How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed Up to Win World War II
October 24, 2022
Journalist Black (Dave Beck: A Teamster’s Life) spotlights in this colorful history the collaboration between the U.S. military and the Italian mob during WWII. Motivated by the sinking of the SS Normandie on the Hudson River in February 1942 and the torpedoing of 31 U.S. ships by German U-boats that same month, U.S. naval intelligence commander Charles Radcliffe Haffenden enlisted the help of Joseph “Socks” Lanza, a member of the Luciano crime family who ran the Fulton Fish Market, in placing undercover agents in the Port of New York. At the urging of Lanza, Haffenden eventually recruited Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who still held “tremendous power” over the New York underworld from prison, into the operation. Though the threat of sabotage on New York’s docks “decreased dramatically,” Haffenden’s aggressive actions, including breaking into foreign consulates and a push to get Luciano pardoned so he could join the Allied invasion of Sicily, made him enemies within naval intelligence. When word of Operation Underworld leaked in 1945, the Navy destroyed classified documents and threatened Haffenden with a court-martial if he spoke out. A winning mix of true crime, espionage, and military history, this WWII tale thrills.