Did Lansky blow the whistle on the meeting? That piece of BS was touted by Rich Cohen, in his BS-laden book, "Tough Jews." I doubt that Lansky would have bit the hands of 80 or so dangerous men who fed him.
Good point. Although Lanksy didn't like Genovese, he supposedly supported Anastasia being clipped because Albert was trying to muscle in on his Havana rackets. And I believe that Lansky had a better working relationship with Carlo.
Why would Doc Stacher have lied about Lansky sabotaging the Apalachin meeting. Did his quotes originally come from Tough Jews?
Another possibility: to approve drug-trafficking. That might explain why Bonanno wasn't at the meeting (his close associate, Gaspar DeGregorio, was). Bonanno earlier that year had set up his own drug trafficking apparatus with Luciano in Sicily, so he and Genovese might have been rivals in the drugs business.
This is interesting, because it would provide a motive on why Luciano/Lansky would want to kill the Apalachin conference.
I find Bonanno's meeting in Sicily interesting. While I have no doubt his intentions were to set up an international drug distribution ring, there have been conflicting accounts of Lucky's involvement. Some reports have Lucky as a major player in narcotics, after being deported to Italy.
On the other hand, according to Tim Newark, Luciano was a fake gangster at this point, and was shut out of Bonanno's meetings in Sicily. Supposedly, Lucky's powerful ally in Sicily, Don Calo, had passed away and the young gangsters weren't interested in paying homage to the old timers. How ironic, lol.
Another version of Bonanno's meeting in Sicily was from Tomasso Buschetta- a Sicilian gangster, who later became a turncoat. He claimed that Luciano set up a dinner with both Bonanno and Buschetta. And this is supposedly where they hashed out the details. This version seems to be the least credible.
