Case Against Lucky Luciano: New York's Most Sensational Vice Trial

The case of the notorious “Charlie Lucky” Luciano and his $12-million-a-year prostitution ring rattled and intrigued New York City during the Great Depression. “Charlie Lucky” eluded the police for years, until rackets-squad prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey connected him with the operation and he was finally convicted of compulsory prostitution.

This book takes readers through this infamous case from a unique slant—from the amazing case histories of the prostitutes who served as material witnesses. It includes confiscated letters that desperate prostitutes sent to their district attorneys and rare photos of material witnesses, including the legendary Cokey Flo.







ISBN-13 : 9780971720015
Publisher : Clinton Cook Publishing Corporation
Publication date : 05/28/2007
Author : Ellen Poulsen


Editorial Reviews

Booklist

Poulsen delivers hoot after hoot while profiling the likes of madame supreme Polly Adler, and riotous, redoubtable Cokey Flo.

ForeWord

This is not Poulsen's first foray into reporting from this era. She has a bachelor's in English Literature from Queens College-CUNY and is the author of Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang. She has appeared on the Discovery Channel and lectures extensively on the subject of 1930s crime and law enforcement.

Poulsen has crafted an exhaustively-researched criminal saga. Her research into events which occurred more than seventy years ago pays off with such tidbits as a photograph of the postcard sent from Mexico by one of the prostitute witnesses in Luciano's trial to an assistant prosecutor. Explaining that the postcard sender had fled the long arm of the mob to Juarez, Mexico, "where the dope was cheap and plentiful," Poulsen deftly summarizes the fate about to befall the famed "Cokey Flo" Brown: "The missive, with its funny little picture and faded postmark, was the last of her letters home."

Luciano's Mafia infamy may have lived on after his death in 1962, but The Case Against Lucky Luciano gives voice to Cokey Flo and the many others he victimized decades earlier. Poulsen's artful rendering leaves no doubt that their stories have long deserved to be told. —Alan J. Couture

Meet the Author

Ellen Poulsen is the author of Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang.