Messick wrote that Lansky was "the Boss of the Eastern Syndicate and probably the biggest man in organized crime today [1965]. Lansky's wealth is reliably estimated at $300 million." Both were wild exaggerations. Lansky had an excellent biographer, Robert Lacey, who wrote an outstanding bio, "Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life," in 1991. Lacey did the research and learned that Lansky was worth no more than $5-6 million at his peak--not chickenfeed then or now, but hardly the stuff of $300 million. As for being "the boss of the Eastern Syndicate," Lacey notes that the reason Lansky died peacefully in his bed at age 81 was that he was "the accountant, never the boss." Lanksy was influential with other mobsters and with politicians. But he never had the big organization, the power, or the wealth that so often incur jealousy and envy--always lethal among Mafiosi.