ButtonGuys has decided to post (without our paywall), absolutely FREE, something that we consider to be a special story for our fellow GBB forum members.

This particular story, and it's sister membership chart, is a unique, never-before-researched, or created, window into the vast criminal network headed by the legendary Meyer Lansky.

The story and chart you are about to see required many months of research and drafting of me. It is a one-of-a-kind peak into the shadowy "Jewish Syndicate" Lansky controlled...We hope you enjoy it!

https://thenewyorkmafia.com/the-meyer-lansky-mob-hierarchy-chart/

The Meyer Lansky Syndicate Chart, as interesting as you may find it may be, is but one of over 40 such unique Mafia charts we currently have posted on our website that you may also enjoy.

These charts represent a wide cross section of wiseguys and their criminal associates in the United States. From California to New York, and everything in-between, ButtonGuys offers informative-pictorial hierarchy charts on everything from entire Cosa Nostra Families, to individual Family "regimes" and semi-independent mobbed-up gangs and crews.
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"Often Imitated, But Never Duplicated" - ButtonGuys of The New York Mafia...There's only one!

As you pursue and review the list of names on the Lansky chart, you'll notice several bona-fide mafiosi. Not just "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo, who was Meyer's longtime friend, partner, and Mafia benefactor, but also several relatively important "made" Genovese Family soldiers.

They include Matteo (Matty Brown) Fortunato, who later rose to a "capo" status, soldier Nicholas (Bobby Blanch) Belangi, and soldier Paolo (Paul) Marchione. Also connected to Lansky's crew was Matty's brother, Eugenio (Gene Brown) Fortunato, a top family associate.

The Fortunato brothers and Marchione were partnered and supervised gambling and other rackets around the Albany and Saratoga Springs sections of Upper NYS for Lansky and Alo. Belangi was a key operative, money courier, and the sometime driver-bodyguard for Meyer whenever he visited NYC.

Great work! Rich information.

A few comments from a European perspective.
He also works closely, I believe, with Charles "Charlie the Blade" Tourine. Especially in Cuba.

From that time there is also a connection through Cellini to Joe Nesline from DC. Later, these two also have activities (gambling and boxing) in Europe with local groups (especially in Hamburg, Germany and Amsterdam, Netherlands).

I don't know if it is an exaggeration to call Joe Nesline a member, but there are some cross connections. In any case, there are some connections from the European activities back to the Genovese and the Boston guys. But the original connection came through players from Cuba and Lanskys operation.

Another interesting aspect is that the son Louis Schrager is today a very rich real estate mogul.

Indeed great stuff most powerful group in US history?

Dino, Eddie, Bobby, and Goff Cellini were such a big part of it, many years ago I watched an interview with Dino he was already ill but he seems a charismatic and nice guy.

It's not a bad guess. The amount of money that group got out of Vegas alone was astronomical

They started with cigar stores hence the early links to Cuba.

Al Malnik's house in Palm Beach. Who said crime doesn't pay?

NY, Vegas, Florida, Cuba, The Carribean, Mexico, Europe.

His European interests have always been of great interest to me. Particularly his involvement with Monte Carlo.

Monte Carlo, London, Germany, Amsterdam, Eastern Europe they had casinos all over Europe.

What proof is there that he had casino interests in all those countries? Vegas and Cuba, yes. Maybe Monte Carlo, but when Eastern Europe and Amsterdam come up....I mean, get realistic.

They had some investments here but not on a very big scale. Cellini had ties to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, he was a distributor of slot machines.

Thanks Nitro!

And you're correct, although he had his own Jewish based mob, Lansky also worked with many mafiosi, not only from the Luciano/Costello/Genovese Family, but with many different mafiosi representing Families throughout the United States.

Genovese soldier, Charlie the Blade Tourine, and his close associate-aide, Joe Nesline, being among them. They, and the Cellini brothers (who were directly "with" Lansky), also partnered in London, England in the running of some legal gambling casino operations over there.

Ans Schrager? lol, yes. Funny stuff. His son Ian went partners with Rubell in the famous Manhattan nightspot, Studio 54.

Now that's ambition !!!

The list below reflects some of the major business entities he secretly owned or held stock in, invested in, or controlled. And this is just a smidgeon of all the unknown investments he and the mob made over the years to “wash” their illicit loot.

• Singapore Motel, Miami Beach
• Windrift Hotel, Miami,
• Carousel Motel, Miami, FL
• Hawaiian Isle Motel, Miami, FL
• Crown Hotel, Miami Beach, FL
• Deauville Hotel, Miami, FL
• Eden Roc Hotel, Miami, FL
• Marco Polo Hotel, Miami, FL
• Versailles Hotel, Miami, FL
• Seacoast Towers, Miami Beach, FL
• Waikiki Hotel, Miami, FL
• Chateau Motel Inc., Miami, FL
• Sands Hotel & Casino, LV
• Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami, FL
• Flamingo Hotel & Casino, LV
• Fremont Hotel & Casino, LV
• Thunderbird Hotel, LV
• Executive House Apartments, Inc., Miami, FL
• Hotel Havana-Riviera & Casino, Cuba
• Montemartre Nightclub & Casino, Cuba
• The San Souci, Cuba
• Varadere International Hotel-Casino, Cuba
• Savilla-Biltmore, Cuba
• Monte Carlo Casino, Freeport, Grand Bahamas
• The Sands Hotel & Casino, LV
• The Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, LV
• Algiers Motel, LV
• El Cortez Hotel, LV
• Aztec Motel Inc., Miami, FL
• Miami International Airport Hotel, Miami, FL
• Carlsbad Spa, Broward County, FL
• Colonial Inn, Broward County, FL
• La Boheme Club, Broward County, FL
• Club Green Acres, Broward County, FL
• The Shore Club, Broward County, FL
• South Pacific Polynesian Restaurant, Hallandale, FL
• The Colony Club, London, England
• Mary Carter Paint Company

Yep. And that not even mentioning their operations in London, England, the Island of Haiti, Reno, Navada, etc.

I'm also familiar with Carlo Mastrototaro, who was a soldier (and later capo), with the New England Family of Raymond Patriarca, being involved in legal casino operations in London, England.

Mobster Ties: Blessing and Curse for Gambling Conglomerate (Part I


Bally Bell, 1938, Bally Manufacturing Co.’s first slot machine

1963-1970s

With assorted help from Mobsters starting in 1963, a small Chicago, Illinois-based pinball game maker, which had begun as Lion Manufacturing Co. in the 1920s, grew into the world’s largest slot machine developer, Bally Manufacturing Corp., by the 1970s.

And those underworld relationships later would damage its image and jeopardize some of its existing operations overseas and expansion plans for Nevada and New Jersey.

“Bally Manufacturing is one of the National Crime Syndicate’s more visible operations,” Pacific News Service reporters wrote in a May 24, 1974 article (The Capital Times).

Mafioso Investors
Lion/Bally Founder Raymond Moloney, Sr. died in 1957, after which his sons, Ray, Jr., and Don took control of the business as president and director of sales, respectively. By 1962, the company was foundering. To help, Sales Manager William T. O’Donnell contacted Abe Green, reported front man for Gerardo “Jerry” Catena, then underboss of the Vito Genovese crime family in New York. Catena’s company, Runyon Sales, was involved in pinball distribution in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and was Lion/Bally’s largest distributor.


Gerardo “Jerry” Catena

Together, the following group bought Bally for $1.2 million ($10 million today), incorporated it and ousted the Moloneys:

• Jerry Catena (originally held an 8.3% interest, later 12.5%)
• Abe Green
• Barnet Sugarman (another Catena front man and Runyon Sales partner)
• Sam Klein (a Catena associate)
• Irving Kaye (a Catena associate)
• Louis Jacobs (his firm Emprise Corp.* financed the transaction)
• Frank Prince (an associate of Jacob)
• William O’Donnell

O’Donnell took the helm of Bally in 1963 with primarily East Coast mobsters as its investor-owners.

Mob-Linked Employees
• Dino Cellini: He was a top lieutenant of gambling chieftain Meyer Lansky and sold/distributed slot machines for Bally between 1964 and 1973 in London then the Bahamas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He sold the machines on behalf of the group of Mobsters, including Lansky, who owned the Colony Club in London, of which Cellini was the manager and actor George Raft was the front man. Prior to that, Cellini had worked in the 1950s for Lansky at his Riviera casino in Havana.

• Michael “Mickey” Wichinsky: He had connections with Catena and other unsavory men during his hugely successful stint as Bally’s slot machine distributor in Southern Nevada beginning in 1964. Wichinsky’s nephew, Robert Petrin, was married to Catena’s daughter, and Petrin held a stake in one of Catena and Green’s enterprises, Automatic Merchants Co., in New Jersey. When Nevada gambling authorities appeared for a random audit of his Bally enterprise in 1971, Wichinsky telephoned Petrin.

Wichinsky admitted having business or social contacts with and/or catering to various alleged Mobsters, such as Cellini, whom he helped land a job representing Bally in Rome. Wichinsky, however, denied ever knowing or being affiliated with Catena.

• Joseph D. Testa, Jr.: This Chicago Mobster and reported close friend of Felix “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio, Outfit enforcer and hitman, claimed to be selling slot machines for Bally in Australia, but O’Donnell denied that was true when government officials there confronted him about it. Australian gaming authorities spotted Testa in Sydney several times, the first in 1969, sometimes in the company of local mobsters. As such, regulators concluded Testa was there on behalf of one or more U.S. syndicates to strong-arm into and monopolize their country’s slot machines industry.

Mobs’ Funding Vehicle
The Teamsters Union’s Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Pension Fund, or Teamsters Pension Fund (TPF): Known as the Mob’s bank, the TPF was a major source of capital for Bally, providing it with a series of loans.

After Bally went public in 1968, the TPF itself and several of its trustees bought shares in the corporation. When the TPF loaned $12 million to Bally in the early 1970s, supposedly to finance building of the corporation’s first major Chicago plant, several fund trustees held Bally stock. They included International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons, Vice President William Presser and TPF Asset Manager Alvin Baron.

When other individuals pursued financing through the TPF for hotel-casinos, the trustees allegedly pressured them to buy the slot machines for their resorts from Bally. This was because “Bally’s 42,000 slot machines in Nevada casinos bring in over $250 million [$1.3 billion today] a year, helping the National Crime Syndicate make payments on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund provided for casino construction over the last 15 years,” wrote reporters Lowell Bergman and Dee Stevens (The Capital Times, May 24, 1974).

Downsides to Affiliations
Bally’s relationships with organized criminals repeatedly dogged the corporation, first becoming a problem in 1969 when it applied with the Nevada Gaming Commission to assume distribution of its slot machines in Nevada.

Read more about the repercussions in Mobster Ties: Blessing and Curse for Gambling Conglomerate (Part II).

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* Emprise would be indicted in 1972 with Detroit Mobsters Michael Polizzi and Anthony Zerilli on charges of trying to obtain a hidden ownership of the Frontier hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

** Dino Cellini and Meyer Lansky also would be indicted in 1972, in Florida for conspiring to receive almost $200,000 ($1.2 million today) that players lost at the Colony Club in London.

https://gambling-history.com/mobster-ties-blessing-and-curse-for-gambling-conglomerate-part-i/

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An excellent article and contribution to this thread Hollander. Thank you pal!

This "confirms" what you started in your earlier post above, about how Lansky and his associates, and by extension, Cosa Nostra, were literally worldwide in their re-investment operations and pursuit of profits for the mob. At one time or another, they operated all across the United States, the Caribbean - Cuba, Bahamas, Haiti, Puerto Rico, etc., as well as Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia, etc.

These fellas were true "visionaries." (especially Lansky). Maybe underworld gangster visionaries, but visionaries nonetheless!

And yes, Bally was, as is, a massive corporation that got its financial start and boost from the mob. Everybody knows that name, Bally International!

And back in those days, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and its president Jimmy Hoffa, was in the Mafia's pocket. The mob used the Teamsters as their personal "bank."

Thats when the mob, really was, THE MOB!"
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Like I said, good post!

"Astronomical" is a very good word to use regarding their LV profits. Continuously steady profits running into the multimillions annually for many, many years!

Thanks NYM here is an NYT article about the indictment of Lansky and Cellini in 1972.
At the time Cellini lived in Rome, Lansky in Israel.

LANSKY INDICTED IN. U.S. TAX PLOT
Alleged Aide Also Charged Special to The New York Times
June 7, 1972

Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
June 7, 1972, Page 21Buy Reprints

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
WASHINGTON, June 6 (AP) —Meyer Lansky and one of his reputed long?time associates were indicted today by a Federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to avoid paying taxes on money allegedly received from gamblers on junkets to George Raft's Colony Sporting Club in London, England.

Lansky, 69 years old, and his reputed associate, Dino Cellini, were also accused by the grand jury in United States District Court in Miami of conspiring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service from assessing income taxes. Cellini was also charged with filing two false income tax returns.

The Justice Department announced the indictment action.

Lansky is living in Israel and fighting attempts by the Israeli Government to deport him. He was indicted in Miami last year for refusing to appear before a grand jury in Miami and in Las Vegas in connection with alleged gambling, activities.

Cellini, 57, a native of Steubenville, Ohio, lives in Rome where he represents an American slot machine manufacturer. He was a stockhc'der and employre of Mr. Raft's gambling casino, which operated from 1966 to 1969.

According to the indictment, Cellini set up a concern called Travel and Resorts Enterprises, Inc., in Miami to organize gambling junkets to the Colony Club and other foreign casinos.

Various junketeers were extended credit by the casino, and if the junketeer had not paid his debt before leaving the casino, the gambling debts were turned over to unindicted co?conspirators in the United States, the indictment charged.

Instead of handing the money to the ostensible creditor, the indictment said, the funds derived from the gambling debt were turned over to Lansky and Cellini in cash.

It was estimated that from November, 1967, to mid?May, 1968, the two men received about $198,000 from various persons while collecting the gambling LO.U.s.

Named as unindicted co?conspirators were:

Raymond Patriarca, 64, of Providence, R. I.; Henry Tameleo 70; Carmine Carlo Mastrotoaro, 51, of Worcester, Mass.; Vincent Teresa, 43, North Reading, Mass.; Daniel Mongovano, 44, Boston, and Joseph Lamattina, 42, Boston

Another excellent post up! Kudos to you Hollander.

This shows, once and for all, if there was any doubt to begin with, the far-flung nature of Lansky's operations, and by proxy, his intimate relationship with Mafia bosses and their borgatas, all across the U.S.A. In this particular case, the New England Family headed by Patriarca. And as I had mentioned in an earlier post, to Genovese soldier Carlo Mastrototaro, who, although operating out of NE and intimate with the Patriarca Family, was in actuality a Genovese Family soldier within the regime of Worcester, Massachusetts capo Frank Iaconi.

Good contribution pal!

Jan. 24, 1970

Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo of 19 West 55th Street, Manhattan, a 65 year old reputed captain in the Mafia family of the late Vito Genovese, also appeared before the state legislative committee yesterday.

Mr. Alo invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination on all questions that the committee's general counsel, Edward J. McLaughlin, posed to him — including one on what color his eyes were.

Mr. Alo kept wearing green shaded sunglasses inside the hearing room, even after a crowd of photographers had taken their floodlights away.

Mr. Alo is awaiting trial on Federal charges of criminal obstruction of justice in connection with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into alleged Mafia influence in Tel ASign, Inc., an advertising concern.

The next committee hearing will be held at 14 Vesey Street next Wednesday.

"Jimmy Blue Eyes" was the man! A highly, highly respected mafioso of the first order. An "original" in the truest sense of the word. IMO, and in the opinion of many, had he desired it, Jimmy Alo could have risen to become the overall boss of the Genovese Family.

But he was sharper than most. He knew that a move like that was essentially a death-kneel!...He was way too smart for that!

He enjoyed a great life! What the hell more did he even need out of life?

He was a very sharp fella!...and because of that, he remained a "winner" all his life!

What is interesting is that negotiations for the purchase of the Mt Kenya Safari Club were brokered by Edward K Moss, who according to Peter Scott, in the book American Deep State, was a CIA operative doubling as Khashoggi’s public relations manager.

According to declassified CIA records, Moss was the same man who was used by the CIA in November 1962 to try and get rid of Cuban President Fidel Castro. It was known that Moss’s mistress, Julia Cellini, was the sister to Dino Cellini who was running some casinos in Havana on behalf of the Italian Mafia in 1950s and 60s.

Both Julia and her brother were known to procure prostitutes for the high society, and, thus, Moss came in handy as Khashoggi’s “public relations” person, for he wanted to use sex to win over US executives.

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzan...ries-of-the-mt-kenya-safari-club-3785290

I consider myself pretty well versed in this type of stuff, but I gotta tell ya Hollander, I never heard about any of this before. Very interesting stuff. (especially about Cellini's sister being involved with this Moss.)

Great find!

This was in the Bahama's.

There was, and is, a specific ban on the employment of
American personnel in the big / Freeport casino. Yet at first it was not enforced;
it was forgotten as is made clear by the following list, which appeared in the
April 6, 1967, Wall Street Journal, of just a few of the syndicate workers, American
born or naturalized, who moved in, along with Sadlo, as gambling aids in the
Monte Carlo room of the Lucayan Beach Hotel:

Frank Reiter, alias “Frank Ritter” credit manager
Max Courtney general manager
Charles Brudner, alias “Charlie Brud” floor manager
Dino Cellini craps supervisor
James Baker craps supervisor
David Geiger craps supervisor
Al Jacobs craps supervisor
Roy Bell craps supervisor

Max Courtney and Frank Ritter first made their marks as close associates of
Dutch Shultz, a leading bootlegger in the New York-New Jersey area who
unsuccessfully plotted the murder of Thomas Dewey, prosecutor in Manhattan
during the vicious Prohibition days of open gang warfare. When Dutch Shultz
died—he was machine-gunned by his rivals—Ritter and Courtney decided to
take up a less violent occupation. In the fifties they appeared in Montreal as
operators of a huge bookmaking operation. To relieve the pressure of large bets
made in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, and other fast-buck areas, the two
men set up their operation in Canada outside of the reach of U.S lawenforcement agencies.
But someone must have snitched to the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, for they soon galloped into Montreal and arrested
the two bookies. Expelled from Canada, Courtney, who is also known by his real
name, Morris (Moishe) Schmertzler, and Ritter, who often moved around under
the alias “Red Reed,” spent a number of years taking bets in the salubrious
atmosphere of the various gaming centers in the United States, finally showing
up as executives of the Monte Carlo Room in Freeport. Which all goes to prove
that tough a good hood may be down, he’s never out.
Cellini, Baker, Geiger, Jacobs and Bell were eventually investigated by the
Bahamian government and expelled from the Bahamas in March, 1964.

Yes, these fellas were all direct "with" Lansky. And most, if not all of them, are on the Lansky Syndicate Chart I researched and designed. Cellini, Sadlo, Ritter, Courtney, Brudner, etc.,

Google is my friend !

Thanks pal. I will