Tommy Lucchese’s infiltration and corruption of major industries is legendary. New York’s garment industry, the construction industry, trucking, and international airport freight are but a few of many that fell victim to his Machiavellian-like machinations.
Gaetano (Tommy Brown) Lucchese was born in 1899 in Palermo, Sicily. He immigrated to this country as a small child with his family and was naturalized in 1943. Upon arriving in the country, he and his family settled into a tenement building at 213 East 106th St., and later at 316 East 118th St., both in Italian East Harlem. By the early-1930s, the family had relocated out to Queens County.