Charles "Lucky" Luciano Trial: 1936 - Aided The War Effort

World War II freed Luciano. In 1942, U.S. Navy officers, frustrated by unstable labor conditions and sabotage on the New York waterfront, visited Luciano. He ordered cooperation and gained a private cell. A year later, the Navy, planning the invasion of Sicily, asked him to enlist the help of the island's natives. A deal was struck. After the war, with the Navy citing Luciano's aid in shortening the war in Sicily and Italy and with by then-Governor Dewey's approval, he was paroled to his birthplace in Sicily.

Luciano settled in Naples, barred from Rome by the Italian government. He lived there, except for an illegal sojourn in Cuba (where he ordered the death of his syndicate associate, "Bugsy" Siegel), until he died of a heart attack in 1962.