ted as an adolescent. Instead of theft or drug dealing Charles Luciano had escalated to narcotics, racketeering (through olive oil, artichoke, grape, and wine imports), rum-running, black-mail, tax fraud, and industrial extortion (Feder and Joesten, 105). By 1933 he had executive authority over the world of organized crime. Charles Luciano had created the National Syndicate after having Joe Masseria killed (Feder and Joesten, 87).The motivation at this point in Lucianos criminal career was finance. Petersilia et al. found that the main reasons for adults committing crimes was to maintain a degree of high living (reason stated in 36.6% of respondents surveyed) and financial needs (reason cited in 31.8% of cases) (Petersilia et al., 76). Lucianos lifestyle was indeed lavish and provided him many luxuries. He lived in the famed Waldorf-Astoria Towers and his female companionship consisted of prostitutes that worked in one of his many criminal rings.The explanation for his persistence in committing crimes is that he had become accustomed to his lavish life and wanted to maintain his high-times lifestyle. Petersilia et al. found that in addition to high-times being a motive to commit crimes it is also a motive to continue offending. Criminals viewed the high-times lifestyle as somewhat important in 22% of the cases and an additional 47% viewed it as very important (Petersilia et al., 78). Thus 69% of criminals feel that the high-times lifestyle is not only an advantaged one but also a needed one.The crimes Luciano was involved in were highly complex and extremely sophisticated. The following excerpt describes the amount of planning involved in his drug network:The gang lord who was a founding father of the National Crimes Syndicate stands apart from the ladder, surveying, manipulating, directing-and untouched.He knows everybody, from the Turkish and Iranian exporter to the Yugoslav official who can be bribed to let a shipment over ...
