Born: July 4, 1902, Grodno, Belarus (then the
Russian Empire)
Died: January 15, 1983, Miami
Nicknames: The Mob’s Accountant, Secretary of
the Treasury
Associations: The Commission, Charlie “Lucky”
Luciano, Murder Incorporated, Benjamin “Bugsy”
Siegel, Moe Dalitz, the Outfit, the Flamingo, the
Hotel Nacional and Habana Riviera (Cuba) Meyer
Lansky, born Maier Suchowlansky or Suchowljanksy,
was one of the most important figures in the
development of organized crime in New York,
nationwide and worldwide in the 20th century.
Immigrating with his family from Imperial Russia in
1911, Lansky’s work spanned the pre-Prohibition days
of the New York City rackets, where he had an early
partnership with Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, to the
consolidation of the New York Mob under Charlie
“Lucky” Luciano, and on to the development of Las
Vegas and Havana, Cuba, as “open cities” for the
Mob. He controlled casinos in the Bahamas and in
London, as well as, reportedly, a Swiss-based bank
through which he laundered profits.
Lansky was a short, even-tempered man who provided a
calmer counterbalance to hot-headed Mob members. He
was a key figure in the Jewish wing of the
Italian-Jewish Mob that became known as the American
Mafia. Lansky was often referenced as the
behind-the-scenes financier who avoided the
limelight and the publicity that came with open
violence, but his early career was associated with
the violent bootlegging Bugs and Meyer Gang, which
he formed with Siegel, and with Luciano’s violent
takeover of the New York Mafia with the murders of
Joe “The Boss” Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano in
1931. Lansky’s close association with Luciano
propelled him to the top of Mob leadership in the
United States.
After Prohibition ended in 1933, Lansky successfully
parlayed his fortune into gambling interests around
the United States (and ultimately internationally).
He encouraged other mobsters to invest in Cuba,
where eventually he owned or had financial interest
in at least three casinos: the Habana Riviera, the
Hotel Nacional and the Montmartre Club. In the
1940s, Lansky also began investing in Las Vegas
casinos, and assigned his friend Siegel to oversee
construction of the Flamingo Hotel.
That project did not go well, at least initially.
Cost overruns ballooned the budget from $1.2 million
to $6 million, and some of Lansky’s fellow Mob
investors were unhappy. Some believed that Siegel,
who also tightly controlled income from the
telephone “race wire” providing sports results to
bookie parlors and casinos, was stealing a portion
of their investment.
Several chroniclers claim that Lansky, at a Havana
meeting of leading organized crime figures from
across the United States, approved of Siegel’s
assassination, which occurred on June 20, 1947.
Although he never openly admitted to approving the
hit, Lansky said that if it had been up to him,
Siegel never would have been killed – as close to an
expression of remorse as you would find from any of
the Mob. Other theories surrounding Siegel’s murder
suggest Lansky had nothing to do with it.
Either way, Lansky’s associates immediately took
over the Flamingo upon Siegel’s death, and the
property generated income for Lansky and others for
decades.
It was around the time of these Syndicate meetings
that Lansky allegedly made the famous comment that
the American Mafia was “bigger than United States
Steel,” at one time the world’s largest corporation.
The quote was also used by the fictional character
Hyman Roth in the film The Godfather, Part II.
Lansky is widely viewed as the inspiration for the
Roth character.
Lansky’s gambling operations ran into a
multimillion-dollar disaster with the Cuban
Revolution of 1959. Rebel leader Fidel Castro
nationalized all of Lansky’s casino interests on the
island. Lansky also suffered from crackdowns on
illegal gambling in the United States, including
casinos in Florida.
Despite his efforts to conceal income, in 1970
Lansky was indicted on federal tax evasion charges.
He and his family fled to Israel under the Jewish
nation’s “right of return,” but that right did not
extend to criminals. Lansky returned to the United
States and was arrested in the Miami International
Airport. Lansky was ultimately acquitted or had
charges dropped against him, in part because of
chronic ill health. He had suffered his first heart
attack more than a decade earlier.
Lansky lived in Miami until his death of lung cancer
in 1983. Federal authorities claimed the mobster
still had hidden wealth to the tune of $300 million,
but Lansky himself, the man who built and sold
casinos like chess pieces, said he was nearly broke.
At the time of his death, he had less than $35,000
in his bank account.