Meyer Lansky

File:MeyerLanskySmaller.jpeg

Lansky's mugshot (see also the full image with profile)

Meyer Lansky (born Majer Suchowliński, July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983) was a Jewish American gangster who, with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the so-called "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. He was the intellectual impetus behind the Commission and the so-called "Mogul of the Mob." Interestingly, while nearly all Lansky's contemporary criminal associates were either arrested or murdered, Lansky himself served only a small sentence and died a natural death.

Emigration and childhood

Born in Grodno, Russian Empire (now Hrodna, Belarus) to Polish Jewish parents, his family emigrated to the United States in 1911 and settled in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. While Lansky was in school, he met a young Lucky Luciano, who shook down other kids for protection money. When Lansky refused to pay, Luciano fought him, but came away impressed with the younger boy's toughness, creating a bond that would make them friends for life.

Lansky met Bugsy Siegel when he was a teenager. They also became friends for life and, together with Luciano, formed a lasting partnership. Lansky was instrumental in Luciano's rise to power, when he helped organize the 1931 murder of mafia powerhouse, Salvatore Maranzano. As a youngster, Lansky's life was saved many times by Siegel, a fact Lansky always appreciated. The two of them managed the Bug and Meyer Mob adroitly, despite its being one of the most violent Prohibition mobs.

Adult crimes

Lansky had established gambling operations in Florida, New Orleans and Cuba by 1936, the year Luciano was convicted and sent to prison. As Alfred McCoy records,

"During the 1930s, Meyer Lansky "discovered" the Caribbean for northeastern syndicate bosses and invested their illegal profits in an assortment of lucrative gambling ventures... He was also reportedly responsible for organized crime's decision to declare Miami a "free city" (i.e., not subject to the usual rules of territorial monopoly)."

Lansky also became a big investor in Siegel's Las Vegas project. After Al Capone's 1931 conviction for tax evasion, he transferred illegal funds from his casinos to Europe, where he opened up a numbered bank account following the 1934 Swiss Banking Act. Later, according to Lucy Komisar, he would even buy an offshore bank in Switzerland, which he used for money laundering through a network of shell and holding companies. ("Offshore Banking: The Secret Threat to America," Dissent, Spring 2003)

War work

During World War II, Lansky would be instrumental in the Office of Naval Intelligence's efforts to recruit the criminal underworld into keeping an eye out for German infiltrators and submarine-borne saboteurs, in Operation Underworld.

In the 1930s, Lansky and his gang stepped outside their usual activities to break rallies held in sympathy of Nazi Germany. Lansky himself recollected that at a rally in Yorkville (a neighborhood in Manhattan dominated by German immigrants) he and about 14 others:

The stage was decorated with a swastika and a picture of Hitler. The speakers started ranting. There were only fifteen of us, but we went into action. We threw some of them out the windows. . . . Most of the Nazis panicked and ran out. We chased them and beat them up... We wanted to show them that Jews would not always sit back and accept insults.

Gambling is abolished in Cuba

After Luciano was paroled on the condition that he return to Sicily and never leave Italy, Luciano secretly moved to Cuba, from where he began to resume his control over the American mafia operations. He also ran a number of casinos with the sanction of Cuban president General Fulgencio Batista (who received a percentage). After the Cuban revolution of 1959, which saw the rise of Fidel Castro and the end of Batista's tenure, new Cuban president Manuel Urrutia Lleó ordered the casinos to be shut, and Lansky moved on to elsewhere in the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas. Lansky's loss in Cuba was devastating, but it did not slow him down.

The Flamingo Problem

Siegel's projects in Las Vegas were failing miserably and all mafia bosses, Lansky included, were summoned to a secret meeting in Havana. While everyone else wanted Siegel killed, Lansky begged for a second chance for his friend. He was able to persuade the bosses to give Siegel a second chance, but Siegel's casino kept on losing money and a second meeting was called. This time, the casino was able to turn in a small profit during the month of their second meeting, and that, together with Lansky's pleading and Luciano's hopes their old friend could still do good in Vegas, convinced them to give Siegel a third chance. That small profit turned out to be only a small hurrah and led to a third meeting. It was decided Siegel had to go. He had humiliated the organized crime bosses and never had a chance. It is widely believed that Meyer Lansky himself gave the final okay. Only twenty minutes after the hit, Lansky's associates (including Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway) walked into the Flamingo Hotel and announced that Siegel was no longer in the picture, they were taking over. According to the FBI, Lansky had a substantial interest in the Flamingo and did so for over twenty years.

Lansky in 1958

Later years

Meyer Lansky kept a very low profile and his days in Miami Beach were filled with routine. The FBI had a very tough time pursuing him. His associates usually met him in malls and crowded locations. Lansky's chauffeur was known to drive him around town to look for payphones. So elusive was Lansky, the FBI pretty much gave up on him by the mid-1970s. He kept very little in his name and seemed to be just another struggling old man. The truth was, Meyer Lansky never owned property. He owned people who owned property. Among Lansky's fronts were Sam Cohen, Alvin Malnik and Benjamin Sigelbaum. Malnik had originally started working for Lansky associate, Al Mones in the late 1950s. Malnik's rise in the Lansky organization was fast and by 1970, he had seemingly become the most valuable player. After Lansky's death in 1983, Alvin Malnik's power became more visible than ever. Law enforcement officials have long suspected him to be Lansky's sole "heir".

During the 1970s, Lansky faced tax evasion charges and fled to Israel, where he lived for two years before being apprehended and returned to the United States. The government's best shot was a loan shark named Vincent Teresa, an informant with little or no credibilty. The jury was unreceptive and Lansky was acquitted in 1974. Lansky's last years were spent quietly at his home in Miami Beach. On January 15, 1983, Meyer Lansky succumbed to lung cancer. He was 81 years-old and left behind a wife and three children. At the time, the FBI believed he left behind over three hundred million dollars in hidden bank accounts, but the money never turned up. On paper, Lansky was worth almost nothing.

Popular culture

• The character Hyman Roth, portrayed by Lee Strasberg, in the film The Godfather Part II (1974) is based on Lansky. In fact, shortly after the premier in 1974, Lansky phoned Strasberg and congratulated him on a good performance, but added "You could've made me more sympathetic".
• The 1981 NBC mini series, The Gangster Chronicles, the character of Michael Lasker, played by Brian Benben was based on Lansky. The reason for the name "Michael Lasker" was due to Lansky's still living at the time.
• The film Bugsy (1991), a biography of Bugsy Siegel, included him as a major character, played by Ben Kingsley.
• In the 1991 film Mobsters, he is played by the actor Patrick Dempsey.
• In the 1996 novel The Plan, by Stephen J. Cannell, Lansky and fellow mobster Joseph Alo are involved in putting an anti-RICO presidential candidate into office.
• A 1999 made-for-TV movie called Lansky_(film) was released starring Richard Dreyfuss as Lansky, Eric Roberts as Bugsy Siegel, and Anthony LaPaglia as Lucky Luciano.
• Meyer Lansky is portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 2005 film The Lost City.
• Lansky was rumored to have photographic proof that J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual; conspiracy theorists believed this was the reason he wasn't aggressive in pursuing organized crime. There is no known direct evidence that Hoover was in fact gay, but there is strong circumstantial evidence suggesting so.
• Manny Wiesbord, the mob chieftan played by Joseph Wiseman on Crime Story, was based on Lansky.
• David 'Noodles' Aaronson, the gangster played by Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone's opus Once Upon A Time In America was based on Meyer Lansky.

Further reading

• Lacy, Robert. Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991.
• Messick, Hank. Lansky. New York: Berkley Publishing Company, 1971.
• Cohen, Rich. Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams.
• Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-23109683-6
• Rockaway, Robert A. But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 1993.

References

• Piper, Michael Collins. Final Judgement: the Missing Link in the Kennedy Conspiracy. Washington, D.C.: Wolfe Press, 1994.

External links

• Official Meyer Lansky Memorabilia Museum 2001 Edition
• Jewish Virtual Library - Meyer Lansky
• Free Information Society: Meyer Lansky
• Crime Library: Meyer Lansky - Mastermind of the Mob by Mark Gribben
• Seize The Night: Meyer Lansky
• Seize The Night: The Jewish Mafia
• Review of Robert Lacey's book 'Little Man'