The Making of The Mob

Previously...

on "The Making of New York"...

For nearly a decade, Charles "Lucky" Luciano

has run his criminal empire from a maximum-security prison.

But the outbreak of World War II...

A date which will live in infamy.

Has given him the opportunity to get out.

You'll never guess who I got a call from.

Who? The FBI.

From behind bars, Luciano strikes deals

with the FBI and the U.S. Navy...

Well, listen, sir, just because we're businessmen,

doesn't mean we're not patriots.

We'll lock down the docks.

Using the Mafia's control of the waterfront

to gain leverage with the government.

Come on, let's go, we can move faster.

But Luciano's former acting boss, Vito Genovese,

becomes a major problem...

Freeze! Freeze! Don't move, don't move, don't move!

When he's arrested in Italy

and sent back to New York on a murder rap.

He's gonna testify. How could you be so stupid?

With a witness lined up to testify,

Luciano orders a hit...

Time for your daily dose.

that saves Genovese,

but does nothing to earn Luciano his freedom.

When will we know? That's up to Dewey.

Finally, Thomas Dewey lets Luciano out of prison,

but at a steep price.

They're deporting you... to Italy.

You came all this way to see me go.

Now, Luciano will have to figure out

how to keep control of the American Mafia...

Come visit me sometime, huh?

From 4,000 miles away.

After 10 years in prison,

Lucky Luciano is finally a free man.

But he's been exiled to Italy

and told he can never return to America.

In the 40 years

since Luciano arrived in the United States,

the no-name Sicilian immigrant

has become a legend.

Creating a criminal empire

alongside the friends he's had for decades.

Lucky Luciano is a Sicilian immigrant

and actually fits that perfect mold of a guy

who comes to this country.

It's almost like achieving the American dream, but...

the dark side as opposed to the light side.

Now, Luciano's been forced to leave the future

of the American Mafia in the hands of his crew.

Nothing's changed, gentlemen.

Lucky's still calling the shots.

You're being modest, Frank.

Of course, he is.

He's a modest guy.

With Luciano 4,000 miles away,

Frank Costello is the acting boss of Luciano's family

and must keep the peace between the five New York crime families

run by gangsters

like Joe Bonanno and Joe Profaci.

You have our confidence.

The man Costello replaced, Vito Genovese,

has been released from prison

only to find himself demoted

within the organization.

What's on your mind, Vito?

How do we make things right between me and Charlie?

I think you're talking to the wrong guy.

He's got me running the street gang like some punk.

That's not right.

It's out of my hands.

I thought you was in charge here?

Do you want me to go over Charlie's head?

He's making me look like a fool.

Vito Genovese was very envious.

He felt that he had been short-changed,

weren't getting all the benefits and all the wealth.

And it was no question

that he was an archrival of Costello.

While Costello deals with Genovese,

Meyer Lansky is overseeing an aggressive plan

to expand the Luciano empire

outside the United States.

It's nice being close to the sea.

We have the same thing in New York,

but it's nothing like this. You have Coney Island.

We have Coney Island.

Meyer Lansky has spent years paying off

powerful Cuban politician Fulgencio Batista.

Toast.

To a beautiful future in a beautiful place.

My grandfather loved Cuba.

He loved the Cuban people. He loved the weather.

Hopefully we'll be spending a lot of time down here.

Batista knew that my grandfather

was known for being honest.

He brought him over

and he started cleaning up the games.

There we go. Big winner.

With Batista on the payroll,

Lansky moves forward transforming

Havana's seedy hotels into five-star casinos...

that had the potential to make millions of dollars a day.

Meyer Lansky wanted to be a legitimate businessman.

And he just knew how to run a casino.

I mean, the numbers, the odds, how the house always wins.

What games they should play, how to take care of people.

And his idea

was really to do that ultimately in Cuba.

While Lansky's laying the foundation in Cuba,

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

has set up a stronghold for the family in California.

Take good care of her, that's what you could do for me, right?

Thank you, here we go.

Hey, how we doing over here, huh?

Luciano's trusted hit man

has been in Los Angeles since the late '30s.

He's infiltrated the movie industry,

using mob-run unions to gain leverage with the studios.

But after his years of loyalty,

Siegel still has nothing to call his own.

Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese,

Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky.

Each of Siegel's childhood crew has either been the boss

or has had the freedom to run his own operation.

Siegel wants to be remembered

as more than just a trigger man.

He wants a lasting legacy.

Siegel sees his opportunity 300 miles east

in a stretch of barren Nevada desert

known as Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was a patch of sand.

There weren't any buildings taller than two stories high.

It didn't have any kind of a reputation.

It was hard to get to.

It may be a barren desert now,

but Siegel sees what no one else can,

a gambling mecca.

Nevada is one of the few states in the country

that has legalized gambling.

I've been having this vision, right?

And I look off into the dark desert and see these lights.

They're so bright that they'll blind you, right?

And I see people and hotels

and casinos and money.

Lots of money.

Siegel's vision

is a European-style mega hotel and casino

that will attract the Hollywood crowd and the high rollers.

And also bring in tourists willing to cough up

thousands of dollars a night.

Siegel names his hotel after his nickname

for his long-legged girlfriend,

Virginia Hill, the Flamingo.

Bugsy Siegel saw that the future

of entertainment and gambling

and all that Las Vegas stands for,

as far as being an exciting tourist destination,

would be possible here in this desert.

But in order to make his dream a reality,

Siegel needs one thing...

money.

It's a little town called Las Vegas.

How much, Benny?

A million dollars. A million dollars?

You want us to pump a million dollars into the desert

when we already got casinos making money?

Yeah, 'cause there's one major difference.

Gambling in Vegas is legal.

100%. Legal, huh?

I'm telling you, you got people from L.A. coming over.

You got people from up North.

Get the bigwig movie stars out there,

get some appearances going, some press.

I'm talking fancy casino.

You know, nice restaurants, good hotel rooms.

It's a good investment, right?

You put that money in, we get this thing going,

we'll triple that profit in a week.

And, listen, I've stood by you a long time.

I think this is a good idea.

Well, you better be right, Benny.

Luciano pledges to help fund his friend's Las Vegas dream.

But he knows he'll need an even bigger venture

if he's going to maintain his place in the Mafia.

In the case of organized crime figures, you have to be successful.

You have to make money. You have to be imaginative.

And if you're not making money,

you're gonna lose stature in the family.

During the war, Vito Genovese made millions

exporting Italy's legally manufactured heroin

to the United States.

Now, Luciano seizes

what's left of Genovese's smuggling operation...

and makes it his own.

The drug business was huge.