Editing Lucky Luciano (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Atto di nascita.jpg|thumb|Birth certificate of Luciano]]
Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania on November 24, 1897,<ref name="brit">{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/350578/Lucky-Luciano |title=Lucky Luciano {{!}} American crime boss {{!}} Britannica.com |access-date=September 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122084718/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/350578/Lucky-Luciano |archive-date=November 22, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> in [[Lercara Friddi]], [[Sicily]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]].{{refn|name="birth date"|group="nb"}} His parents, Antonio Lucania and Rosalia Caffarella, had four other children: Giuseppe (born 1885); Bartolomeo (born 1890); Filippa, or "Fanny" (born 1901); and Concetta (born 1903).<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89M8-K9MW-9?cc=1999177&wc=MDSY-6MS%3A326209701%2C329820501 "New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980"], database with images, FamilySearch, New York > Petitions for naturalization and petition evidence 1919 vol 359, no 88851-89100 > image 571 of 629; citing multiple County Clerk offices of New York.  November 7, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://antenati.cultura.gov.it/ark:/12657/an_ua18837698/wrqEjoz "Atto di nascita, Filippa Lucania"]. February 2, 1901. Record no. 50. Archivio di Stato di Caltanissetta > Stato civile italiano > Serradifalco > 1901 > Nati. Img 35 of 323.
</ref><ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K99-15QD "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007"], Concetta Digiacomo.  database, FamilySearch, 10 February 2023.</ref>

Luciano's father, who worked in a [[sulfur]] mine,<ref name="luciano dies" /> was very ambitious and persistent in eventually moving to the United States. In ''The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano: The Mafia Story in His Own Words'', a purported semi-autobiography that was published after his death, Luciano described how his father always purchased a new [[Palermo]]-based steamship company calendar each year and would save money for the boat trip by keeping a jar under his bed. He also mentions in the book that his father was too proud to ask for money, so instead his mother was given money in secret by Luciano's cousin, Rotolo, who also lived in Lercara Friddi. Although the book has largely been regarded as accurate, there are numerous problems that point to the possibility that it is in fact fraudulent.<ref name="Gage">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/17/archives/questions-are-raised-on-lucky-luciano-book-questions-are-raised-on.html?module=inline|title=Questions Are Raised on Lucky Luciano Book|last=Gage|first=Nicholas|date=December 17, 1974|website=The New York Times|access-date=June 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014175708/https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/17/archives/questions-are-raised-on-lucky-luciano-book-questions-are-raised-on.html?module=inline|archive-date=October 14, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> The book was based on conversations that Luciano supposedly had with [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] producer Martin Gosch in the years before Luciano's death. As ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported shortly before the book's publication, the book quotes Luciano talking about events that occurred years after his death, repeats errors from previously published books on the [[American Mafia]] and describes Luciano's participation in meetings that occurred when he was in jail.<ref name="Gage"/>

In 1906, when Luciano was eight years old, his family emigrated to the U.S.<ref name="Biography.com">{{cite web | author = Biography.com (A&E Television Networks) | title = Lucky Luciano Biography | url = http://www.biography.com/articles/Lucky-Luciano-9388350 | access-date = September 20, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101012031157/http://www.biography.com/articles/Lucky-Luciano-9388350 | archive-date = October 12, 2010 | url-status = live }}</ref> They settled in [[New York City]], in the borough of [[Manhattan]] on its [[Lower East Side]], a popular destination for Italian immigrants during the period.<ref>{{cite web | work=Projects by Students for Students | publisher=Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation | title=Immigration: The Journey to America: The Italians | url=http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html | access-date=September 20, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927045001/http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html | archive-date=September 27, 2011 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> At age 14, Luciano dropped out of school and started a job delivering hats, earning $7 per week. After winning $244 in a dice game, Luciano quit his job and began earning money on the street.<ref name="luciano dies" /> That same year, Luciano's parents sent him to the Brooklyn Truancy School.<ref>Stolberg, p. 117</ref>

As a teenager, Luciano started his own gang and became a member of the old [[Five Points Gang]]. Unlike other street gangs, whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to [[Jewish]] youngsters from [[Italian diaspora|Italian]] and [[Irish diaspora|Irish]] gangs for ten cents per week. He began learning the [[pimping]] trade in the years around [[World War I]]. Luciano met [[Meyer Lansky]] as a teenager when Luciano attempted to [[extortion|extort]] Lansky for protection money on his walk home from school. Luciano respected the younger boy's defiant responses to his threats, and the two formed a lasting partnership.<ref name="lacey">Lacey, Robert. ''Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. {{ISBN|0-316-51168-4}}</ref>

It is not clear how Luciano earned the nickname "Lucky". It may have come from surviving a severe beating and throat-slashing by three men in 1929 as the result of his refusal to work for another [[crime boss]].<ref name="Biography.com" /> The nickname may also be attributed to his luck at [[gambling]], or to a simple mispronunciation of his last name.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/crime/lucky-luciano|title=Charles "Lucky" Luciano|publisher=history.com|date=December 2, 2009|access-date=March 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329172559/https://www.history.com/topics/crime/lucky-luciano|archive-date=March 29, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>  It is also not clear how his surname came to be rendered "Luciano", and this too may have been the result of persistent misspellings by newspapers. From 1916 to 1936, Luciano was arrested 25 times on charges including [[assault]], [[illegal gambling]], [[blackmail]], and [[robbery]] but spent no time in prison.<ref name="shallow parasite">{{cite news|title=Lucania is Called Shallow Parasite|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/04/18/93720524.pdf|access-date=June 21, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 19, 1936}}</ref>