Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983) was an American organized crime figure associated with gambling operations and illicit finance in the United States, Cuba, and the Caribbean during the mid-20th century. He was closely linked to Charles "Lucky" Luciano and is frequently described by historians and law-enforcement sources as a key figure in the formation of interethnic criminal cooperation in the United States, including the network later referred to as the National Crime Syndicate.
Lansky emerged from New York City’s Jewish underworld in the 1910s and 1920s and became primarily associated with gambling enterprises rather than narcotics trafficking. Contemporary investigations and later historical studies describe him as a financial organizer and intermediary who facilitated cooperation between Jewish and Italian-American crime figures, particularly in gambling and casino operations in Florida, Cuba, and Las Vegas. The extent of Lansky’s direct ownership interests and managerial control has been the subject of debate, with scholars cautioning that his role has often been exaggerated in popular accounts.
Despite decades of scrutiny by federal and state authorities, including nearly fifty years of investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Lansky was convicted only of illegal gambling offenses and was never found guilty of major financial or violent crimes. Estimates of his wealth during his lifetime varied widely in law-enforcement and journalistic accounts, but no substantial hidden fortune was recovered, and his estate at the time of his death was modest. Historians generally regard claims of extraordinary personal wealth as unproven and reflective of organized-crime mythology rather than documented financial control.
Early life Maier Suchowljansky was born on July 4, 1902, in Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus), to a Polish-Jewish family.Meyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits of New York's Master Manipulator pp. 14–16, Art Montague – 2005 When asked his native country, Lansky always responded "Poland".Wojciech Orliński "Polak Potrafi. Ten został szefem wszystkich szefów" https://wyborcza.pl/piatekekstra/1,135750,15364121,Orlinski__Polak_potrafi.html. In 1911, Lansky emigrated to the United States through the port of OdessaMeyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits of New York's Master Manipulator p. 17, Art Montague – 2005 with his mother and brother Jacob, and joined his father (who had immigrated in 1909) living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.Ancestry.com. New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah, US: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Year: 1911; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: T715_1652; Line: 11; Page Number: 56.
Lansky met Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel when they were children. They became lifelong friends, as well as partners in the bootlegging trade, and together managed the Bugs and Meyer Mob, with its reputation as one of the most violent Prohibition gangs. Lansky was also close friends with Charles "Lucky" Luciano; the two met as teenagers when Luciano attempted to extort Lansky for protection money on his walk home from school. Luciano respected the younger boy's defiant responses to his threats, and the two formed a lasting partnership.Lacey, Robert. Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1991. They later associated with veteran gangster Arnold Rothstein until his murder in 1928.David Pietrusza, Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, Basic Books, New York, 2011, p. 193.
Career Gambling operations, 1929–1945 Luciano had a vision to form a national crime syndicate in which the Italian, Jewish, and Irish gangs could pool their resources and turn organized crime into a lucrative business for all—an organization he founded after a conference in Atlantic City organized by himself, Lansky, Johnny Torrio, and Frank Costello, in May 1929.Howard Abadinsky, Organized Crime, Cengage Learning, 2009, p. 115"Genovese family saga". Crime Library.
Also, as early as 1932, Lansky shifted money from illegal activities in New Orleans to Swiss offshore accounts. The Swiss secrecy law from 1934 sanctioned the money laundering by "banks whose officials knew very well they were working for criminals". By 1936, Lansky had established gambling operations in Florida and Cuba. These gambling operations were founded upon two innovations:
Lansky and his connections had the technical expertise to manage them effectively based upon Lansky's knowledge of the mathematical odds of most popular wagering games. Mob connections and bribed law enforcement were used to ensure their establishments' legal and physical security from other crime figures and law enforcement.
There was also an absolute rule of integrity concerning the games and wagers made within their establishments. Lansky's "carpet joints" in Florida and elsewhere were never "clip joints", where gamblers were unsure whether the games were rigged. Lansky ensured that the staff administering the games were of high integrity.
With Carlos Marcello of Louisiana and Frank Costello of New York he was a partner in the New Southport and Beverly Club casinos of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
Opposing Nazi activity in America 1938–1941 With the election of Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the influence and membership of the Nazi party grew. Soon after, the influence of the Nazi party spread to America, mostly among German immigrants, who formed the organization Friends of New Germany (FONG). In 1936, FONG was succeeded by the German American Bund, with increased Nazi activity including rallies, marches and demonstrations. At the request of the New York Judge and former Congressman Nathan Perlman, Lansky and his gang stepped outside their usual criminal activities to break up rallies held by the pro-Nazi German-American Bund. He recalled a particular rally in Yorkville, a German neighborhood in Manhattan, that he and 14 associates disrupted, on April 20, 1938:
When Judge Perlman offered to pay Lansky for his services, he declined: "I am a Jew, and I feel for the Jews in Europe who are suffering. They are my brothers".
World War II involvement, 1941–1945 During World War II, Lansky was instrumental in helping the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)'s Operation Underworld, in which the government recruited criminals to watch out for German infiltrators and submarine-borne saboteurs. Lansky helped arrange a deal with the government via a high-ranking United States Navy official that secured Luciano's release from prison; in exchange, the Mafia provided security for the warships being built along the docks in New York Harbor. German submarines were sinking Allied ships in great numbers along the eastern seaboard and the Caribbean coast, and there was great fear of attack or sabotage by Nazi sympathizers. Lansky connected the ONI with Luciano, who reportedly instructed Joseph Lanza to prevent sabotage on the New York waterfront. Lansky was given an ONI contact code number and introduced ONI to John M. Dunn and Jeremiah Sullivan of the International Longshoremen's Association. After Lansky's death, a Medal of Freedom, which possibly had been secretly awarded to him for his deal with the ONI, was found amongst his possessions.
Flamingo Hotel, 1946–1947
In 1946, Lansky convinced the Italian-American Mafia to put Siegel in charge of Las Vegas, and became a major investor in Siegel's Flamingo Hotel. To protect himself from the type of prosecution that sent Al Capone to prison for tax evasion and prostitution, Lansky transferred his growing casino empire's illegal earnings to a Swiss bank account, where anonymity was assured by the 1934 Swiss Banking Act. Lansky eventually bought an offshore bank in Switzerland, which he used to launder money through a network of shell and holding companies.
In 1946, Lansky attended a secret meeting in Havana to discuss Siegel's management of the Flamingo Hotel, which was running far behind schedule and costing Siegel's Mafia investors a great deal of money. The other bosses wanted to kill Siegel, but Lansky begged them to give his friend a second chance.
Despite this reprieve, Siegel continued to lose money on the Flamingo. A second meeting was then called. By the time the meeting occurred, the casino had turned a small profit. With Luciano's support, Lansky convinced the other investors to give Siegel more time. When the hotel started losing money again, the other investors decided that Siegel was finished. It is widely believed that Lansky was compelled to give the final okay on eliminating Siegel due to his long relationship with him and his stature in the organization.
On June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot and killed in Beverly Hills, California. Twenty minutes later, Lansky's associates, including Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway, walked into the Flamingo and took control of it. According to the FBI, Lansky retained a substantial financial interest in the Flamingo for the next 20 years. Lansky said in several interviews later in his life that if it had been up to him, "Ben Siegel would be alive today".
Siegel's death marked a power transfer in Vegas from New York's Five Families to the Chicago Outfit. Although his role was considerably more restrained than in previous years, Lansky is believed to have both advised and aided Chicago boss Tony Accardo in initially establishing his hold.
Cuba, 1946–1959
Lansky was part of a group of mobsters who came to Havana in the 1940s and 50s that involved themselves in the casino and hotel industry on the island of Cuba. He established himself as the most powerful mobster in the country.
As early as 1937 he controlled the casino at the Hotel Nacional. In the same year Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista gave Lansky the task of renovating the Oriental Park Racetrack casino. In 1939, to celebrate the renovation of the racetrack's casino, Batista was presented with the ceremonial keys to the casino. Batista and Lansky formed a renowned friendship and business relationship that lasted a decade. During a stay at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the late 1940s, it was mutually agreed that, in exchange for kickbacks, Batista would offer Lansky and the Mafia control of the country's casinos and racetracks. Batista would open Havana to large-scale gambling, and his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel investment over , which would include a casino license. Lansky would put himself at the center of Cuba's gambling operations. He immediately called on his associates to hold a summit in Havana.
In 1946 Luciano's sentence was commuted as a thanks for his help during Operation Underworld. He was freed from US prison and deported, subsequently making his way to Cuba which he hoped would serve as a base of operations. In December 1946 Meyer Lansky co-hosted the Havana Conference with Luciano at the Hotel Nacional. It was attended by mafia families up and down the United States and set the National Crime Syndicates policy, rules, and business interests in the new postwar era. Lansky attempted to use his influence to keep Luciano in Cuba. He interceded personally with Batista and with his friend the Minister of the Interior, Alfred Pequeno. Eventually Luciano was deported under immense pressure from the US government who threatened an exports embargo on drugs going into Cuba should Luciano not be kicked out.