With Masseria out of the way, Maranzano declared himself the undisputed boss of bosses and initially thought he had Luciano's support. But in private, Marazano was growing wary of Luciano and his growing circle of non-Sicilian gangster friends. It wasn't long before Maranzano came to regard Luciano as "a threat," according to author Ernest Volkman in his book Gangbusters: The Destruction of America's Last Great Mafia Dynasty. Marazano hired notorious Irish hitman Vince "Mad Dog" Coll to rub out Luciano and his close associate Vito Genovese, but Luciano got wind of the plot and beat Marazano to the punch, hiring four Jewish killers from the Meyer Lansky-Bugsy Seigel gang to take out Marazano.
Maranzano had summoned Luciano to meet him at his real-estate office near Grand Central Station on September 10, 1931. Luciano assumed that this meeting was a setup, so he dispatched his hit team before the scheduled meeting with Marazano. Dressed in treasury-agent uniforms, the four killers went to Maranzano's office, saying they were there to do a spot check on the books. Two of the "agents" subdued Maranzano's body guards in the outer office while the other two went inside to take care of Maranzano.
Tommy Lucchese was with Maranzano, who never suspected that Lucchese had been aligned with Luciano all along. The assassins didn't know what Maranzano looked like, so Lucchese's job was to make sure that they got the right man, which they certainly did, shooting and stabbing Maranzano to death.
Ironically, one of these killers ran into "Mad Dog" Coll in the stairwell as he rushed out of the building. Coll was on his way up to gun down Luciano and Genovese, who were supposed to be in a meeting with Maranzano.
When Coll learned that the boss had just been killed, he turned right around and walked out a happy man. Maranzano had already paid him half of his $50,000 fee up front and was in no position to ask for a refund.
With the "Mustache Petes" either dead or on the run, Luciano and his allies were now free to take over. Luciano assumed the leadership of Masseria's group, while Tommy Gagliano became boss of Reina's gang, with Tommy Lucchese as his underboss. Gagliano held the top slot until his death by natural causes in 1953.
Tommy Lucchese was an anomaly among his peers. Five-foot-two with a slight build, he was no stranger to violence. As Carl Sifakis points out, he may have been Lucky Luciano's "favorite killer," and may have also been involved in some 30 murders. This would have been high praise coming from Luciano, who at one time had Albert "Lord High Executioner" Anastasia, among other heavy hitters, in his stable. Lucchese lost a finger in 1915, which earned him the nickname "Three-Finger Brown" after a popular baseball player at the time. As a young man, he racked up a long list of arrests, including ones for homicide, but he managed to avoid conviction in every case except for a single grand larceny charge in the early 1920s.
Lucchese had served loyally as underboss to Tom Gagliano for 22 years. Like Gagliano, he set ego aside and concentrated on core Mafia values�making money and not getting caught. Having lived under the tyrannical reigns of the "Mustache Petes," Lucchese showed more care for the welfare of his men when it was his turn to become boss. Popular and well-liked by his soldiers, he took his family into new rackets in Manhattan's garment district and in the related trucking industry. According to mob expert Jerry Capeci, Lucchese's successful infiltration into these businesses would indicate his control over "key Teamsters and Ladies Garment Workers locals as well as trade associations."
Lucchese was a modern gangster in the Luciano mold who branched out into new areas while maintaining the bread-and-butter rackets that have always been the foundation of the Mafia's money-making machine�gambling, construction, loan-sharking, and drugs. Along with Gagliano, he pioneered rackets at the newly opened Idelwild Airport (later renamed Kennedy Airport), corrupting unions there to facilitate trucking monopolies, warehouse theft, and hijacking.
But Lucchese also had a talent for making friends in high places and using those friendships to his advantage. Among his good friends was Armand Chankalian, administrative assistant to the United States Attorney of the Southern District of New York. Chankalian introduced him to U.S. Attorney Myles Lane. In 1945, Lucchese applied to the New York State Parole Board for a certificate of good conduct, and Chankalian served as a character witness for him. The certificate was granted.
Lucchese also counted Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Murphy among his friends. Murphy is best known for prosecuting accused Communist spy Alger Hiss for perjury in 1949. Murphy was named police commissioner of the city of New York when Mayor Vincent Impellitteri won re-election in 1950. Tommy Lucchese was among Impellitteri's staunchest supporters and had been a frequent guest at Murphy's home. The commissioner claimed total ignorance of Lucchese's criminal record until that year.
As mob bosses go, Lucchese was a worthy namesake for the family he led. He maintained his criminal lifestyle for 44 years without a conviction, a major feat in itself. Toward the end of his life he suffered from heart disease and underwent surgery for a brain tumor, from which he never fully recovered. He died on July 13, 1967. Over 1,000 people attended his funeral, including many high-ranking mobsters who knew that police and FBI surveillance teams would be watching. Tommy Lucchese was so well-respected, nothing would keep them away.