OK, all, who is Moe Green in real life?
Moe Dalitz? Bugsy Siegle? A combo of the two?
Someone else?
We're having a major argument here...
thanks!

I think it's either Bugsy or Mayer Lansky or a combo of both.

Green is based on Bugsy. Roth is loosely based on Myer Lansky.

oh yeah. thanks

Bugsy is my all time favorite gangster.

That's because you are a little "Bugsy" yourself!

Don Cardi

I think that it is based on Bugsy Siegel. Both were shot through the eye after all.

Roth was Lansky but I dont think Lansky was killed he died of natural death.
Green is Bugsy he was shot in eye

Lansky died of natural causes at age 81. How many mob bosses can make that claim?

The only other one that comes to mind is Don Carlo Gambino. If I am correct neither one ever did any jail time for a crime and both died of Natural causes.

TB- Did Costello ever do any time?


Don Cardi

Didn't capone also die of natural causes?

Frank Costello did time for contempt of Congress when he walked out of one of Kefauver's televised hearings in 1951. He may have done time on a tax rap, too.
Capone died of syphillis, having spent most of the last half of his life in prison.
Gambino was arrested for larceny in 1930 and in 1939 was convicted on a post-Prohibition untaxed alcohol rap and sentenced to 22 months in prison. He served 8 months until the conviction was overturned. After he became Don, the government tried several times to deport him, but he always developed "heart trouble" and was never deported.

Hey, Joe Bonanno can't even make that claim... he was 97 when he died.

I agree with the sentiment, TB, but its interesting to note that four of the five original bosses (in NYC) from the 1930's died of natural causes.

Charlie Luciano died of a heart attack; Tommy Lucchese and Joe Profaci died from cancer; Joe Bonanno died of old age. It was only that Albert Anastasia was ambitious that Mangano died of "unnatural" causes. I don't know if it was respect for their positions or just simply luck, but certainly after their demises all bets were off.

There were plenty of lower-level wiseguys who were high up in the organization who bought an early ticket out, though.

Didn't he die from such kind of sexuael Disease!

Green, the man who "invented Las Vegas," and for whom there isn't a plaque, or a signpost, was Bugsy Siegal who, like Moe, was known for his temper and for saying stupid things, was shot in the eye for allegedly skimming money at the Flamingo Hotel ("what's the matter mike you think I'm Skimming?" No, I think you're unlucky."). Green's mentor, Hyman Roth is Meyer Lansky who made no inquiries because "this is the business we have chosen." In real like, Bugsy was actually Lansky's mentor, and Lansky indeed died in bed at an old age and of the same heart attack he had been having for the past forty years.

In real life, Siegel, who was four years younger than Lansky, was the muscle end of the "Bug and Meyer Gang," as they were known; Lansky was the brains. The pair did strong-arm work for labor racketeers, and operated booze trucks during Prohibition. But Lansky was the planner and thinker. For example, when Charlie Luciano needed people to whack Joe (the Boss) Masseria, he reached for Lansky, who put together Siegel, Abraham (Bo) Weinberg, and Giuseppe (Joe Adonis) Doto as the triggers. Siegel fronted for Lansky and the NY Mob on the West Coast because he had a reputation for being short tempered and violent. But they were calling the shots.
To be fair: Siegel wasn't just dumb muscle. He did move directly into the hotel/casino ownership business before Lansky and the NY mob. But they financed him, and dispatched him when his greed overcame his reasoning powers.

What nationality was Siegel? His surname sounds German...

Very interesting stuff. Where did you guys find out all that stuff about the real gangsters of New York? And, what about the gangsters in other cities, like Chicago and Cleveland? Were they all connected somehow? Did they all obey under one Don like it seemed in GF? Or did they all have their own separate Dons? Who was Capone involved with? What about Sam Giancana? Gotti? Gambino? How were those guys connected? Are any of them still alive? Who are the current Dons today? Who is the top Don today? The gangsters on "Goodfellas" were they also connected to the Godfather people? I guess I don't understand how the whole thing works.

~~ Lollie

Siegel was Jewish. His family emigrated to America from eastern Europe. Ditto Lansky.

actually he was german-jewish. his original name was siegelbaum but he shortened it.