As detailed in Justice League of America #29 (August 1964), the Crime Syndicate of America originally lived on Earth-Three, a world where history was "reversed" from the real world (e.g., Christopher Columbus discovered Europe, British colonists declared their independence from America, and President John Wilkes Booth was assassinated by Abraham Lincoln). It initially had no superheroes, only the supervillains of the Crime Syndicate, though this changed with the later introduction of the heroic Lex Luthor who used his vast intelligence for good.
In their first appearance, the Crime Syndicate, bored with the ease with which they were able to commit crimes on their Earth (and with no one to truly challenge them), discovered the existence of Earth-One and Earth-Two after Ultraman got "Ultra-Vision" from exposure to a large chunk of kryptonite and found he could peer between Worlds. Intrigued by the existence of super-heroes, they crossed the dimensional void and attacked the JLA and JSA. The villains were at first defeated but when they said the word "Volthoom", they sent themselves into Earth-Three thanks to a fail safe created by Power Ring. The CSA was then able to capture the JSA by transporting them to Earth-Three and imprisoning them, intending to fight the JLA on Earth-2 to prove their superiority (The JLA had a natural advantage on Earth-1 and the CSA had a similar advantage on Earth-3, Earth-2 being chosen as a neutral environment where neither would have an edge). However, the JLA defeated the Syndicate by tricking the members into unleashing more power than they could control, such as Ultraman acquiring so many powers he couldn't use any of them, Power Ring's ring generating constructs that were too large for him to control after Green Lantern gave it a boost, and Wonder Woman allowing Superwoman to 'steal' her Lasso of Truth knowing that her opponent wouldn't be able to use both of them. Following this defeat, the JLA freed the captured Justice Society heroes and imprisoned the CSA in an unbreakable bubble generated by Green Lantern's power ring that was placed in a "limbo" dimension between the Earths where time has no meaning.
Over the ensuing years, the Syndicate or one of its members would occasionally escape and attempt to wreak havoc on Earth-One and/or Earth-Two. Power Ring, Johnny Quick, and Super Woman battled Captain Comet after being released by the Secret Society of Super Villains. Ultraman once escaped but was returned by the Supermen from Earth-One and Earth-Two.
On one occasion the entire CSA were released by the time travelling villain Per Degaton when he was caught up in a time storm and stumbled upon their limbo prison. He freed them and they reluctantly agreed to help him take over his home world of Earth-Two in his present time of 1942 by stealing nuclear missiles from the 1962 Cuban missile crisis of Earth-Prime. When they inevitably tried to double-cross him, a safety protocol he had created hurled the traitors uncontrollably into the time stream where they landed coincidentally on the satellite headquarters of the Justice League in the then present day of 1982 (the year the story was published). An intricate tale then followed involving the CSA escaping and the JLA traveling back in time to Earth-Two in 1942 and Earth-Prime in 1962 to prevent The Crime Syndicate from helping Degaton. It was during the Earth-Two visit to the past that the JLA teamed up with America's super-hero team of that era, the All-Star Squadron. The heroes succeeded in stopping Per Degaton and the CSA before their evil plan could be set in motion, effectively wiping these events from existence and everyone's memory.
Earth-Three and the original Crime Syndicate were destroyed along with the rest of DC's parallel worlds in the 1985 twelve-issue maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. As shown in issue #1, Earth-Three and all of its inhabitants were obliterated by an anti-matter wave that was the catalyst for the story. The original Earth-Three Syndicate made a few post-Crisis appearances, when Ultraman and Power Ring appeared in the Animal Man series and then again in Infinite Crisis when Earth-Three was temporarily recreated and models of the Earth-Three Ultraman, Superwoman, and Alexander Luthor, Sr. were briefly merged with the Superman and Wonder Woman of Earth-1 and the Superman of Earth-Two and Wonder Woman of Earth-2.

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