Editing Frank Costello (section)

=== "The Prime Minister" ===
Costello and Luciano established extensive connections with [[Tammany Hall]] leaders early on; Luciano and Costello each shared hotel rooms with Tammany delegates to the [[1932 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Chicago]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.salon.com/2016/07/26/corruption_for_decades_that_time_when_the_mafia_almost_fixed_the_democratic_national_convention_partner/| title=Corruption for decades: That time when the Mafia almost fixed the Democratic National Convention | date=26 July 2016 | work=Salon | access-date=February 14, 2024}}</ref> Costello continued to cultivate those relationships over the next two decades, intervening in Tammany's affairs and collecting favors and pledges of loyalty from those politicians and judges he had helped, including [[William O'Dwyer]], the two-term [[Mayor of New York City]] in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Raab |first=Selwyn. |title=Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires |date=2006|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0-312-30094-8 |pages=63–65}}</ref> Costello was able, in turn, to use those political debts to his advantage when other New York City crime families came to him for help.

The 1951 [[United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce|Kefauver Committee]] hearings on organized crime confirmed what observers of local politics already knew. Senator Kefauver concluded that [[Carmine DeSapio]], leader of Tammany Hall, was assisting Costello and that Costello had become influential in decisions made by the Tammany Hall council. DeSapio admitted to having met Costello several times, but insisted that "politics was never discussed".<ref name=ipqvz>{{Cite news |title=Carmine De Sapio, Political Kingmaker and Last Tammany Hall Boss, Dies at 95 |author=Kandell, Jonathan |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 28, 2004 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/28/nyregion/carmine-de-sapio-political-kingmaker-and-last-tammany-hall-boss-dies-at-95.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |access-date=February 17, 2014 }}</ref>