Lucky Luciano - Early Life

Early Life

Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily. Luciano's parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippia (born 1901), and Concetta. Luciano's father worked in a sulfur mine in Sicily. When Luciano was 10 years old (1907), the family migrated to the United States. They settled in New York City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a popular destination for Italian immigrants. At age 14, Luciano dropped out of school and started working as a shipping clerk, earning $5 per week. However, after winning $244 in a dice game, Luciano quit his job and went to earning money on the street. That same year, Luciano's parents sent him to the Brooklyn Truant School.

While a teenager, Luciano started his own gang. Unlike other street gangs whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from Italian and Irish gangs for ten cents per week. It was during this time Luciano met Jewish teenager Meyer Lansky, his future business partner.

It is not clear how Luciano earned the nickname "Lucky". It may have come from surviving a severe beating by three men in the 1920s, as well as a throat slashing. Luciano may have gained it as a young man due to his ability to avoid prison. From 1916 to 1936, Luciano was arrested 25 times on charges ranging from assault to illegal gambling to blackmail and to robbery, but spent no time in prison. The name "Lucky" may have also been a mispronunciation of Luciano's surname "Lucania".