Meyer lansky put on an act?

A lot of people said that lansky just acted "normal" in order to trick law enforcement into thinking that he was a regular old man without that much money. Was it all an act in your opinion? Do you really think he had all that money and just dumped it all when he was under investigation and in bad health so law enforcement couldn't connect him to anything hence follow the money? Or do you think he really meet had that much money in the first place. And if so do you think any mobsters around meyer Lansky's time had money like the media was saying that he did?

I STRONGLY suggest that you read "Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life," by Robert Lacey. It's hands down the BEST book ever written about Lansky, and one of the two or three best mob biographies ever written.

You'll come away believing, like I do, as do many serious mob researchers and historians, that Lansky didn't have nearly as much money as the Feds believed that he had. Now he certainly wasn't broke, but he didn't leave much behind at all.

I just watched the documentary (Mafia's Greatest Hits) on AHC about him and they said the same thing that he was broke when he died, which i think has to be BS. It was said that he dumped a lot of money in Cuba building the Riviera and that it was short lived when Castro came into the picture....IMO the guy had to die a millionaire.....He was caught on a wiretap saying to his wife that Organized Crime was bigger then US steel....So?...

...so organized crime might have been bigger than US Steel, but Lansky wasn't. As PB said, Robert Lacey's bio, the best ever, is thoroughly researched. Lacey traced the big-money BS to Hank Messick, a tabloid author who admitted to Lacey that he heard, second-hand, that Lansky was "worth $300 million" and went with it in his book because it was an impressive number. Lacey did the research and found that Lansky was worth no more than $5-6 million at his peak--not chickenfeed, but hardly the stuff of $300 million. The reason Lansky lived to be 81 and died peacefully was that he was never rich or powerful enough to incur the jealousy of real Mob bosses, which is always fatal. "He was the accountant, not the boss," says Lacey.

I'll have to look into it. Do you guys think Lucinao was ever with that type of crazy money like they say lansky was?

And what made people say that Lansky was extremely rich? What made him make the Forbes list?

@Turnbull... I can't take what you believe to be facts or opinions away from you or anybody here on this forum. My opinion about Lansky, even tho he was jewish had the power and respect right alongside any top gangster of all time. It also is a know fact that he was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States along with Luciano and Costello.....Also what you wrote about Lansky living so long because he didn't incur the jealousy of real Mob bosses?...What about Bonanno(97)and Accardo(86)?....Don't get me wrong i'm not trying to come at you in any way negative i just want to get your insight on this debate.. Thanks

I know both Lansky's daughter and grandson, and have spoken with them on this. The estimates of his net worth were greatly overstated!

Thank you, Scott. I was hoping you'd make a guest appearance.

I'm a New Yorker, but I live in Delray part time now, and I have longtime ties to South Florida. My parents had a place in Sunny Isles years back, and a few of the neighbor people knew Teddy Lansky very, very well.

I heard that she didn't have all that much after Meyer died. And she was more than a little bitter about it (and that she wasn't very nice to begin with ) .

That's all true. He was very tight with Luciano and others (especially Costello), sat with the Commission, and advised the Commission and individual Dons. He was very influential, but that didn't necessarily make him ultra-rich, because he never had a big organization like the Dons did to kick money upstairs to him.

Bonanno lived to 97 because of his genes, and because the Commission gave him a pass after he agreed to relinquish his Donship in 1967. Accardo also had longevity built into him. He was smart enough to step back and let Giancana be the front man for the Outfit while still maintaining influence from the sidelines. Giancana was murdered; Accardo died peacefully.

Revis_Island - Since you asked about Luciano's financial situation, you might be interested to look into the payments that he received from the commission bosses when he was deported to Italy. Apparently he received a big fat package from the bosses and took a ship to Italy. He then continued to received payments from the bosses, although these slowly dwindled. You might be interested in checking this out, (I can't remember the specifics), but I think he received several hundred thousand dollars just before he was deported (if my memory is correct).

Check out "Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life." Lansky lost a lot of money in Cuba and never recovered from the loses. He was not that rich by the time he died. He was at his peak by the time of Cuba, but lost hugh when Castro took over.

Luciano was indeed getting money from the States when he was in Italy, but once Costello was no longer boss and Genovese became boss, that money stopped completely.

Good book with Luciano and Lansky is The Devil Himself

She wasnt very happy she couldnt live off someone elses money?

Tell her ass to get a job and make her own money.

They say she was a miserable person. But who the Hell knows?

Wasn't the daughter who "wrote" that new book kind of a nutjob too?

I dunno, Snakes. It wouldn't surprise me, though .

She was a lesbian no?

That's a lot of money for back then. He was probably among one of the richest people in America at one point.

New to the board...enjoy the posts. $300 million is exaggerated and did lose a ton in Cuba. With that being said, remained flush with cash. Other reports say that he was wealthy to the end and passed along his money to his brother, Jake. Pretty much washed his hand of the "commission" by mid 1960's.

Honestly, I think Carlo gambino probably made more annually than both Luciano and lansky combined. Just a hunch, but all the money the Gambino's were making is no secret. We don't know the exact numbers but it's not foolish to assume that they were making tremendous amounts of money.

Just to play devil's advocate, when we are talking about sums of money, have they been altered to suggest what the times were? I mean 100 million in the 50s would be what today? Just wanted to know if that consideration was factored in to the numbers I see.

Just to answer devil's advocate: in an earlier post I said Lansky was worth $5 - $6 million at his peak--"not chickenfeed then or now." That would have been a very big sum in the late '20's or early '30's.

But, as I also posted, Lansky never had his own organization with associates kicking money upstairs to him, the way Mafia Dons prosper. Even in Cuba, Lansky was getting a fee from Batista to clean up and run gambling. He didn't actually own a casino until he put $5 million of his and investors' money (along with $6 million from Batista) into the Havana Riviera. It opened in March 1958, and Castro nationalized it a year later. He lost it all. According to Robert Lacey, Lansky spent his last $50k on a hail-Mary operation for his disabled son, Buddy.

But didn't even ethnic Jewish gangsters kick up to him? No sense of ethnic community? Were they answering only to Italian families?

From the two books I have read about Luciano, multiple businesses were established to handle all aspects of the bootlegging/cutting of the booze (bottle/label makers, trucking companies, etc) so it's likely Luciano and Lansky made a fortune over the long run (and if I remember correctly Costello even was involved with a legitimate liquor manufacturer after Prohibition). But once the government started cracking down, all of those investments evaporated and left Lansky crew-less and with no income stream.

Can't imagine how much the big bosses on the commission were making back in the hey day of the mafia. Probably netting millions a week.

I met with her recently, she's a really nice lady- very giving of her time and recollections of her father and his friends.

Nice to hear; I may just be thinking about Teddy.

What are the titles of the other three mob biographies you mentioned in your post besides the Lansky book?

I have not read Lansky's daughter's memoir but she was (or still is???) addicted to meth, and it got pretty bad reviews on various sites. So I'm not going to read it.

It would not be surprising if Lansky did blow most of his money, as that's what most people do when they make a lot of money, either legal or illegal at once.

What are the titles of the other three mob biographies you mentioned in your post besides the Lansky book?

I have not read Lansky's daughter's memoir but she was (or still is???) addicted to meth, and it got pretty bad reviews on various sites. So I'm not going to read it.

It would not be surprising if Lansky did blow most of his money, as that's what most people do when they make a lot of money, either legal or illegal at once.

There were hardly any Jewish gangsters after the late '30s. The ones that survived prohibition did so because they didn't mess with the commission and cooperated with Luciano through what has been called the Combination.

The mafia gradually wiped them out as they became inconvenient for them and started causing problems (and remember, we're mainly talking NYC here, because that was the center of Jewish immigration).

Meyer survived because of his association with Luciano and the commission. After Cuba Lansky didn't really have anything, he couldn't make money for the commission members (who by 1957 were not his old friends and didn't owe him anything) and he had no organization of his own to fund new ventures as he was able to do in Cuba.

Correct me if I am wrong on this, but didn't Lansky have casinos in London and Beiruit as well...into the 60's and 70's?

Gyp decarlo was heard on wiretap saying Gerry catena
Had more money than god. Only lansky had more. I'm sure
He had direct knowledge of catena but not lansky