The Priest, The Gangster, and the Church of St Dismas

Church of the Good Thief. Original press photo circulated
at the time of the chapel's inaguaration (ganglandlegends.com collection)

It was a holy structure - assembled by what some might consider an ensemble of 'unholy' craftsmen -erected within the unwelcoming walls of upstate New York's Clinton Correctional Facility, aka Dannemora Prison, aka 'Little Siberia.' An ambitious project set into motion by a compassionate priest, this Catholic house of worship would enter history as the first of its kind; underscored by a series of events that encompassed everything from comedy to empathy to unfortunate tragedy.  Here is a tale of a 'Prison Padre,' his grand idea of building a chapel within a place of despair, the all-volunteer workforce whose labor brought the vision to life,  the 'Saint' who inspired it, and even an anectdote involving America's most notorious gangster of the time.

"That which you bring here in your heart cannot be taken from you at the gate." - Father Ambrose Hyland

When Father Ambrose. R. Hyland arrived to the gates of his new parish in the fall of 1937 he observed a scene of general melancholy; Dannemora's prison had a bad reputation and the faces of inmates certainly conveyed as much.  There were a few positive elements - a good library and fine kitchen facility - but the landscape was missing something. "Where's the Church?" the Chaplain asked his tour guide. The query fell on somewhat dumbfounded ears.  No prison had a literal free standing house of worship on its grounds. For the first few months, Father Hyland and his colleagues made do with makeshift services above the assembly hall.

Hyland dismissed the odds and allowed very little to deter his passion -  to bring some peace and hope to the otherwise hopeless place. The new clergyman wasted no time in developing a plan to put a real chapel on the grounds.  Notwithstanding the unusual and undeniably daunting precedent he intended to set, Ambrose was a determined. It took a couple years, but he eventually won over the necessary factions (the Governor, the Cardinal, and both his clergy counterparts - a Protestant minister and a Jewish Rabbi), and inspired two-hundred convicts to volunteer their blood, sweat and tears in constructing the building (the workforce was comprised of various ethnicity and religious denominations, even atheists). Hyland received $5000 dollars from the Catholic Church, but the rest of the funding had to come from other sources. The project, which was inspired by and named after The Good Thief - Saint Dismas -  officially broke ground in 1939; the remnants of a demolished cell block served as the initial building material, donors (also from various denominations) would later supply other materials, decor and funding.

 Dismas, The Penitent Thief

"As far as I know, it is the first church in the United States to be dedicated to Saint Dismas." - Father Ambrose Hyland, 1939

Who is this Dismas fellow anyway? The 'good thief' is commonly recognized as a Saint of the condemned, and celebrated March 25 - Feast Day.  As the story goes... of the two theives cruxified with Christ, one was peninent, one was not.  The former, who was not identified by name in the Bible, admitted his guilt and earned immediate salvation from Christ himself - "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." Interestingly, although Dismas is a venerated figure within Catholicism - he is not officially recognized as a Saint in Catholic canon.

The Good Thief' by Michelangelo Cerquozzi

"Every other saint in the book is there on hearsay. Dismas got tapped right from our Lord himself." - Edwin A. Lahey, Chief Correspondent Knight Newspapers, 1968




Unusual Tithes and Offerings


Dannemora's infamous dungeon held more than a few equally infamous criminal figures over the years. Of the convicts who volunteered their time and talents, there was a safe-cracking nitroglycerin expert, a forger, and a stick up man who made an offer the good Chaplain definitely had to refuse!

"Father, I'll get it all for you.  Just give me two nights and two guns."

And then there was Charlie. One of the most notable standouts of the entire inmate lot had been placed there just a year prior to Father Hyland's arrival.  Convicted of being a pimp overlord, Salvatore Lucania, aka Charles 'Lucky' Luciano , once dubbed "the most dangerous gangster" by the zealous prosecutor who rallied to have him put away for 30 to 60 years, came to Dannemora after a very short stint in Sing Sing.  Despite not being a particularly religious guy himself, the incarcerated crime lord offered the kind priest some assistance... in trademark Lucky style of course.

Father Hyland told Luciano about the initial donation the Cardinal had given, but the cost of construction would ultimately far exceed the appreciated and generous (yet considerably small) sum.  "You now have $5000?" the gangster asked rhetorically. "I read the New York papers every day, and I know how to pick horses." Father Hyland listened as Luciano continued his proposal, pointing to the paper, "Bet it on these three horses tommorow."  

The priest gracefully declined the offer, adding - "The Cardinal wouldn't like it, even if they all won." Curiosity however got the best of Father Hyland. He looked into the results of the longshots Lucky insisted were sure bets. Indeed, Charlie Lucky's tips, had Father Hyland acted on them, would have netted the payout as promised.

1936, Charles 'Lucky' Luciano

"Follow my advice and your five (thousand) will become fifty (thousand)" - Charles 'Lucky' Luciano to Father Ambrose Hyland.

Not long after the incident, the young chaplain was summoned to the Warden's office.  Naturally, Hyland felt confident the 'Luciano' issue probably had something to do with it.  To his surprise, the Warden hadn't mentioned Lucky at all, but rather an entirely different kind of controversy brewing. "It seems a committee has been formed," Warden Snyder began. "Calls itself the New York League for Separation of Church and State." Snyder went on to explain how the group filed an injunction to stop the construction of the church.  Father Hyland and his attorney went on to win the case and on April 6, 1941 the 156' by 50' structure (topped with a 106' spire pointing to the heavens) named St Dismas Church of the Good Thief was inaguarated.

Gates of Heaven

Father Ambrose Hyland's dream came true and it garnered national attention.  The media clammored to tell the story, even Hollywood came calling.  On a deeper level, inmates would go on to speak of how the project and the good priest quite literally changed their lives for the better, which was truly all that Hyland hoped for all along.

Father Hyland had been dealing with some health problems - blood clots in particular - and left the prison in 1953. He returned to his hometown of Chateaugay, New York, but  continued to visit churches and do speaking engagements.  He was on his way to one such engagement on October 2, 1954 when tragedy struck.  It was just about midnight when motorist John Slatcher noticed a burning vehicle on the side of the Route 9, near Schroon Lake.  He quickly called for neighbors and the fire department, but it took several more hours for positive identification of the lone male victim inside the burned out car.  The dead man was indeed Ambrose Hyland.  The 54 year old priest was found on the passenger side of the sedan, which was parked well off the road, with the ignition off. The clues caused suspicious concern, and authorities considered an inquest. Investigators ruled out 'foul play' though, as the coroner's findings stated a "heart attack" as the cause of death. Additional factors, which included Father Hyland' fondness for cigars (a 'heavy smoker' of the product, it was reported) and of course the blood clots that plagued him for the last couple years, led to the media reporting a theory that investigators had apparently been leaning heavily toward - Father Hyland died of a heart attack and dropped a lit cigar which ignited the vehicle's interior.



Other Interesting Anecdotes

1. Journalist Robert 'Bob' Considine wrote the screenplay for the purposed movie version of Father Hyland's story.

2. MGM offered Father Ambrose Hyland a handsome fee to option the movie rights, but the project was scrapped 1945.

3. The story did however get a well-received book version released - 'Gates of Dannemora' written by another priest, Jon Louis Bonn, Doubleday, 1951.

4. Father A.R. Hyland was the first 'paid' New York State chaplain.

5. The church's first organ, a $25,000 theatrical model donated by two Jewish brothers, was later replaced by a then-modern electronic model.  The original organ had to be relocated to a state museum in order to save it from further damage (the extreme temperature fluctuations in the prison were to blame).

6. Sources often state Lucky Luciano donated red oak for the church pews (seating capacity = 1200). According to a 1989 interview with Father Hyland's niece - Luciano donated some special oak which was used in the church doors.

7. The church alter was made of wood from one of Ferdinand Magellen's ships, donated by a distant relative of the explorer.

8. Carmelo Soraci, convicted of forgery, hand painted all the stained glass windows and the Dismas mural behind the altar. Twenty years later his artwork (Dannemora and Sing Sing) was valued at $100,000.  Soraci left the prison system for good in 1960 and went on to write an autobiography "The Convict and the Stained Glass Windows."



References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVuftGUjRBE
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/the-challenge-of-march-25
AP. "Prison Walls Converted to Churchly Use." Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. July 23, 1939. P. 11.
Brandeis, Eric. "Looking at Life." Montana Standard. October 31, 1954. Page 4.
Considine, Bob. "Prison Life." The Cincinatti Enquirer. January 10, 1944. P. 14.
Botsford, Sue. Fiftieth Anniversary of Inmate-Built Church Observed. Press Republican. April 8, 1989. P. 9
Lahey, Edwin A. "Does Anybody Here Remember Dismas?" Akron Beacon Journal. March 31, 1968. P. D3
Lyons, Leonard. "The Lyons Den." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. March 10, 1943. Page 25.
Lyons, Leonard. "The Builder." San Mateo Times, October 12, 1954, P. 14.
Lyons, Leonard. "The Lyons Den." New York Post. January 29, 1962. P. 3.
Mooring, William H. "Hollywood Veers Away From Religious Pictures." August 31, 1945. Section 2. Page 1.

Owner's killing is start of Murder Stable legend

On this date in 1912, Mrs. Pasquarella Mussone Spinelli was shot to death in an East Harlem structure later dubbed "the Murder Stable."

NY Herald, 21 Mar 1912

Just before 6 p.m., Mrs. Spinelli, a resident of 335 East 108th Street in East Harlem, went across the street to the stable she owned and managed in order to do her nightly check of the horses boarded there. Her daughter, Nicolina "Nellie" Lener (also spelled "Lenere") watched from the front window as her mother crossed the street. Nellie noticed some odd movement near a lantern positioned some distance from the entrance. A short time later, Nellie heard gunshots and saw two men rush from the stable and down the street toward Second Avenue. She recognized one of the men as Aniello Prisco.

Prisco, known locally as "Zoppo" (Italian term meaning "lame") or "the Gimp," was the terror of East Harlem. He led a gang that was suspected of murders, robberies, extortion and other offenses. He acquired his nickname and his distinctive gait in the spring of 1909, when he unwisely provoked a gangster known as "Scarface Charlie" Pandolfi. Pandolfi expressed his displeasure by firing a dozen slugs into Prisco's body. Doctors managed to save his life, but had trouble mending a badly shattered bone in his left leg. When the bone healed, the left leg was inches shorter than the right one.

Many suspected that Prisco had been planning an attack against Pasquarella Spinelli due to a bloody incident about five months earlier. On October 29, 1911, Nellie was alone with twenty-four-year-old Prisco underling Frank "Chick" Monaco. Monaco reportedly tried to rob Pasquarella Spinelli's safe, and Nellie responded by picking up a kitchen knife and stabbing Monaco repeatedly until he was dead. An autopsy found that Monaco died of a hemorrhage following stab wounds to the lung and the heart. A coroner's jury found Nellie not guilty of any wrongdoing, but Prisco had a different opinion. The shooting death of Spinelli appeared to be Zoppo's revenge.

Spinelli

Death of Harlem's 'Hetty Green'

A crowd quickly assembled in front of the stable. When authorities arrived, they found Mrs. Spinelli dead of gunshot wounds. Her body was resting on a ramp that led to the building's second floor. One bullet had struck her in the neck. Another had penetrated her right temple and lodged in her brain.

Following a post-mortem examination, a death certificate, issued in the name of "Pasqua Musoni Spinelli Lener," officially established the cause of death as "pistol shot wounds of brain (homicide)." The document stated Mrs. Spinelli's age as 57. It noted that she was born in Italy to Tommaso and Concetta Musoni and spent the last 21 years in the United States.

Press reports of the killing labeled Spinelli the "Hetty Green" of Harlem's Little Italy. The reference, far more easily understood in 1912 than it is today, was to Henrietta Robinson Green. Nicknamed "the Witch of Wall Street," Green was a wealthy and notoriously miserly businesswoman who gathered riches through work, investments and inheritance. Newspapers noted that Pasquarella Spinelli was the richest female in Harlem and owned stores, markets and tenement houses in addition to the stable.

Spinelli was buried on March 23, 1912, at St. Michael's Cemetery. Funeral arrangements were handled by Anthony Paladino of East 115th Street.

Spinelli's story

Mrs. Spinelli's background is a bit hazy. The few available records indicate that she was born in the mid-1850s in the Naples area of Italy and traveled to America in 1892, settling in Manhattan. The 1905 New York State Census located her, then 49, at 345 East 109th Street with husband Pietro Spinelli, a fish dealer, and children Tommaso, 19, and Nicolina, 16.

Nellie Lener

When the federal census was taken five years later, Pasquarella showed up at 2097 First Avenue, between 107th and 108th Streets. The census indicated that she was living with her husband Pietro, the fish dealer, and her daughter Nicolina Lener, 19. Curiously, Pietro's name in this document is written as "Solazzo" rather than Spinelli. The federal census revealed that Pietro was Pasquarella's second husband, and Nicolina Lener was Pietro's step-daughter. Apparently, Pasquarella had been married previously to a man with the surname Lener, with whom she had children Nicolina and the older Tommaso (no longer living with her by 1910) and possibly others. (The census record states that Pasquarella gave birth to seven children and had six children living.)

One candidate for the role of Pasquarella's first husband was a blacksmith named Tommaso Lener, who was born in Caserta, Italy, a short distance north of Naples, in 1865, traveled to the U.S. in 1895, and at the time of his 1906 naturalization petition was living at 301 East 109th Street. (For some reason, during the naturalization process, New York County Justice Samuel Greenbaum suspected Lener of underworld connections. Greenbaum asked if Lener's naturalization petition witness, insurance broker Salvatore Tartaglione was a member of the Mafia. Tartaglione said he was not.) What became of blacksmith Tommaso Lener is not known.

Monaco

In the brief period between the 1910 Census and Spinelli's murder, it appears that she separated from her fish-dealer husband Pietro, moved in with daughter Nellie at 239 East 109th Street, where Chick Monaco was stabbed to death in 1911, and then moved again with Nellie to 335 East 108th Street.

Arrests

Within a few days of Spinelli's death, police arrested Luigi Lazzazaro, 58, of 337 East 108th Street. Lazzazaro was a business partner of the victim, and Nellie Lener said she saw him standing outside the stable's entrance while two other men murdered Spinelli inside. Lazzazaro was charged with acting in concert with the killers, though he denied knowing anything about the murder.

Prisco was not arrested for Spinelli's murder until June. By then, witnesses were so intimidated by the gangster that no convincing case could be made against him. All suspects in the Spinelli murder were released.

Many killings

Newspapers reported that Nellie, fearing for her life after openly accusing Lazzazaro and Prisco, went to join relatives in Italy. Reports indicated that, even across the Atlantic, Nellie was not safe. It was rumored that she soon died under suspicious circumstances.

Prisco

Aniello Prisco did not live for very long after Spinelli's murder. During a December 15, 1912, attempt to extort money from Giosue Gallucci, an East Harlem entrepreneur with strong underworld and political connections, Prisco was fatally shot through the head by a Gallucci aide.

Additional killings over the years helped give the Murder Stable its violent reputation. Lazzazara, who became the facility's sole owner after Spinelli's death, was fatally stabbed near the stable early in 1914. Mafia boss Fortunato "Charles" LoMonte took charge of the building and operated his feed business from the location. He was shot to death near the stable in spring of 1914. Mafia-linked East Harlem businessman Ippolito Greco became the stable's owner. Greco was shot to death as he left the building for home in November of 1915.

The legend of the Murder Stable continued to grow. It became linked in tales to the Morello-Terranova Mafia clan, as well as to Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo. While embellishing its history, writers also frequently assigned new addresses for the building, moving it up and down in East Harlem to suit their stories.

(Visit the full article on Pasquarella Spinelli's Murder Stable on The American Mafia history website.)


Sources:

• Death certificate of Frank Monaco, Bureau of Records, Department of Health of the City of New York, registered no. 32570, Oct. 29, 1911.
• Death certificate of Pasqua Musoni Lener, Bureau of Records, Department of Health of the City of New York, registered no. 9128, March 20, 1912.
• Death certificate of Aniello Prisco, Bureau of Records, Department of Health of the City of New York, registered no. 35154, Dec. 15, 1912.
• Naturalization Petition of Tommaso Lener, Supreme Court of New York County, Bundle 299, Record 74, index L 560, March 26, 1906.
• New York State Census of 1905, Manhattan borough, Election District 5, Assembly District 33.
• Passenger manifest of S.S. Hindoustan, departed Naples, arrived New York City on July 6, 1892.
• Trow's General Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, City of New York, Vol. CXXIV, for the Year Ending August 1, 1911, New York: Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company, 1910.
• United States Census of 1910, New York State, New York County, Ward 12, Enumeration District 339.

• "Murdered in vendetta," New York Tribune, March 21, 1912, p. 2.
• "Woman murdered to avenge death of band leader," New York Herald, March 21, 1912, p. 1.
• "'Will kill me,' cries girl, mother slain," New York Evening Telegram, March 21, 1912, p. 1.
• "Arrest victim's partner," New York Sun, March 23, 1912, p. 1.
• "Man held in stable murder case," New York Herald, March 24, 1912, p. 1.
• "Held as woman's slayer," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 24, 1912, p. 58.
• "Miss Nellie Lenere," New Castle PA Herald, March 29, 1912, p. 8.
• "Notorious gunman arrested," New York Call, Oct. 4, 1912, p. 3.
• "'Zopo the Terror' dies as he draws weapon to kill," New York Evening World, Dec. 16, 1912, p. 6.
• "Blackhand king shot dead when he demanded $100," Bridgeport CT Evening Farmer, Dec. 16, 1912, p. 3.
• "Blackmailer killed as he made threat," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 16, 1912, p. 4.
• "Man is found dead with bullet holes in his head," New York Press, Dec. 16, 1912, p. 3.
• "Prisco, lame gunman, meets death at last," New York Sun, Dec. 17, 1912, p. 16.
• "'Zopo the Gimp,' king of the Black Hand, slain," New York Tribune, Dec. 17, 1912, p. 16.
• "Kills gangster to save uncle," Wausau WI Daily Herald, Dec. 23, 1912, p. 8.
• "35 are caught in Black Hand bomb round-up," New York Evening Telegram, July 26, 1913, p. 3.
• "Cycle of murders," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 20, 1914, p. 3.
• "Shoots man and woman and makes his escape," New York Evening World, May 23, 1914, p. 2.
• "Passersby shot in duel," New York Sun, May 24, 1914, p. 7.
• "Lamonte dies of shot wound," New York Sun, May 25, 1914, p. 5.
• Thomas, Rowland, "The rise and fall of Little Italy's king," Fort Wayne IN Journal-Gazette, Dec. 12, 1915, p. 33, Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 12, 1915, Sunday Magazine p. 4.
• "'Murder Stable' around which Baff case centres is scene or cause of 14 deaths," New York Herald, Feb. 13, 1916, p. 1.
• "Record of deaths in murder stable," Niagara Falls Gazette, April 12, 1916.
• "Patriotism, pacifism, anarchism, meet here," New York Times, Jan. 6, 1918, p. 12.

NYPD head exposes Petrosino secret mission

Petrosino

Bingham

On this date (February 19) in 1909, New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham spoke with news reporters about the absence of Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino from police headquarters. The conversation may have led to Petrosino's assassination.

NY Evening World
19 February 1909

Bingham initially claimed not to know Petrosino's precise whereabouts and then suggested that the Italian-born detective and longtime leader of the NYPD's "Italian Squad" might be on his way across the Atlantic to meet with Italian police officials. The commissioner announced that he appointed Petrosino to the leadership of a privately funded "Secret Service" designed to enable the deportation of many Black Hand criminals, Mafiosi and Camorristi operating in New York's Little Italy communities. (Lieutenant Arthur Gloster took over temporarily as administrator of the Italian Squad.)

The information was widely published, exposing what was supposed to be a secret mission by Petrosino before that mission had even begun.

Less than a month later, on the evening of March 12, 1909, Petrosino was shot to death by Mafiosi in Palermo, becoming the only NYPD officer to be killed in the line of duty on foreign soil. Petrosino was unarmed. Evidence indicated that he was going to meet someone he believed to be an underworld informant when he was killed just outside the Garibaldi Gardens at Palermo's Piazza Marina.

Almost immediately, Petrosino's assassination was used by politicians to score points in a local government struggle in New York.

Commissioner Bingham blamed city aldermen for Petrosino's death, charging that their lack of financial support for his Secret Service plan left Petrosino vulnerable. City officials, particularly those backed by the Tammany Hall Democratic machine, placed the blame on Bingham. Alderman Reginald S. "Reggie" Doull stated, "The blame for Petrosino's death attaches directly to Police Headquarters. It was from the Police Department that the news of Petrosino's departure to Italy leaked."

Doull labeled Bingham "the most profane incompetent that holds office in this city today."

Political pressure mounted for Bingham's dismissal. On July 1, Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr., succumbed and replaced Bingham with First Deputy Commissioner William Frazer Baker. At that moment, Detectives Antonio Vachris and John Crowley were in Italy, attempting to complete Petrosino's secret mission.

The change in police leadership resulted in Vachris and Crowley being called home. They reportedly returned with Italian police records that could be used to deport hundreds of Italian-born criminals who had settled illegally in New York. The records were shelved and the deportation effort initiated by Bingham and Petrosino was abandoned. 


Sources:

• Barzini, Luigi, The Italians, New York: Atheneum, 1964.
• Critchley, David, The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931, New York: Routledge, 2009.
• Flynn, William J., The Barrel Mystery, James A. McCann Company, 1919.
• Lardner, James and Thomas Reppetto. NYPD: A City and its Police, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000.
• Petacco, Arrigo, translated by Charles Lam Markmann. Joe Petrosino. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974.
• Peterson, Virgil W. The Mob: 200 Years of Organized Crime in New York, Ottawa Illinois: Green Hill Publishers, 1983.
• Pitkin, Thomas Monroe and Francesco Cordasco. The Black Hand: A Chapter in Ethnic Crime, Totowa NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1977.
• Smith, Denis Mack, A History of Sicily: Modern Sicily After 1713, New York: Dorset Press, 1968.
• White, Frank Marshal, "Italians seek protection against Black Hand," New York Times, Sept. 4, 1910, p. Mag 5.

• "Secret service formed to hunt the Black Hand," New York Evening World, Feb. 19, 1909, p. 6.
• "Bingham gets his fund," New York Sun, Feb. 20, 1909, p. 3.
• "New secret service to fight Black Hand," New York Times, Feb. 20, 1909, p. 2.
• "Secret police fund," New York Tribune, Feb. 20, 1909, p. 5.
• "Il delitto di Palermo," Corriere della Sera, March 14, 1909, p. 4.
• "Petrosino shot dead in Italy," New York Sun, March 14, 1909, p. 1.
• "Petrosino slain assassins gone," New York Times, March 14, 1909, p. 1.
• "Police seek plotters," New York Times, March 14, 1909, p. 2.
• "Detective Petrosino Black Hand victim," New York Tribune, March 14, 1909, p. 1.
• "Vachris would go to Sicily," New York Times, March 14, 1909, p. 2.
• "Il delitto di Palermo," Corriere della Sera, March 15, 1909, p. 4.
• "Arrests in Petrosino case," New York Sun, March 15, 1909, p. 1.
• "L'uccisione di Petrosino a Palermo," Corriere della Sera, March 16, 1909, p. 4.
• "Vote against Bingham," New York Tribune, March 24, 1909, p. 5.
• "Mayor removes Gen. Bingham from office," New York Tribune, July 2, 1909, p. 1.
• “Vachris coming back," New York Times, Wed. July 21, 1909, p. 1.

When 'Lucky' was locked up

Salvatore Lucania, widely known as Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, late in 1931 became the most powerful crime boss in the U.S. He personally commanded a sprawling New York-based Mafia organization, held one of seven seats on the Mafia's ruling Commission and maintained valuable alliances with non-Italian racketeering organizations across the country.

Less than five years after achieving gangland eminence, however, Lucania was taken into custody on compulsory prostitution charges. Due to the efforts of Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Lucania spent most of the next decade - from the prime years of his life into middle age - behind prison bars.

Held at Clinton State Prison beginning in the summer of 1936, he was largely out of touch with the rich criminal empire he assembled and remote from friends and family. He depended upon pennies earned through manual toil and occasional contributions from relatives and associates to finance his many purchases through prison commissaries.

Yet, even during a lengthy and humiliating prison stay, Lucania found a way to make himself important. In the spring of 1942, Lucania convinced New York County prosecutors, New York State corrections officials and the United States Office of Naval Intelligence that he was indispensable to the U.S. war effort.

In the remaining years of World War II, Lucania arranged for a more convenient placement at Great Meadow Prison in the Lake George area and for suspension of visitation rules and recordkeeping. He managed in those few years to build a reputation for patriotic service that led to a 1946 commutation of sentence.

Very few official records remain of Lucania's long term in state prisons. From the period before 1942, only a small collection of documents is held at the New York State Archives. These include receiving blotter pages, health and psychiatric reports, visitor logs and financial transactions that shed some light on his brief time at Sing Sing Prison and his longer incarceration at Clinton Prison. From the period between his 1942 transfer to Great Meadow Prison and his 1946 parole and deportation, even less survives. Some details of these later years were pieced together when the State of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Navy looked into Lucania's alleged contributions to the war effort. Wartime records of the Office of Naval Intelligence, which could have provided the most useful window into Lucania's service, were deliberately destroyed.

Available details of Lucania's time in prison and related events have been assembled into a 1936-1946 timeline on The American Mafia history website. These details range in excitement level from hum-drum to spectacular. Quotes from documents and links to documents - including all available pages of the Clinton Prison files - are included.

See: "When 'Lucky' was locked up."