Aug. 19, 1963 - Thomas (Three-Finger Brown) Lucchese (pictured appearing before the Senate Labor Rackets committee in 1958), reportedly one of the nation’s leading racketeers, voluntarily dropped in on the Nassau County D.A. today to paint a picture of himself as an upstanding and successful businessman. Lucchese, 64, has been described as a former lieutenant of Charles (Lucky) Luciano, and recently he was identified by Joseph Valachi as one of the 10 commissioners of Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. Lucchese told D.A. William Cahn he had come in to see if Mr. Cahn wanted to talk to him because his name had appeared in newspapers recently. He was accompanied by a lawyer. Mr. Cahn said Lucchese had insisted that his dress companies, which he has owned since 1930, were his only sources of income. Mr. Cahn said Lucchese’s criminal record dated to 1921, when he was sentenced to 25 months in Sing Sing Prison for auto theft. He was arrested in 1928 and 1930 for homicide but the charges were dismissed. “When I asked him who he had been accused of murdering,” Mr. Cahn reported, “he said he didn’t remember.” Mr. Cahn said when he asked Lucchese about a report that he had taken over all the Brooklyn rackets after the death of Joseph Profaci, Lucchese replied: “If I ever went into Brooklyn, I’d get lost. I couldn’t find my way home.” Lucchese told the D.A. he knew Valachi — who has been giving the Justice Department information about the Mafia — through Valachi’s wife’s family. He called Valachi “a lot of nonsense.” When asked by Mr. Cahn whether he knew anything about the Cosa Nostra, which means “Our Thing,” Lucchese said: “The only thing I belong to is the Knights of Columbus.” “When Lucchese left,” Mr. Cahn said, “he said if he ever did anything wrong, I should come for him. I assured him I would.”
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