Charles "Lucky" Luciano was a driving force in the evolution of organized crime. He staged a takeover from the old guard mobsters in the 1930s and remade the criminal world as the National Crime Syndicate with himself occupying one of the seats on The Commission; the committee which was to govern organized crime in America.
In order to rise from the streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side to being one of the most powerful and feared men in 1930s America Charles Lucky Luciano combined businesslike ambition with a willingness to kill and commit crime.
A close associate of other gangsters such as Myer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel and Frank Costello, Lucky Luciano was at the centre of how the American Mafia came into being and his influence is still very much in evidence in modern day organized crime.