Louis (Lepke) Buchalter was born in Brooklyn NY in 1897 to Russian immigrant parents—one of 13 children. His father owned a small hardware store. One brother became a dentist, another a college professor and Rabbi, a third was a pharmacist. But, Lepke was drawn to the wild side—he spent his time on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, hanging with labor racketeers like Big Jack Zelig, Dopey Benny Fein and Kid Dropper. He was arrested many times, and served several years in prison (including Sing Sing) for a variety of felony offenses.

In 1923, he and his best pal, Jacob (Gurrah) Shapiro (who got his nickname because his favorite expression, “Get outta here,” came out as “gurrah” in his thick Russian accent) joined Jacob (Little Augie) Orgen’s gang of labor schlammers (hitters), who hired out to the highest bidders in the Garment Center wars between management and labor. In 1927, he and Gurrah whacked Little Augie and took over the gang.

Then Lepke had a powerful epiphany: Instead of hiring out thugs to the highest bidders, like a temp agency with muscle, he would become a harmonizing force in the garment industry—ending the perpetual wars between management and labor by brutalizing, pacifying and controlling both sides, in the process making himself one of the richest and most powerful gangsters of his era. Lepke moved with military precision, often under the premise that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link:

His first move was on the leather and fur dressing “protective associations”—created to protect businesses from cutthroat competition from smaller firms. He zeroed in on the rabbit furriers and their union—small but strategic because rabbit fur was cheaper and more popular than more expensive pelts during the Depression. He eliminated competition, fixed prices, as well as wages for unions he designated—and enforced his will with ruthless violence. Soon they were paying him $10 million a year in tribute.

He next turned his eye toward the garment side. The “weakest link” in their chain was the cutters’ unions—small but absolutely strategic: no cutters, no patterns; no patterns, no dresses, suits and coats. After Lepke knocked over the cutters, other unions fell in line. Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, was rumored to be paying Lepke $5,000 a week. As before, the manufacturers caved in, and he and Gurrah muscled into ownership positions in several of the largest manufacturing firms. Recognizing that trucking was crucial to the garment industry, Lepke took over several Teamsters locals. Now everything that entered the Garment District as cloth and pelts, was turned into clothing, and left as finished products, was controlled by Lepke—and there was peace in the District (cue up Elvis singing “Peace in the Valley”).

Like the big businessman he was, Lepke was a conglomorator. Pursuing some cloak-and-suiters who fled to Brooklyn to escape his clutches, Lepke saw that the baking industry was ripe for picking. He knocked over their trucking locals and muscled several of the largest baking companies. Within a month, every loaf of bread bought in New York was paying a “Lepke tax.” He also grabbed a share of control of the movie industry without stepping foot in California—he knocked over the Motion Picture Operators Union. It was another strategic move based on the weakest link in a chain: No projectionists, empty movie theaters; empty theaters, empty movie studios.
Lepke was so powerful, his reach so pervasive, that the first Federal charge filed against him, in 1936, was for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. It put him in the same league with J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller.

Lepke needed muscle and guns to enforce his rackets. He partnered with Albert Anastasia, street boss of the Mangano Family in Brooklyn, and reached into the Brownsville neighborhood to corral a gang of violent thugs who hung out at Midnight Rose’s candy store at Saratoga and Livonia Avenues. Ever the big businessman, Lepke didn’t pay them for each hit or beating—he put the gangsters on salary ($75 to $125 per week), which cemented their loyalty by leaving them free to pursue their own rackets but on constant call to Lepke. And, he turned “Murder Inc.” as they were known, into a profit center by hiring them out to do hits. The newly formed Commission was one of Murder Inc.’s biggest clients—they carried out the hit on Dutch Shultz because he was threatening to kill New York Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.

But, Murder Inc. turned out to be the weak link in Lepke’s chain—they couldn’t commit dozens of (some newspapers claimed a thousand) murders without attracting the attention of The Law. Brooklyn DA Bill O’Dwyer (who, ironically, was later elected Mayor of New York City with strong help from Frank Costello) busted several Murder Inc. thugs for murder. Facing the electric chair, they flipped. One of them, Abraham (“Kid Twist”) Reles, had a photographic memory. O’Dwyer’s secretaries took 5,000 pages of notes from Reles that covered more than 50 murders—some of which directly implicated Lepke. He was forced to go on the lam in Brooklyn for more than a year while his rackets started falling apart.

Finally, Lepke was visited by three of his gangster “pals”—reportedly Anastasia, Meyer Lansky and Abner (“Longy”) Zwillman, boss of Newark, NJ. They convinced him to give himself up on a Federal narcotics rap for which he’d serve “only five or six years,” and would keep him out of the clutches of Dewey, who wanted him for murder, In one of the most bizarre chapters in Mob history, Lepke met Walter Winchell, America’s most famous Broadway columnist and radio commentator, in Manhattan. Winchell drove him to a car where FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was waiting for him. Lepke was sentenced to 14 years in Leavenworth. As soon as the Feds were done with him, Lepke was turned over to Dewey, who convicted him of racketeering in the bakery industry, earning him another 30 years in prison. Then, armed with Reles’s confessions, Dewey convicted Lepke in the murder of Joseph Rosen, a Brooklyn candy store owner. He was sentenced to die in the electric chair. (Reles never got to testify against Lepke—he mysteriously fell to his death while trying to “escape” from a window in a hotel room where he was being guarded by a dozen cops. It earned him the sobriquet, “The canary who could sing but couldn’t fly.”)

Lepke unsuccessfully appealed his conviction. Then he threw himself on the Governor of New York’s mercy. The Governor was Dewey who had been elected in 1942 on his prosecution of Lepke. Dewey turned him down, and Lepke was executed in March 1944—the only OC boss to die by the hand of The Law instead of his Mob peers.

Lepke was also the first American born OC Boss and one can make the case that he was nearly as influential in the development of modern organized crime as Luciano. Midnight Rose's Candy Store is pretty close to the Gemini Lounge and it is unbelievable that just those two locations alone are linked to the murders of at least 500 people.

I don't believe Albert Anastasia was as close to Lepke as they made back then, he may have never known him at all. I think whoever met with Lepke to convince him to turn himself in were local friends or even lawyers working with the Jewish mob. Dewey double crossed them.

Also, often when an informer has so much info to share it becomes questionable how they can know so much (Valachi) they are credited with extraordinary brain power, such as:

"One of them, Abraham (“Kid Twist”) Reles, had a photographic memory. O’Dwyer’s secretaries took 5,000 pages of notes from Reles that covered more than 50 murders—some of which directly implicated Lepke."



Most of what Turnbull has up there is likely true, it is only those two I mention that I am doubtful on. Abe Reles wa no genius on any level.

I've often posted that's it's almost impossible to do bulletproof (no pun intended) research on OC because mobsters aren't the kind to leave their collected letters and papers to college libraries so people like us can peruse them. And, those who talk are usually lying up, down and sideways.

Obviously there's no record of conversations Lepke may have had with others about surrendering. But, it is logical to assume that, with the garment rackets falling apart while Lepke was on the lam, some mobsters (like Tommy Lucchese, a main partner) would have had an interest in tresolving the Lepke issue once and for all so they could take over before the whole thing collapsed. Charlie Luciano, in his "Last Testament," bragged that he engineered the Lepke double-cross, using Frank Costello as a go-between, to promise Dewey Mob money, support and inside info for his run at the governorship. Dewey himself was a slippery character--he probably suborned perjury from prostitutes to convict Luciano in his "compulsory prostitution" trial. Dewey was the GOP Presidential candidate in '44 and '48. L ewise, DA O'Dwyer could have been exaggerating about Reles's "photographic memory" to make himself look good and to scare Lepke. We'll never know for sure.

What are your thoughts on the book The Last Testament of Luciano? It was written after he died, I have seen a lot of people question it's credibility, others say it is real. I read excerpts of it, I have never read it in it's entirety.

Some interesting stuff, but largely the usual BS you get from "authorized biographies." I think the authors made up a lot of it.
IMO: the only really good (and credible) Mob bios are:

"Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life" by Robert Lacey.
"Capone" by John Kobler.
"Capoe" by Laurence Bergreen.
"King of the Godfathers" [Massino] by Anthony M. Destefano

"A Man of Honor," Joe Bonanno's autobio, is well written (by a co-author) and interesting, but too self serving to be credible.

personally, 500 murders between Gemini & M.Rose is pretty unbelievable
The LCN families was packed full with killers. . No need for a family to use outside mercenaries. Just use their own guys.

,@Turnbull. You don't rate the bulls ' underboss ' book? Or Leonettis mafia Prince?

ALL these numbers of alleged killings are grossly exaggerated IMO. It's like playing telephone. First its a few guys. then its plenty of work. as the years pass he was a stone killer of dozens. next thing you know its hundreds. Thats all a crock to me

Louis Buchalter and his partner Jacob Shapiro were top Jewish hoods in their day who could hold their own with anybody.

Lepke was also instrumental in infiltrating industry. In many ways he led the charge into 'industrial racketeering.' Not only in the rag trade, but with the laundry workers, restaurants and bartenders, truck drivers, milk wagons, etc etc....he was a visionary to some.

He was knee-deep into 'schmeck' which is the Yiddish term for heroin. He was into shylocking in a tremendous way. Other schemes as well. Shakedowns, extortion, etc. He was no pushover. And as we all know he was pivotal to what's called Murder Inc. (they whacked a lot of guys).

But his bloodthirsty ways caught up to him. And they fried him.

Believe me that nobody, NOBODY, was crying over him. Tommy Lucchese, Vito, Albert, and other guys quickly absorbed whatever interests he had. It allowed them to consolidate their power be edging him out.

For me a sharper guy was Longy Zwillman out of Newark. But unfortunately he too met an untimely demise. He hung himself in the basement of his home. He was at the top of his game when he did. Makes he wonder if somebody didn't help him along with that rope.

As unbelievable as it may seem the facts speak for themselves, Roy was heard bragging to associates that he had a hundred notches on his gun and a list has been compiled and posted previously on this Board documenting at least 75 known murders by The Gemini Crew and there has been testimony that Roy was dismemberment bodies as early as 1974. As far as Murder Inc., they have been credited with as many as a thousand murders as they would murder for hire across the country but to be reasonable, we will credit then with only three hundred murders which is probably an under count considering the membership of Murder Inc. the numbers still come close to the mark.

[quote=dsd]
,@Turnbull. You don't rate the bulls ' underboss ' book? Or Leonettis mafia Prince?

Peter Maas is a competent writer, but "Underboss" isn't really a bio--it's mostly a narrative by Gravano that lets him flatter himself. Haven't read "Mafia Prince." Is it good?

It's ironic that most people who remember the Kefauver hearings (1950-51) think Frank Costello was the top mobster largely because he allowed himself (actually his hands and voice) to be televised. But when the hearings concluded, Kefauver identified Zwillman as America's top illegal gambling czar.

Zwillman wasn't at the top of his game when he died. He had gotten a hung jury in a Federal income tax trial and was facing another trial for jury tampering in the tax case. His health was declining and he was suffering from depression. His hanging was suspicious, but suicide was the accepted verdict largely because the Essex County chief investigator, Brendan Byrne (later Governor) affirmed it--he had a reputation for honesty.

Zwillman was a huge figure in OC, had a lot of legitimate businesses, and was a power in the Democratic Party.

A large number of theories the Longy’s death was made to look like a suicide…..rope marks on his wrist that make you think he had been tied up. Lansky had concerns that his old pal Longy would rat……Genovese took care of the rest.

Good post Turnbull... couldn't help but laugh becuse every time I hear Lepke's name I think of the Sopranos when Melfi and family are talking to their shrink.

Mobcleve can you tell me where I can find more on this, or put up more info on it? Thanks.

SMUGGLER IS SENTENCED; Associate of Lepke Gets 7 Years for Bring'ing in Narcotics

Jan. 29, 1938

Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
January 29, 1938, Page 33
Jake Lvovsky, named with Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, fugitive racketeer, and Samuel Gross as organizers of a ring of smugglers who imported $10,000,000 worth of morphine and heroin from China in six shipments, received a prison sentence of seven years yesterday after pleading guilty to ten indictments charging violation of the narcotic law.

https://www.nytimes.com/1938/01/29/...-of-lepke-gets-7-years-for-bringing.html

The 'Big Six' of Bootlegging
During the 1920s, the prohibition of alcohol created opportunities for criminals to make a lot of money. Luciano became one of the "Big Six" of bootlegging along with childhood friend Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Abner "Longy" Zwillman. These unscrupulous characters dominated the illegal liquor trade on the East Coast. Luciano was also an associate of Arnold Rothstein, also known as the Big Bankroll, who had gambling and bootlegging operations.

Buchalter had several other nicknames like "The Judge" or "Judge Brodsky".