Legend of Lucchino: The Man Who Took On the Mob, Part I

In booming Pennsylvania coal country, immigrant Italians were exploited by corporations and terrorized by mafiosi. One brave insider turned against them, risking everything to stand up for workers.

If you love big, exciting, cinematic reads, seriously, cancel your plans for the next hour because This. Is. It. Our entire team at Narratively is thrilled to present this four-part series, the biggest, most epic saga we’ve ever published. Vinnie Rotondaro — an intrepid reporter who has penned several of our all-time most popular stories — has spent well over a year unearthing the incredible true tale of Sam Lucchino, whose unbelievable life story upends everything you thought you knew about the American mafia — and whose fight for immigrant workers’ rights resonates starkly today.

Illustration by Julie Benbassat | Story edited by Brendan Spiegel

On a balmy night in July of 1920, Sam Lucchino walked home alone from work in Pittston, Pennsylvania. God only knows what weighed on his mind as he made that fateful stroll up Railroad Street toward the boomtown’s “Italian colony.”

The miner’s strike likely dominated his attention. Earlier in the day, Lucchino had met with a higher-up at the Pennsylvania Coal Company, where 10,000 men walked off the job, rallying against the company’s collusion with vampiric third-party subcontractors, who were bleeding the rank-and-file workers dry. By then, Sam, a former mobster turned detective, saw protecting Pittston’s Italian immigrant community as his life’s mission, and he was knee-deep in the mess.

Walking alone late at night was dangerous. Sam’s brother, Peter, usually accompanied him. But Peter was away, and for 10 years, Sam had lived as a marked man on Railroad Street, within spitting distance of those who wished to see him dead.

A few blocks away, his wife, Nellie Lucchino, sat on a porch swing with the couple’s only child, waiting for her husband to come home.

A neighbor, Catherine Hogan, was out on her porch across the street. She saw Sam pass by at around 10:50 p.m., with another figure following closely behind. As he approached his house, Sam bade the neighborhood butcher goodnight, buona notte, then crossed into the street, when — bang! — a .45 caliber bullet ripped into his back.

Catherine Hogan ran inside and hurriedly drew down the shades.

Nellie shot to her feet as Sam staggered forward, blood beginning to seep through his shirt. Heart pounding, she raced down the steps of their house.

Sam wheeled around and attempted to reach for his revolver — just as the second slug tore through his chest. Both bullets passed clear through his body, one first striking his metal badge.

Frozen in terror, Nellie watched as a man in a tan suit and a Panama hat stood over her husband. He calmly tucked a pistol back into his pants, then walked away.

Another neighbor watched from her upstairs window as Nellie crawled over to Sam, cradling his head in her lap. She cried out for help, then began to sob and weep bitterly.

As the authorities arrived and a crowd gathered, everyone wondered if this fifth attempt on his life would be the final chapter in Detective Sam Lucchino’s legendary and incredibly improbable career.