I read the Double Deal book and have done my own research on Hy Larner. Larner was born around 1911 or 1912. Until the late 1950s, most of his endeavors centered around pinball machines, gambling, horse racing, etc.

When he was subpoenaed in 1959, he was identified as the owner of an amusement company (makes slot machines, pinball games, etc). At that point, he was already "semi retired" living in Miami.

To me (my opinion), there is no question he was big time, but there is a question as to his rank in the Outfit. The Outfit obviously shared in a lot of his wealth, but it appeared he had a lot going on his own as well.

At least according to Corbitt, Larner was in charge of all of the Outfit casinos in South America, Europe and the Middle East. Plus, he had a huge share of Las Vegas. He was identified as being a close friend of President Johnson, Manuel Noriega and the Shah of Iran. He also was identified as being a narco trafficker and arms dealer. The story where LBJ sprung Giancana from the can in exchange for support for Israel during the 1967 war with the Arabs is true. Obviously then, Larner had major pull.

I do believe that Corbitt was somewhat on the money, but again, was this all Outfit related? Probably not. The casinos were likely run (at least partially) by Larner, but the rest of the enterprises were probably his own endeavors, only marginally tied to the Outfit.

Corbitt identifies Larner's son Bruce as an airline pilot who assisted them in trucking back $1 million in cash from Vegas in 1985 to pay Outfit legal bills. Bruce Larner was a former pilot for years. He is now a Mormon missionary and close to 70 years old.

Corbitt reports that Larner was looked at by the feds in the mid 1990s, but the investigation was quashed. There is no reason that I can think of as to why Corbitt would trump up Larner so much. Larner passed away in Miami in 2002, around the age of 90 or so.

The question really is, was Hy Larner a high ranking member of the Outfit, or merely a soldier associate that also ran his own huge enterprise?