In Low Life (1988), a book describing the underbelly of New York City, Luc Sante claims that the creation of organized crime in New York City belongs to Jewish and Italian immigrants. There were Irish and German gangsters, but they were, in the most favorable interpretation, “disorganized” (Sante 22). Jewish criminals existed in America and were part of organized unlawful acts dating back to the turn of the century.In fact, Jewish gangsters like Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, Arnold Rothstein, and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter in New York, Meyer Lansky and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in Las Vegas - and especially Abner “Longy” Zwillman in New Jersey - created “organized” crime monarchy.
Although Jewish gangsters tried to keep information about their crimes out of the public attention, such events as the activities and murder of Arnold Rothstein, criminal and gambling operations, and establishment of Murder, Inc. could not be easily kept in secret.Personalities of the Jewish American Mafia Arnold Rothstein The Italian communities have achieved wealth and political power much later and in a harder way than Jewish immigrant groups. Early Jewish wealth, that of the German Jews of the late nineteenth century, was made to a great extent in banking and commercial goods.
To that extent, the crime group in the Jewish American community was outside of, and independent of, the political machines. Later Jewish wealth was built in the garment industry, with some involvement of the Jewish gangsters, who were industrial racketeers (Arnold Rothstein, Lepke and Gurrah).Jewish American gangsters had worked together with Italian American gangsters since the Prohibition era. If a Kefauver report had been completed then, the main “names” would have been Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Abner “Longey” Zwillman, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, and, reaching back a little further, Arnold Rothstein, the emperor of the criminal world. These men were in the main individuals engaged in illegal industrial enterprises for profit.
Arnold Rothstein, actually, had a larger function: he was, as Frank Costello, a New York gangster, became later, the gangster who is engaged in large-scale financial operations of the underworld - the first big businessman of crime, who, understanding the logic of balanced and effective interaction of actions, tried to organize crime as a source of regular revenue. Arnold Rothstein was among the most prominent followers of Big Tim Sullivan that regulated illicit off-track poolroom betting (Cook 122). Rothstein, who, according to general belief, had made $12 million by 1906, became a famous hero among the Jewish public.He was widely considered to have created the system of laying off bets (Sorin 85). Arnold Rothstein is regarded the first American who organized a major contraband ring from China to the United States.
A financial talent and restless innovator, Rothstein was mostly known for his “fix” of the 1919 World Series. This gangster made a wealth from gambling, loan sharking, bootlegging, blackmail, corruption, labor racketeering, and illicit narcotics. Rothstein helped launch the crime career of such men as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter. As early as 1925, Rothstein had large amount of wealth tied up in narcotics operations established in several nations.He also established the network of criminal contacts in Europe. Rothstein was the gambling leader in New York whose connections reached across the country.
He was the banker for fixes in baseball and at the track, and he dealt with stolen goods that were imported and exported secretly. “Rothstein is a man who dwells in doorways,” his lawyer, William J. Fallon, described him. “He's a gray rat, waiting for his cheese” (Mitgang 166). Rothstein created syndicates that did not discriminate relating to ethics and race: among his followers were Irish, Jewish, Italian, German, and even African American.His special abilities at corruption became very famous, and his organization of illicit commerce became a model for most forms of gangsterism in the future.
Important gangsters - such as Meyer Lansky, Louis Buchalter, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, Charles “Lucky” Luciano - learned from Rothstein how to create and keep up the vitality of a criminal empire. On November 4, 1928, Arnold Rothstein was shot dead at the Park Central Hotel in New York City. It is thought that there was a conflict over a gambling debt of more than $300,000 (Sante 140). Rothstein allegedly asserted that the game was rigged.
The main people believed guilty of the murder then were California gamblers but were never charged with crime. The truth was never found. No feeling of mistrust ever appeared about his criminal partners Lepke Buchalter or Lucky Luciano, who had friendship with him and helped enormously when he was murdered. Rothstein's funeral surprised the public because it was Orthodox as well as generous.
Rothstein's main followers, Lepke Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro, were able, in the early '30's, to control segments of the men's and women's garment industries, of painting, skin dressing, flour transportation, and other sectors.In a highly disorderly and competitive industry such as clothing, the gangster, paradoxically, played a regulating role by controlling competition and making prices stable. Among the most important criminals to operate in the clothing industry were Louis Buchalter and his associate Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro. The two criminals had virtual control of the Manhattan garment industry in the period from the late 1920s until 1940. Playing the role of the enforcer for Lepke Buchalter, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro was one of the most feared gangsters of his day.
The nickname “Gurrah” originated from Shapiro's slurring of his pet phrase, “Get out of here. When he uttered this standard command of his in his rough and angry voice, it was pronounced like “Gurra adhere” - from here the nickname “Gurrah” (Cook 130). Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter Back in the 1920's criminals Lepke and Gurrah were self-employed muscle men, sluggers who would offer their services to the highest bidder. As time passed and the criminals grew more powerful and effective, they took over whole organized economic activities; they would even force a legal businessman to take them as members of a partnership.Among the undertakings they controlled were the flour transportation and baking commercial enterprises.
Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro began his criminal career in the overpopulated regions of New York's Lower East Side in 1914. He was stealing from handcarts in the crowded streets of New York where he after some time met Lepke and Meyer Lansky and became a member of “Little Augie” Orgen's group. The group provided muscle to employers as labor union strikebreakers. By 1927, after the members of the group were murdered in the streets, Shapiro and Lepke formed truckers in the garment industry.
The criminals later moved into the bakery unions, using their usual tools of murder, bombings, burning, and robbery. Gurrah Shapiro achieved real control and domination in the crime world in the 1930s when his companion Lepke joined the New York syndicate, the “Combination,” and headed, together with Albert Anastasia, a band of murderers known as Murder, Inc (Cook 49). Data vary, but the generally held view is that Lepke and Gurrah had control over approximately 250 men including professionals in accounting, influence peddling, trade unions, and professionals in murder and violent destruction.By 1936, Luciano became the focus of Dewey's attention who had built a string of successes pursuing the gangsters. Luciano was convicted on prostitution charges; that same year the pursuit of Lepke and Shapiro began with serious intentions. Shapiro and Lepke went into hiding place, but Gurrah, a sick man, could not continue to resist and run, and in April 1938, he surrendered unconditionally to authorities.
“I got a bad reputation from the newspapers,” he said as he was led off to a place for the confinement (Bernstein 42).In 1943, Gurrah was tried yet second time on labor gangsterism charges in the garment industry. The evidence given against him laid out the system of protection of gigantic size, gangster locals, and sweetheart agreements that had an influence on entire segments of the New York economy. Shapiro died in prison in 1947. “Lepke” (a Yiddish word of love meaning “Little Louis”) grew up in a middle-class Jewish family having good social standing.
His brothers went into medical science, and Louis Buchalter went into the mob.After many arrests and time spent in prison serving for crimes in 1922, Lepke became a companion of Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro and began working for criminals such as “Little Augie” Orgen. “Little Augie” Orgen sold strong-arm violence to either unions or employers, whoever paid more (Sante 98). Lepke's personal appearance disguised the nature of his moral turpitude. His slim build and conservative in style clothing gave an image of a noble businessman rather than a fierce racketeer. The garment industry was a perfect field for Buchalter's crime business and treachery and murder of his boss Orgen.
Later Lepke and Shapiro gained control of several clothing union locals. Lepke's criminal innovations were remarkable in this area of industrial crime. As an alternative to sluggers and gunmen controlling union members by violence during strikes, Lepke also infiltrated his renegades directly into the locals, thus avoiding unceasing street fights for union control. From authority over tailors and cloth cutters, Lepke migrated into the unions of bakery drivers, poultry workers, cleaning and dyeing, handbags, shoes, millinery, leather, and eventually restaurant workers (Sante 24).
Closely collaborating with Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, and Joseph Adonis, Lepke soon became a member of the new crime syndicate that came to advanced stage during Prohibition. In the early 1930s, syndicate bosses came to conclusion they needed a special enforcement person to keep discipline in their developing criminal industries. In addition, they needed to instill terror among potential snitchers and terrorize witnesses and others from stating facts about their business. Murder, Inc. as established, regulated by Lepke, Gurrah Shapiro, and Albert Anastasia. Over a period of several years, large number of murders was carried out by the team of mob killers inspiring repugnance and horror.
By 1937 Lepke was wanted for murder and charged with narcotics peddling and blackmail. Because the gangster was “hot,” he determined to keep himself in a secret place while he ordered the death of anyone who could say anything against him. In the period, one of his killers murdered a person who resembled a potential witness, causing a public disturbance.The public wanted Lepke dead or alive. Hoover had described Lepke as “the most dangerous criminal in the United States” (Sante 54). The FBI needed two years and thousands of dollars to find Lepke.
Meyer Lansky Lepke’ associate, Meyer Lansky, was underworld figure best known for his financial talents in international money laundering and gambling enterprises (Sante 96). Until his first arrest for violent attack in 1918, Lansky was an honest member of a skilled trade. It was the changeable streets of the Lower East Side that tempted Lansky into crime.He was skilled in numbers, and after he quit school when he was 16 years old, he became an enforcer for labor unions and fierce strikebreakers. At about this period Lepke made a friendship with “Bugsy” Siegel and formed the “Bug and Meyer Mob” that engaged in robbing, burglaries, and blackmail. In 1921, Lansky met Rothstein.
Lansky was a student of Rothstein’s highly sophisticated legitimate business techniques and learned many important methods. During his seven years spent with Rothstein in crime world, Lansky met important criminals who would later come up as “Founding Fathers” of the National Crime Syndicate.Rothstein played important role of “broker” not only between New York City's government mechanism, Tammany Hall, and the gamesters and bootleggers but also between two of New York's extremely powerful political-criminal groups: one, headed by Jimmy Hines with ties to Dutch Schultz; the other, also with a Tammany link, involved Italian criminals such as “Joe the Boss” Masseria, Frank Costello, Lucky Luciano, and Salvatore Maranzano (Sante 64). Rothstein had relations with both groups and supported each - pistol licenses, bail bonds, buying and selling stolen property.
By 1920, Luciano had emerged as a power in the world of illegal enterprises, such as extortion, fraud, prostitution, drug peddling and was closely tied to Meyer Lansky and “Bugsy” Siegel. Through Lansky and Siegel, Luciano expanded his network of friends and partners to include other ethnic criminals like Arnold Rothstein. Mafiosi called him “the dirty Calabrian” because of his close relations with Jews and other non-Italians. Jewish criminals were impressed by Costello's ability to buy protection from city officials, which was an important element in the success of big-time gangsterism.
Italian gangsters are best known for transforming brawling gangs of assassins into smooth-running crime syndicates. Not only did Italian gangsters enjoy the protection and support of Italian crime families, but their alliances with Jews, Irish, and other ethnic groups enabled them to accumulate additional power that ensured their virtual control over American organized crime. The thing that sets Meyer Lansky apart from other Jewish gangsters who have achieved the American Dream is his line of crime business. In his business he is as much of a visionary and innovator as John D. Rockefeller was in his (Sante 20).Meyer Lansky is the main creator of the giant corporation that is organized crime in America.
He helped pull into union with each other a group of rival gangs, including the Mafia, into a national interconnected system. In addition, he proceeded to shape it into something very large that is, in his own words, “bigger than U. S. Steel” (Sante 26). Bugsy Siegel “Bugsy” Siegel, partner of Meyer Lansky, was a key figure in the development of casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In addition, Bugsy Siegel was a career criminal who came up from the scarcity and misery of Jewish deprived region on the Lower East Side of New York City and Brooklyn.Soon, before he was 16 years old, Siegel participated in illegal gambling and street vendor extortion, and it was in the overcrowded buildings of the city that he first met Meyer Lansky. Siegel became a partner and friend of Meyer Lansky. Siegel and Lansky created the Bug and Meyer Mob, a group of young Jewish gangsters who conducted crime operations on New York's Lower East Side. Later, as the gang developed from petty larcenies into more brutal and severe crimes, Lansky, with Siegel as his partner, joined forces with Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Frank Costello.
The Bug and Meyer Mob, as it was called, managed problems for bootleg industry that Prohibition produced. Lansky, Siegel, Costello, and Luciano joined their efforts, supplying good whiskey to the places where alcoholic drink was sold illicitly. In comparison to the other three gangsters who were restrained and showing caution, Siegel was known for his explosions. He offered the protection services for the illegal liquor goods and engaged in stealing of competitors' trucks. Rothstein joined with Siegel and Lansky.
In spite of his violent character, Siegel was forced to become something of a businessman. The mutual dealings Lansky and Siegel had were simultaneously rewarding and long-lasting. While Lansky played the function of the brains of their operation and Siegel was the muscle, Bugsy was no flunky; they were perfect associates. Like other gangsters, Siegel lived like a schizophrenic person: one world, the underworld, consisted of killing of human beings, violent destruction, vice, and corruption; the other consisted of a family and a home in a good neighborhood.
