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GANGSTERS & OUTLAWS/MOB BOSSES

MEYER LANSKY:
MASTERMIND OF THE MOB

By Mark
Gribben

The Mythical
Meyer

Maybe he said it and maybe he didn't, but Meyer Lansky will
forever be identified with the statement that the Syndicate,
the underworld conglomerate of hoodlums, mobsters and killers
from across the nation, was bigger than U.S. Steel. The boast
made for good headlines and helped politicians like Estes
Kefauver and Bobby Kennedy build their reputations and later
achieved near-factual status when Hyman Roth, the Meyer
Lansky-inspired character in the Godfather II repeated
it to Michael Corleone. Whether or not Lansky ever really said
it, it was probably true. Organized crime in America from the
1930s to the 1980s was big business and Meyer Lansky had
helped make it that way.

There is a lot about Lansky that is apocryphal. Did he, for
instance, meet Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano on the same day?
Probably not, but the story still floats around about how
Lansky, the hard working son of Jewish immigrants, happened
along one day and found Siegel and Luciano brawling over the
favors of a prostitute the Italian was pimping.

Lansky, the story goes, hit Luciano over the head with a
tool from his apprentice's box and stopped the fight. The
known facts fit --Luciano did run some bordellos and no one
disputes that Benny Siegel liked the ladies.

But Lansky never mentions the story in his authorized
biographies and Luciano remembers meeting Lansky when Lucky's
gang tried to shakedown the young Meyer and was told in no
uncertain terms to go f__ themselves.

"Ok, Little Man," Luciano remembers telling the diminutive
Lansky. "You get your protection for free."

"Shove your protection up your ass," Lansky shot back. "I
don’t need it."

And Lansky, who would never grow much above five feet,
proceeded to prove it to the older boy.

"Believe me, I found out he didn’t need it," Luciano
recalled years later. "Next to Benny Siegel, Meyer Lansky was
the toughest guy, pound for pound, I ever knew in my whole
life and that takes in Albert Anastasia or any of them
Brooklyn hoodlums or anybody anyone can think of."

Mug shot of Meyer
Lansky
(NYPD)

If there ever was a golden age of organized crime, it could
be argued that it began with Lansky's descent into the
underworld when he placed his first bet on a street corner
craps game before the start of World War I and ended when he
died in the winter of 1983. Arnold Rothstein, the supposed
fixer the 1919 World Series, was the Cronus of American
organized crime -- the proto-godfather, if you will. Charlie
Luciano stirred up the action, Benny Siegel provided the
chutzpa, Lepke Buchalter terrorized the enemy but Lansky rose
above the fray and served as the brains of the outfit. Luciano
was exiled and died relatively young, Siegel and Rothstein
were assassinated and Lepke died in Sing Sing's electric
chair, but Meyer Lansky died a wealthy old man in Miami,
Florida, where he was known as a supporter of Israel and a
frequent contributor to the local public television station.

Siegel was more likely to shoot first and ask questions
later as he lived and died by the gun. Buchalter, whose
Stalinesque purge of his own gang would signal his undoing,
was the only mob kingpin to go to the electric chair. Lepke
was easy to figure out. He was a cold-blooded killer who was
all ego and only interested in profit. Siegel was just your
basic psychopath. A nice guy one minute and a killer the next,
Bugsy was a big talker and loud dresser who loved mixing it up
and let his fists do his talking. Luciano was a little more
complex. Lucky killed guys, sure, but he had a sense of honor
and nobility about him and seemed to recognize right and wrong
even if he ignored it. Lansky was different. He was a family
man with a wife and kids and a brother. He had learned a trade
and operated legitimate businesses as well as carpet joints
and bootleg operations. Lansky was one of the few mobsters who
could rein-in his passions, disdaining the spotlight, which
attracted up-and-coming gunsels eager to make a name for
themselves as well as the law. He lived a nondescript life, a
twice-married father of three children who preferred to let
others do the dirty work for him. Meyer claimed in his
biography never to have killed a man although circumstantial
evidence shows otherwise and his exploits demonstrate that he
wasn’t completely averse to eliminating those who stood in his
way.

Meyer's favorite photo of
himself

Where men like Lucky Luciano and Lepke Buchalter ruled
their gangs through the standard mob methods of violence and
fear, Lansky rose to the top of his profession because he was
first a master organizer and more importantly a man of his
word. Lansky was the brains behind the Syndicate; his shrewd
analytical mind was responsible for the creation of an
international crime cartel the effects of which are still with
us today. This is the story of Meyer Lansky, the Russian
immigrant who became known as the "Mogul of the
Mob.

CHAPTERS

1.

The
Mythical Meyer

2.

A
Fortune Found

3.

Bugs
& Meyer Mob

4.

Meeting
with the Brain

5.

Italian
and the Jew

6.

The
Carpet Joints

7.

Havana

8.

Vegas

9.

Israel

10.

Lansky's
Legacy

11.

Bibliography

12.

The
Author

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