But....he definitely had a group of his own. Initially this would have been the Bug and Meyer mob of the twenties, part of which later morphed into what would be called Murder Inc. But Lanksy also had his own personal gambling casinos, horsetracks and nightclubs in Florida, Kentucky and upstate NY. Then of course all the other business and interests which you mention. He was in partnerships, to be sure. But he was more than just an investor.
Murder Inc. was formed by Lepke Buchalter. Lansky may have used their hitters from time to time, but their biggest user (and occasional supplier of shooters) was Albert Anastasia. Go here:
Supposedly Lanksy and Luciano had proposed the idea of an independent syndicate trouble-shooting squad. It was determined that Siegel, Buchalter and Anastasia would oversee it. People were leery of having Siegel as formal boss over it because of his closeness to Lanksy and his general instability. So Siegel was dropped. But some of the gunmen who became known as "Murder Inc" hitters were Bug and Meyer alumni. It was Lanksy's gunmen who murdered Maranzano.
There were differences between Jewish OC and the Italian versions, the most relevant here being that post WW2 we just don't see new young Jewish influx into OC. So Lansky's group gradually shrunk and/or went legit.
True. Lansky, Siegel, Dalitz, Zwillman, Landsburgh, etc., went on to build Vegas. Money washed away their sins, except Lansky's. The government continued to have an, uh, "erection" for him.
Indeed they did....
Originally Posted By: Turnbull
Originally Posted By: Lilo
As Jack Dragna said "Meyer's got a Jewish family built along the same lines as our thing. But his family's all over the country. He's got guys like Lou Rhody and Dalitz, Doc Stacher, Gus Greenbaum,, sharp ******** guys, good businessmen, and they know better than to try to ******** with us."
Depends how you define "family." They were his partner in various enterprises (like Vegas hotels, Bahamas casinos, racetracks, etc.). But they weren't part of a permanent mob that took orders from Lansky, though they may have deferred to him as a senior partner in their mutual enterprises.
I don't want to parse definitions too much. Certainly Lansky's group was organized and operated differently than most Italian dominated criminal enterprises. But I think the evidence showed that Lanksy gave orders to his people, expected them to be followed and had an organization , albeit smaller and older by the fifties and sixties, that was seen as a separate group by other traditional Mafia families.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
