To all Sho 'nuff Mob Study readers everywhere, we extend our unmitigated "WELCOME." We urge publishers who read our series to send us a complimentary copy of any recently, and/or soon-to-be, released organized crime book.
In the order in which they are received, the books will be read, then reviewed, and subsequently, cited in upcoming editions of the series. We ask only that our book donors remain patient.
Thank you.
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
In Today’s column: INFORMATION, MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION, PART IV; THE HYPERBOLIC YOU WISH MOB BOSS, PART I; WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MOB 'RAT' AND A MOB 'CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT?'; THE CHICAGO OUTFIT'S DOUBLE JEOPARDY.
What Is A 'You Wish Mob Boss?'
A You Wish mob boss is an underworld leader whose demonstrated unique propensity to make a profit is contingent upon the sanction of a significant segment of the Italian-American underworld. The You Wish mob boss tends to be an ethnic who is not Italian-American.
An example of an ethnic mob boss who was not Italian-American is Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein. Rothstein's criminal career predated the emergence of the American Mafia. Critically wounded on November 4, 1928, Arnold Rothstein refused to identify his assailant. His murder case remains unsolved.
The You Wish mob boss tends to be a brilliant criminal who enjoys relatively great longevity in his criminal career and lifespan.
Jake 'Greasy Thumb' Guzik (1887-1956), Chicago's First You Wish Mob Boss
Jake 'Greasy Thumb' Guzik is an example of an ethnic American whose criminal career predated the emergence of the American Mafia but whose status as a You Wish mob boss is indisputable.
Guzik was the trusted treasurer and financial wizard of the mob starting with Al Capone. After Al Capone's fall, Guzik was considered the real brains of the organization, along with Paul "the Waiter" Ricca and, to a lesser degree, Tony Accardo.
One of the reasons Guzik remained a You Wish mob boss is his inability to use a gun and/or to physically injure anyone. During Al Capone's tenure, Guzik was under Scarface's protection. In the Italian-American underworld, Guzik was respected as a stand up guy and a money maker whose mob leadership ambitions did not excess those of his current boss.
Meyer Lansky is a founder of the United States' National Crime Syndicate, The National Crime Syndicate became the American Mafia. Meyer Lansky was respectfully known as the "Little Man." He was called the "Little Man" because he really was such a BIG GUY.
Meyer Lansky was a jew from Grodno, Poland. In the Italian underworld, when a made man introduces a "citizen," i.e. a man who is not involved in the underworld, to another made man, he often refers to the citizen as "a friend of mine." However, whenever one made man introduces another made man to a third made man, he often refers to the introduced as "a friend of ours." Although Meyer Lansky, as a non-Italian, could not get made, he could easily have been introduced to made men he did not know as "a friend of ours."
Who Has The Greatest Impact On Organized Crime in America Today: Meyer 'The Little Man' Lansky or Salvatore 'Charlie Lucky' Luciano?
Both the Little Man and Charlie Lucky had been nurtured by Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein. The Little Man and Charlie Lucky's criminal careers complemented each other.
Salvatore 'Charlie Lucky' Luciano (November 27, 1897 - January 26, 1962)
Salvatore Maranzano conceived a blue print that he used in his attempt to reorganize the Italian-American underworld into a Sicialian-Mafia-in-the-United States. Charlie Lucky Luciano demonstrated his ability to set virtually any plot into motion when he orchestrated the assassination of Giuseppi Masseria and, then, Salvatore Maranzano. Charlie Lucky Luciano then used Salvatore Maranzano's blue print to reorganize the Italian American underworld into the American Mafia.
After Maranzano was assassinated, Charlie Lucky made changes to the original Maranzano blue print. He eliminated the on the table "Capo di Tutti Capi" position subsituting the "de facto" Capo di Tutti Capi position, i.e. the under the table position instead. Charlie Lucky became the American Mafia's first de facto Capo di Tutti Capi.
Charlie Lucky demonstrated his flair for organizing when he created the National Mafia Commission. He added the "consigliere" position. He created Murder Incorporated I. Charlie Lucky was hailed by Time Magazine in 1998 as one of the country's top 20 Builders and Titans of the Twentieth Century.
The fact that he was exiled to Italy in 1946 after serving ten years of a 30-year-prison sentence served as a constraint on the perception of Charlie Lucky's overall impact on organized crime in America. See: http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/mafia/lucky-luciano/ Charlie Lucky's American Mafia survived The Little Man's National Crime Syndicate. Charlie Lucky died in Italian exile.
Meyer 'The Little Man' Lansky
It was Meyer Lansky who created organized crime in its syndicate form. Lansky was the brains of the Syndicate. He held his empire together while Charlie Lucky was in prison. Lansky was a money mover entrusted to hide or invest millions for the Syndicate. He saw to it that Charlie Lucky got his share of the profits even after his exile to Italy. For a time, the Lansky-inspired gambling in pre-Castro Havana, Cuba was the Syndicate's greatest source of income. Lansky effectively monopolized gambling in the Cuba of the day. Moreover, Lansky skimmed untold millions out of Las Vegas casinos that were secretly owned by the Syndicate. Lansky was the master of foreign numbered accounts. The Little Man's money laundering skills are legendary. Lansky was able to hide and/or invest millions of dollars in mob profits.
Lansky met Bugsy Siegel in 1920. They became friends for life and, together they constituted what became known as the Bugs and Meyer Gang. The Bugs and Meyer Gang was the forerunner of Murder Incorporated I.
The question, "Who has the greatest impact on organized crime in America Today: Meyer "The Little Man" Lansky or Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano?" remains moot. If Meyer Lansky were still living he would prefer to continue to seemingly play second fiddle to Charlie Lucky. Meyer Lansky was a consummate criminal but not a dynasty builder. His impact on organized crime in America's future underworld was not the Little Man's main concern. Rather, the Little Man was concerned about his ability to accurately predict the bottom line.
Meyer Lansky was a brilliant criminal who enjoyed relatively great longevity in his criminal career and lifespan. But, it is important to note that, under my above definition, Meyer Lansky is a You Wish mob boss. Meyer Lansky was "an underworld leader whose demonstrated unique propensity to make a profit is contingent upon the sanction of a significant segment of the Italian-American underworld." Not Italian-American, Meyer Lansky's You Wish mob boss status is obfuscated by legend.
The Legend of Meyer Lansky
During the 1960s, Meyer Lansky became involved in drug smuggling, prostitution, extortion, and investing in hotels and golf courses. The legend of Meyer Lansky was propagated in the early 1970's when Hank Messick, the Miami Herald special writer, estimated the Little Man's net wealth at around $300 million.
In the 1970s, Meyer Lansky faced tax evasion charges. Upon learning of his impending problems, he fled to Israel, where he lived for three years before being apprehended and returned to the United States. He served time and was released shortly after.
Meyer Lansky died of lung cancer, supposedly leaving a fortune of over 400 million dollars behind. Some observer's characterize these two quotations as hyperbolic.
Who Was Hank Messick?
Alan May (A Look Back, News, 12-27-99), in "Sterling, Roemer and Messick: A Sad Farewell," has the following to say about the late Hank Messick.
"If there was a “Babe” Ruth, Michael Jordan, or Jimmy Brown of organized crime writers it had to be Hank Messick. Between 1967 and 1979, Messick cranked out sixteen books on organized crime in America. Four of those he co-authored with Burt Goldblatt, and another with former Kefauver Committee counsel, Joseph L. Nellis. While four of his books were biographical in nature (Hoover, Lansky, Barboza, and Ann Coppola), Messick did not focus on New York City or Chicago organized crime, instead he exposed us to the widespread network of organized crime around the country.
Messick was an investigative journalist whose expose stories for the Louisville Courier-Journal and later the Miami Herald led to several indictments and brought organized crime and corruption of public officials to the forefront. Messick at times worked with underworld investigators for both the Justice Department’s organized crime task forces and the intelligence unit of the Internal Revenue service. One agent called him the “conscience of the community.”
Beginning with “The Silent Syndicate,” where he focused on the four rather unknown leaders of the Cleveland Syndicate, he then moved on and wrote about crime in Miami and Dade County with “Syndicate in the Sun.” This was followed by “Syndicate Abroad,” where he discussed underworld activity taking place outside of American in Canada, and in the Caribbean.
During the 1970s, Messick hooked up with Burt Goldblatt, a photo editor and painter. In the four books they co-authored, Messick did the writing and Goldblatt supplied the photo talent. Those books were “The Mobs and the Mafia,” 1972, “Gangs and Gangsters,” 1974, “Kidnapping: The Illustrated History,” 1975, and “The Only Game in Town: An Illustrated History of Gambling,” 1976.
Messick’s work was always in depth and like Roemer he tried to portray the human side of the people he wrote about giving the reader insights into the people that we were not privy to from newspaper articles and other media reporting. Perhaps he reached a pinnacle in this area with his two releases in 1973, “Beauties and the Beasts: The Mob in Show Business,” and “The Private Lives of Public Enemies,” co-authored with Nellis.
Messick didn’t just write about underworld figures, he wrote about the law enforcement people who went after them. His longest book was “Secret File: The Untold Story of America’s Least Known Crimefighters,” published in 1969. In 1972, his biography on J. Edgar Hoover was released.
In 1975, Messick was involved in a different project working with convicted murderer and mob rat Joe Barboza. The vicious Barboza had been an enforcer for the New England Mafia and ratted out members of his gang. The New England mob eventually caught up with Barboza and murdered him in San Francisco the year after the book was released.
In 1979, Messick released his expose on the marijuana and cocaine smuggling business into the United States, “Of Grass and Snow: The Secret Criminal Elite.”
At this point many people believed Messick’s crime writing career came to an end. There were no books released during the 1980s and during the 1990s his books were already becoming collector’s items. Messick could occasionally be seen in a documentary on A&E and I’m sure many people thought he had passed away.
This past year in conversations with AmericanMafia.com’s Forum poster Russ McDermott, I was informed of a Messick book I didn’t have called “Razzle Dazzle.” Russ explained that it was about the early years of Messick’s career. At the time I was under the impression that it may have been his first book published making it a true rarity. With the purchase price of $75 I felt assured that it must have been. However, it was a 1995 publication and the high cost was due to Hank himself signing “Best Wishes” in it on December 10, 1995.
“Lansky,” the biography of the well-known Jewish mobster, was said to be the book Messick was best known for. I personally found the book to be an over inflation of Lansky’s importance to the mob, a position, in reality, that didn’t need over inflating. While Messick did a superb job of bringing to our attention information that would otherwise have been unknown, he sometimes had problems with facts and dates. On several occasions I can recall coming home frustrated from the Cleveland Public Library and calling Youngstown Charlie and asking, “Where the hell did Messick come up with that date.”
With my roots in Cleveland, Messick’s “Silent Syndicate,” is one of my favorite organized crime books and one I use in the classes I teach locally. However, I must tell you I found “Razzle Dazzle,” to be one of old Hank’s best efforts. It is really an autobiography of his early life as an investigative journalist working for the Louisville Courier-Journal in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He gets assigned to cover a reform group in Newport, Kentucky that has been trying to clean up the city that has been a cesspool of gambling, prostitution, and illegal liquor sales for years.
Messick, although portraying a certain arrogance about himself, also reveals the fear he felt for not only himself but his family. During the introduction he talks about being stricken with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an auto-immune disease that will eventually lead to his death on November 6, 1999. The disease causes the moisture producing glands of the body to dry up. He explains, “My eyes were first affected and it became almost impossible to read, to write, to brave sunlight.” He claims to have been confined to a room with a humidifier blowing.
Like Roemer, Messick credits much to his beloved wife Faye for being with him and for sharing his success. In this last effort, he credits Faye with helping him to finish the book" (pp. 3-6). See: http://www.americanmafia.com/Allan_May_12-27-99.html
Who Is Robert Lacey?
Robert Lacey is a popular, best selling historian. See: http://www.robertlacey.com/biography.html
In Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life , Little Brown & Co (T); 1st ed edition, ISBN: 0316511684, Robert Lacey (September 1, 1991) takes a literal interpretation of the Meyer Lansky handle. In other words, Lacey (1991) argues that Meyer Lansky was not the big shot he is cracked up to be... Take, for example, the great Meyer Lansky wealth.
Robert Lacey (September 1, 1991), thinks Hank Messick's figure of "around $300 million" was, to say the least, a hyperbolic estimate of Meyer Lansky's net wealth.
"On December 12, 1965, it was Mayer Lansky's turn. "Lansky Rules Crime Cartel from Florida," proclaimed an article by Herald special writer Hank Messick. The first of a three-part series, the article was run across the top of the front page of the Herald's Sunday edition" (p. 310).
Here's the Hank Messick quotation:
"The Boss of the Eastern Syndicate, and probably the biggest man in organized crime today, lives at 612 Hibiscus Drive, Hallandale. His real name is Maier Suchowljansky, but it is under the name Meyer Lansky he won his wealth. Lansky's wealth is reliably estimated at $300 million" The Miami Herald, (December 12, 1965).
In later years, Hank Messick stood back a little from the colossal estimate of Meyer Lansky's fortune.
"Whenever people have contacted me to confirm this," he was quoted as saying, "I have always told them it was not my figure, It came from an expert who was supposed to know what he was talking about" (p. 311).
Robert Lacey (September 1, 1991) notes that "It is difficult to imagine who this 'expert' could have been..." Continuing in Lacey's (September 1, 1991) words,
"As 'money laundering' became a modish term in the early 1970s, the legend grew that Meyer Lansky was the magician who had devised the trick---and, in particular, that he was the man who taught the Mob how to launder its money...
...Undeniable evidence came to light in the course of the 1960s that Meyer Lansky was sending money out of the country----possibly via the Bahamas, and certainly to Switzerland. But there was nothing to suggest that he brought any money back.
Money laundering means more than simple tax evasion. It means bringing your hot money back so you can use it openly and legitimately. Sneaking it back into America in a briefcase is not laundering. By definition, your dirty income must show up clean and legally declared on your tax return, or on the return of some entity you control. Journalistic accounts of the practice in the 1970s suggested that this could be done by borrowing your own money in Switzerland, and then claiming the interest paid, effectively to yourself, as an American tax deduction----thus generating an extra set of profits from the wash cycle.
There may have been clever Wall Street operators who brought their money full circle in this fashion in the 1960s and early 1970s, but in no case prior to the drug-profit laundering trials of the 1980s did the government establish evidence of anyone actually pulling off this ingenious trick...
...None of the tax returns of Meyer Lansky showed foreign interest payments, or any transactions that might be interpreted as money laundering. Nor did he hid behind the "miscellaneous income" headings to which lawbreakers often resort. With the ending of his Cuban income in 1960, Meyer listed simple, American sources of revenue on his tax returns---the Flaminigo finder's fee, dividends from some oil and gas investments that he started making in the early sixties. All were thoroughly investigated and confirmed by the IRS. The returns of enterprises connected to Meyer----brother Jake's hotel and motel holdings, for example----were equally straightforward.
Meyer Lansky cheated on his taxes. From some date quite early in the 1960s, he started sending money abroad, and it ended up in Switzerland in a classic numbered account. But his money did not return "laundered" to America. Meyer seems to have treated his new Swiss back account as an elaborate version of cash under the bed" (pp. 304-305).
As Robert Lacey (September 1, 1991) critiqued the legend of Meyer Lansky, he simultaneously augmented it.
"Meyer Lansky's fabled millions were the cornerstone of his legend. It was with Hank Messick's valuation of $300 million in 1965 that all the other grand suppositions had taken flight, for if that was the sort of fortune Meyer Lansky commanded, he had to have done something to amass all the money.
It was Messick himself, however, who first pointed out Meyer's lack of appetites----the fact that Meyer Lansky survived as long as he did because he was not a greedy man. Meyer never took more than his fair share, and in his later years, he appears to have been willing to give people a helping hand without taking much of a cut for himself.
The fallacies that depicted Meyer Lansky as the "Accountant of the Mob" misrepresented organized crime as a corporate entity, and they also failed to take note of how much money the accountant in any deal tends to finish up with in real life----if he is an honest accountant, at least. Accountants are not entrepreneurs. The owner or chief executive of a corporation may become a millionaire. The chief financial officer remains on a salary.
The greatest mistake was failing to understand how little of any illegal enterprise sticks in one partner's hands, after all the payoffs and share-outs have been made. American popular culture derives a curious comfort from exaggerating the glamour, power and money of the gangster. But in reality, Dutch Schultz, Benny Siegel, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, and Lucky Luciano all died without much money to their names. The multimillionaires of their generations were Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, and the other moguls of Las Vegas----the truly clever ones who went straight.
Charlie Luciano seemed to realize this before the end. Tracked down in Italy before his death in 1962, he was asked by a reporter whether, if he had the chance, he would do the same things over again.
'I'd do it legal,' he replied. 'I learned too late that you need just as good a brain to make a crooked million as an honest million. These days, you apply for a license to steal from the public. If I had my time again, I'd make sure I got that license first'" (p. 405).
Hyperbole is relative to its subject matter. Teddy Lansky was Meyer Lansky's second wife, Buddy Lansky, his son.
"On February 7, 1983, the last will and testament of Meyer Lansky was lodged in the Dade County Courthouse, in downtown Miami. So many people were curious to see what clues the will might yield to the disposition of the Lansky millions that Circuit Judge Francis Christie, to whom the will was assigned for probate, ordered that it should be locked in the safe in his office. The judge had no right, stictly speaking, to limit access to what was a public discussion. But the will scarely revealed any secrets.
After the customary clauses revoking all previous wills and codicils, the bulk of the document was concerned with the creation of a trust whose terms effectively concealed what Meyer Lansky's assets were at the time of his death. Teddy Lansky was entitled to 34 percent of the trust's net income----that income being unspecified----and the remainder was assigned, to be paid out at the trustee's discretion, to "the medical care, comfortable maintenance, and welfare" of Bernard I. Lansky.
If Meyer Lansky's fortune had indeed stood at $300 million when he died, and if it had been conservatively invested to produce a return of, say, 8 percent, then the income arising from this trust would have amounted to some $24 million a year----up to $15.6 million annually for Buddy, when divided according to the 65-35 split laid down by the will, with $8.4 million going to Teddy.
But Teddy Lansky soon discovered, if she ever had any doubt, that the difference between the fortune that legend attributed to her husband and the money he actually left her was so vast as to constitute rather a cruel joke" (Ibid. p. 426).
As John J. Binder (May 1, 2003) tells us, in The Chicago Outfit (Images of America), Arcadia Publishing, ISBN: 0738523267,
"Eight, while this may just reflect the Outfit's accomplishments, there have been fewer turncoats in Chicago then in other cities, where underbosses or (according to the author's sources) the serving boss turned government informant" (p. 120).
Not all mob "rats" are publicly identifiable. Clandestine mob rats are known as "Confidential Informants," i.e. C.I.'s or "Top Echelon," i.e. T.E., informants. All C.I.'s/T.E. informants are rats, but not all rats are C.I.'s/T.E. informants.
It is therefore possible to conduct a career as a mob rat and never be publicly identified, i.e. maybe his confederates suspect his duplicity, but the authorities have yet to acknowledge that an underworld figure is "cooperating."
Rats and C.I.'s tend to be publicly identified at the point of their court testimony. But, some C.I.'s are not requited to testify in court. These individuals have been deemed so important to an ongoing investigation that their continued anonymity has become a first priority. That anonymity must be maintained indefinitely.
Sometimes a rat/C.I. is posthumorously publicly exposed, e.g. Danny Greene of Cleveland, Ohio. Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson ratted on John J. Gotti, his friend since childhood, for 19 years before Diane F. Giacalone, the U.S. Attorney, publicly exposed him. His indiscretions got Willie Boy Johnson whacked. See: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6102&pt=Wilfred%20Johnson
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE CHICAGO OUTFIT HAS A LOWER RATE THAN THE FIVE FAMILIES OF NEW YORK OF PUBLICLY IDENTIFIABLE RATS; BUT, THE SAME OR HIGHER RATE OF CONFIDENTIAL/TOP ECHELON INFORMANTS (C.I./T.E. INFORMANTS) WHO ARE NEVER PUBLICLY IDENTIFIED.
The feds are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, the reputed mob boss. Joey "The Clown" Lombardo has been wanted by the FBI since April 25. When he turned up missing during the Chicago Operation Family Secrets federal swoop, the Clown became an official U.S. fugitive.
See: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/fugitive/june2005/junelombardo.htm
By taking it on the lam, some argue, the Clown is making a smart move. The fact that the Clown is not in federal custody is
(1) a deterrent to would be rats
(2) a "presence" that fosters Chicago Outfit intragroup solidarity and fortitude.
Moreover,
(3) The fact that the German is still at large is an asset to (1) and (2).
The fed's strategy is not to discover the Clown's hiding place. No. Rather, it is to apply pressure on the underworld until it attempts to ease that pressure by making the Clown's whereabouts known. After all, say some observers, the Clown knows way too much.
The Clown could easily leave the country. By taking it on the lam right here in the United States, the Clown is avoiding the inevitable apprehension that would accrue if he were in custody. Other Chicago Outfit guys would wonder out loud if the Clown will flip. By disappearing, the Clown is showing his confederates that he isn't cooperating. Instead, he's taking it on the lam for the general good of the Chicago Outfit.
It's also smart, some say, in that he keeps himself alive by keeping out of sight lest any "cowboy" wants to make sure the Clown doesn't spill any secrets.
These ideas are intriguing except for the fact that BOTH Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo and Francis John "Frank the German" Schweihs are at large.
The feds are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Francis John "Frank the German" Schweihs, the infamous mob hitman. Frank the German has been wanted by the FBI since April 25. When he turned up missing. during the Chicago Operation Family Secrets federal swoop, the German also became an official U.S. fugitive.
FOR THE CHICAGO OUTFIT, THERE'S NOTHING ADVANTAGEOUS ABOUT THE FACT THAT TWO OF ITS OLDTIMERS ARE STILL AT LARGE. The German is not just making a "smart" move, he's making the only move he can make as a stand up guy. Having been around a long time, the German knows an awful whole lot, too! He knows too much. Like the Clown, the German is subject to being whacked by underworld "cowboys" who believe that a dead man tells no secrets. By disappearing, the German is showing he isn't cooperating. But, some guys would rather have him "disappear" completely.
The Clown and the German probably keep in touch while they are on the lam. One or both of these fugitives know where to find the other. Since he was last living in Florida the German was right near the ocean. This put him within one or two hours of over two dozen different countries. If both fugitives were to be apprehended, neither would offer any information to the authorities. As a hit man, the German is skilled at the use of disguises.
The Clown may have chosen life as a fugitive because of altruistic reasons in favor of the Chicago Outfit. But, with the German self preservation is a higher priority than altruism. Once the feds apprehend him, the German's life as a free man is over for ever.
The German and the Clown at large place the Chicago Outfit in DOUBLE JEOPARDY, i.e.
1) twice the likelihood that at least one of the two fugitives will be apprehended, and;
2) twice the likelihood that at least one of the two fugitives will turn state’s evidence.