Meyer Lanksy

Majer Suchowliński was born on July 4th, 1902 in Grondo, in the Russion Empire. His Jewish family moved to New York in 1911. Whily Lanksy was in school, he met Lucky Luciano, who was already at work shaking kids down for protection money. When Lansky refused to pay, reportadly saying, "take your protection and shove it up your a**,"  the two got in a fight and when Lansky would not back down, Lucky befriended him and the two would be parters organizing the National Crime Synicate, a board of directors for organized crime.

The rise to the top

When prohibition was enacted in 1921, Lansky quit his job and from that point on never worked for anyone besides Lucky Lucinao again. Meyer annd Busgy Siegal made a small fortune in the bootlegging business before partering with Luciano. After Luciano became the Boss of Bosses, the two pushed their idea for a National Syndicate to other mobsters, starting the way for the new American Mafia, getting rid of old tradional Italian views, like not doing deals with Jews.

Lanksy was a very instrumental part in organizing the mob as we know it today, where Lucky and Bugsy were the force behind it, Lansky was the brains, known more for his organization and finance skills than ruthlessness. Although in his early days, he and Bugsy Siegal ran the Bug and Meyer Gang stealing bootlegged liquor and selling for huge profits, this gang was known as being one of the most violent at the time.

Casinos

Lansky, along with Bugsy Siegal, were instrumental in building casinos in Vegas. The Syndicate secretly owned many casinos in Vegas, one in particular was the Flamingo which was "managed" by Bugsy. For many several years it was known that Bugsy was losing money. Secret meetings were held in Cuba with Luciano and twice Busgy's long time friend got him off the hook, but the third time it didn't work, and a hit was ordered on Busgy. He was shot as he sat on his couch in his mansion reading the news paper and died instantly.

Final Days

Lanky's arrest record was miniscule compared to most mobsters. The government finally tried to make an attempt to put him away in the 70's. He was put on trial in 1973 after having heart surgury for income tax evasion, Lanky was aquitted. The government gave up its efforts to put awat Meyer in 1974, he was 72 years old.

Lansky died on January 15, 1983. Although no money really turned up, he was reportedly worth over $300,000,000 at the time of his death. If the money was there, and I assume there was some, it was probably put in offshore accounts, something he was known to have done.