http://www.socialmatter.net/2018/03...61-syndicate-american-underworld-part-2/

Who really ran organized crime.....a great podcast, pull up a seat and enjoy.


Welcome to the Myth of the 20th Century. The podcast airs on Fridays.

— Brought to you by —
Hank Oslo, Adam Smith, Hans Lander, Alex Nicholson, Nick Mason and special guest Alex Walker

Notes:
After living through the hard times of the Great Depression and WWII, America in the 1950s was poised for the era of mass consumption, enjoying unprecedented access to inexpensive air travel and leisure opportunities. Chief among these new destinations was Las Vegas, with visits rising from in the tens of thousands per year in the 1930s to over 40 million by 2015. But obscured by the glitz of the Vegas Strip and the glamour of the show girls lay a new hub for an international criminal enterprise whose reach extended into drug trafficking, money laundering and extortion with extensive ties to the US government itself. Despite efforts to break up organized crime by ambitious US senators and prosecutors, the corruption of the Syndicate had penetrated so deeply into the institutional power of the United States that criminality for those at the top became more and more intertwined with those on whom they sought to pin the blame.

Timeline:

1931 – Gambling is effectively made legal in the state of Nevada
1933 – Prohibition ends with the repeal of the Volstead Act, ending many of the lucrative revenue sources for the growing crime syndicate.
1938 – Meyer Lansky travels to Havana, Cuba to formalize a relationship with the island’s military dictator, Batista. The gambling businesses of Cuba quickly fall under the control of the crime syndicate.
Late 1930’s – Lanksy attempts to orchestrate the prison-break of Lucky Lucian to preserve the national unity of Jewish and Italian mafia factions.
1942 – Operation Underworld begins as USG agents and military officials begin working alongside Jewish/Italian mafia bosses to secure American ports against Axis saboteurs.
1946 – 1947 — James Reagan and Bugsy Siegel, two prominent American gangsters, are assassinated, kicking off internal syndicate battles that are only resolved through refocused business activities in Las Vegas.
1947 – Flamingo casino opens in Las Vegas, marking a new era of syndicate-driven casinos in America.
1950 – Kefavuer Hearings begin preliminary hearings and research, with Senator Kefavuer launching a national investigation into the crime syndicate’s domestic activities across 14 states. The testimonies of over 600 are undertaken, including several major mobsters from the era.
1957 – Johnny Roselli, a Hollywood based member of the Chicago Outfit, moves to Las Vegas and begins hustling in the casino business.
1960 – Operation Mongoose, a Eisenhower-era CIA program, begins operations. Not long thereafter, Johny Roselli is approached by Robert Maheu (working for billionaire Howard Hughes and the CIA) to introduce Maheau to members of the Syndicate. Angry over the loss of their business in Cuba, Syndicate power-players such as Giancanna, Dalitz, Larner, Traficante, and Lansky.

References:

– Mobs and the Mafia, Goldblatt and Messick (1973)
– The Permindex, Hoyos (1981) – http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/publ...9810414_032-the_permindex_connection.pdf
– Mob on the Run – Las Vegas, KLAS-TV (1987)
– Dope, Inc., Executive Intelligence Review (1992)
– Final Judgment: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy, Piper (1994) – https://www.amazon.com/Final-Judgment-Missing-Assassination-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B0722R7K46
– The Dark Side of Camelot, Hersh (1998)
– The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, Denton and Morris (2002)
– JFK and the Unspeakable, Douglass (2008)
– The CIA as Organized Crime, Valentine (2016)
– The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton, Morley (2017)
– The Kefauver Hearings – http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/kefauver-hearings-1950-1951/

"1946 – 1947 — James Reagan and Bugsy Siegel, two prominent American gangsters, are assassinated, kicking off internal syndicate battles that are only resolved through refocused business activities in Las Vegas."


Who was James Reagan? I did a search on the name and didn't find anything.

"In 1927, ownership of the General News Bureau was split into 100 shares. Newspaper magnate, Moses Annenberg purchased 48 shares, current partner Jack Lynch bought 40 shares, and the remainder ended up in the hands of Mont Tennes’ three nephews; Edward, Lionel and Mont. Later Annenberg took control of the business and installed James M. Ragen as his general manager. Afterwards, the Bureau was reorganized and rechristened as the Continental Press Service, and eventually passed into the control of Moe's son Walter Annenberg. This wire service was very important for the bookmakers to do their business because each bookie had to have fast, up to the minute information on the horse races running across the country. Ragen was a tough, two fisted, Chicago born Irishman, who had punched, stabbed, and shot his way to the top of the heap. So during the 1940’s the number one racing service out west was Ragen's Continental Press, which serviced thousands of bookies between Chicago and Los Angeles. The Chicago Outfit, know under Accardo, watched the money flood into Regan's office with envy. So the mob bosses decided to set up a rival service called the Trans-American Wire Service, so each mob boss across the country ran their local outlets, doing whatever they had to do to take Ragen out of business. Ragen was a very stubborn person and he didn’t back off. He knew how the mob dealt with their problems so he tried to make a deal through U.S. Attorney Tom Clark to provide information to the FBI on the bookmaking industry in return for protection, but the shady director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover turned down the offer. Ragen also told columnist Drew Pearson about threats on his life made by Tony Accardo, Murray Humphries and the king of Chicago’s Jewish underground Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik. He said that they warned him either to turn over his racing wire service or get hit in the head.

Police Commissioner John Prendergast has assigned Thomas Conelly and William Drury to find the top guys like Accardo, Humphries and Guzik. Accardo and Humphries skipped town but they managed to find Jake Guzik and took him to Scotland Yard and started questioning him about the threats made on Ragen. The cops asked Guzik to take the lie detector and he replied “Captain, what’s the use of kidding ourselves?! If I took a lie test, 30 of the biggest men in Chicago would be diving out of high story windows and I’d have to hit myself in the head”. Minutes later he faked a heart attack and one of the cops handed him a glass of water and cracked a joke about putting some truth serum in it. Guzik recovered quickly and refused the glass of water. Few hours later an order came from the top for Guzik to be released. While leaving, Guzik said to one the cops that questioned him “Im going to get you fired”. Conelly and Drury went to the state attorney’s office to ask why they released Guzik. The state attorney told Conelly “You better watch your step captain, because if I fire you, you’ll never get back.”


So now the Outfit saw their chance and decided to take care of the problem in their own way. The mob called on Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras and William Block to take care of the Ragen problem. They prepared for the hit by providing a delivery truck fitted with quarter inch steel plates to make it bulletproof. On June 24, 1946 the trio got into the truck and followed Ragen from his home while driving along State Street. At the corner of 39th and State Street Ragen stopped and waited for the green light. He was in his car alone but was followed by two armed bodyguards in a separate automobile. Lenny Patrick was driving the truck and pulled to the right side of Ragen’s auto. As Ragen waited for the light to change, the tarpaulin on the left side of the delivery truck was pulled up and William Block and Dave Yaras pulled off their shotguns and aimed at Ragen’s vehicle. Two blasts were fired and one tore through Ragen’s upper right arm and shoulder. The two bodyguards jumped from their automobile to return fire but the truck sped away in a matter of seconds. Ragen was still alive and was rushed to the nearest hospital. Ragen was in critical condition and remained alive until August 14, when he died under mysterious conditions. It was later reported that Ragen’s autopsy showed traces of mercury in his blood and abdomen indicating that someone had entered his room and poisoned him. Two weeks later, two unknown figures with diamond rings and gold teeth, tried to snatch Ragen’s body from the cemetery vault. They told the lady who worked there that they are seeking the key from the vault and also offered her money. She refused and told them to come back later so her husband can give them the key from the vault. The two unknown persons disappeared and the lady became suspicious and notified the police. The apparent attempt to steal Ragen’s body was made to thwart the poison investigation because the chemists began tests to determine whether there was enough mercury in Ragen’s vital organs to cause death. Either way the Outfit won the war.


But Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras and William Block were still in trouble. During the assassination attempt, four witnesses saw their faces and identified them to the police. So on March 12, 1947 Chicago police captains Thomas Conelly and William Drury first arrested Block because he was identified by two African-American witnesses, James White and Lucius Davidson, as the man who fired the shots. The witnesses also told the cops that they saw two other men in the truck which was parked at State st. and Pershing rd. From pictures they identified Block’s two companions as David Yaras and Lenny Patrick. Another witness, a church deacon, pointed out Block in a line of nine men in the police office. The deacon said that he was within five feet from the delivery truck when he saw Block handling a shotgun. The last witness, a newsboy who also was within few feet from the shooting, identified the three men, especially Block. The cops also received a tip from a merchant about another eye witness who didn’t come forward. The cops found him and he also identified the three suspects. In a short period the cops also arrested Patrick and Yaras and took them in custody.


The weird thing was that instead placing the witnesses in protective custody, the cops sent them home. The first thing that went wrong was when Jake Guzik’s lawyers approached one of the witnesses and persuaded him to accompany them into a hotel room. Story goes that at the same time in the room there was the other witness and one prostitute. The two witnesses whom Guzik’s lawyers visited changed their minds and recanted their stories. However the third witness, the newsboy, persisted in his identification. By now Patrick, Yaras and Block were out on bail and fled the city but suddenly appeared in court after they had learned that the case was collapsing. The case was stopped and there was no trial. It was never explained why the case was not tried even with one witness still available.


Now the wheels of mob justice began turning when one of the witnesses, reported that policemen Conelly and Drury threatened him to make original identification with exposure of violating probation and a $25,000 reward for conviction of Ragen’s slayers. Drury and Conelly were indicted and were called by the grand jury for conspiracy. They refused to appear before the grand jury so Commissioner John Prendergast suspended them. Later again an indictment was returned against Conelly, Drury and the three witnesses charging them with conspiracy and false indictment against Patrick, Yaras and Block. Conelly and Drury immediately pressed for trial but there was a delay. On June 14, 1947 one of the witnesses James White was shot three times in the head by another African-American and died in Bridewell Hospital. After the murder the other witnesses were approached by unknown men and were told to get on the gravy train and to forget that they ever saw these fellows. So that’s what they did and the case was quashed again by Chief Justice Harold G. Ward."