it read like some truly great scholarship, but – for reasons I couldn’t quite put my finger on – Charlie never really came alive for me as a person as has happened in other books. It could be that his character ended up being lost a bit between author Newark’s work here and the obvious obfuscation accomplished by other tomes; or it could be that, sadly, the man who was so ‘Lucky’ is simply lost to history. Still, it gets a solid recommendation from me; it just doesn’t hold up as memorably as do some other mob bios.
September 23, 2018
Not a bad depiction of Lucky Luciano. Well researched...as most books about Lucky have to be. Relied heavily on transcripts, newspapers, magazines, second hand stories etc. Many, many instances of the author offering his own opinion like: "I don't believe..." "It's highly unlikely..." "Most likely..." This tells you what most mafia Aficionados already know... NO ONE really knows the full truth. There is so much brilliant deflection by his men, especially Lansky and Costello, that their intent of confusing everyone worked. Even Lucky misled everyone. They were all too smart. There is no one alive today who knows everything about the original Boss of Bosses. Any book that comes out about Luciano will be the same.
February 11, 2020
Excellent Read!
Although I can agree with some of the author’s conclusions regarding Lucky and his life exploits and so forth, I feel based on other pieces of well known as well as lesser known information regarding Mr. Luciano that this man, may have been more connected then one could have remotely imagined within a world of secrecy between the secret government that operates within government as well as the underworld, which he once ruled.
Although I can agree with some of the author’s conclusions regarding Lucky and his life exploits and so forth, I feel based on other pieces of well known as well as lesser known information regarding Mr. Luciano that this man, may have been more connected then one could have remotely imagined within a world of secrecy between the secret government that operates within government as well as the underworld, which he once ruled.
May 29, 2023
A solid read covering and opposing other books about 'Lucky'. But the focus is there, and you come away not having any in-depth understanding of the man and his motives.
January 18, 2024
Good book. Entertaining and well-researched.
February 10, 2024
Mob books are my favorite
November 12, 2025
Readable and interesting
Highly readable, but somehow ultimately hollow and less than memorable. A good intro, but the subject cries out for a more exhaustive account.
Highly readable, but somehow ultimately hollow and less than memorable. A good intro, but the subject cries out for a more exhaustive account.
March 16, 2017
Lucky Luciano worked for US Intelligence? Who knew?
August 10, 2013
In Lucky Luciano: The Real and the Fake Gangster, author Tim Newark set out to dispel myths and “tell the true story of the legendary gangster…” It was an enormous undertaking, and the author deserves our appreciation for tackling a historical record so contaminated by decades of misinterpretations, exaggerations and outright lies. Unfortunately, Newark’s book fell significantly short of its goal and may have provided additional support for some inaccurate underworld legends.
Probably the greatest obstacle to a complete and accurate understanding of Luciano and related subjects is the 1975 book, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano written by Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer. Newark repeatedly tackled Last Testament, but he did not entirely dismiss it as a source. At some points, he actually defended it.
On the plus side, Newark did a fine job describing Luciano’s relationship with U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War II. He rightly gave Luciano little credit for Allied successes in Sicily. (These are subjects dealt with in Newark’s earlier book, Mafia Allies.)
He also did an excellent job documenting Luciano’s trial for compulsory prostitution and followed Luciano during his Italian exile and during his brief time in pre-Castro Cuba.
A number of errors crept into Newark’s work, especially when he strayed from his main subject. Most of these are minor. As we have known for some time, Tim Newark is a good writer and a capable and resourceful researcher. In portions of Lucky Luciano: The Real and the Fake Gangster, he also proves that he has a critical mind. Frustratingly, he elected not to use that valuable resource all the time.
Probably the greatest obstacle to a complete and accurate understanding of Luciano and related subjects is the 1975 book, The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano written by Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer. Newark repeatedly tackled Last Testament, but he did not entirely dismiss it as a source. At some points, he actually defended it.
On the plus side, Newark did a fine job describing Luciano’s relationship with U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War II. He rightly gave Luciano little credit for Allied successes in Sicily. (These are subjects dealt with in Newark’s earlier book, Mafia Allies.)
He also did an excellent job documenting Luciano’s trial for compulsory prostitution and followed Luciano during his Italian exile and during his brief time in pre-Castro Cuba.
A number of errors crept into Newark’s work, especially when he strayed from his main subject. Most of these are minor. As we have known for some time, Tim Newark is a good writer and a capable and resourceful researcher. In portions of Lucky Luciano: The Real and the Fake Gangster, he also proves that he has a critical mind. Frustratingly, he elected not to use that valuable resource all the time.
April 18, 2018
A fairly good profile on the infamous Lucky Luciano. Quite a bit of detail is offered on the what and how behind this man who really was so instrumental in building what we know as the Mafia. Of course a lot of what we have been fed is probably myth, primarily from movies and second hand accounts.
Newark seems to get down more to the reality of what was. Despite Luciano notoriety much of his later life is exposed as being fairly insignificant in the running of the mob. Meyer Lansky really seemed to have more control from behind the scenes. And that Luciano was his best friend it is primarily what sustained him. He was also lucky as his name to have lived out his years without being hit. A good read on the reality of what this organization was about and the men involved.
Newark seems to get down more to the reality of what was. Despite Luciano notoriety much of his later life is exposed as being fairly insignificant in the running of the mob. Meyer Lansky really seemed to have more control from behind the scenes. And that Luciano was his best friend it is primarily what sustained him. He was also lucky as his name to have lived out his years without being hit. A good read on the reality of what this organization was about and the men involved.
August 10, 2025
It's really thorough in triangulating the facts surrounding one of the most mythicized figure in history.
And it's fairly neutral and able to recognize other versions of Lucky Luciano's biography. Even managed to dissect the biases and potential faults from a biography made out of Lucky's own testimony!
This is a fairly reliable book to understand facts underlying the most mythicized figure in underworld history, and a fairly good one in telling the stories as what they are
And it's fairly neutral and able to recognize other versions of Lucky Luciano's biography. Even managed to dissect the biases and potential faults from a biography made out of Lucky's own testimony!
This is a fairly reliable book to understand facts underlying the most mythicized figure in underworld history, and a fairly good one in telling the stories as what they are
July 15, 2017
A biography of the life of Lucky Luciano covering his rise to prominence, his time after his conviction and his later years in exile in Italy. I didn’t think there was a whole lot of information, except for a maybe a little after his deportation where the author shows how both US and Italian authorities used Luciano as a bogeyman to whip up funding and the like.
October 13, 2012
Very interesting read on total life of Luciano. I enjoyed the more detail on his last 25 Years in Italy etc. it ties in well with other bios of that era. I always get a different perspective on the same events.
August 9, 2015
Lucky Luciano is arguably the most famous Mafioso in American criminal history. This book tries to separate fact from fiction and reality from myth. Very enjoyable read for anyone who likes history, the Mafia and politics. I am guilty.
August 6, 2020
This book had a good start but I felt it drifted off the track of Luciano and just became about a theory of who is was and maybe connections of what he was linked to. I am afraid to say I got a bit bored towards the end.
May 2, 2016
Very interesting. The perfect book if you want to know accurate facts of Luciano's life along with some others like Masseria, Genovesse, Lansky, etc.
September 20, 2016
Didn't really shine any new light on Lucky's story. An easy read, though it was tough to get through the last couple of chapters.
October 4, 2020
Enjoyed it! Found out lots I didn't know. My only concern is, in this book they claim the other books written on Luciano are full of false information....what's to say this isn't the same
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews