146 lines
20 KiB
Markdown
146 lines
20 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
aliases:
|
|
- Meyer Lansky
|
|
- Maier Suchowljansky
|
|
- Maier Suchowljanski
|
|
- Little Meyer
|
|
category: "Organized Crime"
|
|
tags:
|
|
- Person
|
|
- PROMIS
|
|
- MeyerLansky
|
|
- Gambling
|
|
- Casinos
|
|
- LasVegas
|
|
- Cuba
|
|
- Israel
|
|
- Bahamas
|
|
- KefauverCommittee
|
|
- OperationUnderworld
|
|
- Flamingo
|
|
summary: "Florida gambling operator whose casino interests ran from Las Vegas to Havana and the Bahamas, and whose 1972 expulsion from Israel was upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court."
|
|
born: 1902
|
|
died: 1983
|
|
location: "Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus)"
|
|
created: 2025-08-05
|
|
updated: 2026-10-09
|
|
relations:
|
|
- type: participant_in
|
|
with: "[[Operation Underworld]]"
|
|
role: "intermediary between Charles Luciano in prison and Naval Intelligence contacts"
|
|
start: 1942-05
|
|
end: 1944
|
|
fn: 2
|
|
- type: investigated
|
|
with: "[[Kefauver Committee]]"
|
|
reverse: true
|
|
role: "witness who invoked the Fifth Amendment on questions about Las Vegas and Florida gambling"
|
|
start: 1950-10
|
|
fn: 4
|
|
- type: prosecuted
|
|
with: "[[Department of Justice]]"
|
|
reverse: true
|
|
role: "criminal contempt, income tax and Flamingo skimming charges, Southern District of Florida"
|
|
start: 1971-03-24
|
|
end: 1974-08-22
|
|
fn: 19
|
|
- type: investigated
|
|
with: "[[Bahamas Commission of Inquiry into Gambling]]"
|
|
reverse: true
|
|
role: "named by Louis Chesler as the adviser who reviewed casino staff for Grand Bahama"
|
|
start: 1967-04
|
|
fn: 24
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
Meyer Lansky (1902 to 1983) was a [[Florida]] gambling operator whose casino interests ran through [[Las Vegas]], [[Havana]], and the [[Bahamas]]. During the Second World War the [[New York County District Attorney's Office]] and the [[U.S. Navy]] used his access to the imprisoned [[Charles Luciano]] and to Italian-American waterfront contacts. [[Israel]] refused him an immigrant's visa under the Law of Return, and in September 1972 the [[Supreme Court of Israel]] upheld his expulsion. He was born in [[Grodno]] in the Russian Empire, on July 4, 1902 according to the FBI's files.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### Wartime work with Naval Intelligence
|
|
|
|
In 1942 the New York County district attorney's office and [[Charles R. Haffenden]], a Naval Intelligence officer, sought access to the waterfront and to Italian-American contacts there. The plan used [[Moses Polakoff]], Luciano's lawyer, who proposed Lansky as the man to carry messages between Luciano and his outside associates. Luciano was moved from [[Clinton Correctional Facility]] to [[Great Meadow Correctional Facility]] on May 12, 1942. For about two years Lansky, Polakoff, [[Joe Lanza]], [[Mike Lascari]], [[Frank Costello]], [[Willie Moretti]], and others visited him there to carry his instructions to the outside. [[William B. Herlands]], the New York State Commissioner of Investigation whose 1954 report reviewed the arrangement, recorded that when Gurfein asked whether he would take part, Lansky said he "definitely would."[^2]
|
|
|
|
Herlands also recorded Lansky's own account, given to the inquiry, that through these associates he was given a number of Italians whom he brought to the [[Hotel Astor]] and, on two or three occasions, to Haffenden's office at [[90 Church Street]]. He said that Haffenden turned those men over to his assistants, and that at times he himself listened to the discussions, which covered the coastline and the terrain off Sicily before the invasion. Lansky testified that each of the associates who accompanied him on his visits to Luciano later cooperated with Naval Intelligence. Herlands reported that [[Johnny Dunn]] complained to Polakoff that ships were being loaded in a way that let a bomb be placed aboard them, and that it was decided Lansky would take Dunn to Haffenden to give the information directly.[^3]
|
|
|
|
Herlands called the arrangement the War-Aid Project. A letter from [[Carl F. Espe]], Director of Naval Intelligence, to Herlands, dated July 26, 1954, confirmed it, and Herlands reproduced the letter in his report.[^3]
|
|
|
|
### Kefauver Committee testimony
|
|
|
|
The [[Kefauver Committee]] questioned Lansky in executive session in [[New York City]] on October 11, 1950, with the questioning resuming the next morning. He declined to answer many questions on the ground that the answers might tend to incriminate him. Asked "Did you ever have an interest in the Flamingo Hotel at Las Vegas?" he answered, "I decline to answer on the ground that it may tend to incriminate me," and he gave the same answer when asked whether he had ever been in Las Vegas, Nevada.[^4]
|
|
|
|
### Cuba under Batista
|
|
|
|
An FBI memorandum in the Lansky file describes him as spending most of his time in Havana in late 1957. The same memorandum describes him as having organized [[Cuba]]'s gambling arrangements for [[Fulgencio Batista]].[^5]
|
|
|
|
In February 1958 a [[New York Mirror]] item reported a Havana dispatch quoting Cuba's Interior Minister, [[Santiago Rey]], to the effect that Lansky would not be readmitted to Cuba because of charges pending against him in the United States. Lansky told the paper that he would like to return because of his gambling interests.[^6]
|
|
|
|
In a telephone call to the Legal Attaché in Havana on January 4, 1959, Lansky said he was still in Havana looking after hotel personnel, and he wanted the American embassy to have a record that he remained there. In a later interview with an FBI agent, he admitted a connection with the Riviera casino in Havana but said he did not own it and expected to acquire an interest. He denied any interest in the National casino, which he had worked for before it was sold in early October 1958 to New York interests. He said that under the Batista government it had been necessary to pay off government officials, and that he was surprised at how many casino employees turned out to be members of the July 26th Movement.[^7]
|
|
|
|
The [[Las Vegas Sun]] interviewed Lansky on January 5, 1959. Its staff writer, [[Alan Jarlson]], reported that Lansky hoped the new government would emerge from Fidel Castro's liberation of Cuba and would continue to permit American gamblers to operate. The paper described him as holed up at his "$16,000,000.00 Habana Riviera," with an associate, [[Charles Baron]], whom it described as his right-hand man at the Riviera. The same FBI memorandum quotes another report of that date that the Lanskys also operated the Internacional casino in the [[Hotel Nacional]].[^8]
|
|
|
|
An undated newspaper article in the file describes a Cuban law that allowed gambling only in hotels worth a million dollars or more, which the article says Lansky's interests had arranged so that his dealers would be classed as "valuable technicians."[^9]
|
|
|
|
### Israel, 1970 to 1972
|
|
|
|
Lansky arrived in Israel in July 1970 on a visitor's visa and announced that he intended to apply for an immigrant's visa. A [[Miami Herald]] article by [[James Savage]], which the FBI copied into the file, reported that he had been living in [[Tel Aviv]] and traveling in Israel's resort areas for four months, and that unconfirmed rumors said he would apply for citizenship. The article quoted state and federal organized-crime experts describing a stay in Israel as a voluntary exile from the United States, and noted that a federal grand jury in [[Miami]] was examining his financial dealings in Las Vegas.[^10]
|
|
|
|
His lawyer, [[Yoram Alroy]], stated that the Minister of the Interior, [[Yosef Burg]], was weighing whether to grant the immigrant's visa, and that the Minister then informed Lansky at the end of December 1970 that he had decided not to grant it or renew the visitor's visa. On September 23, 1971 the Ministry refused to extend his tourist visa. The Ministry relied on section 2 of the [[Law of Return]], which allows the Minister to refuse an immigrant's visa to a person with a criminal past who is likely to endanger public welfare.[^11]
|
|
|
|
On November 14, 1971 the Supreme Court issued a temporary order against his expulsion and an order nisi requiring Burg to show cause why he should not grant the visa or reverse the extension refusal. The [[Jerusalem Post]] reported the interim order on November 15, 1971. The Ministry's later reply to the court said that it was prepared to issue Lansky a laissez-passer to enter any country willing to accept him.[^11]
|
|
|
|
The FBI recorded on September 12, 1972 that the Supreme Court of Israel had decided that Lansky must leave Israel, with the decision dated September 11, 1972.[^12] The Chief Justice, [[Shimon Agranat]], wrote an 83-page decision, which [[TIME]] magazine described as unanimous and precedent-setting. TIME quoted Agranat as writing that "the particular phenomenon of organized crime as it has developed in the U.S. has not yet struck root here in Israel. Heaven forbid that we should encourage opening a door for it." A government spokesman told TIME that if Lansky lingered he would be taken to the airport and asked to choose a flight.[^13] A case note by [[Claude Klein]], titled "The Lansky Case," appeared in the [[Israel Law Review]] in 1973.[^14]
|
|
|
|
The Jerusalem Post staff writer [[David Landau]] wrote on November 8, 1972 that the expulsion treated a Jew unfairly under the Law of Return. He compared Lansky's rejection by one country after another on November 5 and 6, 1972 to the wandering homeless Jews of earlier decades. The column is summarized in the FBI file, which records that it attacked the Interior Minister and the State Attorney, [[Gabriel Bach]].[^15]
|
|
|
|
Lansky left Tel Aviv on November 5, 1972 on Swissair, by way of [[Geneva]], for [[Rio de Janeiro]]. Brazilian authorities refused to admit him. He then flew on to [[Buenos Aires]] and was placed on a Braniff flight that stopped at several Latin American capitals and reached Miami on November 7, 1972. The FBI had recorded an allegation that he had obtained a Paraguayan immigrant visa in Israel. Agents took him into custody at Miami International Airport on a warrant for criminal contempt of the Miami grand jury, issued March 24, 1971.[^16]
|
|
|
|
### Las Vegas, the Flamingo, and the Fremont
|
|
|
|
[[Cheri Seymour]] wrote that the [[Fremont Hotel]] in Las Vegas was financed through a loan from [[Jimmy Hoffa]]. She described [[Edward Levinson]], a Las Vegas gambler, as a lieutenant of Lansky, and wrote that through [[Bobby Baker]] Levinson became acquainted with [[Clint Murchison, Sr.]].[^17]
|
|
|
|
An FBI informant's report recorded on April 30, 1963 stated that Lansky owned large shares of the [[Sands Hotel]], the Fremont, the [[Horseshoe Hotel]], and the Flamingo casinos.[^18]
|
|
|
|
On March 25, 1971 a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Lansky, [[Morris Lansburgh]], and [[Sam Cohen]] on a charge of conspiring to skim proceeds from the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas during 1960 to 1967, in order to avoid taxes on the skimmed money. The indictment named [[Louis Poller]] as an unindicted co-conspirator. A Las Vegas grand jury returned a superseding indictment on October 22, 1971.[^19]
|
|
|
|
Lansburgh and Cohen pleaded guilty, and on April 27, 1973 each was sentenced to one year in prison. Lansky's trial was postponed to January 7, 1974 because of his health.[^19] On August 22, 1974 Judge [[Roger D. Foley]] of the United States District Court in Las Vegas granted a sixth continuance and, in the order, stated that the case would lie dormant on the court calendar until Lansky died or government counsel dismissed the indictment; the FBI summary adds that Foley stated the case should be dismissed, after medical evidence indicated that Lansky would never be well enough to stand trial. A newspaper report in the same file says the indictment was dismissed.[^20]
|
|
|
|
On July 25, 1973 Lansky was acquitted, as the FBI summary records, of income tax evasion. That charge concerned gambling debts of customers of the Colony Sporting Club in London, which he was accused of not reporting as income.[^21]
|
|
|
|
Separately, Lansky was charged with criminal contempt on March 24, 1971 for failing to answer a grand jury subpoena. He was found guilty on February 28, 1973, and on June 14, 1973 he was sentenced to one year and a day at the federal medical center in [[Springfield, Missouri]]. On June 28, 1974 the [[Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals]] reversed the contempt conviction, holding that he should not have been convicted for failing to answer the subpoena.[^22]
|
|
|
|
### The Bahamas
|
|
|
|
The [[Wall Street Journal]] reported on October 5, 1965, in an article titled "Las Vegas East," that Lansky's associates [[Dino Cellini]] and [[George Sadlow]] figured prominently in the operation of the casino at the [[Lucayan Beach Hotel]] on [[Grand Bahama]]. The article quoted an unnamed man in a position to know the casino's operations, who said that Cellini and Sadlow were Lansky's men.[^23]
|
|
|
|
[[Louis Chesler]], a Canadian promoter, appeared before the Bahamian commission of inquiry into gambling and testified on April 18, 1967 that he had met Lansky and Lansky's brother at the [[Fontainebleau Hotel]] in [[Miami Beach]] about April 1, 1963, to seek advice on hiring staff for the Monte Carlo casino at [[Freeport, Bahamas|Freeport]]. Chesler said he went to Lansky because, "from what I was told," Lansky was "the dean of gambling - the most knowledgeable man to ask," and that Lansky looked over a list of prospective employees. Chesler testified that Lansky then offered the services of Sadlow, who was eighty, and that Sadlow controlled hiring and firing when the casino opened. Chesler also insisted that he had never done business with Lansky. The Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal reported the testimony on April 19, 1967, and the [[New York Times]] reported further testimony before the commission on April 22, 1967.[^24]
|
|
|
|
The commission also heard [[Stafford Sands]]. An undated newspaper article in the FBI file reports that Sands later acknowledged to the commission that Lansky had offered him a payment in 1960 to permit gambling on Grand Bahama, and that Sands turned the offer down.[^25]
|
|
|
|
In an FBI interview arranged for May 21, 1963 at Hollywood, Florida, Lansky said that the FBI, by painting him as a hoodlum, had succeeded in keeping him out of any Bahamian venture. He added that he thought gambling there would be a lucrative business, though one that would hurt the Miami Beach hotels.[^26]
|
|
|
|
### Footnotes
|
|
|
|
[^1]: FBI file 62-97928 and file 92-2831 Section 01 (birth recorded as July 4, 1902, Grodno; a school record in Section 02 gives August 28, 1902). https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^2]: William B. Herlands, report to Governor Thomas E. Dewey on the commutation of the sentence of Charles Luciano, September 17, 1954, introduction and "Synopsis of the Evidence," pp. 1 to 8, and pp. 45 to 46 (printed pagination). Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 13, University of Rochester Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. https://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/ATTACHMENTS/Series-13-17-2-Herlands-report.pdf
|
|
[^3]: Herlands report, September 17, 1954, pp. 45 to 46 and 65 to 66 (Polakoff, the Haffenden meetings, Lansky's testimony, the informants and Dunn), and "Official Confirmation of the War-Aid Project," p. 11, Espe letter of July 26, 1954. https://www.lib.rochester.edu/IN/RBSCP/ATTACHMENTS/Series-13-17-2-Herlands-report.pdf
|
|
[^4]: U.S. Senate, Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, *Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce*, Hearings, 82nd Congress, 1st session, Part 7 (New York-New Jersey), testimony of Meyer Lansky, executive session of October 11, 1950, pp. 149 to 153 (Flamingo and Las Vegas questions at p. 152; Lansky's testimony indexed at pp. 138 to 163). https://archive.org/details/investigationofo07unit
|
|
[^5]: FBI file 62-97928 and file 92-2831, Section 01 and Section 09 (memorandum quoting the *Las Vegas Sun* on Lansky's organization of Batista's casinos). Meyer Lansky FBI Files, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^6]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 02, memorandum citing "Cuba to Bar Lansky," Havana dispatch of February 20, 1958, and *New York Mirror*, February 22, 1958, p. 5. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^7]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 03, Legal Attaché Havana memorandum of January 4, 1959 (telephone call from Lansky), and FBI memorandum of an interview with Lansky, 1959. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^8]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 09, quoting *Las Vegas Sun*, January 5, 1959, interview by Alan Jarlson. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^9]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 16, undated newspaper article on Cuban gambling law. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky.
|
|
[^10]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 16, article by James Savage, *Miami Herald*, undated (written after Lansky had lived in Israel for about four months). https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^11]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 18 (decision of September 23, 1971 against extending the tourist visa) and Section 19, FBI letter of May 9, 1972 enclosing the *Jerusalem Post* of November 15, 1971 (interim order, Supreme Court of Israel, November 14, 1971), and a later *Jerusalem Post* report of the Interior Ministry's reply to the order nisi, quoting the petition of Lansky's counsel Yoram Alroy. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^12]: FBI teletype, Miami to Director, September 12, 1972, file 92-2831, Section 19 (Israeli Supreme Court decision of September 11, 1972). https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^13]: "The World: Non-Returnable Lansky," *TIME*, September 25, 1972. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C903591%2C00.html
|
|
[^14]: Claude Klein, "The Lansky Case," *Israel Law Review*, vol. 8, no. 2 (April 1973), pp. 286 to 295. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021223700004167
|
|
[^15]: David Landau, "Lansky's Odyssey and the Law of Return, Personal Opinion," *Jerusalem Post*, November 8, 1972, as summarized in FBI file 92-2831, Section 19. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^16]: FBI teletypes and memoranda of November 5 to 7, 1972, file 92-2831, Section 19 (departure from Tel Aviv, Brazilian refusal, Paraguayan visa allegation, arrest at Miami International Airport on a warrant of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, March 24, 1971, Title 18, section 401). https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^17]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010.
|
|
[^18]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 10, informant report recorded April 30, 1963. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky. Informant report.
|
|
[^19]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 17 (indictment of March 25, 1971 as printed in a Florida newspaper of March 29, 1971) and Section 20 (summary of the Flamingo skimming indictment, its superseding return on October 22, 1971, and the April 27, 1973 sentences). https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^20]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 20, order of Judge Roger D. Foley, August 22, 1974, and a newspaper report of the dismissal reproduced in the same section. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^21]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 20, summary of the July 25, 1973 acquittal on income tax evasion charges arising from the Colony Sporting Club debts. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^22]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 19 and Section 20, summary of the contempt case (sentence of June 14, 1973, Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri) and of the Fifth Circuit ruling of June 28, 1974. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^23]: "Las Vegas East," *Wall Street Journal*, October 5, 1965, by Monroe W. Karmin and Stanley Penn, as summarized in FBI file 92-2831, Section 13. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^24]: Louis Chesler testimony before the Bahamian commission of inquiry, April 18, 1967, as reported in *Miami Herald*, April 19, 1967 (Clarence Jones), *Wall Street Journal*, April 19, 1967 (Monroe W. Karmin), and *New York Times*, April 22, 1967, "Gambling Ties Traced in Nassau," as summarized in FBI file 92-2831, Sections 12 and 13. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|
|
[^25]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 16, undated newspaper article on the Lucayan Beach casino and Groves companies, including Sands's acknowledgment to the commission. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky.
|
|
[^26]: FBI file 92-2831, Section 10, FBI interview with Meyer Lansky arranged for May 21, 1963, Hollywood, Florida. https://archive.org/details/MeyerLansky
|