The Making of the Mob airs on AMC tonight with an all new Monday June 22, season 1 episode 2 called “Equal Opportunity Gangster” and below is your weekly recap. Tonight, During Prohibition, Charles “Lucky” Luciano gains power in the New York underworld.
For those of you who don’t know, is a 8-part television miniseries based on notorious New York gangster Lucky Luciano and his rise in the New York City crime mob.
On the last episode, Lucky Luciano arrives in New York and teams up with Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Did you watch last week’s episode? We did and we recapped it right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the AMC synopsis, “during Prohibition, Charles “Lucky” Luciano gains power in the New York underworld. Two bosses start a mob war, and Luciano plans to kill them both.”
You aren’t going to want to miss any of the unfolding action tonight. We’ll be recapping the season 1 premiere live right here for you at 9pm. In the meantime, hit up the comments and tell us your thoughts on the show.
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RECAP:
Tonight’s episode of Making The Mob kicks off with the next segment of Lucky Luciano’s story, after Joe Masseria left Lucky to rot in prison for six months. Lucky and his crew decides that they will take out Joe, even though their partner Rothstein advised against it and warned them that if they kill Masseria there is no turning back.
In 1928, Lucky Luciano and his crew begin putting together a plan to take out Masseria. Luciano’s advisor, Rothstein, is dealing with his own demons – high-stake gambling. He has been betting on horses and fixing games for most of his life. But now his addiction is catching up to him. Lucky realizes that something is wrong, Rothstein’s luck is beginning to run bad and he is losing money left and right and his wife is threatening to leave him. Rothstein was invited to a huge poker game, and loses money for three days straight. Rothstein comes to the conclusion that the game is fixed – and he refuses to pay up the money that he lost.
Lucky and Meyer Lansky receive a phone call the next day – they learn that Rothstein was murdered at the poker game. Dozens of big name gangsters travel to New York City in November 1928 to attend his funeral after he was gunned down. Rothstein’s murder was especially hard on Lucky, and decides to put his plans to kill Joe Masseria on hold.
After Rothstein’s death, the federal government decides to crack down on organized crime – and speakeasies are being raided in New York City. It quickly becomes clear that Chicago gangster Al Capone is responsible for the police raids. He took things too far and ordered the execution of rival kingpins called the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.” Now, they are no longer able to fly under the radar because Capone brought so much attention to the mafia.
In NYC, Joe Masseria is determined to try and get the feds to lay off, he knows that he has to get Al Capone under control. Lucky used to run with Al Capon in the streets when they were teenagers, so Joe enlists the help of Lucky – he wants Lucky to reign in Al Capone, which will be nearly impossible.
In May 1929, Lucky organizes a mob conference of Jewish, Italian, and Russian mobsters in Atlantic City – he invited Al Capone as well. They all gather and rant that Al Capone has ruined their businesses, all of their clubs and stores are being raided. They want Al to turn himself in to the feds so that they will stop raiding them. Al rants that he is not going to be the “sacrificial lamb.” Lucky uses the opportunity to get close to Al. He invites him to go for a walk with him so that they can talk in private. Lucky offers Al Capone a deal. He has friends at the DA office – he wants Al to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges and take the fall and he promises to keep an eye on his business in Chicago for him. Al Capone agrees to Lucky’s deal, and he goes to prison for just a year for his crimes.
While Capone is in prison Lucky faces a disaster, the US stock market crashes and loses billions of dollars – it’s the Great Depression. With Meyer Lansky’s help, Lucky devises a new racket – he provides loans to businesses on the verge of bankruptcy at extremely high interest rates. Lucky is making 20% interest on his money every week, and he is tired of paying Joe Masseria a cut. He decides it is time to take Joe Masseria out, but someone else beats Lucky to the punch – a rival mob boss from Sicily named Salvatore Marsano. Salvatore attacked one of Joe’s warehouses and destroyed it, along with a slew of Joe’s men.
In May of 1930, an all out mob war breaks out as Joe Masseria and Salvatore fight for control of New York. The streets become a literal battlefield, and it is dubbed the Castellammarese War. Lucky Luciano winds up being a casualty of war and he is captured by Salvatore’s men. Salvatore is determined to send a message to Joe Masseria and his crew, and he beat and tortured Lucky for 8 straight hours. Then, Lucky was taken to a remote area in Staten Island where he was dumped and left for dead. Lucky somehow miraculously survived the brutal beatdown, and that is how he earned the nickname “Lucky.”
After Lucky’s brush with death, he makes a huge move – and decides to join forces with Salvatore. Together, he is going to work with Salvatore to take down Joe Masseria and end the Castellammarese War once and for all. Lucky knows that Joe’s men are not half as loyal as the claim to be – and he can buy off some of his protection to get close enough to Joe to kill him.
Lucky invites Joe to his favorite restaurant in Brooklyn because he knows that Joe can’t turn down good food. While they were eating desert, Lucky excused himself to go to the bathroom and left Joe sitting alone at his table. Two of Salvatore’s men barged into the restaurant while Lucky was away from the table and shot and killed Joe Masseria.
Now that Masseria is dead, Salvatore calls a meeting for the most powerful gangsters in New York to declare victory and announce the end of the mafia war. Salvatore says that all of the bosses will be serving under him – and he will serve as the capo, or “boss of bosses.” Lucky is furious and storms out of the meeting, he thought that after he helped kill Joe Masseria he would inherit his business and territory. Salvatore soon learns that it is dangerous becoming the Godfather, and he gets wind of his underbosses plotting against him – he hires Mad Dog as a hitman to start killing all of the bosses that he thinks will betray him. Lucky Luciano is the first victim on his list.
Lucky learns that Salvatore has a contract out to have him killed – and he devises a plan to take Salvatore out first. Salvatore is being investigated by the IRS, so Lucky sends Bugsy and Meyer to Salvatore’s house disguised as IRS agents there to audit him. Once they are inside, they assassinate Salvatore – and Lucky officially moves up in the ranks and is crowned the new king of New York.