#RIP #OTD in 1970 poet (Body of This Death, Dark Summer, The Blue Estuaries, “Medusa”), the first woman appointed as the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress, Louise Bogan died in New York City, aged 72. Cremation
On this day in 1983, drummer, singer and songwriter, Karen Carpenter, died at her parents’s home in Downey, California at the age of 32 from complications related to anorexia nervosa. Born Karen Anne Carpenter on 2 March 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with her brother Richard, they formed the duo The Carpenters. Best known for their album, 1970’s Close to You, featuring two big hit singles: “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” The songwriter Tom Bahler wrote the song “She’s Out of My Life” after she broke up with him. The song would eventually became a hit single for Michael Jackson. Carpenter married Thomas James Burris (1980 – 1983 her death). 
The Final Footprint – Carpenter’s funeral service took place on 8 February 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church. Dressed in a rose-colored suit, Carpenter lay in an open white casket. Over 1,000 mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, and Dionne Warwick. Carpenter’s estranged husband Tom attended her funeral, where he took off his wedding ring and placed it inside the casket. Carpenter was initially entombed in a private crypt in the Ascension Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Compassion, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California. In 2003, Richard had Karen and their parents moved to the Carpenter Family Private Mausoleum at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village, California. Karen’s crypt front features the inscription; A STAR ON EARTH – A STAR IN HEAVEN. Another notable final footprint at Valley Oaks is Artie Shaw.
On this day in 1987, pianist, singer and actor, Mr. Showmanship, Liberace died of pneumonia as a result of AIDS at Palm Springs county hospital, age 67. Born Władziu Valentino Liberace on May 16, 1919 in West Allis, Wisconsin. A child prodigy born to parents of Italian and Polish origin, Liberace enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas, and an international touring schedule. Liberace embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage.
The Final Footprint
A devout Roman Catholic to the end, he had a priest administer the last rites to him the day before his death. His death was initially attributed variously to anemia (due to a diet of watermelon), emphysema, and heart disease. However, the Riverside County coroner performed an autopsy and later stated that “a deliberate attempt” had been made to hide the actual cause of Liberace’s death by his doctors, his manager, and Liberace’s entire immediate family. The post mortem discovered that Liberace had emphysema and coronary artery disease from years of chain smoking, but the real cause was pneumonia due to complications from AIDS.
Liberace’s body is entombed with those of his mother and brother, at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1994, the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated a Golden Palm Star to him. Other notable final footprints at Hollywood Hills include; Gene Autry, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, David Carradine, Scatman Crothers, Bette Davis, Sandra Dee, Ronnie James Dio, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carrie Fisher, Bobby Fuller, Andy Gibb, Michael Hutchence, Jill Ireland, Al Jarreau, Buster Keaton, Lemmy Kilmister, Jack LaLanne, Nicolette Larson, Liberace, Strother Martin, Jayne Meadows, Brittany Murphy, Ricky Nelson, Bill Paxton, Brock Peters, Freddie Prinze, Lou Rawls, Debbie Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Lee Van Cleef, and Paul Walker.
On this day in 1995, novelist and short story writer Patricia Highsmith died from lung cancer at Carita hospital in Locarno, Switzerland, at the age of 74. Born Mary Patricia Plangman on January 19, 1921 in Ft. Worth, Texas. Perhaps best known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed “the poet of apprehension” by novelist Graham Greene.
Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. Her 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley has been adapted numerous times for film, theatre, and radio. Writing under the pseudonym “Claire Morgan,” Highsmith published the first lesbian novel with a happy ending, The Price of Salt, in 1952, republished 38 years later as Carol under her own name and later adapted into a 2015 film.
She preferred the company of animals to that of people and stated in a 1991 interview, “I choose to live alone because my imagination functions better when I don’t have to speak with people.” She never married.
The Final Footprint
She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna, Ticino, Switzerland; and her cremains were inurned in its columbarium.
#RIP #OTD in 2006 feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C. on her 85th birthday. Sag Harbor Jewish Cemetery, Sag Harbor, New York
#RIP #OTD in 2025, feminist poet, journalist, activist, one of the Three Marias (Novas Cartas Portuguesas), Maria Teresa Horta died in Lisbon aged 87. Prazeres Cemetery
Estrela, Lisboa Municipality, Lisboa
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On this day, in 1959, singer and songwriter, rock and roll pioneer, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, at the age of 22. Ritchie Valens, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and the pilot, Roger Peterson, were also killed in the crash. Holly’s bandmate Waylon Jennings reportedly gave up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, “I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings shot back facetiously, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!” It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. Born Charles Hardin Holley on 7 September 1936 in Lubbock, Texas. Music critic Bruce Elder described Holly as “the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.” Holly apparently inspired contemporary and later musicians, notably The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton. In my opinion he exerted a profound influence on popular music. Paul McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly’s song catalogue. In his 1998 Grammy acceptance speech for his Time out of Mind being named Album of the Year, Dylan said; “And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him…and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don’t know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way.” Keith Richards reportedly said that Holly had “an influence on everybody.” In a 24 August 1978 Rolling Stone interview, Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh, “I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest.” Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie” is inspired by Holly and the day of the plane crash. The American Pie album is dedicated to Holly. Holly was married to Maria Elena Santiago. My favorite Holly songs are “That’ll be the Day” and “Not Fade Away”. Holly co-wrote “That’ll be the Day” with Jerry Allison apparently after watching the movie The Searchers, starring John Wayne. In the movie Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards says that line four times; once in response to Jeffrey Hunter’s character Martin Pawley telling Ethan, “I hope you die!” Ethan responds. “That’ll be the day.” Holly’s music has certainly not faded away. Indeed, 3 February 1959; the day the music died.
The Final Footprint – Holly is interred in the City of Lubbock Cemetery in Lubbock. His grave is marked be a flat granite marker, with the inscription; IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR OWN BUDDY HOLLEY. A memorial has been created near the crash site, where fans still leave mementos in honor of those who died in the crash. There is a bronze statue of Holly on Lubbock’s Walk of Fame and a Holly mural on 19th street. In June 1988, a four-foot tall granite memorial bearing the names of the three entertainers and Peterson was dedicated outside The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, the site of their final performance. In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless-steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. It is located on private farmland, about one quarter mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, approximately eight miles north of Clear Lake. I have visited the crash sight. Stood there in the blowin’ cold, thinkin’ about what happened. Paquette also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians near the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That memorial was unveiled on 17 July 2003. Holly’s life story inspired a Hollywood biographical film, The Buddy Holly Story (1978). Gary Busey received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Holly. Paul McCartney produced and hosted a documentary about Holly in 1985, titled The Real Buddy Holly Story. In 1987, Marshall Crenshaw portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba. Other notable final footprints in Lubbock cemetery include Bobby Layne.
Born Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. on 24 October 1930 in Sabine Pass, Texas. Perhaps best known for his recording of “Chantilly Lace”, a song he co-wrote with Jerry Foster and Bill Rice. 
Born Richard Steven Valenzuela on 13 May 1941 in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. Valens is considered rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement. His recording career lasted only eight months but he had several hits, most notably “La Bamba”, which was originally a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. 
The Final Footprint – Valens was interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California. Valens has been the subject of several biopic films, including the 1987 film La Bamba. Primarily set in 1957-1959, it depicted Valens from age 16 to 17 and introduced Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens.
On this day in 1961, actress Anna May Wong died of a heart attack as she slept at home in Santa Monica, at the age of 56. Born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905 in near Chinatown in Los Angeles. Considered to be the first Hong Kong-Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Her long and varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage, and radio.
And on this day in 2011, actress Maria Schneider died of breast cancer in Paris at age 58. Born Maria-Hélène Schneider on 27 March 1952 in Paris. She starred opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci‘s film Last Tango in Paris (1972).
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On this day in 1969, actor Boris Karloff died from emphysema in King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, Sussex at age 81. Born William Henry Pratt at 36 Forest Hill Road, Honor Oak, London on 23 November 1887. Karloff is perhaps best remembered for his roles in horror films and especially for his portrayal of Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and Son of Frankenstein (1939), which resulted in his immense popularity. His best-known non-horror role is as the Grinch, as well as the narrator, in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). He also had a memorable role in the original Scarface (1932). For his contribution to film and television, Boris Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Karloff married five times: Grace Harding 
On this day in 1996, dancer, Academy Award nominated actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer, Gene Kelly, died at his home in Beverly Hills, California at the age of 83. Born Eugene Curran Kelly on 23 August 1912 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, style and the likeable characters that he played on screen in movie classics including, Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Economics and enrolled in law school at Pitt but dropped out later to pursue his career in entertainment. His Oscar nomination came from his role in Anchors Aweigh, co-starring with Frank Sinatra. Kelly was married three times Betsy Blair (1941 – 1957 divorce), Jeanne Coyne (1960 – 1973 her death), Patricia Ward (1990 – 1996 his death).
On this day in 1851, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley died in Chester Square, London, at the age of fifty-three from what her physician suspected was a brain tumour. Born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, on 30 August 1797. Perhaps best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), she also edited and promoted the works of her husband. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1816, Mary and Percy famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Mary gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. 
On this day in 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed during re-entry over Texas killing all seven crew members. The crew: Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon. 
On this day in 2006, Scottish prima ballerina and actress, Moira Shearer, Lady Kennedy, died at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England at the age of 80. Born Moira Shearer King on 17 January 1926 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland.
On this day in 2012, painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet Dorothea Tanning died at her Manhattan home at age 101. Born Dorothea Margaret Tanning on August 25, 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois.
On this day in 1972, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, 26 civil-rights protesters and bystanders were shot by soldiers of the British Army. Thirteen males, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately or soon after, while the death of another man four-and-a-half months later was attributed to the injuries he received on that day. Two protesters were also injured when they were run down by army vehicles. Five of those wounded were shot in the back. The incident occurred during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march; the soldiers involved were members of the First Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para). Two investigations have been held by the British government. The Widgery Tribunal, held in the immediate aftermath of the event, largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. Widgery described the soldiers’ shooting as “bordering on the reckless” but was widely criticised. The Saville Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to reinvestigate the events. Following a 12-year inquiry, Saville’s report was made public on 15 June 2010. The report found that all of those shot were unarmed, and that the killings were both “unjustified and unjustifiable.” On the publication of the Saville report the British prime minister, David Cameron, made a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom. The Provisional Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) campaign against the partition of Ireland had begun in the two years prior to Bloody Sunday, but public perceptions of the day boosted the status of, and recruitment into, the organisation. Bloody Sunday remains among the most significant events in the Troubles of Northern Ireland, chiefly because those who died were shot by the British army rather than paramilitaries, in full view of the public and the press.
On this day in 1982, country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and musician Lightnin’ Hopkins died of esophageal cancer in Houston, at the age of 69. Born Samuel John Hopkins on March 15, 1912 in Centerville, Texas. He made his debut at Carnegie Hall on October 14, 1960, alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, performing the spiritual “Mary Don’t You Weep”. In 1960, he signed with Tradition Records. The recordings which followed included his song “Mojo Hand” in 1960.
The Final Footprint
On this day in 2006, author, activist, civil rights leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King Jr., the “First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement” Coretta Scott King died of respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer at a rehabilitation center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at the age of 78. Born on April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama. King met her husband while attending graduate school in Boston. They both became increasingly active in the American Civil Rights Movement. She was also a singer, and often incorporated music into her civil rights work.
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On this day in 1863, a detachment of California Volunteers engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men women and children. The site is located near the present-day city of Preston in Franklin County, Idaho. The death toll was large, but some Shoshone survived. Chief Sagwitch gathered survivors to keep his community alive. Sagwitch was shot twice in the hand and tried to escape on horseback, only to have the horse shot out from under him. He went to the ravine and escaped into the Bear River near a hot spring, where he floated under some brush until nightfall.
Sagwitch’s son, Beshup Timbimboo, was shot seven times but survived and was rescued by family members. Other members of the band hid in the willow brush of the Bear River, or tried to act as if they were dead. After the officers concluded the battle was over, they returned with the soldiers to their temporary encampment near Franklin. Sagwitch and other survivors retrieved the wounded and built a fire to warm the survivors.
On this day in 1963 poet Robert Frost died in Boston from prostrate cancer surgery complications at the age of 88. Born Robert Lee Frost on 26 March 1874 in San Francisco. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. In my opinion, he is one of the most popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century. Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetical works. My favorite Frost poems include; “The Witch of Coös,” “Home Burial,” “A Servant to Servants,” “Directive,” “Neither Out Too Far Nor In Too Deep,” “Provide, Provide,” “Acquainted with the Night,” “After Apple Picking,” “Mending Wall,” “The Most of It,” “An Old Man’s Winter Night,” “To Earthward,” “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” “Spring Pools,” “The Lovely Shall Be Choosers,” “Design,” and “Desert Places.” 
On this day in 1977, stand-up comedian and actor Freddie Prinze died from a gunshot wound to his head at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 22. Born Frederick Karl Pruetzel on June 22, 1954 in New York City. Prinze was the star of NBC-TV sitcom Chico and the Man from 1974 until his death in 1977.
The Final Footprint
The Final Footprint
In 1889, Yeats met Maud Gonne, then a 23-year-old English heiress and ardent Irish Nationalist. Gonne was eighteen months younger than Yeats and later claimed she met the poet as a “paint-stained art student.”. Gonne had admired Yeat’s poem “The Isle of Statues” and sought out his acquaintance. Yeats apparently developed an obsessive infatuation with her beauty and outspoken manner, and she had a significant and lasting effect on his poetry and his life thereafter.
he Final Footprint – Yeats was buried after a discreet and private funeral at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. He and George had often discussed his death, and his express wish was that he be buried quickly in France with a minimum of fuss. According to George, “His actual words were ‘If I die bury me up there [at Roquebrune] and then in a year’s time when the newspapers have forgotten me, dig me up and plant me in Sligo’.” In September 1948, Yeats’ body was moved to Drumcliff, County Sligo, on the Irish Naval Service corvette LÉ Macha. The person in charge of this operation for the Irish Government was Sean MacBride, Maud’s son, and then Minister of External Affairs. His epitaph is taken from the last lines of “Under Ben Bulben”, one of his final poems:
On this day in 1960, folklorist, anthropologist, and author Zora Neale Hurston died at St. Lucie County Welfare Home in St. Lucie, Florida of hypertensive heart disease at the age of 69. Born in Notasulga, Alabama, on 7 January 1891. Of Hurston’s four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is perhaps best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hurston’s work slid into obscurity for decades, for a number of cultural and political reasons. During the 1930s and 1940s when her work was published, the pre-eminent African-American author was Richard Wright. Unlike Hurston, Wright wrote in explicitly political terms using the struggle of African Americans for respect and economic advancement as both the setting and the motivation for his work. Other popular African-American authors of the time, such as Ralph Ellison, dealt with the same concerns as Wright. Hurston’s work, which did not engage these political issues, therefore did not fit in with this struggle. In 1951, for example, Hurston argued that New Deal economic support created a harmful dependency by African Americans on the government, and that this dependency ceded too much power to politicians. In addition, some critics objected to the representation of African-American dialect in Hurston’s novels, given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature. Her stylistic choices in terms of dialogue were influenced by her academic experiences. Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period which she documented through ethnographic research. For example, a character in Jonah’s Gourd Vine expresses herself in this manner:
On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight leading to the deaths of all seven crew members; 
Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnick. That night, President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to give his annual State of the Union address. He initially announced that the address would go on as scheduled, but then postponed the State of the Union address and instead gave a national address on the Challenger disaster from the Oval Office of the White House. It was written by Peggy Noonan, and finished with the following statement, which quoted from the poem “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.:
On this day in 1972 gospel singer, Civil Rights activist, The Queen of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson died at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, Illinois, of heart failure and diabetes complications, at the age of 60. Born on October 26, 1911 in New Orleans. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as “the single most powerful black woman in the United States”. She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career.
The Final Footprint
The Final Footprint
On this day in 2010, writer J. D. Salinger died in Cornish, New Hampshire at the age of 91. Born Jerome David Salinger in Manhattan on January 1, 1919. Perhaps best known for his widely-read novel The Catcher in the Rye. Following his early success publishing short stories and The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980.
On this day in 2014 singer, songwriter and social activist Pete Seeger died 
On this day in 1855, French writer, poet, essayist and translator Gérard de Nerval died by hanging himself from a sewer grating in the Rue de la vieille-lanterne, a narrow lane in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, at the age of 46. Born Gérard Labrunie in Paris on 22 May 1808. He was a major figure of French romanticism who worked in many genres. He is best known for his poems and novellas, especially the collection Les Filles du feu (The Daughters of Fire), which includes the novella Sylvie and the poem El Desdichado.
On this day in 1962, Sicilian mobster, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, died from a heart attack in the Naples International Airport in Naples, Italy at the age of 64. Born Salvatore Lucania on 24 November 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Palermo, Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in America. He was instrumental in creating the five Mafia crime families in New York City and in establishing the first commission. Luciano was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. He and his associate Meyer Lansky, were instrumental in the development of the “National Crime Syndicate” in the United States. On 17 January 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition remained in force until its repeal in 1933 and reduced the consumption of alcohol but had the unintended effect of stimulating the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread criminal activity. Organized crime gained a new source of revenue through illegal alcohol sales. In the 1920’s, New York’s two leading mobsters were Joe “The Boss” Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. They were engaged in what would be known as the infamous Castellammarese War. Luciano worked his way up to be Masseria’s top aide, but Luciano made a deal with Maranzano whereby Luciano would set up the death of Masseria in return for Maranzano’s support of Luciano becoming the head of the Masseria family and thus ending the destructive war. Masseria was assassinated in a Coney Island restaurant by Bugsy Siegel, Vito Genovese, and Joe Adonis. Maranzano then declared Luciano his number two man, and set up the Five Families of New York (Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo, and Bonanno) under him, promising that they would all be equal and all be free to make money. However, Maranzano declare
d himself capo di tutti capi (Boss of all Bosses), which meant every Don in the country had to pay up to him. Luciano began planning to eliminate Maranzano. Luciano became the most powerful mobster in the country when Maranzano was killed in his office. Luciano set up The Commission comprised of the heads of the Five Familes plus; the Philadelphia crime family, the Buffalo crime family, Los Angeles crime family and the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone; later, the Detroit crime family, and Kansas City crime family. Genovese became Luciano’s Underboss, while Frank Costello was his consigliere. Michael “Trigger Mike” Coppola, Anthony Strollo, Adonis, and Anthony Carfano all served as caporegimes. Lansky and Siegel were both unofficial advisors. I suppose he was lucky in that he died from a heart attack as opposed to being murdered.
The Final Footprint – Luciano is entombed in the Lucania Family Private Mausoleum in Saint John Cemetery, Middle Village, New York. The inscription on his crypt plate reads: IL NOSTRO CARO FRATELLO (our dear brother) SALVATORE LUCANIA and shows his birth and death dates.
On this day in 2020, 5x NBA Champion, Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant died along with his 
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