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Meyer Lansky, Little Big Man

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Meyer Lansky, Little Big Man A e fsC 0 •' 0 6.1—E ett: C6Adt(C-4._ Y. 1g/ Meyer Lansky, Little Big Man LITTLE MAN daughter who was an FBI infor- Meyer Lansky and the Gangster mant and other children who Life were suicidal or estranged. But, By Robert Lacey as the subject of endless pulp his- tories of the syndicate, brilliantly Little, Brown; 547 pages; $24.95 caricatured as "Hyman Roth" in "The Godfather, Part II" land REVIEWED BY MICHAEL STERN more typically stereotyped as hen FBI agents raided "Manny Weisbord" in TV's florid the New Jersey head- "Crime Story"), Lansky had be- W quarters of the Luc- come the prisoner of his own pub- these crime family in the mid- licity. 1980s, they found two icons on Lansky was perceived as the the wall of the Newark luncheon- boss of bosses not only by a cred- ette- photographs of Al Capone ulous public and a zealous FBI and Meyer Lansky. Here were the but also by people who should Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll of Ameri- have known better. Informants ca's greatest urban folk tale, Ca- made their careers-by making up pone as the apotheosis of the stories about him (the govern- Mob's brutal violence and corrup- ment lost both of the major cases tion, Lansky the legendary it brought against him — for tax "Chairman of the Board" of orga- evasion and skimming casino nized crime, the shadowy finan- winnings — when its witnesses cial mastermind behind the were discredited). His reputation scenes. led the Israeli government to bar This anecdote exemplifies his immigration on the grounds both the deft irony and thorough that his very lack of a criminal FROM 'MTh E mAN' research of Robert Lacey's su- record bespoke his dangerous casino operator was that of ly perb biography of Lansky, "Little power to corrupt officialdom and an wiped him out) as a bootlegger Man." By the time of his death in cover his tracks. entrepreneur, not a corporate and casino operator was based on 1983, Lansky wasn't rich, power- Lacey — the British chroni- chieftain. ' his personal integrity and ability ful or well-connected, Lsicey says. cler of the Saudi and English roy- Setting the record straight to manage complex shareout ar- He was a poor, tired old man with al families and of the Ford Motor doesn't get in the way of Lacey's rangements In his head. "Not in- an insane first wife, and with a Co. — amassed 86 pages of source own narrative talent, however. telligent, but wise," in the words notes (ranging from FBI files to "Little Man" is a compelling sto- of his Israeli lawyer, Lansky earn- extensive interviews) for his me- ry, full of gems such as these: ed the trust of his partners and ticulous debunking of the many Lansky was initiated into the customers in running "illegal en- myths of Lansky's life and of the wise-guy world as an 11-year-old terprises whose enduring success notion of "organized crime." on Manhattan's Lower East Side depended on being honest." Jansky's glamour came en- Lacey's well-documented the- in 1914, using the nickels his mother gave him for household tirely from his milieu and the sis is that crime is Intensely local popular culture's creation of ur- and specialized, rather than an needs to play craps instead. ban desperadoes to replace van- integrated network of Illegal en- The anatomy of protection for ished Western folk heroes such as terprises funded by a worldwide Lansky's Hallandale, Fla., gam- Billy the Kid and Jesse James. gambling and drug empire. Lan- bling operations from 1945 to Lacey's unsparing portrait re- sky and his fellow Jewish and 1950 is described in detail: City weals an otherwise ordinary man Italian gangsters between 1900 officials' friends and relatives fes- of modest talent, banal taste and and 1960 were independent fami- tooned the casino payrolls; local stunted emotions, who failed at ly businessmen, a parodic version farmers were paid top dollar for every legitimate enterprise he of their bourgeois counterparts their produce for the casino din- tried and who devastated the ' who were busily assimilating on ing rooms, the local police escort- lives of his wives and children. the right side of the tracks. Their ed each night's take to the bank For once, a reporter has "organization" was at most a — and the armored car transport- printed the facts, not the legend, loose confederation of local boss- ing the cash was owned by the to paraphrase John Ford, and the es who met periodically to settle sheriff's brother. -results are just as entertaining turf wars or handle common Lacey's ultimate conclusion and far more enlightening. ■ threats, he writes. There was no about Lansky: He had honor national criminal board of direc- among thieves. Lansky's relative Michael Stern, a former journalist tors for Lansky to chair; his ca- success (before Castro's expropri- and English professor, is a Palo Alto reer as a gambler, bootlegger and ation of his Cuban hotel effective- lawyer. .
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