The War on Terror Spectator
Operation Underworld
The Mob versus the Nazis was an offer an Obama predecessor couldn’t refuse.
(Page 2 of 3)
Charles “Lucky” Luciano had been convicted of running prostitution rackets six years earlier. After Meyer advised Haffenden that one shouldn’t approach a Sicilian expecting something for nothing, a bewildered Luciano was moved in the dead of night from the inclement Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, to the more hospitable Great Meadow Prison in Comstock.
Shortly after his arrival, Luciano was escorted into the warden’s office where he was greeted by Meyer and his attorney Moses Polakoff. The men had brought the overjoyed Luciano Italian and Jewish delicacies from Manhattan.
Luciano agreed to help. He ordered his capos, who were permitted to visit him, to cooperate with the Navy. Of course, he wanted something in return for his cooperation: his freedom. Haffenden agreed to do his best.
IN THE SUMMER of 1942, eight Nazi saboteurs were captured soon after they came ashore via U-boat near Amagansett, Long Island, and Jacksonville, Florida. They had brought with them lots of cash, explosives, and plans to blow up American defense plants, bridges, railways, and Jewish-owned department stores.
These saboteurs weren’t the Third Reich’s first string. Their leader turned himself in to J. Edgar Hoover. Some of the others were captured when mob-controlled union members employed at New York hotels reported them to naval intelligence.
For his part, President Roosevelt, a nighttime reader of gangster novels, was ruthless when it came to dealing with the Nazis. He wanted to execute all of the saboteurs without as much as a public utterance. Instead, two of the saboteurs were given long prison sentences and six of them, after one of the swiftest Supreme Court reviews in history, were executed at the District of Columbia jail and buried in a nearby potter’s field. Roosevelt even joked about the executions while mixing drinks at the presidential retreat, Shangri-La.
In one of the stranger coincidences in history, FDR was very close to the powerful journalist Walter Winchell, who was, in turn, a friend and neighbor of Meyer Lansky in the Majestic House apartments on Central Park West. Winchell was an unrepentant propagandist for the American cause, and he was unafraid to work with gangsters to publicize their beat-downs of Nazi sympathizers.
While history is clear about Roosevelt’s active engagement in wartime espionage, the substance of any FDR-Winchell-Lansky interaction remains unknown. Still, imagine the mere spectacle of such a dotted-line triangle given today’s transparency fetish.
Domestic sabotage was a non-issue for the remainder of the war. This was due to factors besides Operation Underworld, of course, but German spies mustn’t have found the New York waterfront hospitable with the likes of Bugsy, Lepke, & Company roaming Lower Manhattan.
Meyer and Luciano’s services didn’t stop here. When it came time to invade Sicily, Commander Haffenden again brought in the boys. They provided naval intelligence with mafia contacts in Sicily that were instrumental in both the initial landing (courtesy of maps provided by local fishermen) and in locating strategic Nazi strongholds. It wasn’t all about patriotism: Mussolini had cracked down hard on the Sicilian mafia and homegrown gangsters wanted him out.
For his service, Luciano’s prison sentence was commuted by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, who had been the very prosecutor to put him behind bars. Luciano, who never bothered to become an American citizen, was deported to Italy, never to regain his position atop the American underworld.
To be sure, mafiaphiles have exaggerated the contributions of racketeers to the war effort. Especially preposterous is the folklore that has Luciano storming onto Sicilian beaches beside Patton waving a yellow flag emblazoned with the letter L to liberate the countryside.
It’s hard to imagine either the president or the media in the age of WikiLeaks tapping the Sopranos to whack al Qaeda. Both the successful conquest of Sicily — which, nevertheless, included the Allied air bombing of our own troops — and the initial slaughter at Normandy would have been declared “quagmires” by today’s reporters. Contrast this with American journalists during FDR’s day, who barely reported Hitler’s demoralizing “Happy Time” duck shoot against U.S. vessels.
Somewhere along the line, being seen as apologetic and gentle has trumped other priorities in international affairs. Envision FDR or Truman offering frantic assurances that Hitler’s body reached its final resting place in strict accordance with Waffen SS tradition. Or that the Hiroshima bomb incinerated tens of thousands humanely.
Still, at least one thing about Operation Underworld would translate to 21st-century Washington, namely the fate of the Navy officer who ran the program. Commander Haffenden was shipped to Iwo Jima in the hope he wouldn’t make it back. He did, but was severely injured. His reputation was dragged through sea clutter when word of Operation Underworld leaked and became the subject of investigations. Positioned as a rogue agent, Haffenden turned to alcohol and became a Dictaphone salesman, dying on Christmas Eve, 1952.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
More Articles From The War on Terror Spectator
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/14/operation-underworld
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
PattyMor| 9.14.11 @ 8:13AM
There was a time in America that our leadership would pull together and pull out all the stops to win a war. My how things have changed. We now have Democrats saying "This War is Lost" and comparing our troops to Nazis and Pol Pot.
Just where is Cindy Sheehan and her little merry band of agipropters now that Obama is lobbing tons of predator drone, engaged in four or five wars, and executed OBL?
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:40PM
Sheehan is on the lecture circuit, natch.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 4:06PM
... say, maybe as Leary teamed up with Liddy; and Matalin teamed up with Serpent-head;
Sheehan could team up with Bush on the book circuit. It WOULD sell many tickets.
And many books.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 5:39PM
Not only did Luciano admit he did nothing to aid the war effort, others connected to him admitted the same thing.
Plus, Peter Maas wrote: "what [Luciano] did has never been pinned down."
Melvin| 9.14.11 @ 8:34AM
Well, first it has to be declared that we are at war. Nowadays war is called, "Kinetic Military Action."
But to the poor bugger who has 7.62x39 whizzing past his or her nose, it's still called war.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.14.11 @ 8:53AM
WoW!
heck out this article over at NRO!
Thank you God for George W Bush and Dick Cheny.
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-jim-lacey
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:42PM
Of course! Lacey has ties to Mush and Brainy; so of course he is going to spin their roles in the very sunniest light.
But glad you are such a sucker, Tex-- it will keep you in your place by being used as a chump.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 3:54PM
Ken, did you ever fully consider what a hose job the Bush administration did on you? they completely un-did what Reagan did in helping to end the Cold War.
By 2008-- before Obama was sworn in-- the government had become larger than it had under FDR and LBJ. I'm not writing that it was the fault of Mush 'n' Brainy, but 2008 was on their watch, so they were both somewhat culpable. I just finished Cheney's memoirs; Cheney 's book is the most masterfully self-serving con job in paper form. Cheney is a genius who ought to president himself-- if he had the top job, Cheney could con every single person in America.
Tex:
you must have been very drunk 2001 to '08, because you were cluster-boinked without even knowing it! when you woke up in 2009, you had no idea how royally you were screwed!
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 4:02PM
...but it must be said, Ken, that Cheney and Bush were and are thorough professionals with a very gentle touch:
for eight years Cheney and Bush had their way with your every orifice, but you never woke up once.
AhiaGuy| 9.15.11 @ 10:18AM
"Cheney 's book is the most masterfully self-serving con job in paper form. "
I would be willing to bet that 2 autobiographies before the age of 50 puts Prez O right up there in the running.
bluecollarbytes| 9.14.11 @ 9:27AM
The mob offered dock 'security' , 'protection', from sabotage by the 'Goonions', goonions controlled by the mob. A ship was sunk by the mob's goonion members in order to set up the release of Luciano.
This is one alternative explanation. And given the known reality of the mob over decades, it's likely.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 6:42PM
Peter Maas wrote that what Luciano did for the war effort has never been pinned down.
Because there was practically nothing to pin down. Luciano was bitter at having spent five-six years in prison on his conviction in 1936 (for being a master of brothels in NY) so he went through the motions of aiding the war effort.
WRTolkas| 9.14.11 @ 9:42AM
I read this article and thought immediately of the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film: All Through the Night. New York mobsters vs Nazi saboteurs.
RAMIII| 9.14.11 @ 10:11AM
Look at it this way: Real intelligence comes from people with real knowledge. This is the only way to get to the winning side of things.
We who wish to wear white gloves with not a smudge on them must acknowledge that without this kind of action (as described in the article) we would be laying in a casket with those white gloves sooner than we anticipated it.
Just sayin'
Joe R| 9.14.11 @ 10:35AM
One major mistake in this article--Lucky Luciano was an American citizen having been born in Brooklyn. As one of the terms of his parole he agreed to leave the country and never return. Italy, which was occupied by Allied forces at the time, agreed to take him.
Mike D.| 9.14.11 @ 11:53AM
Luciano was one of the few Mob Bosses that really did "get away with it" .
Ed| 9.14.11 @ 11:42AM
Good article. The OSS was also involved in getting Sicilian mobsters to work against the Nazis and Fascists. Both parties were "bad for business".
Rich Rostrom| 9.15.11 @ 12:36AM
There were no Axis spies or saboteurs at work in the U.S. The pre-war German spy ring included double agent Harry Sebold, and the whole gang was rounded up in mid-1941.
The Abwehr tried to set up a new ring - but sent another double agent, Dusko Popov, who was reporting to British intelligence. The British wanted to use Popov to create a fake spy ring and feed the Germans disinformation, but Hoover was incapable of seeing past headline-grabbing arrests.
Popov went back to Europe in 1942, leaving nothing for the Germans in the U.S.
There was no sabotage involved in the NORMANDIE fire, and there were no Axis agents reporting ship movements to the U-boats.
All this was verified after the war, when the files of the Abwehr were captured by the Allies.
So there was nothing much to be gained from deals with the Mob. In the U.S., anyway - Sicily was different.