Thu 8 Jul 2004
True crimes ‘zine The Snitch has posted an excellent bio of Jewish gangster Meyer “The Brain” Lansky. The mastermind who helped another Jewish gangster, Bugsy Seigel, build Las Vegas to clean the mob’s filthy millions, Lansky always kept it low-pro and only pulled one 90-day jail term in 60 years of racketeering. Yeah, we know crime is bad, but we’re still proud to claim this cat who makes Tony Soprano look like the fat, stupid, fictional hack he is.
More Jewish Six Degrees: Our grandma, who worked at a bank in Miami Beach in 70’s, was Lansky’s favorite teller. She always said he was a perfect mensch, no matter what anyone said about him.
The picture above is not Meyer. It is a picture of Lepke. Meyer and Ben had their own organization but did work occasionally for Lepke.
Later, Meyer signed off on the hit on Ben in 1947 because Ben was borrowing, spending and losing too much of The Combination’s money without paying back.
My Uncle Mendy also worked for Lepke and along with Charlie Workman took The Dutchman and his troop at the Newark Palace Chophouse in October of 1935. Great piece of work, two against four or five.
My dad worked for Frank Costello in the 1950’s. I remember my Dad coming home all agitated the day Frank was shot.
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that Jews have always been shopkeepers, accountants and businessmen. My Dad and Uncle were very tough men and excellent marksmen in their day.
Sincerely, Steve Weiss.
I would love to know more about your father and uncle. From what info I can get from my family members, my Grandfather was a gangster at that time. My father has passed away and I think I can get some details from my uncle, but it is still painful for them because they felt ostracized from the Jewish community. He was gone a lot. They were from Vermont. My grandfather, Big Jake Levine, was a rum runner, smuggled chinese from Canada and was an enforcer. He wouldn’t have worked on his own. Who do you think he worked with? I am a writer. I would to get more stories of these men before they are gone.
Does anyone know of a Jewish gangster named
Morris J. Berman, or Mordecai J Berman. He was borh in 1925 and was in the construction business.
Deb
actually, if it wasn’t for ITALIAN mobsters like Frank Costello or Charlie Luciano, this jewish prick would still be getting his ass kicked by the irish, and buying shit out of a store with 50% off sale. Watch the movie “mobsters” before you start pulling shit out of your ass. The jews were NEVER more powerful than the italians. by the way “the sopranos” is based on a real crime family, the DeCavalcante crime family, so isn’t entirely fictional.