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May 31 - June 3, 2023
On November 23, 1942, without warning Commander Haffenden, and four days after Lanza was released from the Tombs, two police officers managed to install the taps in Meyer’s Hotel undetected, including one in Lanza’s office. Hogan had just lifted the lid that would uncover the inner workings of Operation Underworld. 11
And he told everyone that his chief lieutenants—his capos—were to run the “Five Families” of New York.
Luciano was a Sicilian with American ideas, and he felt that the best way to maintain power was to make sure that nobody wanted a piece of what he had, and nobody was jealous about what he was taking from them.
The transcripts seemed to reveal that Haffenden was beginning to act like the gangsters he was interacting with daily. After all, Haffenden was regularly taking free gifts in the form of expensive seafood, which was taboo in law enforcement (and counterintelligence).
big German “milk cow” U-boats were refueling and resupplying the submarines out at sea. As for the intelligence that reported fresh sliced bread aboard a U-boat, no one was able to explain that one.
Luciano was a hybrid gangster, with Sicilian cunning and foresight mixed with American ambition and dreams.
Joe “Socks” Lanza and Ben Espy’s role in Operation Underworld had come to an end. Losing Lanza was a blow to Haffenden’s operations around New York City, and if that wasn’t enough, Haffenden also lost another one of Operation Underworld’s most valuable gangsters—Johnny “Cockeye” Dunn.
With the added death of Tresca—rumors were flying about Mafia involvement in the murder—January had been a very dark month for Operation Underworld.
he didn’t really need them anymore, as the Port of New York was very much under the control of the Mafia and the navy.
But after Captains MacFall and Howe, and a few need-to-knows at the District Attorney’s Office, the only person outside of B-3 that knew about Operation Underworld and Lucky Luciano was the spymaster in Washington.
Willis George (Agent G)—George,
Naval Intelligence to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
1946 he wrote a memoir called Surreptitious Entry, which explained, in theoretical terms, the events that transpired in Chapter 7.
Dewey is an interesting character in the entire Operation Underworld episode, in that he didn’t know much, if anything, about it until long after it was over, and yet he is responsible for all the knowledge we have about it today.
Among his exploits as judge was his upholding of the Washington Post’s right to publish what became known as the Pentagon Papers.
The security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.”
A senator asked Polakoff how he could represent such a “dirty rat” as Luciano, and added, “Aren’t there some ethics in the legal profession?”
“Under our constitution, every person is entitled to their day in court.... When the day comes that a person is beyond the pale of justice, that means our liberty is gone.
don’t have to apologize to you . . . or anyone else for whom I represent.”
