Hey guys I just got done reading Pileggi's book Casino, and toward the end it say that Milton Maishe Rockman was the acting boss of Cleveland when they prosecuted the Argent case. Is this true or was it a typo? Rockman doesn't seem like an Italian name to me. Was he even made?

Milton "Maishe" Rockman was the Meyer Lansky of Cleveland. He was also married to Boss John Scalish's sister and Scalish was married to Rockman's sister. He was a top advisor to John Scalish, but was never made because he was Jewish. He was very close to Bill Presser from Cleveland, one of the most powerful members of the Teamsters Union and a conduit to the Central States Pension Fund. Maishe was as close as one could get to being made, he was also brother in laws with Underboss Angelo Lonardo, as Lonardo was married to Scalish's other sister.

Rockman was with Scalish on his deathbed and after Scalish died, Rockman said it was his dying wish to have James "Jack White" Licavoli as his successor, which everybody in Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh & Youngstown knew this was a lie and that Lonardo should have succeeded his brother in law as boss. The reason why Rockman did this is because he and Angelo did not get along, as Lonardo was old school and never allowed Rockman in on "family business" with other LCN families. This always was a source of tension for the two, as Lonardo would have him walk away from the table when sensitive conversations were to take place with other representatives from families like Chicago, Milwaukee & KC. Rockman knew that James Licavoli would listen to him and that he would be easier to control than Lonardo.

Thanks JCB. So he basically took the fall for the skimming case?

He served his time, had an enormous welcome home party in Little Italy at Nido's and died a few years after his release. He was one of the most powerful & influential Jewish racketeers in mob history. Check out a website called cleveland mob.com

Check out this site:

http://clevelandmob.com/

It's all subjective, JCB. But I think Moe Dalitz would fit that desecription as well .

I guess Pillegi dropped the ball on that. Page 390 clearly says "the Cleveland Acting boss Milton Maishe Rockman" lol. It's okay, even the great ones make mistakes!

Don't get me wrong, he took care of a lot for Scalish, Scslish and him were very tight, so it wouldn't surprise me if he called a few shots, but Licavoli was nominated for boss the minute Scalish stopped breathing...And some of the old timers like Lonardo & crew wouldn't have been with that program if you catch my drift. However, he was the family's key to the Teamster Pension fund because of Rockman's close, personal relationship to Bill Presser and his son Jackie Presser. He was close to Gus Alex and Allan Dorfman in Chicago, close to Meyer Lansky and Morris Kleinman as well as Dalitz. He made a lot of money for the family, a top earner.

JCB , hello again . Great read and analysis . There are a few more tidbits to this also .To tie some things together ; jackie presser was very close to harold friedman507 & 19 teamster pres . Who aso had control of pension funds .If you look at all their BAs they were all either assoc . or made men in cleve lcn .These ties led to jewish guys in other places which was & $$$$ for cleve lcn = chuck zucker & sobol - textiles & clothing bus (w/ ny) zuckers son dale & stuart garson took over milanos law firm & would be @iab club every tues nite sittin w/ the cleve lcn . Also sobol was tied in to horses , also led to more $$ . They were also tied in w/ embrecia & vending business which was more $$ . All of these ties w/ jewish people came from maishe. They led to chicago and ny furthering relationships w/ the other families . Also he made intro in calif . of digravio to outfit to collect a debt for them . Things went awry ( he did collect debt & returned back unknowing he too was duped ) they put the hit on him in cleve . & upon finding out they were wrong , always had a tie to cleve & felt indebted to them for mistake . I will give you more after

All of that very true, but his main contact with the Teamsters was Bill Presser. Cleveland's unions had quite a bit of mob associates and members as high ranking officers, very corrupt at one time.

Here is an article from the NY Times regarding Lonardo's testimony against Maishe Rockman as well as a few other articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/05/nyregion/informer-asserts-mob-controlled-teamsters-boss.html

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-14/news/mn-5397_1_grand-jury

http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/birns_greene/20.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=EnXopM0EYq4C&pg=PA195&lpg=PA195&dq=Milton+%22Maishe%22+Rockman&source=bl&ots=s6Wsy5iZWQ&sig=06lV0rfrtdnyeEIhZGMsQdI0vhQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VBP1UvraGaPhygGz7oHoDQ&ved=0CG0Q6AEwDg#v=onepage&q=Milton%20%22Maishe%22%20Rockman&f=false

Nice Reads JCB.

So the Cleveland family was acting on orders from the Genovese's as accodring to the first article?

Yes, Cleveland answered to Fat Tony and the Genovese Family, who represented them on the commission.