Meyer Lansky

Organized Crime Figure. Born Meyer Suchowljansky in Grodno, Russia (now Belarus) the son of to Yetta and Max Suchowljansky. The family emigrated in 1911, settling in New York City. By 1918 he was running a youth gang with another Jewish immigrant, Bugsy Siegel, known as the Bugs-Meyer Mob, which was involved in theft, gambling, and bootlegging. In the 1920s he began an association with Lucky Luciano, and was said to have been a key figure in the 1934 creation of a national crime syndicate. He was reputed to have been the behind-the-scenes financier of the syndicate, earning him the nickname of 'The Mob’s Accountant.' After Prohibition, he successfully invested in gambling interests around the United States. In 1938, he involved himself with the Cuban gambling industry, partnering with the corrupt Batista regime. In the 1940s, he expanded into Las Vegas casinos, taking over the Flamingo Hotel after the murder of his former partner Siegel. After World War II, organized crime grew explosively, the government initiated hearings by the Senate Crime Investigating Committee in 1950 and 1951 as a study of organized crime. Lansky was named as a boss, and was called to testify, but he provided little information. In 1953, he was convicted of running a gambling operation at the Arrowhead Inn in Saratoga Springs and spent a brief time incarcerated. After his release, he moved to Florida. His Cuban interests failed when Batista fled into exile in 1959, and all casino properties were nationalized. In 1970, he was indicted on federal tax evasion charges and he fled to Israel under their 'right of return.' Denied residency there, he returned to the US and was brought to trial. Despite a contempt citation in 1973, which was overturned on appeal, he was acquitted in 1974. He was by then suffering from heart disease, chronic bronchitis, ulcers, bursitis, and arthritis. He succumbed to lung cancer at age 80.