Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation

Chapter 12. For Them, Crime did Pay

213 $ Many members of the Prohibition generation passed from the scene prematurely : Al Capone, who died a syphilitic death; Longie Zwillman, a suicide in his basement; Lepke Buchalter, strapped into the electric chair; Albert Anastasia, shot to death in a barbershop; and the Lonardo and Porrello families of Cleveland, locked in a murderous feud. But some survived into old age, with a degree of dignity, at least some money to sustain them, and people who loved them. In a sense these survivors had achieved the best outcome we mortals can aspire to in our limited lifespans. For the fortunate men described in this chapter, crime actually paid off. Meyer Lansky Lansky was the longtime ally of Lucky Luciano, an alliance that endured beyond Prohibition to the palmy days in pre-Castro Cuba. With his head for numbers and reliability as a business partner, Lansky was valued in the world of organized crime and, especially after Prohibition, in both racetracks and the luxurious casinos known as“rug joints.”He went into other, semilegitimate enterprises, among them a grocery store in Hoboken and a jukebox distribution business in New York bars. One person who worked for him in the jukebox firm (circa 1945–1946) was Harriett Bloom, an attractive young woman in her mid-twenties. Bloom c h a p t e r 1 2 For Them, Crime Did Pay 214 The Fall recalls Lansky as being soft-spoken, polite, businesslike, and much admired by the employees. Bloom also recalls that when she picked up the phone she heard clicking noises. She contacted the phone company about the problem and was blithely informed by an operator that the phone was being tapped. It was, of course, law enforcement, seeking incriminating information on Lansky that could be used to prosecute him--a fact hinted at in later FBI files.1 In 1951, Senator Estes Kefauver described Lansky as a top mobster, a leader of the“eastern crime syndicate.”2 When he was faced with similar government investigations, Longie Zwillman had committed suicide, but Lansky tried a different tactic. On July 27, 1970, he fled to Israel, a country with a “law of return,” which enables a Jew to become an Israeli citizen. A provision of the law, however, specified that criminals who posed a threat to the public were not entitled to citizenship.Lansky spent two years,three months,and thirteen days in the country, much of it engaged in the legal campaign to admit him to citizenship on the grounds that the evidence of his criminal past was weak. Working against Lansky was the opposition of the U.S. government, which wanted him back in the States to stand trial. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of Israel turned down his citizenship request, a decision that forced him to leave the country. When his flight arrived in Miami, on November 7, 1972, he was arrested by the FBI. The situation was bleak. He was seventy years old and in poor health.He faced three charges that could bring him jail sentences: income tax evasion,contempt of court,and skimming casino profits.Lansky’s talented attorney,David Rosen,used his considerable skill in the courtroom to get Lansky acquitted of all the charges. Lansky spent his last years in Miami. Like any elderly man, he reflected on the good and the bad in his life.He was proud of his son Paul,who was a graduate of West Point, but saddened when his son divorced his wife and Lansky was cut off from contact with his grandchildren. Lansky also bore the burden of his elder son, Bernard, who was afflicted with steadily worsening paralysis. Money was another problem for the retired gangster.A best-selling 1971 accusatory biography of Lansky by Hank Messick claimed that the gangster had a personal fortune of $300 million—a claim that was firmly accepted by the For Them, Crime Did Pay 215 media and the government.A second biography, written twenty years later by Robert Lacey, was much more sympathetic to the mobster and convincingly presents evidence that Messick was simply wrong.According to Lacey, Lansky lost a significant amount of money when Castro’s revolution shut down the Cuban casino operations, and he incurred expenses from failed business ventures and continuing legal expenses. In his last years, Lansky was somewhat strapped for cash and lived in modest housing. There were compensations...