Record
Court opinion
1938-04-12
CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
People v. Luciano, 277 N.Y. 348 (1938)
New York Court of Appeals decision of April 12, 1938 affirming the 1936 compulsory-prostitution convictions of Charles Luciano and five co-defendants. A state prosecution, not a federal case.
- Date
- 1938-04-12
- Kind
- court-opinion
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- Opinion of the New York Court of Appeals, a state court. Judicial opinions are government edicts and are not subject to copyright (Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244 (1888); Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 590 U.S. ___ (2020)). It is not a federal work; it is free to use for that reason. The text was read on CourtListener.
Court of Appeals of the State of New York, decided April 12, 1938. The appeal was from convictions obtained in 1936 by District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey’s office. This is a state case: no federal court tried Luciano on these charges.
The indictment had ninety counts. Twenty-eight were withdrawn, and “the jury rendered a verdict of guilty on each of the sixty-two remaining counts.” The court describes a combination that controlled commercialized prostitution in New York City and assigns each defendant a part in it: “The appellant Luciano was the head of this enterprise; Pennochio was the treasurer; Betillo was in active charge; Frederico was sort of a manager; Wahrman was leader of the collectors and strong-arm man; Liguori was a strong-arm man.”
The court affirmed. “Head of this enterprise” refers to the vice combination tried in this case, not to any family.
