Matthew Black - Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed Up to Win World War II
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- Book:Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed Up to Win World War II
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Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed Up to Win World War II: summary, description and annotation
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Never has the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend had more truth than when the US government and the criminal underground joined forces to defeat the Nazi menace. For the first time ever the full story of how Charles Lucky Lucianothe U.S. Mafia boss who put the organized into organized crimewas recruited by U.S. Naval Intelligence in 1944 to aid the Allied war effort in the U.S. invasion of Sicily, a turning point in WWII.
In 1942, a rational fear was mounting that New York Harbor was vulnerable to sabotage. If the waterfront was infested with German and Italian agents then the U.S. Navy needed a recourse just as insidious to secure it.
Naval intelligence officer, Commander Charles Radcliffe Haffenden had the solution: recruit as his own spies, members of La Cosa Nostra. Pier to pier, no one terrified the longshoremen, stevedores, shopkeepers, and boat captains along the harbor better than the Mafia gangs of New York, who controlled the docks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Haffenden was prepared to make a deal with the devilthe man who put organized into organized crime. Even from his cell in Dannemora State Prison, former Public Enemy #1, Charles Lucky Luciano still had tremendous power. Luciano was willing to wield it for Haffenden. But he wanted something in returnLucianos contacts in Italy to track the Nazis movements.
Operation Underworld is a tale of espionage and crime like no other, the unbelievable, first-ever account of the Allied war efforts clandestine coalition between the Mafia and the U.S. Government to protect New York, vanquish the Nazis by taking the fight to the enemy in the 1943 U.S. invasion of Sicily. It was an ingenious strategy carried out by some of historys most infamous, improbable, and unsung heroes on both sides of the law. It was a Faustian bargain that brought homefront enemies together but, as journalist and crime historian Matthew Black reveals, one that ultimately succeeded in helping the Allies win World War II.
In 1942, a rational fear was mounting that New York Harbor was vulnerable to sabotage. If the waterfront was infested with German and Italian agents then the U.S. Navy needed a recourse just as insidious to secure it.
Naval intelligence officer, Commander Charles Radcliffe Haffenden had the solution: recruit as his own spies, members of La Cosa Nostra. Pier to pier, no one terrified the longshoremen, stevedores, shopkeepers, and boat captains along the harbor better than the Mafia gangs of New York, who controlled the docks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Haffenden was prepared to make a deal with the devilthe man who put organized into organized crime. Even from his cell in Dannemora State Prison, former Public Enemy #1, Charles Lucky Luciano still had tremendous power. Luciano was willing to wield it for Haffenden. But he wanted something in returnLucianos contacts in Italy to track the Nazis movements.
Operation Underworld is a tale of espionage and crime like no other, the unbelievable, first-ever account of the Allied war efforts clandestine coalition between the Mafia and the U.S. Government to protect New York, vanquish the Nazis by taking the fight to the enemy in the 1943 U.S. invasion of Sicily. It was an ingenious strategy carried out by some of historys most infamous, improbable, and unsung heroes on both sides of the law. It was a Faustian bargain that brought homefront enemies together but, as journalist and crime historian Matthew Black reveals, one that ultimately succeeded in helping the Allies win World War II.
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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
J ohn F. Kennedy once said that Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. Given the success of this project, there indeed are so many people who are responsible. For me its easy to know where to start, and that is with my agents Eileen Cope and Julie Checkoway of Mark Creative Management. You discovered me, gave me the opportunity that Ive been dreaming of my entire life, and guided me through the process in a way I only could have imagined. When I praise you, you constantly put it back on me, but without your contributions in so many ways this would not have been possible.
You two presented me with this opportunity during an extremely difficult time in all of our lives, which was during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a challenging time to take on such an exhaustive project, as travel restrictions and health requirements in libraries and archives across the country hampered my ability to get my hands on so much primary source material. Instead, I had to rely on digital uploads and the fantastic collections that some people are still making to this very day. One of the good things to come out of the pandemic, in my belief, is the digitization of so much historical material. The more that is available to the public at large, in my opinion, the better.
In that regard, I want to thank archivist Melissa S. Mead at the University of Rochester. Over the course of a year and a half, Melissa diligently responded to my every request and uploaded nearly the entirety of the Herlands Investigation for my use. Without the University of Rochester allowing this, and Melissas devotion to her job, this book would not be the complete work that it is, as just about every single new discovery that I made was something I uncovered from what she shared.
Thomas P. Hunt deserves a lot of credit for creating a fantastic collection of Mafia material (especially his timeline of Lucky Luciano in prison) on his website mafiahistory.us. Likewise for Julian Boilen, who created an incredible website ( https://1940s.nyc/map ) that uses thousands of old black-and-white photos from 19391941 to enable users to see what amounts to a Google street view of New York City in that era. Its like looking through a window into the past. Thank you also to Tim Newark, who has written extensively about this subject and provided fantastic accounts of both Lucky Lucianos life and the events of Operation Underworld.
To all of my family and friends mentioned or unmentioned in this section, thank you for your personalities and for constantly keeping me entertained and interested. Jack Kerouac once wrote, The only people for me are the mad ones, and I mean this in the best way possibleyoure all mad. Thanks to you, never in my life has there ever been a shortage of characters.
I want to say thank you to my uncle Bruce Naito, who has always shown enthusiasm for my interests. In this case, it shined through so much during this project that you provided tremendous help with some very much needed sleuthing. Thank you to my father-in-law, Paul Frichtl, for some very much needed last-minute editing. I also want to thank my nanny, Ellen Donley, who in her late nineties and battling Parkinsons is the most talented painter Ill ever know. Our conversations about the creative process and art have been an inspiration.
Thank you to my mom, Carol Black, for all of your love and encouragement, and for always being my biggest fan. Your enthusiasm for my work helped keep me moving toward my dreams even when they didnt seem possible. And you also taught me the importance of reading books, and reinforced it with your decades-long involvement in the Fifth Business Book Club, which has shown me that books still very much matter. And thank you to my dad, Kevin Black, for your love, and for pushing me to bring my success to a higher level. Youve had so much influence over my life, and perhaps none greater than the passion for history that we share. Thank you also to my brother, Jason Black, whose love is never in doubt, who is a fantastic role model as one the most compassionate people I know, and who is always challenging me intellectually.
Lastly and most importantly, thank you to my bride (my Darlin), Kristin Black, who without a doubt is the reason this book was possible. You have been the best partner a guy could ask for in guiding us through the rough and thin times and being a shoulder for me to cry and lean on. When you said to me, Dont let your dreams be dreams, I knew I had found the love of my life. And of course, weve had another love in our lives since the day you gave us our incredible little girl, Brooklyn, to whom this book is dedicated. Brooklyn, your constant epiphanies sprang a fountain of creativity in my mind that carried me through the writing of this book. Like your mom, you have the joie de vivre, and it has been apparent from the beginning. Youre an inspiration, and your life made this possible.
AFTERWORD
The Fate of the Rest of the Participants in Operation Underworld
C OMMANDER H AFFENDENS C OMMANDERS AND F ERRETS Paul Alfieri Alfieri came home from Europe as a highly decorated hero. He received not one, but two Legion of Merit awards for his work in intelligence, in combat, and in Sicily and mainland Italy, along with seven battle stars and many foreign government distinctions. When he got home, he put the knowledge he had gained during Operation Underworld to good use when he became chief investigator of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. He also maintained his status in the Naval Reserve, and even took Haffendens former job and became a Naval Intelligence section commander while training younger officers. His marriage to Nellie, unfortunately, did not survive their losing a child while he was in Italy. However, Alfieri would remarry, and had a daughter, and a son, named Paul. He died in his home in the Bronx in November 1960 at the age of sixty-four.
William Howe Unlike his best friend Roscoe MacFall, Howe settled away from the sea and went inland, where he owned a ranch in the Southern California hills. He remained retired from the navy and passed away on December 31, 1968, at the age of eighty-five.
Maurice Kelly Kelly served in the Third Naval District Intelligence Office until November 1945, and achieved the rank of lieutenant commander. After the war he went back to the New Rochelle Police Department, and retired in 1953 after achieving the rank of captain. He did security work after that, and at the time of his death on December 15, 1964, at age sixty-one, he had a wife, two sons, and nine grandchildren.
Roscoe MacFall MacFall lived the rest of his days two blocks from the beach in a lovely San Diego seaside suburb called La Jolla. When contacted by William Herlands to lend his testimony to Herlandss investigation, MacFall politely refused to make the journey to New York. Evidently he lived out the rest of his days in serenity, as he wrote to Herlands, I have no desire to come East unless I have to. Too old to be gallivanting around.... Right now my garden is alive with color and the mountains are green and beautiful. This is the best time of the year for flowers. MacFall lived into his nineties and passed away in 1973.
Anthony Marzulo Marzulo came home with seven battle stars of his own, a Legion of Merit, and a Bronze Star awarded to him by the Italian government. He remained active in the Naval Reserve, and even served during the Korean War years later, eventually reaching the rank of captain. At some point, he changed his last name to a more American-sounding Italian nameMarsloe. In 1961 he was married to the love of his life, Gloria. He died in late 2006 at the age of ninety-five, and in January 2007 he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
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