Tommy Lucchese the most underrated LCN boss?

[bababooey]

I have posted about this on other forums, but wanted to share the discussion here. To me i feel Tommy is probably the most looked over LCN boss by the general mafia fan. Everyone mentions Frank Costello, Carlo Gambino, Luciano etc as top bosses in the life, but tommy rarely gets the respect he deserves. Tommy was the “street boss' ' effectively of the reina family when underboss for gagliano. He had immense respect from his years throughout the castellammarese war (took part in the hit against Salvatore - though he wasn’t one of the killers), on top of solidifying history when he informed Luciano of the hit on him by maranzano. And hes one of the few people in the life to not do even more than a few years in prison - never going again after 1935!

What truly made him a powerhouse to me was how he worked his alliances. He never had the biggest crew but he knew who to be close to. His connections to the unions probably outweighed Costello's influence by the 60s. He didn’t have a single weak capo throughout the 50-70s or many rats / no internal wars up till the caso crap. His mafia family respected him because unlike bosses like profaci - he was generous with money and rackets. Here are some legends who were under lucchese and each were a powerhouse in their own right:
Vincent Rao, "Big Sam" Accardi, "Paulie Ham" Correale , Tony Ducks Corallo, "Christie Tick" Furnari, Carmine Tramunti, "Eddie" Coco, Anthony "Ham" Delasco, "Joe Beck" palermo, Paul Vario, "Tom Mix" Santoro, "Joe brown" lucchese, Steve LaSalle, Frankie Carbo, "Neil" Migliore, and many more.

Tommy rose to the highest of ranks by his 30s with no family influence and only his own efforts. He was a key player in the death of Salvatore in 1931 and Was doing work as a teen and throughout his 20s with some of the biggest names in the LCN history. By 1931 he was the underboss / effective street boss of the family for 20 years then was boss for 16. So 36 years at least the #2 in one of the most important families during the most active mafia years.... He lived Cosa Nostra.

With all that said after Luciano was no longer the sitting boss, Lucchese outweighed everyone in influence besides maybe Maggidino. Carlo Gambino being labeled “the boss of bosses” while Tommy was alive is insulting.

[Shellackhead]

He’s definitely underrated. He really set up the lukes to be stable by appointing the people he did to those positions even long after his death. The Amuso/Casso thing is unfortunate because they were just close with Christie Tick & were selected because nobody else was seen as future leaders? Who knew that they would decimate that family in the few years they were out & about being Boss & Underboss

[CabriniGreen]

Ive always kinda thought Barzini was partly based on him...

[bababooey]

He’s definitely underrated. He really set up the lukes to be stable by appointing the people he did to those positions even long after his death. The Amuso/Casso thing is unfortunate because they were just close with Christie Tick & were selected because nobody else was seen as future leaders? Who knew that they would decimate that family in the few years they were out & about being Boss & Underboss

I read somewhere that Paulie Ham / Johnny Dio was likely to be up for boss before corallo / tramunti but paulie died young and Dio was fighting a bunch of cases in the late 60s. If paulie ham or Dio took over and lived, Corallo would have been around to take over as boss when the commission case come about (assuming Paulie would have been in the same spot as tony ducks). The family would have continued to stay stable after and probably would have survived the 90s and just had Casso/Amuso as top captains.

[eboli]

There's not much to suggest that Dioguardi was anywhere close in the running for the boss position around the time of Tom Lucchese's death. In the 1950s, Dio was one of Lucchese's favorites but gradually fell out of favor. Since the Victor Riesel incident, Dio had a federal target on his back, and his open rivalry with his uncle James Plumeri didn't help things either. Early on, Dio rubbed many Lucchese members the wrong way because he didn't support his uncle for the consigliere position and voted for Vincent Rao instead.

By the time the doctors found Lucchese's brain tumor, he had already picked Corallo as his successor, and Corallo spent as much time in prison during the 1960s as Dio did. When we look at the late-1960s - early 1970s Lucchese administration, a trend emerges. Guys like Carmine Tramunti (acting boss/interim boss/official boss); Stafano La Sala (underboss); Vincent Rao (consigliere); Joseph Rosato (acting boss); Ettore Coco (acting boss); Joseph Lucchese (acting boss) had no ambitions to be the boss. They were there to make sure Corallo took over without problems, and they stepped down when he did.

[Shellackhead]

There's not much to suggest that Dioguardi was anywhere close in the running for the boss position around the time of Tom Lucchese's death. In the 1950s, Dio was one of Lucchese's favorites but gradually fell out of favor. Since the Victor Riesel incident, Dio had a federal target on his back, and his open rivalry with his uncle James Plumeri didn't help things either. Early on, Dio rubbed many Lucchese members the wrong way because he didn't support his uncle for the consigliere position and voted for Vincent Rao instead.

By the time the doctors found Lucchese's brain tumor, he had already picked Corallo as his successor, and Corallo spent as much time in prison during the 1960s as Dio did. When we look at the late-1960s - early 1970s Lucchese administration, a trend emerges. Guys like Carmine Tramunti (acting boss/interim boss/official boss); Stafano La Sala (underboss); Vincent Rao (consigliere); Joseph Rosato (acting boss); Ettore Coco (acting boss); Joseph Lucchese (acting boss) had no ambitions to be the boss. They were there to make sure Corallo took over without problems, and they stepped down when he did.

Is there any write up on these 1950s-60s Lucchese guys?

[PolackTony]

Agreed on Lucchese's importance. The guy was not just a powerful and longstanding boss of a major family but an avugad. Unless there's someone I'm overlooking at the moment (apologies if so), I think that the Lucchese's need their equivalent of what eboli does for the Genovese and Gohn for the Colombos, so Lucchese and some of these other guys from that era can get their full due.

Tangential question. What exactly was the relation between Vicent Rao and the Raos from the restaurant? Was there a direct and substantial relation or were they just cousins of some sort going back to Corleone? Additionally, was it actually the case that Joe Rao of the Genovese fam was Vincent Rao's brother?

[eboli]

Is there any write up on these 1950s-60s Lucchese guys?

I plan to make some on guys like Tommy Gagliano, Eddie Coco, etc. I don't know when that will be because I don't have much spare time. It's in the backlog, though.

Tangential question. What exactly was the relation between Vicent Rao and the Raos from the restaurant? Was there a direct and substantial relation or were they just cousins of some sort going back to Corleone? Additionally, was it actually the case that Joe Rao of the Genovese fam was Vincent Rao's brother?

I think I looked into it, and there was some distant connection, but don't quote me on that. Most of these guys with the surname Rao/Gagliano are related if you go back enough.

Joe Rao isn't Vincent's brother. Vincent had an older brother - Calogero Rao, also known as Charlie Rao. He was a Lucchese member or at least a suspected one. Salvatore Speciale was Vince Rao's nephew and Giuseppe Gagliano, also known as Pip the Blind, was Rao's first cousin.

Peep Justin Cascio's article for more info.

https://mafiagenealogy.wordpress.com/20 ... the-blind/

[PolackTony]

Is there any write up on these 1950s-60s Lucchese guys?

I plan to make some on guys like Tommy Gagliano, Eddie Coco, etc. I don't know when that will be because I don't have much spare time. It's in the backlog, though.

You’ll have to create an alt account called “tramunti” or something just for those Lucchese fam dives. Looking forward to whenever you have the chance to delve into it, though.

Tangential question. What exactly was the relation between Vicent Rao and the Raos from the restaurant? Was there a direct and substantial relation or were they just cousins of some sort going back to Corleone? Additionally, was it actually the case that Joe Rao of the Genovese fam was Vincent Rao's brother?

I think I looked into it, and there was some distant connection, but don't quote me on that. Most of these guys with the surname Rao/Gagliano are related if you go back enough.

Taking it back to the hills of Curliuni, there’s gotta be a relation somewhere.

Joe Rao isn't Vincent's brother. Vincent had an older brother - Calogero Rao, also known as Charlie Rao. He was a Lucchese member or at least a suspected one. Salvatore Speciale was Vince Rao's nephew and Giuseppe Gagliano, also known as Pip the Blind, was Rao's first cousin.

Peep Justin Cascio's article for more info.

https://mafiagenealogy.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/pip-the-blind/

Thanks for the confirmation re: Joe Rao. I’m sure I’ve seen it stated somewhere that he was Vincent Rao’s brother, but there’s plenty of bad info out there so I wanted to check. Given the common origins in the old Corleonesi family and the shared territory in East Harlem, not surprising that there were Raos (whatever their actual familial link) joining both families.

Thanks for the link. I was not familiar with Justin Cascio’s work. I’ve thought for some time that a social network analysis approach would be very useful for studying the mafia, but I’m not a sociologist so it wasn’t a project that I was prepared to do. Cool stuff.

[Shellackhead]

I wish I had the skills that Eboli or Gohn have in researching I would of dissected the Lucchese family by now

[Extortion]

He’s pretty famous and he was low key powerhouse. Don’t know if he was underrated per se.

[bababooey]

He’s pretty famous and he was low key powerhouse. Don’t know if he was underrated per se.

Underrated might not be the best wording, but i def feel he isn't as respected (i know we arent suppose respect them since they are killers etc, but you get the context) as he should be. I think he was way more important to the whole of cosa nostra than people like profaci or even bonanno.

[bababooey]

There's not much to suggest that Dioguardi was anywhere close in the running for the boss position around the time of Tom Lucchese's death. In the 1950s, Dio was one of Lucchese's favorites but gradually fell out of favor. Since the Victor Riesel incident, Dio had a federal target on his back, and his open rivalry with his uncle James Plumeri didn't help things either. Early on, Dio rubbed many Lucchese members the wrong way because he didn't support his uncle for the consigliere position and voted for Vincent Rao instead.

By the time the doctors found Lucchese's brain tumor, he had already picked Corallo as his successor, and Corallo spent as much time in prison during the 1960s as Dio did. When we look at the late-1960s - early 1970s Lucchese administration, a trend emerges. Guys like Carmine Tramunti (acting boss/interim boss/official boss); Stafano La Sala (underboss); Vincent Rao (consigliere); Joseph Rosato (acting boss); Ettore Coco (acting boss); Joseph Lucchese (acting boss) had no ambitions to be the boss. They were there to make sure Corallo took over without problems, and they stepped down when he did.

Thanks for clearing that up. I think it was the recent OC shortz video that i heard him say Dio was a potential for boss, but that probably was just rumors he restated. I think corallo also took control of a lot of Dios rackets as he was fading away from the life since corallo worked directly with DIo.

[bababooey]

I wish I had the skills that Eboli or Gohn have in researching I would of dissected the Lucchese family by now

the website thenewyorkmafia has a ton of good articles but they turned into a paid service now :/ . They had a few good write ups on Joe bikini, Vincent Rao, Joe Brown Lucchese, Anthony Corallo, Joe Beck, etc etc

[Ivan]

He’s pretty famous and he was low key powerhouse. Don’t know if he was underrated per se.

Underrated might not be the best wording, but i def feel he isn't as respected (i know we arent suppose respect them since they are killers etc, but you get the context) as he should be. I think he was way more important to the whole of cosa nostra than people like profaci or even bonanno.

He's arguably as well-known as Profaci at least. The fact that he is not a big star is testimony to his efficacy as boss; i.e., he did it right and didn't become a celebrity of sorts.

By the way your screen name makes me think of this (watch to the end): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cuf8YlL3H8