Posted By: JackieAprile
Help finding out how high up a relative was - 05/19/18 05:58 PM
Hi,
I wanted to ask you guys -
My great grandfather lived in Bensonhurst in the 1930s. In 1932 or 1933 he was arrested as being part of an arson ring. He was arrested with a couple of other guys. They named names, he didn't. They were hired by some guy according to the snitches to set fire to this building. He got 5 years in Sing-Sing but his admission record lists no priors and pins his crimes down to "evil associates." I know that despite this my great grandmother had a new car and such, but she didn't get any help from his friends.
He was arrested with the other guys as art of an investigation by the ADA, the Fire Marshal, and local cops of the time. The cops believed they set a considerable number of fires, but he was only ever convicted on the one fire, and they had been on the lamb for several months before the cops caught them. They were tried by a grand jury.
I know he was at least a loan shark. We have a bronze horse he had made in honor of a particularly lucky horse he loved, and I know he brutally beat his gambler brother for gambling away thousands of their father's money. There's some other stuff, about him working with a crooked cop and another guy, they invested money on some land or something but it turned out the cop fucked him and the other guy over. Because my grandpa doesn't like to talk much about it (he's ashamed of it - and he also hates LCN because they didn't give his mother any help while his father was inside and she struggled), I don't know much, plus with it being so long ago - all the principals are dead. He died in 1947, age 40, and at the time of his death he was working as a dockworker. I know his name carried enough weight that in the early 70s, when my father beat up "Jack the Barber's" son (that's what the Bensonhurst guy who, it was known, ran the neighborhood was known as), they wanted to have my father killed until they realized who his grandfather was, and he was given a pass simply because of my great grandfather's name even though he was dead. I also know my grandfather claims Meyer Lansky used to visit when he was a kid and he called him Uncle Meyer.
I obviously can't name names, but based on the stuff I've said, can anyone perhaps clue in on how high up he might've been?
I wanted to ask you guys -
My great grandfather lived in Bensonhurst in the 1930s. In 1932 or 1933 he was arrested as being part of an arson ring. He was arrested with a couple of other guys. They named names, he didn't. They were hired by some guy according to the snitches to set fire to this building. He got 5 years in Sing-Sing but his admission record lists no priors and pins his crimes down to "evil associates." I know that despite this my great grandmother had a new car and such, but she didn't get any help from his friends.
He was arrested with the other guys as art of an investigation by the ADA, the Fire Marshal, and local cops of the time. The cops believed they set a considerable number of fires, but he was only ever convicted on the one fire, and they had been on the lamb for several months before the cops caught them. They were tried by a grand jury.
I know he was at least a loan shark. We have a bronze horse he had made in honor of a particularly lucky horse he loved, and I know he brutally beat his gambler brother for gambling away thousands of their father's money. There's some other stuff, about him working with a crooked cop and another guy, they invested money on some land or something but it turned out the cop fucked him and the other guy over. Because my grandpa doesn't like to talk much about it (he's ashamed of it - and he also hates LCN because they didn't give his mother any help while his father was inside and she struggled), I don't know much, plus with it being so long ago - all the principals are dead. He died in 1947, age 40, and at the time of his death he was working as a dockworker. I know his name carried enough weight that in the early 70s, when my father beat up "Jack the Barber's" son (that's what the Bensonhurst guy who, it was known, ran the neighborhood was known as), they wanted to have my father killed until they realized who his grandfather was, and he was given a pass simply because of my great grandfather's name even though he was dead. I also know my grandfather claims Meyer Lansky used to visit when he was a kid and he called him Uncle Meyer.
I obviously can't name names, but based on the stuff I've said, can anyone perhaps clue in on how high up he might've been?