Little Man had great first hand sources but the problem is the author seemed to buy into their obvious downplaying of what Lansky actually belonged to. The book purports that there was no real criminal syndicate, which is easily refuted by mountains of evidence.
Lanksy could never be made but he had more pull than most made guys. Lucky and Frank were probably the least adamant about Italian heritage. They turned the American mafia into a business enterprise. Is there any documentation of either them ever expressing concern over anyone's Italian lineage? I'm sure the only reason Lucky agreed to making it a requirement for membership was to appease the Sicilian hard liners, and put an end to the bad blood over what happened to Maranzano.
"...the successful annihilation of organized crime's subculture in America would rock the 'legitimate' world's foundation, which would ultimately force fundamental social changes and redistributions of wealth and power in this country. Meyer Lansky's dream was to bond the two worlds together so that one could not survive without the other." - Dan E. Moldea
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