Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky
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Name	Meyer Lansky
Caption	Lansky in 1958
Birth name	Maier Suchowlański
Birth date	4 July 1902
Birth place	Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
Death date	15 January 1983
Death place	Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Crime boss, racketeer
Known for	Organized crime financier, founding the National Crime Syndicate
Spouse	Anna Citron (m. 1929; div. 1947), Thelma Scheer (m. 1948)

Meyer Lansky was a major organized crime figure who became one of the most powerful and influential financiers in American organized crime during the mid-20th century. Born in the Russian Empire, he immigrated to the United States as a child and formed a lifelong partnership with Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Renowned for his financial acumen and strategic mind, he was instrumental in developing the structure of the modern National Crime Syndicate and had vast investments in Las Vegas casinos. Despite intense scrutiny from agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he was never convicted of a serious crime and died a free man.

Early life and background

He was born Maier Suchowlański in 1902 in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire. To escape pogroms targeting Jews, his family emigrated in 1911, arriving at Ellis Island and settling in the Lower East Side of New York City. As a teenager, he befriended Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, forming the core of a criminal gang. He attended Public School 34 but left formal education early, demonstrating a prodigious talent for numbers and street-level entrepreneurship that would define his future career.

Criminal career

His criminal career began with small-time theft and gambling operations before he graduated to bootlegging during Prohibition. He partnered with Luciano and Siegel in lucrative rum-running ventures, often working alongside other powerful figures like Arnold Rothstein. He was a key participant in the Castellammarese War, siding with Luciano against the old Masseria faction. Following the war, he helped plan and finance the infamous Murder, Inc. enforcement arm for the newly formed National Crime Syndicate.

Role in organized crime

He is often described as the "accountant" or "chairman of the board" for the American Mafia. His primary role was financial mastermind, overseeing the syndicate's vast and complex investments in illegal and legal enterprises. He developed sophisticated money laundering techniques and managed funds from numbers rackets, union infiltration, and international narcotics trafficking. He played a crucial part in financing the early casino developments on the Las Vegas Strip, including the Flamingo Hotel with Bugsy Siegel. He also cultivated extensive gambling operations in Cuba under the regime of Fulgencio Batista before being expelled after the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Later years and death

His later years were marked by relentless pursuit by federal authorities, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Director J. Edgar Hoover. He faced investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and was indicted for tax evasion, but a 1973 trial in Tampa ended in acquittal. Fearing prosecution, he lived briefly in Israel under the Law of Return, but was deported back to the United States in 1972. He ultimately settled in Miami Beach, where he died of lung cancer in 1983 at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Legacy and cultural depictions

His legacy is that of the archetypal criminal financier, a man who operated with calculated discretion unlike many of his contemporaries. He has been portrayed in numerous films and television series, with actors like Lee Strasberg in The Godfather Part II (as the character Hyman Roth), Patrick Dempsey in Mobsters, and Anatol Yusef in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. His life has been the subject of biographies such as Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Despite his notoriety, his ability to avoid major prison time cemented his reputation as the elusive "Mob's Accountant."

Category:American mobsters Category:American financiers Category:1902 births Category:1983 deaths