1619-1-22 Police studies : Meyer Lansky`s Inner Circle Page 1 of 13
Unit# 6: The Development of Organized Crime and the Worlds of Meyer Lansky
Lansky's Inner Circle
The remarkable career of Meyer Lansky has been frequently retold, most
comprehensively by Hank Messick (1973), but a brief recapitulation might be useful.
Lansky was born in Grodno, Russia, as Maier Suchowljansky in 1902; and with his
family, he migrated to New York in 1911. By 1918 he had formed acquaintanceships
with Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. As with many others, Prohibition gave him his
greatest opportunity, and the "Bugs and Meyer" gang rose to celebrity as a bootleggers'
mercenary force. By the late 1920s, with Lepke and Lucky, he pieced together the
outlines of a bootlegging syndicate which would be the dominant influence in organized
crime for the next two decades. After Prohibition, he and Siegel cast their eyes further
afield -- to the West, the Sunbelt, the Caribbean. In Miami, Lansky initiated the "Gold
Coast" with its hotels and casinos; in Cuba he created Batista's leisure empire; in Nevada
and California, Siegel used syndicate money to create a network of enterprises. Siegel
died in 1947, having tried to make himself an independent force, but Las Vegas lived on
to flourish and prosper. Lansky's business enterprises were now sufficiently far- flung to
withstand one setback like that which would be dealt him by Fidel Castro. If Havana fell,
he could turn back to Las Vegas or open new enterprises in Haiti, the Bahamas, or even
in London.
Attempting to describe Lansky's activities is an almost impossible task, even if we could
be sure which of the numerous ventures he is credited with he was in fact involved in
(some authors credit him virtually every financial scam since 1945). So with this caveat,
we can begin to describe Lansky's activities on behalf of organized crime. First, let's take
a look at the cast of characters which so frequentlyrare participants in Lansky-inspired
activities.
Lansky associates can broadly be divided into two categories: 1) the old-time veterans of
the gangs of the 1920s and 1930s; and 2) newer associates, usually relatively clean
lawyers and businessmen. Lansky appears to have preserved his friendships and business
partnerships over many decades. For example, after the hit on Bugsy Siegel, control of
his Flamingo Hotel passed to three old Lansky cronies: Moe Sedway from the Lower
East Side of New York, Morris Rosen, and "Gus" Greenbaum from Phoenix (Fried, 1980:
253-254). Some other examples of these long-standing relationships are instructive.
The Minneapolis mob headed by Isadore Blumenfeld in the 1920s provided Lansky with
some of his most durable business partners. Blumenfeld's bother "Yiddy Bloom" held
substantial investments in Miami area real estate and controlled a large portion of the
New York gambling market (in the supposed heartland of the "Five Families). Probably
his best known financial coup was the early 1970s stock fraud surrounding the artificial
boosting of Magic Marker shares. Bloom was joined in this by hig son Jerold and some
fifteen fellow conspirators. In the background, no doubt were Lansky and other mutual
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friends (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1980: 195-198).
Also from the Blumenfeld Mob was John Pullman, long used by Lansky in his banking
ventures for organized crime. Pullman had lived in Canada and Switzerland and was an
expert in the use of numbered accounts and dummy corporations. He was the head of the
"Bank of World Commerce" in Nassau (Bahamas) in the 1960s, a highly effective
"laundry" for Mob money (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1980: 198; Fried, 1980:
276-277).
"Dandy" Phil Kastel was part of the 1930s move to the Sunbelt from the New York
mobs. In New Orleans, Kastel bridges the years from the early bootlegging and gambling
syndicates to Carlos Marcello, and through it all, he was never far from Lansky's interests
(Messick, 1969: 105, 205, 247).
"Doc" Stacher (born 1902), emerged from New Jersey organized crime to become a
leader in organized crime's western empire (Fried, 1980: 281-282; Cook and Carmichael:
62).
Sydney Korshak (born 1907) was patronized early in his career by the Capone mob. He
enjoyed a very successful career representing labor unions and directed the flow of
Teamster money into the Nevada casinos. Korshak apparently has accumulated enormous
wealth from legitimate sources (Fried, 1980: 285-286).
Harry Teitelbaum was a prominent figure in the New York gangs of the 1920s, who was
also associated with the "Bugs and Meyer" and "L and G" gangs. By the 1950s,
Teitelbaum was associated with Nig Rosen in a Lansky-inspired heroin trafficking
operation (Fried, 1980; Cook and Carmichael).
Sam Cohen was a Los Angeles bookmaker who was closely associated with the Flamingo
Hotel in Las Vegas in the 1960s and accused with Lansky of operating a major skim
operation at the Fremont and Riviera casinos. With his sons Alan and Joel, he was
involved in some interesting deals in both Florida and the Pocono Mountains of
Pennsylvania. These real estate deals were conducted in association with Alvin Malnik,
Lansky's supposed "heir." Sam Cohen fits the pattern we have seen so often, of continuity
from the Prohibition gangs to the financial world of the 1970s and 1980s. He moved from
New York to Florida in the 1920s and joined the exodus to Nevada in the 1950s
(Messick, 1969: 326-331, 363; Mollenhoff, 1973: 186).
Benjamin Siegelbaum was a financial manipulator very close to Lansley, who was
involved in a Swiss money-laundering operation in the 1960s called the Exchange Bank
of Geneva. Siegelbaum had been a partner of Nig Rosen, John Pullman, Yiddy Bloom,
and others in his career.
Moms Lansburgh was a Lansky associate who was extremely powerful in Miami, where
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he controlled substantial hotel interests in Miami Beach. He was alleged to have been a
partner with Lansky and Sam Cohen in the Flamingo skim (Mollenhoff, 1973: 186).
Other prominent figures in the Lansky orbit were newer and more respectable figures.
For example: Delbert Coleman came to prominence in the late 1960s in the "Parvin-
Dohrman" affair. In 1968 Coleman was associated with Korshak in an attempt to
purchase the Parvin-Dohrman casinos in Las Vegas -- and to float that company's shares
artificially. Coleman and Korshak were also involved in Bernie Cornfeld's IOS scam
(Fried, 1980: 282-286; Raw et al.: 229; Demaris, 1981: 247). Another, Alvin Malnik
(born 1932), was picked by some observers of organized crime to be Lansky's probably
successor. He first came to prominence in the early 1960s with the attempt to establish a
gambling resort at Paradise Island in the Bahamas. He had already established himself in
the banking and real estate businesses in Miami but soon become Lansky's public "front-
man." The Paradise Island venture led to the establishment of Resorts International, the
entertainment and gambling conglomerate which was the subject of intense law
enforcement scrutiny for years as charges of control by Meyer Lansky surfaced (Mahan,
1980).
In the early 1970s, Malnik was also involved with Sam Cohen's sons in land deals in
Florida and the Poconos. Their companies -- COMAL and "Cove Associates" -- dealt
with Caesar's World and the Teamsters Pension Fund, both institutions which have
attracted a substantial amount of law enforcement attention (Fried, 1980: 282-286;
Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1980: 252- 254). Finally, Allen R. Glick (born 1942)
of Pittsburgh attracted a great deal of attention when his firm ARGENT (A.R. Glick
Enterprises) seemingly came from nowhere to secure a vast Teamsters loan (about $146
million). This enabled him to take over the Stardust casino in Las Vegas and much of the
plundered Parvin-Dohrman company. In 1979 he vias implicated in a skimming
operation, which led to his being forced to sell out for a comfortable profit (Fried, 1980:
284-285; Demaris, 1981: 318, 320, 365-366, 391, 445, 525-526). The operations which
these and other organized crime money- men were involved in recycled the profits of
organized crime and in turn generated immense new profits -- which are, however,
almost wholly clean.
Las Vegas
"Bugs and Meyer" pioneered Las Vegas on behalf of east coast organized crime interests,
investing money from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and other areas.
However, in each case it was Lansky who managed and coordinated the enterprise. It
would be incorrect to suggest that other mobs, such as the "Cleveland Four," were acting
as Lansky servants or as members of some kind of"Jewish Mafia", but only that their
move to Las Vegas was conditioned by Lansky's enterprises.
The first great hotel in Las Vegas was Siegel's Flamingo (1946). After his murder, the
hotel passed to three old Lansky cronies: Sedway, Rosen and Greenbaum. Gus
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Greenbaum would later manage the Riviera, but he fell out with his Chicago based
employers. He and his wife were murdered in 1958. Thereafter, new casinos appeared in
a.wift VaccCa icm.
The Thunderbird (1948) was fronted by a former Lieutenant- governor of Nevada but
was really a Lansky operation.
The Desert Inn (1950) was run by the Cleveland Four.
The Sands (1952) was owned by an awesome list of organized crime backers including
Lansky, Adonis, Costello, Stacher, Ed Levinson, Kid Cann, and Frank Sinatra.
The Sahara (1952) was backed by Chicago, Cleveland, and New York "money men."
The Riviera was backed by the Chicago mob.
The Dunes was opened by representatives of Raymond Patriarca of Rhode Island.
The Stardust (1958) was a Dalitz operation, as was the Sundance.
The Tropicana (1957) was backed by Kastel and Costello.
•
The Palace was opened by Patriarca, Chicago mob investors, Lansky, and Teamster
Union money. Teamster money also flowed into Caesar's Palace, the Landmark, the
Dunes, and the Fremont (Hammer, 1975: 224-225).
By the late 1950s, the casinos were doing an admirable job of making old-time gangsters
quite respectable -- particularly in the case of the old Cleveland Four. For instance,
Cleveland Four veteran Lou Rothkopfs nephew Bernie was a legitimate businessman,
director of the MGM Grand Hotel (Demaris, 1981: 56- 59). Moreover, the casinos
provided wonderful opportunities for "skimming" to defraud the IRS. In a major scandal
at the Flamingo in the 1960s, Lansky was indicted along with partners Morris Lansburgh
and Sam Cohen. Estimated "skimmed" profits amounted to several million dollars a year.
By the 1970s, the casinos were equally far from having purged themselves of mob
interests. Nick Civella and the Kansas City mob apparently controlled the Tropicana and
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expanded to include the Aladdin, and also the Stardust, purchased from Moe Dalitz. In
1968 Parvin agreed to sell out to Delbert Coleman with Sidney Korshak acting as
intermediary (and getting a $500,000 finder's fee for the transaction). At the end of 1968,
while the sale went through, Coleman and Korshak succeeded in artificially boosting the
Parvin-Dohrman stock from $35 to $141 a share with the aid of financial impresarios like
Bernie Cornfield of Investors' Overseas Services. After the inevitable collapse, Korshak
and Coleman pocketed their profits and Parvin-Dohrman changed its name to Recrion
(Fried, 1980: 282-286).
At this point, we run into the brilliant young businessman Allen Glick. We mentioned
earlier that in the early 1970s, Glick set up his own company, "Argent," in Las Vegas and
began raising a series of not insubstantial loans from the Teamsters' Pension Fund. By
1976 Glick owed the Teamsters about $146 million. In 1973 this largess enabled him to
take over all the shares of Recrion and become a major gambling magnate in Nevada. But
it was scarcely a good investment. Under Glick's management, the Stardust tried too hard
at the skimming game. Some $3.5 million was skimmed from its slot machines between
1974 and 1976 -- a scale which was regarded as much too blatant by Argent's
entertainment director, Chicago-based gambler Frank Rosenthal. By 1979, the Nevada
Gaming Commission ordered Glick to sell --which he did, to friends of Moe Dalitz. He
sold for a $2 million down-payment, the assumption of$92 million in debts, and another
$66 million to be paid from the casino's earnings by 1991. Presumably, Lansky was
behind at least some of this skullduggery -- but by this stage, he was extremely adept at
hiding his hand.
The Move to Florida
Organized crime's move into Florida came at least as early as the western migration. Al
Capone himself was one of the first to see possibilities in Florida for gambling and
tourism. By the 1930s, mob money was moving into real estate and into ventures like
Tropical Park Race Track in Coral Gables (a joint new York- Chicago operation), and
especially Lansky's Colonial Inn. The development of Miami Beach coincided with that
of Las Vegas. For instance, in the 1940s, the Wofford Hotel in Miami was the Florida
base for both Lansky and Costello; and the proprietor, Tatum Wofford, was friendly with
rising stars Richard Nixon and Bebe Rebozo. Rebozo himself was close to the Cleveland
syndicate. By the 1950s, organized crime had a well developed role in Miami hotels like
the Sands and the Grand. By the 1980s, some estimates claimed that roughly half of
Miami Beach hotels were connected to mob money through Lansky or associates like
Lansburgh and Yiddy Bloom (Moldea, 1978: 105-107).
Florida also provided an extremely valuable banking structure which could be used by
organized criminals from all parts of the country. This was unraveled (at least in part) by
investigations surrounding the Watergate affair of the 1970s. For example, the scandal of
Nixon's "Winter White House" revealed some interesting connections concerning the
"Keyes Realty Company." This company was named in the Kefauver hearings for its role
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as intermediary in bribes between organized crime and Dade County political officials. In
the 1940s, it played a major role in developing Miami gambling. In 1948 this company
transferred a Key Biscayne property to ANSAN, "a shadowy Cuban investment group" in
which syndicate money was allegedly involved. This linked the Cuban ancien regime
(such as Jose Aleman) with Batista and Luciano allies. Later, control of this real estate
passed to two new groups: the Teamster's Union Pension Fund and Lansky's Miami
National Bank. In 1967 this land passed to Nixon and Bebe Rebozo at bargain rates. One
of the Watergate burglars, a Cuban exile, was a vice president of Keyes Realty.
The Miami National Bank is an interesting case study in itself. In 1958, it was taken over
for the Teamsters, using Lou Poller as a front. Poller specialized in "laundering" money,
and, not surprisingly, he owed his primary loyalty to Lansky. Organized crime money
now reemerged in the form of real estate, apartment buildings, hotels, motels, and mobile
home companies. The Teamsters acquired this bank through Arthur Desser, another link
between Hoffa and Lansky, and it was Desser who made the 1967 Key Biscayne sale to
Nixon and Rebozo (Cook and Carmichael; Scott et al., 1976: 356-358; Hinckle and
Turner, 1981).
By the 1970s, a "subculture of banks in southern Florida" was linked by "interlocking
directorates and major investors" (Freed, 1980: 141). Besides the Miami National, there
were the Bank of Miami Beach, International Bank of Miami, the Key Biscayne Bank,
and Southeast First. Federal prosecutors linked Southeast First to the intelligence
community and especially to the 1976 murder of Chilean exile Orlando Letelier. These
banks have also been associated with the Lansky and Luciano mobs and the Cleveland,
Boston, and Las Vegas crime organizations.
Cuba
Cuba represented the first major international venture of organized crime (Messick, 1967;
1973; Blakey and Billings, 1981: 228-232; Hinckle and Turner, 1981). Lansky had
acquired the Hotel Nacional in Havana as early as 1937, and this gave his friends a
foundation on which to build after Batista's coup of 1952. Casinos now appeared rapidly -
- Lansky's Havana Riviera, run by the Cellini brothers; the Havana Hilton; the San Souci;
the Capri; the Commodore; the Tropicana. At the Nacional, Cleveland money was the
key investment, but the operator was Jake Lansky, and in each case there were massive
opportunities for skimming. Castro's revolution came as a disaster for American crime,
but Lansky's circle of investors was already on the lookout for opportunities further
afield.
The Banks
At least by the 1950s, organized crime was learning the importance of clean money; no
longer could gangsters depend on the loyal silence of bankers as in the bootlegging days.
Lansky learned the techniques of"laundering" profits, especially through Swiss
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numbered accounts. Nig Rosen used such Swiss bank accounts for his heroin
"connection" in the 1950s. Soon, Lansky and his associates established their own banks.
Malnik established the Bank of World Commerce in Nassau. Mob money flowed into the
Bahamas, before passing to Tibor Rosenbaum's International Credit Bank in Swtizerland.
Then, it could return to the U.S. for reinvestment. At every stage in these operations, we
find familiar faces: the Bank of World Commerce has headed by John Pullman, and
investors included Ed Levinson. In turn, Levinson and Siegelbaum were active in other
Swiss "laundry shops," the Exchange Bank of Geneva. Finally, we have observed the
growth of the Florida network.
These banks could provide a clean base for further ventures. For instance, it was
Rosenbaum's bank which supported Cornfeld's IOS. Again, the Overseas Investors
Corporation gave Robert Vesco his opportunity to plunder a fortune. Both the Vesco and
Rosenbaum ventures collapsed by the 1970s. They certainly have their successors,
although full details will only become apparent when they in turn reach their inevitable
date with fiscal reality (Raw et. al., 1971; Fried, 1980: 276-286; Clark and Tighe, 1975;
Hutchinson, 1974; Messick, 1969: 201-209).
The Bahamas
Summarizing the complex saga of gambling in the Bahamas is no easy task. But briefly
in the 1950s, the success of Lansky's ventures in Cuba led to attempts to establish similar
gambling enterprises elsewhere. The frontmen for the Lansky enterprise were Wallace
Groves and Louis Chesler. They attempted to develop a "freeport" in the Bahamas; and in
the early 1960s, Lansky interests were established at the Freeport Monte Carlo casino.
This casino was managed by two of Lansky's longest-established gambling technicians,
Dino and Eddie Cellini (Mahon, 1980).
Also in the late 1950s, Huntingdon Hartford was attempting to found a casino at Hog
Island -- promptly rechristened "Paradise Island." However, he found considerable
difficulty in getting a gambling license from the governmental minister concerned, Sir
Stafford Sands. At this point Alvin Malnik entered the picture. Malnik made a very
tempting offer: Paradise Island would be bought out by a firm called Mary Carter Paint,
and Lansky would see to obtaining a gambling license. The dating of this deal in the early
1960s was important; obviously, Lansky was seeking another Caribbean haven to replace
Castro's Cuba. He brought with him old gambling partners like Max Courtney, "Trigger
Mike" Coppola, Frank Ritter, and the Cellini brothers.
From the mid-1960s, events happened rapidly; in 1966 Hartford and his adviser, Seymour
Alter, sold Paradise Island to Mary Carter Paint. In 1967 the Paradise Island casino
opened with a glittering assembly of guests --including Richard Nixon, and in 1968
Mary Carter Paint changed its name to "Resorts International." However, the pressure
was also intensifying, especially after Sands' party was defeated iii the 1967 election.
Lansky involvement in the casino was blatant, represented as it was by the presence of
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Dino and Eddie Cellini -- both veterans of gambling operations in Kentucky and Cuba. In
the U.S., the Organized Crime Strike Force of the Justice Department was appalled by the
Lansky operation and began to release information about it to the media. However, it was
the Watergate affair which led to the greatest embarrassments. It was suggested that
Resorts International had been linked to Bebe Rebozo, that Resorts and Robert Vesco had
been laundering Nixon campaign money, and that Seymour Alter had been the bagman
for Vesco, Rebozo, and Resorts. Clouds were gathering over Paradise Island but not
sufficiently to prevent Resorts International from acquiring a gambling license in New
Jersey (Mahon, 1980; Cook and Carmichael).
International Activities
Tax Havens. Organized crime learned long ago that it was useful to register companies
and place investments in foreign nations with fairly lenient laws on the transfer of money.
Examples include Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, Panama, the Cayman Islands,
and the Netherlands Antilles. There would certainly be other countries where
investigators have been slow to look for "front" companies, such as the Irish Republic.
The Industrialized World. Organized crime money has flowed freely into Canada --
Sturman money through Morton Goss in Toronto and Lansky's interests through John
Pullman. Also, Canada's convenience for drug importation has made cities like Montreal
open organized crime territory. Quasi-political organizations like the Quebec FLQ dabble
in the Miami drug trade.
Britain has proved an equally tempting target since the legalization of gambling there in
1960. Lansky, the Cellinis, Angelo Bruno, and others all made exploratory journeys there
in the 1960s. The British government closed casinos because of alleged organized crime
involvement -- the Colony Club in 1966, and Penthouse magazine's interests in 1971.
British gangsters like the Krays also tried to link up with U.S. colleagues -- apparently
both Bruno and Lansky. In England as in Holland, Sturman has made major incursions
into the pornography trade (Blum and Gerth, 1978).
When Australia was discussing the legalization of gambling in the mid-1970s, the Bally
corporation attempted to gain a foothold, but extensive connections with Dino Cellini and
Gerry Catena led to their exclusion (Blum and Gerth, 1978). Bally was much more
successful in its ventures in Sweden (Block and Chambliss, 1981: 135-142).
South America. In Latin America we find the most consistent pattern, hardly surprising
if we look at the prosperous cities frequented by Americans in the 1930s and 1940s --
Havana, Rio, Buenos Aires. In addition to Cuba, there is clear evidence of organized
crime involvement in a number of other countries.
Mexico. In the National Lottery scandal of 1947-1949, Mexican senators were bought by
mob money. Also, there is an interesting connection through Gulf and Western
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Corporation to Mexican operations. In 1970 the Illinois Racing Commission found that
Gulf and Western was a partner with Philip Levin (a Gulf and Western director) in the
Acapulco Towers Hotel. This hotel was run by Moe Morton, who entertained there in
1969 an impressive guest list:
From Miami: Lansky
From Las Vegas: Dean Shendel, Moe Dalitz, Hyman Segal
From Montreal: Tony Roma
From Chicago: Sydney Korshak, Delbert Coleman
In 1970, Acapulco was the center for a further meeting involving Lansky, Levin,
Korshak, and Newton Mandell of Gulf and Western (Gulf and Western was also
associated with Michele Sindona, the Italian banker whose collapse in the late 1970s
caused major damage to the Vatican's finances) (Lemoux, 1980: 240). Gulf and Western
was also the corporation that U.S. military intervention in 1965 brought to a dominant
role in the small Dominican Republic, where it enjoys the rights of a feudal barony. It is
also widely active, for instance, in Brazil.
Honduras. Leading army officers were involved with organized crime in making the
country a bridge for the cocaine traffic.
Guatemala. Guatemalan government officials provided Carlos Marcello with phony
nationality papers after his expulsion from the U.S. by the Kennedy Justice Department.
Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Both of these countries were CIA fiefdoms in the 1950s and
1960s and were heavily involved in anti-Castro plots. Those CIA ventures involved
dabbling by organized crime, primarily through Marcello and Trafficante. Dictators like
Stroessner (Paraguay) and the Somozas were easy targets for organized crime
blandishments.
Argentina. Lansky's South American drug trade was coordinated by August Ricord from
Argentina (Chambliss, 1978: 165).
Other Financiers
Moe Dalitz: In a FBI wiretap, the New Jersey gangster "Gyp" De Carlo remarked,
"There's only two Jews recognized in the whole country today. That's Meyer and ... Moe
Dalitz." We have already discussed Dalitz' role in the "Cleveland Four" and his move into
Las Vegas, especially his involvement at the Stardust and the Desert Inn. However, in the
mid-1960s, income tax trouble and heat from the Casino Control Commission forced him
to sell his enterprises. With the help of a large Teamster Union loan ($57 million between
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1964 and 1972), Dalitz established an extremely posh country club at La Costa, north of
San Diego. We have already discussed the consequences of his sale of the Stardust to
Parvin-Dohrman, but in 1979 an old associate of his bought back these casinos after the
departure of Allen Glick. Like Lansky, Dalitz has proceeded from the bootlegging
underworld to very substantial prosperity. In 1980 a Forbes article estimated his wealth in
the $100-150 million bracket, second only to Lansky among the alumni of organized
crime. It also cited his extremely healthy investment portfolio -- including Detroit Steel
and the Rock Island Railroad (Cook and Carmichael).
Frank Erikson: Born in 1896, Frank Erikson was one of the most important organized
crime figures in New York with a career stretching from the 1920s to the 1950s. In
addition to his New York operations, he owned "points" in Meyer Lansky's Colonial Inn
in Florida; he leased the rights to a horse parlor at the Roney Plaza Hotel in Miami; he
owned a piece of another Florida casino, the Farm, and he ran bookmaking operations
which covered the Florida race tracks (Kefauver, 1951: 811-830). In addition, Erikson
ran an extensive bookmaking operation throughout New Jersey. Erikson had legitimate
holdings, such as the Park Avenue Theater and the Anderson Galleries in New York City.
One of his more surprising holdings was Bruil Petroleum, which had vast oil interests in
Texas. Erikson was a close friend and associate of Frank Costello, with whom he
probably shared control of New York bookmaking. In addition, Erikson was in business
with Meyer Lansky, "Dandy" Phil Kastel, Willie Moretti, Charles Fischetti, Joe Massei
(from Detroit), Willie Bischoff, and Little Augie Pisano. Despite Erikson's rather
successful efforts to shield himself from too much public scrutiny, it is clear that he
played a major role in the organizing of crime networks in New York and Florida, he was
certainly someone with considerable financial resources to be brought to that
organization.
The Teamsters and the Dorfmans: Anyone studying organized crime will have
frequent call to look at the activities of the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund. This
fund -- it passed the billion dollar mark in 1972 -- has served as an organized crime bank.
It has largely financed the development of Las Vegas and of gambling and leisure in
Florida and California; it financed the La Costa Country Club and the "Cove Associates"
deal; it finances real estate deals, and played a large role in the deals which resulted in
removing President Nixon from office. From the 1950s to the 1970s, this fund was
largely directed by Paul Dorfman and his stepson, Allen. Let us trace the progression of
events by which this vast fortune passed into the hands of men accessible to organized
crime interests.
In the 1930s, the teamsters secured their position by providing employers with a tame and
amenable alternative to the radical CIO and the Communists. From the early 1930s, the
leadership was closely tied to gangsters -- especially in Detroit; but by the late 1940s,
Jimmy Hoffa had consummated the organized crime - Teamster Union alliance. Hoffa's
former mistress became friendly with Moe Dalitz, and this contact gave him a whole
series of Mob friends -- the Pressers in Cleveland and the Chicago mob. From the latter,
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Hoffa became close to Paul Dorfman, an associate of Anthony ("Big Tuna") Accardo.
Dorfman had a distinguished record in the Capone mob as a labor racketeer. In the 1920s
and 1930s, he had led the corrupt Chicago Wastehandlers Union after the murder of a
predecessor (a murder allegedly carried out by Jack Ruby) (Moldea, 1978: 49-50, 55-58,
86-88, 141-49; Demaris, 1981: 321-326, 342, 378, 402).
In 1951 the Teamsters set up the Central States Health and Welfare Fund, the insurance
portion of which was run through a company managed by Paul's inexperienced stepson,
Allen Dorfman (born 1923). Allen learned quickly. He guided the investments both of the
Teamsters and of Hoffa personally. They moved into oil, stocks, and especially real estate
-- one unusually corrupt deal involved the Sun Valley retirement community, a deal
which would later result in legal trouble for Hoffa. In 1955 the union established a new
Central States South Eastern and South-Western Pension Fund, run almost entirely by the
Dorfmans.
Allen did extremely well. His own Union Casualty Agency had now become a substantial
conglomerate. It owned insurance companies, oil interests, and slum housing; it held real
estate -- even a resort in the Virgin Islands. From the 1950s, the alliance with Lou Poller's
Miami National Bank gave the Dorfmans a "laundry" akin to Lansky's. The move into the
Sunbelt was reflected by friendship with Dave Yaras and through him with Carlos
Marcello and Santo Trafficante. Allen Dorfman was a man of great importance, close to
the Chicago and Cleveland syndicates, to Las Vegas and all the varied interests the
Teamsters had funded. Allen himself was succeeded in the Teamsters by Alvin Baron as
"Asset Manager." Who had benefitted from the Doifinan's largess? When the old trustees
relinquished their control of the Central States Pension Fund in 1976,the chief recipients
were familiar faces (Cook and Carmichael):
Allen Glick -- $140 million
Morris Shenker -- $135 million
Moe Dalitz -- $93 million
Alvin Malnik -- $20 million
Ed Levinson: In 1963 a Senate inquiry into misdeeds by Bobby Baker was interrupted
by protests from Baker's attorney, Edward Bennett Williams. Apparently, Baker's
conversations with a gambler named Levinson had been wiretapped, and Williams
protested that this constituted a violation of Baker's civil rights. However, he had
misunderstood one major point: the target of the investigation was not the wayward
politician; it was the powerful, but little-known gambler.
Ed Levinson was born in Chicago and had operated as a gambler in Detroit, Miami, and
quasi-"open cities" like Newport or Covington (both in Kentucky). In 1952 he had joined
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the mob migration to Nevada. He bought into the Sands, then the Flamingo, and later the
Fremont. This he accomplished with the help of a Teamster loan, and he began a sizable
skim operation of between one and two million dollars a year in the early 1960s.
Meanwhile his brother Louis kept a foothold in the Cleveland syndicate's territory of
northern Kentucky (Messick, 1969: 348-362; Mollenhoff, 1973: 104, 114-116; 187-189).
Levinson was extremely well-connected both with the legitimate and the criminal worlds.
"Above ground" his connections were so good as to secure access to secret FBI wiretaps
while he contributed generously to Nevada politicians at all levels of government. In the
underworld, he was close to Lansky faithfuls like Doc Stacher and Benjamin Siegelbaum
while he participated in the Bank of World Commerce and the Exchange Bank of
Geneva.
In 1962 the IRS began a large-scale investigation of Las Vegas "skimming." This resulted
in 1967 in convictions for the Fremont and for the Riviera - a Sam Cohen operation.
Levinson was fined a token sum but his notoriety was primarily due to the Baker link. It
is interesting that so major an organized crime figure should only be revealed to the
public gaze because of a friendship with a corrupt politician stupid enough to associate
publicly with the likes of Levinson and Siegelbaum. How many other Levinsons are there
who have avoided such a fatal mistake (Mollenhoff, 1973)? In short, like Dalitz,
Levinson seems to be another example of the rise from organized crime to corporate
business.
Reuben Sturman: Sturman is a figure of considerable wealth and influence, whom
frequent reports have linked to organized crime. This does not necessarily mean that he
was himself a criminal -- though his pornography trade floated on the margins of legality,
and he was convicted on both RICO and tax charges in the late 1980s. Nor does it mean
that he is in any sense a servant of organized crime. He is merely an interesting example
of the sort of rich and powerful figure who is extremely hard to fit into traditional models
of organized crime. By contrast, he can easily be reconciled with theories which
emphasize the coordinating role of capital and finance.
Sturman was born in 1924. By the late 1970s, he owned perhaps 800 retail pornography
stores in the U.S., often through very complex patterns of concealed ownership. In
England he worked in close collaboration with local organized criminals, like the
Holloway family, a well-established pornography group. On the European continent, his
chief foothold was through a firm called Intex Nederland, a key distributor of
pornographic videos. A subsidiary of Intex is Video-Rama, which distributed
pornographic videos throughout Europe and to the extremely lucrative Middle Eastern
market of Cairo, Beirut, Kuwait City, and Riyadh. Firms like Intex, Video-Rama, and
their associated companies (like First Columbus Trust) are registered in the Netherlands
Antilles, a territory whose laws of business secrecy make the Swiss look ostentatious
(Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1980: 118-121).
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What we have here is a worldwide pornography syndicate -- not a monopoly perhaps, but
an enormously powerful conglomerate -- and a syndicate whose representatives were all
but unknown to the general public. Who had ever heard of Sturman or his representatives,
like his son David Sturman, like Scott Dorman, or Frank Bilitz of Baltimore? In the
Miporn investigation (1977- 1980), the FBI found Sturman associated with mobsters like
Robert DiBernardo and Teddy Gaswirth (Pennsylvania Crime Commission, 1980: 118).
Were there Others?
Was Lansky the only operator on his scale, or were there others? If so, how many?
Three? Fifty? It's difficult to say. We can only indicate briefly that there seem to be
others much less publicized, whose command of wealth is awesome. For instance, there
is no doubt that when Doc Stacher fled to Israel, he retired a rich man (worth at least
$100 million). John Pullman may well have accumulated the same sort of fortune over
the years. Even if they were this wealthy, did they act as independent financiers? It seems
that these are vital questions to answer in order to appreciate the nature and scale of
organized crime.
CRJ 401: Organized Crime
Gary W. Potter
Eastern Kentucky University
padpotte(aacs.eku.edu
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