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Meyer Lansky: Mogul of the Mob
1979: by Dennis Eisenberg- This book traces the violent careers of Lansky and his associated over a period of 60 years.
346 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 7, 2013
This was a rather disappointing book. It appears that the lead author was Uri Dan, who spent considerable time and effort convincing his readers that he was friendly with Meyer Lansky and that Lansky opened up to him. There are even copies of letter from Lansky to Dan suggesting that Lansky is considering telling him his life story. The introduction also offers considerable promise as Dan refers to thousands of government documents that were used to fill in some gaps and augment Lansky's story. However, parts of the book read like fiction and the more authentic parts focused on how much Lansky loved Israel. By the end of the book, the authors had strayed away from Lansky and towards shadowy international financiers and Israel's various wars.
The book starts off discussing Lansky's flight from Russia. While some may be author liberties, there is the general discussion of the pogroms and the plight of the Jews. This has been more of a theme throughout the book than Lansky. Lansky may have honestly told him about such recollections as he did flee Russia at an age wherein he could remember such climactic moments. Once in New York, the book seems to take a decided turn. There is much less first person narrative and more 'this is what it was like.' It is typical to imagine the little man as a giant defender of the Jews against the Gentiles, as portrayed in the book; but he had to have been more involved in violent behavior to rise to the top of the very violent Jewish underworld of the era. No matter how Uri Dan tries to identify Lansky as merely a bootlegger and gambler; there had to be more to it. If Lansky was candid with Dan, these issues were dodged; and Dan did not really question them.
Testimony from the 1950s from a former associate place Lansky as a gunman who shot at a minor criminal in 1928. Notice, there was no mention of murder; just shot at. This incident is also discussed in the much more professional book by Robert Lacey. The entire discussion on Prohibition has problems such as Lansky leading a gang of every major Jewish gangster of the Eastern seaboard. Lansky surely would not have said this, and there is no documentation that Zwillman, Schultz, and Soloman were members of the Bug and Meyer Gang. There is also some controversy over Waxy Gordon. While there was definitely violence between Lansky and Gordon, Uri Dan makes it out over imported bootleg whiskey. Gordon was involved in beer, not whiskey, not imports. Gordon's gang was virtually exterminated ca. 1930-1933. There was more too it. Then, Uri Dan states that during the Castellemarese War among the Sicilians, the Jews, including Gordon, all worked together. This is patently false. Even the bloodshed of the Sicilian conflict cannot be confirmed as written by Dan, supposedly with Lansky's first hand account.
After Prohibition, the book become even more convoluted. Dan acknowledges Lansky was involved in gambling all over the United States; but the data is scattered and poorly organized. Chronology is only available with regards to Cuba, suggesting that Dan did very little research into these Lansky ventures apart from what he might have wrung out of Lansky himself. There is barely any mention of the Arrowhead Inn tax case that got Lansky in trouble. The World War II chapters - and there were a lot of them - focus on protecting the docks. While Dan tries to focus on Lansky arranging everything, it very clearly was an Italian Mafia operation. Again, the data and the chronology are difficult to follow because Dan focuses too much on Lansky and not on the other characters.
After World War II, the book seemingly focuses increasingly on Israel with spattered discussion on gambling casinos. Like most Lansky books, the focus is on the unjust treatment Lansky received by Israeli authorities after all he had done for them raising money and what not. The chapter on a shady banker is almost wholly irrelevant to the book and shows problems with the authors' style. The book also was published while Lansky was alive. So that fact alone might lead to explain some of the biases and problems. However, my overall assessment is that it is poorly researched, poorly written, and not authoritative. Readers should be cautious because one cannot tell where Lansky ends and Dan takes up the narrative or fills in the pieces.
The book starts off discussing Lansky's flight from Russia. While some may be author liberties, there is the general discussion of the pogroms and the plight of the Jews. This has been more of a theme throughout the book than Lansky. Lansky may have honestly told him about such recollections as he did flee Russia at an age wherein he could remember such climactic moments. Once in New York, the book seems to take a decided turn. There is much less first person narrative and more 'this is what it was like.' It is typical to imagine the little man as a giant defender of the Jews against the Gentiles, as portrayed in the book; but he had to have been more involved in violent behavior to rise to the top of the very violent Jewish underworld of the era. No matter how Uri Dan tries to identify Lansky as merely a bootlegger and gambler; there had to be more to it. If Lansky was candid with Dan, these issues were dodged; and Dan did not really question them.
Testimony from the 1950s from a former associate place Lansky as a gunman who shot at a minor criminal in 1928. Notice, there was no mention of murder; just shot at. This incident is also discussed in the much more professional book by Robert Lacey. The entire discussion on Prohibition has problems such as Lansky leading a gang of every major Jewish gangster of the Eastern seaboard. Lansky surely would not have said this, and there is no documentation that Zwillman, Schultz, and Soloman were members of the Bug and Meyer Gang. There is also some controversy over Waxy Gordon. While there was definitely violence between Lansky and Gordon, Uri Dan makes it out over imported bootleg whiskey. Gordon was involved in beer, not whiskey, not imports. Gordon's gang was virtually exterminated ca. 1930-1933. There was more too it. Then, Uri Dan states that during the Castellemarese War among the Sicilians, the Jews, including Gordon, all worked together. This is patently false. Even the bloodshed of the Sicilian conflict cannot be confirmed as written by Dan, supposedly with Lansky's first hand account.
After Prohibition, the book become even more convoluted. Dan acknowledges Lansky was involved in gambling all over the United States; but the data is scattered and poorly organized. Chronology is only available with regards to Cuba, suggesting that Dan did very little research into these Lansky ventures apart from what he might have wrung out of Lansky himself. There is barely any mention of the Arrowhead Inn tax case that got Lansky in trouble. The World War II chapters - and there were a lot of them - focus on protecting the docks. While Dan tries to focus on Lansky arranging everything, it very clearly was an Italian Mafia operation. Again, the data and the chronology are difficult to follow because Dan focuses too much on Lansky and not on the other characters.
After World War II, the book seemingly focuses increasingly on Israel with spattered discussion on gambling casinos. Like most Lansky books, the focus is on the unjust treatment Lansky received by Israeli authorities after all he had done for them raising money and what not. The chapter on a shady banker is almost wholly irrelevant to the book and shows problems with the authors' style. The book also was published while Lansky was alive. So that fact alone might lead to explain some of the biases and problems. However, my overall assessment is that it is poorly researched, poorly written, and not authoritative. Readers should be cautious because one cannot tell where Lansky ends and Dan takes up the narrative or fills in the pieces.
February 22, 2022
If the intention of this book was to make me believe that Meyer Lansky was little more than a talented, gentle accountant who happened to work in the interests of the Mafia it didn't work. Uri Dan in particular seemed to be prepared to take Lansky's word practically all the time, making the book often seem more autobiography than biography. Lansky comes across as a self-proclaimed good guy, philanthropist, hard working businessman, loyal American, and victim of anti-Semitism. Alternatively he could be seen as an unscrupulous villain, a money-hungry thief and fraudster, a gangster prepared to commission murder to ensure his own success and safety, a self-centred egotist, and an exploiter of post-1945 anti-Semitic guilt for his own ends.
The foundations for his success came through Prohibition and bootlegging and his continuous attempts to ally his own Jewish mob with the Italians. He went on to found the gambling industry in Las Vegas, siphoning off huge sums of money in the process, and proceeded to do the same in Cuba. He was doing well, with President Batista neatly placed in his pocket, until Messrs Castro, Castro and Guevara came along to close him down.
According to the book Lansky always opposed violence which, if true, must have placed him in many very tricky situations. His own friends and allies included Bugsy Siegel – a hitman ready to kill by instinct, Lucky Luciano – a man determined to become the Mafia boss and the organiser of the murders of Guiseppe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, Dutch Schultz – a killer never satisfied without a splash of sadism, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese – none of whom were associated with gentleness, and then the frightening Israel 'Ice Pick' Alderman – Ice Pick because that was his murder weapon of choice, it being inserted into a victim's ear and forced through into his brain. I suppose with such people around him Lansky could theoretically leave the violence in their hands. However, there are too many occasions when witnesses against Lansky suddenly refused to testify or, equally suddenly, disappeared. Someone had to be giving the orders.
Lansky lived in a ferociously violent world and survived unscathed while so many around him were killed. In the book's index under the heading 'murder' there are 51 entries. He may well have been Lucky Lansky the mild-mannered book-keeper, but I suspect – without evidence I admit - that behind the scenes he was Lansky the liquidator, the man who knew how to delegate and, like a good accountant, cover his tracks.
The foundations for his success came through Prohibition and bootlegging and his continuous attempts to ally his own Jewish mob with the Italians. He went on to found the gambling industry in Las Vegas, siphoning off huge sums of money in the process, and proceeded to do the same in Cuba. He was doing well, with President Batista neatly placed in his pocket, until Messrs Castro, Castro and Guevara came along to close him down.
According to the book Lansky always opposed violence which, if true, must have placed him in many very tricky situations. His own friends and allies included Bugsy Siegel – a hitman ready to kill by instinct, Lucky Luciano – a man determined to become the Mafia boss and the organiser of the murders of Guiseppe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, Dutch Schultz – a killer never satisfied without a splash of sadism, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese – none of whom were associated with gentleness, and then the frightening Israel 'Ice Pick' Alderman – Ice Pick because that was his murder weapon of choice, it being inserted into a victim's ear and forced through into his brain. I suppose with such people around him Lansky could theoretically leave the violence in their hands. However, there are too many occasions when witnesses against Lansky suddenly refused to testify or, equally suddenly, disappeared. Someone had to be giving the orders.
Lansky lived in a ferociously violent world and survived unscathed while so many around him were killed. In the book's index under the heading 'murder' there are 51 entries. He may well have been Lucky Lansky the mild-mannered book-keeper, but I suspect – without evidence I admit - that behind the scenes he was Lansky the liquidator, the man who knew how to delegate and, like a good accountant, cover his tracks.
May 24, 2022
Biography of Meyer Lansky, one of the smartest and most formidable Jewish-American gangsters in history.
October 27, 2016
Meyer Lansky foi um judeu que conseguiu alcançar o topo da máfia nos EUA, tendo-se integrado numa comunidade quase exclusivamente siciliana. Dota de uma invulgar personalidade e de um carisma único, foi sempre um homem de bastidores mas com um poderio enorme. Neste livro conta-se de que modo a máfia com todo o seu poder foi fulcral para ajudar o Governo dos EUA na II Grande Guerra. Cuba e a criação do paraíso dos jogos para os americanos por via da amizade Lansky/Batista. Um grande livro, histórico.
March 13, 2017
This book focused more on Meyers dealings in Israel and supposed inside scoops from that angle.
March 29, 2016
Particularmente interessante as revelações sobre o apoio dado pelo crime organizado aos EUA durante a II G. G..
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews