Lucchese Crime Family Leadership Timeline

The Lucchese Crime Family is one of New York’s original Five Families — a criminal organisation that has operated continuously for over a century, surviving gang wars, federal prosecutions, and the near-total collapse of the American Mafia’s leadership structure in the 1980s and 1990s. Founded as the Reina Crime Family in the early 1920s, it was transformed under Tommy Lucchese into one of the most strategically dominant crime organisations in the United States, with its fingers deep inside the garment industry, construction unions, and the lucrative rackets at John F. Kennedy Airport.

Unlike the Gambinos or the Genovese family, the Luccheses were never known for flashy bosses or high-profile murders. Their power came from patience, from union infiltration, from the slow accumulation of control over entire industries. Tommy Lucchese ran the family for 16 years without ever being convicted of a crime. Tony Corallo extended that quiet dominance for another 13 years before the FBI’s historic Commission Case finally brought the roof down.

Below is the complete leadership timeline from 1922 to the present day.

Gaetano Reina — 1922 to 1930

The founder of what would become the Lucchese Crime Family was Gaetano Reina, born in 1889 in Corleone, Sicily. He spent years as a capo in the Morello Crime Family before the organisation began to fracture in the 1910s, at which point Reina — alongside Joe Masseria and Salvatore D’Aquila — broke away to establish his own independent family in the Bronx.

By the early 1920s Reina had built a solid operation with Tommy Gagliano as his underboss. During Prohibition he found an unlikely but extremely profitable niche in the ice distribution business throughout the Bronx — ice boxes were essential in every home before refrigeration, and controlling their supply gave the family both revenue and leverage over the community it served.

Reina’s fatal mistake came at the height of the Castellammarese War. Having originally backed Joe Masseria, he switched allegiance to Salvatore Maranzano — a move Masseria could not forgive. At the age of 40 Reina was shot dead with a double-barrelled shotgun to the head outside an apartment on Sheridan Avenue in the Claremont section of the Bronx. The trigger was reportedly pulled by Vito Genovese on Masseria’s orders.

Joseph Pinzolo — 1930

With Reina dead, Joe Masseria installed Joseph Pinzolo as the new boss — bypassing the two most senior men in the family, Tommy Gagliano and Tommy Lucchese, neither of whom had any time for their new boss. Lucky Luciano later described Pinzolo as worse than Masseria himself: “fatter, uglier and dirtier than Masseria was on the worst day when the old bastard didn’t take a bath, which was most of the time.”

Pinzolo’s reign was one of the shortest in Mafia history. In September 1930, during the height of the Castellammarese War, he was lured to an office on Broadway in Manhattan that Lucchese had rented, and shot five times. Lucchese was indicted for the murder but charges were dropped for lack of evidence. Tommy Gagliano stepped up as the new boss.

Tommy Gagliano — 1930 to 1951

Tommy Gagliano took over the family during the war years, publicly maintaining loyalty to Masseria while secretly building an alliance with Maranzano alongside Lucchese. When Masseria and Maranzano were both assassinated in 1931, Lucky Luciano restructured New York’s underworld into the Five Families. Gagliano remained boss of what was still formally the Reina family, with Lucchese as his underboss.

Gagliano was perhaps the most low-profile boss in New York Mafia history. From 1932 until his handover of power in 1951 there is almost no public record of his activities — he generated no headlines, no indictments, and no public profile whatsoever. What is known is that the family prospered under his watch, with income from gasoline rationing, black market meat and sugar. He is believed to have died in 1953 from natural causes, though some accounts suggest he was still alive as late as that date after having formally stepped down in 1951.

Tommy Lucchese — 1951 to 1967

Acting 1966–1967: Carmine Tramunti | Acting 1967: Ettore Coco

Tommy Lucchese is the defining figure of the family that bears his name. Having served as Gagliano’s underboss for 22 years, he took over in 1951 and immediately set about extending the family’s reach. Within his first year he allied with Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino with the long-term goal of seizing control of the Commission — a strategy that culminated in the 1957 attacks on Frank Costello and Albert Anastasia.

Lucchese’s real genius was economic rather than violent. He drove the family deep into Manhattan’s garment district, taking control of key unions and trade associations and transforming the trucking industry that served the district into a Lucchese revenue machine. His political connections were extraordinary — he counted mayors and judges among his contacts. In 1962 he cemented his alliance with Carlo Gambino when Gambino’s son Thomas married Lucchese’s daughter Frances, binding the two most powerful New York families together by blood.

Tommy Lucchese ran the family for 16 years without a single criminal conviction. He died of a brain tumour on July 13, 1967.

Carmine Tramunti — 1967 to 1973

Carmine Tramunti took over following Lucchese’s death, though the exact nature of his position was disputed from the start. Some accounts hold that he was only ever a caretaker boss, holding the seat warm until Anthony Corallo was released from prison. Others argue he was a genuine consensus choice who appealed to all factions of the family. Whatever the truth, he held the position for six years — most of them spent fighting federal indictments.

The case that ended his reign came from the French Connection investigation, which linked Tramunti and 43 others to narcotics trafficking. Tramunti famously protested: “I may be a mobster and may have done bad things but I am not a drug dealer.” He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years. He died of natural causes in 1978 while still serving his sentence, aged 68.

Tony “Ducks” Corallo — 1973 to 1986

Tony Corallo — nicknamed “Ducks” for his ability to duck criminal charges — led the Lucchese family for 13 years and extended its dominance into new industries. Under Corallo the family tightened its grip on construction unions and moved aggressively into the gravel, garbage, and trucking sectors. The rackets at John F. Kennedy Airport, which had been developing since the Lucchese era, became a major source of income — cargo theft and union extortion at JFK generated millions annually.

Corallo’s downfall came from an FBI bug planted in the back seat of his associate Sal Avellino’s Jaguar. The recorded conversations were devastating — they not only confirmed Corallo as boss of the Lucchese family but implicated leaders across all Five Families and provided the first hard evidence of the Commission’s existence as a governing body. In 1986 the Mafia Commission Case convicted the bosses of all five New York families simultaneously. Corallo received 100 years. He died in prison in 2000 at the age of 87.

Vic Amuso — 1986 to Present

Acting 1990–1991: Alphonse D’Arco | Acting 1993–1998: Joseph DeFede | Acting 1998–2000: Steven Crea | Acting 2000–2003: Louis Daidone | Acting 2009 onwards: Steven Crea (intermittent)

Vic Amuso has been the official boss of the Lucchese Crime Family since 1986 — making his one of the longest formal tenures in the history of the Five Families, though almost all of it has been served from a federal prison cell. Amuso was convicted in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today in his late eighties.

The early years of Amuso’s reign, run in tandem with underboss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, were among the most violent in the family’s history. The Amuso-Casso partnership ordered the murders of numerous family members — often on the flimsiest of pretexts — and the resulting terror drove waves of Lucchese members to cooperate with the FBI. Alphonse D’Arco, who served as acting boss in 1990–1991, became one of the highest-ranking Mafia members ever to turn government witness, providing devastating testimony that crippled the family’s street operations.

Despite the carnage, Amuso has clung to his official title for nearly four decades. The family continues to operate — reduced significantly from its peak but still active in construction, trucking, and garbage rackets — with Amuso issuing orders through a succession of acting bosses from his prison cell.

Frequently Asked Questions — Lucchese Crime Family

Who is the current boss of the Lucchese Crime Family?

Vic Amuso is the official boss, serving a life sentence in federal prison since 1992. He continues to direct the family through acting bosses. The family remains active, primarily in construction, trucking and garbage rackets in the New York area.

Who was Tommy Lucchese?

Tommy Lucchese was the family’s defining boss, leading it from 1951 to his death in 1967. He dominated Manhattan’s garment district and trucking unions, built deep political connections, and allied with Carlo Gambino — whose son married Lucchese’s daughter in 1962. He ran the family for 16 years without a single criminal conviction.

What was the Mafia Commission Case?

The 1986 Mafia Commission Case was a landmark federal prosecution that simultaneously convicted the bosses of all five New York crime families, including Tony Corallo of the Lucchese family. FBI wiretaps in Corallo’s associate’s car caught him discussing Commission business, providing the first hard evidence of the Commission’s existence. All defendants received 100-year sentences.

Who founded the Lucchese Crime Family?

Gaetano Reina founded the family in the early 1920s after breaking away from the Morello Crime Family. Originally known as the Reina family, it passed through Tommy Gagliano’s hands before Tommy Lucchese took over in 1951 and gave the organisation his name.

What rackets did the Lucchese family control?

The Lucchese family has historically controlled Manhattan’s garment district, trucking and construction unions, the garbage industry, and operations at JFK Airport. Airport cargo theft and union extortion at JFK were among its most lucrative rackets from the 1960s onward.