The Jewish Mobsters

i decided to make this thread to discuss, anythin that has to do with jewish mobsters, past and present. yea thats right,for those that dont know,jewish mobsters are still around, most russian mobsters are jewish, and israeli mobsters. i want to try to bring some balance, to this predominatly italian mob forum haha. some of you may have noticed that i have added some new threads, related some how to these guys. please feel free to discuss past and present figures and incidents of the jewish mob in this thread.

Who is the most powerful jewish gangster in the usa? int the world?

Jewish mobsters predominated the booze rackets in most cities during Prohibition. They caught a break from Al Capone, who was such a publicity hound that most Americans believed (and still believe) that Italians predominated the booze trades. Jewish gangsters also built Las Vegas--though Bugsy Siegel gets most of the credit, the real builders were Moe Dalitz and Meyer Lansky.

As for the Russian and Israeli "Mafia": It's not clear how many of them were or are Jewish, for an interesting reason:

All citizens of the former Soviet Union were required to carry internal passports that, among other things, identified their republic of national origin (i.e., Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, etc.). But Jews had to carry passports stamped with "Jew." It was a reflection of Stalin's anti-Semitism--he called Jews "rootless cosmopolitans"--that carried forward into the Seventies.

The US Congress passed the Jackson-Vanik Act in 1974, which gave the USSR favorable trading status with the US in return for allowing Soviet Jews to immigrate to Israel or the US. All of a sudden, a tremendous black market emerged for counterfeit Jewish internal passports. Since gangsters dominated the counterfeiting rackets, they gave themselves phony Jewish passports. So, a great many non-Jewish gangsters palmed themselves off as Jews to get to Israel and America and establish new rackets.

The example I like most is of Marat Balagula, who was identified as the number-one "Jewish Russian Mafioso" in America by law enforcement. "Marat" is not a traditional Jewish surname. "Balagula" comes from the Hebrew b'aal agula, "master of the wheel," meaning a carter--a respectable trade in Biblical times. But in modern Yiddish slang, a "balagula" is an uncouth person--a thug or gangster. Whatever his real name, Marat fashioned a phony passport for himself and gave himself a last name that (like a secret password) proudly proclaimed him as a gangster.

This is interesting, that b'aal agula means master of the wheel and has come to mean a thug. I think that yakuza originally meant a bad roll of the dice and of course now means gangster. And big wheel doesn't necessarily have the sinister implication but it can denote a big time criminal. It would be fascinating to really look at the etymology of those words and see if there's some deeper archetype that they represent in human thought.

Dapper Don, i dont know who the most powerful jewish mobster is today... but in my opinion Meyer Lanksy was the most powerful jewish mobster of the 20th century.... Turnbull,thats very interestin and insightful info man. i agree, modern day Las Vegas in reality was developed mostly by Lanksy and Dalitz... i also thik that if Siegel hadnt been whacked out, he wouldve became what Dalitz later became to Las Vegas. the Flamingo idea and project was really William Wilkerson's, before Siegel muscled in and took it from him..... most sources like to credit Siegel for "invisionin" modern day Las Vegas, but thats actually b.s..... i guess it makes his legend look better by givin him credit for that. its also like his death, which was never solved but was speculated that it was Frankie Carbo, Chick Hill, etc that whacked him out...but in the book "Family Secret" it says that:

"On June 20, 1947 one of the most notorious gangsters of the twentieth century, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, was murdered in the Beverly Hills mansion of his mistress, Miss Virginia Hill. While there have been numerous theories in regard to who actually killed "the father of Las Vegas," the fact remains, the Siegel murder case is still officially unsolved...until now.
In 1941, when Bob MacDonald married Betty Ann Rockwell, it appeared as though their relationship was the start of a very majestic affair. The teens were from the upper class of Southern California society, exceptionally good looking, and by all accounts it seemed to be foreordained that they would live a full and happy life. MacDonald’s father, Archibald, was the right-hand man to America’s wealthiest man, Howard Hughes, Jr., while Betty Ann’s mother, Gaynell Rockwell-Applegate, was a woman of "new money." At a glance, it seemed as if the couple should have lived a life with a storybook ending. Sadly, in 1947, the life of splendor expected for the couple turned into a family nightmare with horrendous consequences.

On September 13, 1947, without apparent reason or motive, Bob MacDonald, age 27, took a .30 caliber, army type, carbine rifle and shot his wife, Betty Ann, age 24, two times--once in the back and once in the head. After killing his wife, MacDonald then turned the weapon on himself and committed suicide. The high society community the couple was a part of was mortified by the event. People wanted to know what could have possessed Bob MacDonald to do such a thing. How could this man, the son of a millionaire, a war hero, the winner of three purple Hearts, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star, and the father of two children, commit such a gruesome act? What could have possibly driven him to the type of madness where he would kill his wife and then take his own life?

In the hours following this terrible event, the couple’s parents, using their financial capital, powerful political ties, social contacts and business experience, formed a consortium of secrecy to ensure the public would never find the answer to the question of why Bob MacDonald did what he did. The families agreed to keep MacDonald’s motives for killing his wife and then himself a... Family Secret.

The shroud of secrecy, which had been in place over the intimate elements of this amazing story for over half a century, was lifted in 1996, when one of the "family insiders" made a dramatic deathbed confession to Family Secret Author, Warren R. Hull. Honoring his father’s request to tell the world the secret behind the Siegel killing, Hull provides an incredible explanation as to who murdered Benjamin Siegel, and more importantly, how and why the murder was never solved by the police!"

it could be possible, but i guess we will never know for sure.....

Lansky may have been the most influential Jewish gangster of the 20th Century, but he wasn't the richest or most powerful. Lansky was reputed to be "worth $300 million," and that stuck with him forever. But he was one of the few gangsters who had a competent biographer. Robert Lacey, in his superb "Little Man-Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life," tracked down the $300 million figure to author Hank Messick, who said he heard it secondhand and used it because it was a sensational figure. In reality, says Lacey, Lansky at his peak was worth no more than $5-6 million--not chickenfeed, but hardly the stuff of $300 million. Lacey says Lansky lived to 81 and died peacefully because he never had either the power or the money to attract jealousy, resentment or greed of other mobsters, which invariably leads to murder. "He was the accountant, not the boss."

The wealthiest and most powerful Jewish gangster of the 20th Century (in terms of the reach of his criminal interests) was Louis Lepke Buchalter, followed by Abner (Longie) Zwillman and Dalitz.

Unless I missed something or you left something out in the quote you provided, I don't see a connection between the McDonald murder/suicide and Siegel's assassination.

when i said Lansky i ment in terms of brains and ideas, since he got alot of stuff movin. Buchalter was indeed powerful, but he wasnt smart enough to not get caught, and i know he turned himself in, but in my opinion Lansky had more brains than he did.

and youre right about the quote, what the hell was i thinkin, i accientlly left a bunch of stuff out. i cant find the exact quote right now, but in a nut shell the book says that MacDonald had run up a gamblin debt with Jack Dragna, and had owed him the dough for awhile. Dragna had told MacDonald, that if he carried out a hit for him, he would erase the debt. the hit ended up bein the Siegel hit. im goin to keep lookin for the exact quote so that you could read it for yourself.

here are the articles:

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE BY JAMES BACON APPEARED IN THE MARCH 30TH 2005 EDITION OF
BEVERLY HILLS 213 MAGAZINE



In June 20, 1947, mobster Bugsy Siegel was whacked as he sat on a couch in his mistress Virginia Hill’s home at 810 N. Linden in Beverly Hills. Although the murder is listed officially as unsolved in the police files, most believe it was the work of Lucky Luciano and the New York Mob, who figured Bugsy was skimming money when the cost of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas skyrocketed to six million from Bugsy’s original estimate of one million. The Mob, with the approval of Meyer Lansky (Bugsy’s friend from childhood), was financing the construction of the Las Vegas Strip’s first luxury hotel.


Now, a new book called Family Secret, by Warren Robert Hull with Michael B. Druxman, states flatly that Hull’s father unknowingly gave the murder weapon to a hero of World War II: Bob MacDonald, who had three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and a Bronze Star. MacDonald, according to the book, owed $25,000 in gambling losses to Jack Dragna, who was the top Los Angeles mobster. Dragna, the book relates, gave MacDonald the option of doing a hit for him to erase the debt or else get a bullet himself for welching.



MacDonald and two of Dragna’s henchmen waited in the bushes until Bugsy and his friends returned from dinner at Jack’s Café in Ocean Park. Bugsy had also invited two other friends to dinner—Mickey Cohen and actor George Raft, but they declined. Alan Smiley, another friend, went to dinner with Bugsy and later sat beside him on the couch, according to the book.



The book then describes how MacDonald fired nine shots from a 30-caliber carbine U.S. Army rifle with such precision that Bugsy got hit four times, twice in the head and twice in the chest. Smiley was sitting closest to the window through which the shots were fired, but only the sleeve of the jacket he was wearing was nicked.



MacDonald’s war record qualified him as a sharpshooter. He did not know the identity of his victim until he read about Bugsy’s murder in the next morning’s newspapers, the book states. Captain W.W. White of the Beverly Hills Police Department was quoted that Siegel was killed at approximately 10:50 p.m. and that the killed had left nine spent 30-caliber U.S. Army carbine shells and several cigarette butts at the crime scene.



MacDonald had a history of alcohol abuse, gambling, wife-beating, and drug abuse. Some friends attributed his behavior to battle fatigue from his combat experience in the war. He also was unemployed. His father, Archie MacDonald, was a right-hand man to Howard Hughes. A millionaire, the father had paid off his son’s gambling debts in the past. The book doesn’t say why young MacDonald didn’t go to his father again after Dragna’s threat.



(The senior MacDonald was with Hughes before my time. I didn’t know him.)



The author’s father also was in the European theater during the war and came home with a number of weapons. MacDonald, a gun collector, offered to buy the weapons from the elder Hull, but he gave them freely, including a 30-caliber carbine rifle. Little did Hull know that the carbine would be used for murder.



On Sept. 3, 1947, three months after the Siegel killing, MacDonald killed his wife Betty Ann after a domestic dispute at which she threatened to divorce him. He then put the 30-caliber carbine in his mouth and killed himself in front of their six-year-old son. MacDonald had been under psychiatric care since the Siegel shooting. As part of the therapy, he had been advised to confess his role in the Siegel slaying. He had told his wife and the author’s parents. The elder Hull thought it was a bad joke and didn’t take him seriously. Hence, the “family secret,” which the father revealed to the author shortly before the former’s death.



Among the mourners at the Catholic funeral service for Betty Ann MacDonald, age 24, were the movie star Dan Dailey, some members of the Dragna crime family, and Howard Hughes, a good friend of the dead mother of two. Howard placed a dozen yellow roses on her gravesite and knelt in prayer for a moment after the services.



When the construction of the Flamingo hotel was costing the New York Mob six times what Bugsy had initially said it would cost, Meyer Lansky made a special trip west to tell Bugsy that he should start repaying his debt to Lucky Luciano and the rest.



The book quotes Dragna: “Despite Lansky’s pleas, Siegel refused to start paying back on any of the initial six-million dollars that the big hitters from back east had put up for the casino.” The book reveals that when word of this got back to Luciano, he looked straight at Lansky and said in Italian “Farlo fuori,” which means “Kill him.” The book then says that Lansky relayed that command to Dragna




THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN
THE DAILY TITAN - CAL STATE FULLERTON


Former CSUF student solves murder in Family Secret

Author Warren Hull takes readers down the road to find "Bugsy's" killer

By: Nadine Hernandez

Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: News

Former Cal State Fullerton student and "Family Secret" author Warren Hull says he has a real-life family secret of his own; but what makes his family’s history better than most is that his secret involves the highly publicized 1947 murder of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.


According to Hull, he has always known his family was somehow involved with Siegel’s gambling-related murder, but had never given it much thought, especially since the relative who had reportedly been involved in the crime died the same year Siegel was murdered.

It wasn’t until he did a little digging that he found out just how his family was involved.

"The book is based upon the story behind Siegel’s murder and the people involved leading up to that point," Hull said.


According to Hull, his great-aunt worked for Franklin Shaw, a former Los Angeles mayor who had ties to Jack Dragna, an organized crime leader in the 1920s through the 1950s.


"She then became a part of LA’s high society by marrying a wealthy man, eventually having a daughter, Betty Ann, who then married Bob Macdonald, whose father had ties to Howard Hughes," Hull said.


Hull said that Macdonald had to straighten out a gambling debt by murdering Siegel for Dragna. He allegedly shot his own wife, Betty Ann, and then himself after realizing he had just killed Siegel.


"Betty Ann’s parents tried to cover up the crime to protect their status in society," Hull said.

Hull’s research took him seven years, which resulted in a journey of discovering family secrets, rather than one of uncovering the Siegel murder.


Hull, who said his dying father requested that he write the story, has received considerable feedback regarding his book.

Despite the success of his novel, Hull said he was not always interested in writing a book.

Hull, who was an exercise physiology major at CSUF when he started a number of years ago, said he later went on to have a great career in education.


Though Hull said he had no dream of writing a book while he attended CSUF, he had a fine group of professors who encouraged him with his studies.


Hull is now the athletic director at Kennewick High School in Washington.


Hull said he has taught at the college level and that he would like to return to teaching in order to encourage students to write for a living, if not for the sake of writing for success.


He said he encourages students to write, "for your children," in order to leave a legacy.

When it came to publishing the book, Hull said it was not so difficult, and he claimed he was indifferent to the book’s success.


"If we make a few dollars, great... if not, that’s okay, too," he said.


The description of the book may imply that the case behind the Siegel murder is closed, but Michael Druxman, a screenwriter and director, sat down with Hull and believed his story. According to a Family Secret newsletter, he ultimately teamed up with Hull to explain why, "Siegel’s assassin was never revealed."


Hull encourages everyone to write a book. "If I can do it, anyone can," he said



this is the link to the website, where i got all that.

http://whokilledbugsy.org/WHAT_PEOPLE_ARE_SAYING.html

Interesting. Ive heard countless theories on this classic hit.
This is a good one, but.
Personally though, i put creedence in Jimmy the Weasel fingering Frankie Carbo on orders from Lanksy.
It has that "ring of truth"

Pretty smart way to sell a book though, eh?

Would i be wrong to assume the most powerful Jewish crime bosses are those in Israel?
Big Fish/Small Pond as opposed to the viceversa Jewish gangsters operating in the US or elsewhere? I could be wrong, but it seems likely.

I know the Abergil Crime Family is powerful but has faced some kinda recent arrest's,
they supposedly have many bitter rivals who would very likely be on top now in lieu (of the arrest's)?
Hm. Im going to look into this.

Cool thread.

Wait a minute, isnt Semion Mogelevich a Jew? If so, then that guy. Most powerful that is.

As I posted earlier, because of those counterfeit passports, it's hard to know for sure who is or isn't Jewish in the "Russian Mafia" either here, in Russia or in Israel.

The Macdonald story is interesting, and since no one was ever indicted for Siegel's murder, anything's possible. But I'm sceptical that, if Dragna was involved (and he might have been), he'd have chosen an assassin who wasn't inside organized crime--a "civilian." Carbo would have been a logical choice: he was the triggerman in the assassination of Harry (Big Greenie) Greenberg, a dimwit NY thug who sang to the cops and tried to hide out on the Coast. Siegel fingered Greenie for him, and Allie (Tick Tock) Tannenbaum of Murder Inc. was in on it. It'd be logical for Luciano to use Dragna to arrange the Siegel hit, and to send Carbo to him to carry it out.
As you may know, Carbo later became the top guy in the boxing rackets, which made millions for the Mob.

i remember Frantiano talkin about it, in the Crime, Inc. doc from the 80s... it could be very possible since we was with the LA family. but im not rullin out his theory or the "Family Secret" book. if the Hull book is not true, the Hull should try his writin for hollywood.




thanks for the thread compliment man. in all the sources that i have read about Mogilevich, they list him as jewish...but i guess only he knows for sure. the russians, have developed more weight in the underworld, more than the Cosa Nostra. i remember how mobsters like Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg, had a connection to the Colombian cartels... those of you aware of the cartels ruthlessness, and manpower know that the cartels make the itlian mob, look like a bunch of novices...





yea Carbo, Tannenbaum and Siegel were responsible for the hit on Greenberg or "Schachter" as hes listed in the fbi files.... theres sources where i read that Siegel's brother in law Whitey Krakower was also there. i dont if you guys know but, the Greenberg hit, was the first ever gangland slayin in southern california.... ive always said that the NY mob is responsible for what Los Angeles, and the west coast later became in terms of gangland slayins. everyhtin leades back to New York. example, Capone and Torrio were from NYC and then later became the bosses of Chicago. Siegel was from NYC, and later became the biggest mobster in Los Angeles, and the weast coast boss... sources say that he sent out to LA but, i believe he went out there to be his own man.... he was still tied to the NYC mob but he was his own boss on the west coast. another thing Los Angeles is the gang capital of the country... but before the crips, bloos, sureños, norteños, la eme, aryan brothehood etc..... modern american street gangs originated in NYC, ie Bugs and Meyer Mob, Bowery Boys, 40 Thieves, Five Points, etc. most mobsters started out in gangs, and later evolved from gangs to mobs.... long story borin, NYC is the originator and source for what became modern gangs and organized crime all through out the USA. yea Carbo later became intwined with boxin in his later life.

lets make it more interestin..... i dont know if you guys believe in spirits or ghosts or an afterlife. but i believe that certain spirits of peopel can linger, if they had a violent death. heres somethin interestin to the Siegel bump....i read that in the home where Siegel was killed, for years people have claimed to see a man erraticlly appear and runs across the room to dive and then disappears... some people believe its Siegel... i personally dont believe its Siegel, but inseatd i believe its a residual hauntin of Allen Smiley runnin for cover. Smiley was sittin next to Siegel, when the hit went down, and was only hit in his blazer... Siegel was hit instantly in the head, so i dont think it was him tryin to duck for cover.... i also dont believe that his spirit is in denial, and was shot so quick that it jerked his spirit out, without him knowin that he had gotten shot through his head..... theres been talk of people seein Siegel around the Flamingo, and his suite, i find that one more believable... what do you guys think of this hauntin, or mob hauntins in general?

1971 Meyer Lanksy, Israeli interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UNJTPtmZhI


an interview with, Millicent Rosen, one of Siegel's daughters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbskgtfGF5g

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the discussion on Family Secret... I am the author of the book. I am new to the forum but am looking forward to coming in from time to time to see what the buzz is in the world of organized crime. Great site.

About Family Secret... The story is true. Since the book came out in 2004 I have discovered a great many more things. Family members have come out of the woodwork and have helped clear up the fuzzy lines that still remained after I had written the book. I am currently working with the Beverly Hills Police Department in an effort to take off the label "Unsolved Murder"

Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. I look forward to being an active member of the site.

Like the Italians, you have to differentiate between the Russians here in the U.S. and those who operate in Russia and internationally. There has been a lot of hype about the Russian mob here in the U.S. over the last 20 years. Even today, there are far more cases involving the LCN than there are Russian OC. Most Russians here in the U.S. are your typical diaspora gangsters. And a lot of Eastern European groups get labeled as "Russian Mafia." The major Moscow-based syndicates who operate internationally tend to avoid the U.S. because of a healthy respect for our law enforcement. Obviously the international Russian groups are going to dwarf LCN families here in the U.S., which are basically a domestic operation. A better comparison would be the Italian groups based in Italy who also operate internationally, i.e. 'Ndranghata, Camorra, Cosa Nostra, SCU.



He had a connection to the Russian military, through which he tried to sell the Colombians a submarine to smuggle drugs. Problem was, it was pretty old and couldn't submerge any longer. So the Colombians walked away from the deal.



Again, a better comparison to the cartels would be the syndicates in Italy.

Lepke Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro need to be mentioned and Longy Zwillman.

Augie Orgen was probably the first major labor racketeer though he rarely gets credit for such.

Waxey Gordon certainly deserves a tip of the hat.

Bugsy Siegel did nothing but follow Tony Cornero to Las Vegas to come up with his big idea he just got better press.

Dalitz was the true master of Vegas overall.

Prime Jewish Gangster of course is Lansky but he can't be mentioned without mentioning Arnold Rothstein.

Arnold Rothstein was THE root of all evil...

The Abergil family and Zeev Rosenstein of Israel were international players until the top people in both organizations were locked up. Oded Tuito was a powerful drug dealer who mainly dealt with ecstasy, I do not know which group he belongs to.

There is a rumor that the Shirazis from Israel are moving into the old Abergil and Rosenstein footholds in America.

Arnold Rothstein was perhaps the most powerful Jewish mobster with Meyer Lansky right behind him in history. I think Rothstein did indeed fix the 1919 world series.

In more recent times...

Meyer Lansky
Hy Larner
Burton Kaplan
Lewis Kaplan
Moishe Rockman

I know mostly about the Chicago Outfit:

Michael Posner
Irving Kahn
Morton Gellar
Herbie Blitzstein
Larry Neumann
Joel Glickman
Leonard Patrick
David Yaras
Lenny Yaras


In L.A.:

Robert Zeichick

It's about time Milton Rockman was mentioned, good deal.

Maishe Rockman was one of the highest ranking Jewish mobsters in history...Period. He owned the Presser family and held a ton of sway with Chicago. Long time rackets guy, he was the brother in law and confidant of longtime boss John Scalish and also brother in laws with Angelo Lonardo.

You want to read about a great Jewish Gangster look up the original "Kid Twist".

Maxwell "Kid Twist" Zwerbach.

Came up through the Monk Eastman gang, one of "Big Four" New York gangs before prohibition.

*Also I haven't seen anyone mention Lenny Patrick out of Chicago.

Ronald Raiton out of Philly.

Ran a large P2P importing racket that made Philly the Meth capital of the world. Imported 500 million's worth over 4 years supposedly. Dealt with the Scarfo family.

Then worked as an informant and managed to snare the elder Martorano and Berkery. Both of them did time. He didn't and got to keep a couple million.

A shrewd motherfucker.

http://articles.philly.com/1988-05-24/news/26264195_1_fbi-informant-fbi-agents-federal-agent

Monk Eastman was not Jewish. Maishe Rockman has to have the most interesting histories of Jewish mobsters. Lenny Patrick was a powerhouse bookmaker from the 1940's till he turned in the early 90's against Gus and others of the Chicago mob. Ronald Raiton has to be one of the sneakiest gangsters of all time to get Martorano and Berkery, not do time, and be able to keep a few million dollars.

Check this out guys. All the Jewish Mobsters. At least all the real ones.


http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=702465