But He Was Good to His Mother - The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters

by Robert Rockaway

  When Prohibition ended, so too did Boo Boo’s prominence in Philadelphia’s underworld. He invested his bootlegging fortune in a series of nightclubs and jukebox dance joints, all of which failed. He died penniless in 1941 after swallowing dozens of sleeping pills.85

  Hoff’s successor as Philadelphia’s dominant Jewish mobster was Harry Stromberg, alias Nig Rosen. He was called “Nig” because, as he said, “I was dark and they called me Nig.” Stromberg was born in Russia in 1902 and immigrated with his parents to the East Side of New York in 1906. He was first arrested for juvenile delinquency when he was thirteen and went to jail on a burglary conviction when he was nineteen. Upon his release, he joined the Lepke mob that terrorized the New York garment industry. Police intelligence had him working with Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello as well.86

  After moving to Philadelphia, Stromberg became a major power in the gambling business. He also led what was called the “69th Street Gang” that dealt in prostitution, extortion and labor racketeering. His influence extended as far as Washington, Baltimore and Atlantic City.87

  Stromberg left Philadelphia sometime in the 1930s, but continued to run part of its numbers racket. In 1950, the Kefauver Committee still identified him as “Philadelphia’s gambling czar.” He later became involved in smuggling heroin into the United States from France, reportedly earning $20 million a year from the trade.88

  He retired in the 1960s to Florida, where he died in 1984. When Stromberg left Philadelphia, he was succeeded by his driver and bodyguard, Willie Weisberg, a long-time member of the city’s Jewish underworld.

  Lester Schaffer, an attorney who represented Weisberg, remembers that as boss of the rackets, “he was under constant harassment by the police. He couldn’t even walk down the street without being tailed and stopped.

  “Weisberg knew he was being followed by the FBI. He got so used to it that when he saw agents in a restaurant, he would call them over to have a drink with him.

  “Once he was sitting with Angelo Bruno (Philadelphia’s Mafia boss) in a restaurant. It was snowing outside. So he went over to the FBI agents sitting in their car and told them his itinerary so they wouldn’t waste time sitting out in the cold and could meet him where he was going.”89

  Weisberg was born in Russia and came to the United States with his parents when he was six. During the 1930s and 1940 he was arrested more than thirty times on charges of robbery, establishing lotteries, extortion and violations of the Firearms Act. From 1940 to 1950 the Philadelphia police barred him from setting foot in the city.

  In 1950 he was investigated by the Kefauver Crime Committee, and again in 1957 by Senator John McClellan’s Senate investigations committee. In 1961 he was listed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy on a “top echelon” roster of 40 leading American racketeers. Weisberg died in Philadelphia in 1978.90

  Bootlegging in Boston was controlled by Charles “King” Solomon, alias “Boston Charley.” He headed one of the largest liquor, vice and narcotics smuggling syndicates in New England.91

  Born in Russia in 1884, Solomon was brought to Boston as a small boy and grew up in a middle class home on Boston’s West End. Charley’s father owned a theater and he had three brothers who all went straight.

  Earning money legitimately never interested Charley. By the time he was twenty he was involved in prostitution, fencing and narcotics smuggling, mostly cocaine and morphine.

  Solomon ran the Boston underworld during the 1920s. As a bootlegger he dealt with Seagrams in Canada and with associates in New York and Chicago. By bribing the local authorities, Solomon was never convicted of a single liquor charge in Boston.

  Unfortunately for Charley, he did not outlive Prohibition. He was killed by gunmen in the washroom of the Cotton Club in Roxbury a day before he was to testify in court about his liquor smuggling operation.

  According to witnesses, four men “escorted” Solomon into the men’s room. An argument followed and a waitress heard Solomon say, “You’ve taken my money, what else do you want.”

  Another voice said, “You’ve got this coming to you, anyway.”

  Then three shots were fired and the men came running out.

  Solomon staggered out of the washroom, bleeding. He cried, “The dirty rats got me,” and fell to the floor. He died the next day.92

  The killers were eventually caught and tried for robbery and murder. Three of the men were convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to seven years in jail, while the other was convicted of manslaughter and armed robbery and received a ten to twenty-year sentence.

  Solomon’s widow Bertha inherited a million dollar estate and remarried a year after Charley’s death. Her second husband was legitimate.

  During Prohibition, Charley Solomon, Longy Zwillman, Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz, Bugsy Siegel and Lepke Buchalter were known as the Jewish “Big Six’’ of the East Coast. But Jewish mobsters played important roles in other places as well.

  Chapter Two: Rogues of the Midwest

  Not every Jewish gangster attained the stature of the East JL V Coast bosses. Nevertheless, Jewish mobsters also played significant roles in organized crime in the Midwest.

  Bootlegging and gambling in Cleveland were bossed by the “Cleveland Four” — Morris “Moe” Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, Sam Tucker and Louis Rothkopf. All were born at the turn of the century: Tucker in Lithuania, the other three in the United States of immigrant parents. The mob’s recognized leader was Moe Dalitz. Moe was born in Boston in 1900, but grew up in Detroit where he attended elementary and high school. He began his career as a bootlegger while in Detroit, serving as one of the admirals in “the Little Jewish Navy.” This gang of Jewish rum-runners ferried booze from Canada across the Detroit River to quench the thirst of many a Motor City resident.

  For a time, Dalitz teamed up with members of Detroit’s dominant Jewish mob, the Purple Gang, but he soon fell out with Joseph Zerilli, one of the local Mafia chieftains, and thought it prudent to shift his base of operation across Lake Erie to Cleveland. There he found his niche.

  Abner (Longey) Zwillman

  Through a skillful use of bribery and a judicious application of murder and mayhem, Dalitz and his syndicate dominated the bootleg liquor traffic to Ohio from Canada. They moved so much illegal booze across Lake Erie that it became known as “the Jewish Lake.”1

  Dalitz and his associates existed side by side with the Cleveland Mafia, led by Big Al Polizzi and his Mayfield Road gang. Together they eliminated competition posed by the Italian Porello brothers and Lonardo family. Relations between the Jewish and the Italian group remained cordial for many years.

  When Prohibition ended, the Jewish syndicate operated gambling casinos in Cleveland, Kentucky, West Virginia and Indiana. Together with the Polizzis, they became involved in bookmaking, pinball machines, slot machines, and the lottery.2

  Moe Dalitz and his syndicate were careful to form strong alliances with other mobsters around the country. And Dalitz was powerful enough to command the respect of America’s top organized crime figures. One of the first things Lucky Luciano did when he became a national Mafia leader was to travel to Cleveland to meet with Moe.

  Luciano was not the only top gangster to maintain ties with Dalitz. In 1952, Moe testified before the New York State Crime Commission hearings that he personally knew and was close to Abner Zwillman, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello and other major mob figures. And when Lucky Luciano was deported from the United States in 1946, Dalitz attended his going-away party on the “Laura Keene,” the ship that took him to Italy. Also present at that auspicious occasion were Lansky, Zwillman, Siegel, Costello, Albert Anastasia, Carlo Gambino and Joe Bonanno.

  Eventually Dalitz, Kleinman, Rothkopf and Tucker pulled out of the Ohio area and transferred their interests out west, to Las Vegas, taking over the Desert Inn and becoming known as the Desert Inn Syndicate. In time, they gained control of a number of other Las Vegas casinos, including the Stardust Hotel, and remained a dominant force
in the city’s gambling industry for many years. The four partners shared everything equally and remained close friends all their lives.3

  Dalitz invested his illegal gains wisely. In the early 1950s he became a partner in the Paradise Development Co., which built the Las Vegas convention center, Sunrise Hospital, a shopping center and several buildings at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.4

  Dalitz sold the Desert Inn in 1966 and helped develop Rancho La Costa, a $100 million resort near San Diego. Construction was financed in part by an $87 million loan from the pension fund of the Teamsters Union, at a time when the union was controlled by Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa later disappeared and is presumed to have been killed by the Mafia.5

  At the Senate crime hearings in 1951, Senator Estes Kefauver queried Dalitz about his substantial investments. “Now, to get your investments started off, you did get yourself a pretty good little nest egg out of rum-running, didn’t you,” asked Kefauver. “Well,” replied Moe, “I didn’t inherit any money, Senator.”6

  Although Dalitz was a small man, standing no more than five foot three inches, no one could frighten him. Once, in 1964, the 64-year-old Moe was sitting in the dining room of the Beverly Rodeo Hotel in Hollywood. Heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, in an ugly mood brought on by too much whiskey, approached him in a threatening manner. The two exchanged words and the angry Liston drew back his fist. Dalitz did not flinch. “If you hit me, nigger, you better kill me,” he said. “Because if you don’t, I’ll make one telephone call and you’ll be dead in twenty-four hours.” Liston walked away.7

  Altogether, Dalitz did quite well for himself. In 1982, Forbes Magazine listed him as one of America’s four hundred richest men, worth $110 million.8

  Across Lake Erie from Cleveland, Detroit’s toughest, most ruthless mob was the all-Jewish Purple Gang. Led by a transplanted New York hoodlum, Ray Bernstein, the gang dominated the city’s bootlegging and narcotics traffic throughout the Prohibition era.

  In 1932, the Detroit police department compiled a confidential dossier on the gang members, a list of fifty names, which they forwarded to the FBI. At the time, ten members were serving prison sentences, seven were wanted for murder and kidnapping, four were dead and 28 members were at large and wanted by the police for questioning.9 A few samples from this prospectus illustrates the composition and nature of a typical Jewish Prohibition-era mob.

  “SAM DAVIS alias THE GORILLA (because he was only five feet one inch tall and weighed all of 100 pounds). Age 24. Eyes, Hazel. Hair, Light Brown. Complexion, Florid. Build, Medium Slim. This man has been arrested by the Detroit Police on charges of violating the U.S. Codes, Robbery, Armed, Extortion, and Carrying Concealed Weapons. He is now BADLY WANTED by the Detroit Police Department on a charge of murder. He is said to have killed one Harry Gold in Detroit, Mich, on the night of Feb. 17, 1932.

  “HARRY FLAISH alias FLEISHER alias FLAISHER alias FLEISH alias FINK. Age 30. Height, 5-6. Weight, 190. Eyes, Hazel. Hair, Light Brown. Complexion, Medium. Build, Stout. This man has been arrested by the Detroit Police on charges of Kidnapping, Receiving stolen property, Counterfeiting, Robbery, Armed, Extortion and Assault with intent to kill.

  “PHILLIP KEYWELL. Age 31. Height 5-8%. Weight 148. Eyes, Hazel. Hair, Dark Brown. Complexion, Dark. Build, Slim. This man has a long record of arrests by the Detroit Police on charges of Grand Larceny, Robbery, Armed, Assault with Intent to Kill, Kidnapping and Murder.

  “EDWARD SHAW alias LITTLE ABE alias JACK STEIN alias ROBERT GRAY alias ABRAHAM WAGNER. Age 25. Height, 5-3%. Weight, 103. Eyes, Hazel. Hair, Black. Complexion, Medium Dark. Build, Slim. This man has been arrested in Eastview, N.Y., charge, Narcotics; New York City, Homicide; Los Angeles, Calif., charge, Suspicion Burglary; and in Detroit, on charge of Robbery, Armed. He is wanted on charge of Homicide in New York City.

  “HARRY MILLMAN. Age 22. Height 5-7%. Weight, 135. Eyes, Blue. Hair, Dark Brown. Complexion, Dark. Build, Slim. This man has been arrested by the Detroit Police on charges of Robbery, Armed, Extortion, Kidnapping, Violating the Prohibition Laws, Carrying Concealed Weapons and also Hijacking.

  “HYMIE ALTMAN alias HARRY ALTMAN alias NIGGER HYMIE alias JEW ALTMAN. Age 28. Height 5-7%. Weight, 166. Eyes, Hazel. Hair, Dark Brown. Complexion, Dark. Build, Medium Stout. This man has been arrested by the Detroit Police on charges of violating Immigration Laws, Robbery, Armed, Loitering in a House of Prostitution, Violating the U.S. Prohibition Laws, Copyright Laws, Extortion and Murder.”

  This sterling cast of characters and their associates terrorized Detroit for thirteen years until a combination of the police and the Italian Mafia put them out of business.

  A few hundred miles west of Detroit, Chicago had the second

  Jack Guzik

  largest Jewish population in the United States. Most East European Jews lived on the west side, in what was one of the poorest most congested areas of the city. The district spawned Jewish gangsters such as Louis “Diamond Louie” Cowan, Hymie “the Loudmouth” Levine, Sam “Sammy the Greener” Jacobson, and Maxie Eisen; however, they did not run things. Prohibition era Chicago was run by Irish and Italian mobsters, especially Al “Scarface” Capone.10

  By a curious twist of fate, Capone’s primary business strategist and financial advisor was a Jew, Jack “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, whom Capone called “the only friend I can really trust.”

  The two made an unlikely pair. Capone was an immaculately groomed man who wore custom-made suits. Guzik was a roly-poly slob. “Everything he ate for a week you could see on his vest,” recalled Capone’s driver George Meyer. ‘And the B.O.!”11

  Legend has it that their friendship began when Guzik happened to overhear some men plotting to kill Capone. He immediately reported the plan to Al. Capone never forgot who saved his life and forever after protected Jack.

  One May evening in 1924, Guzik, his face smeared with blood, staggered into Capone’s office in the Four Deuces Nightclub on South Wabash street. “Who did this to you?” demanded Capone. Jack whimpered that Joe Howard, a small-time hijacker and roughneck, had slapped him around. The enraged Capone rushed out to look for Howard. He found him in Heinie Jacobs’ saloon, not far from the Four Deuces. Al marched up to Howard, who was lounging at the bar bragging how he had “made the little Jew whine.”

  “Hello, Al,” Howard said, never dreaming that anyone might object to his pummeling a slug like Guzik.

  Capone grabbed Howard by the shoulders and shook him, demanding to know why he had hit his friend. Howard snarled something along the lines of of “G’wan back to your whores, you Dago pimp.”

  Without a word, Capone pulled out a revolver, shoved the muzzle against Howard’s cheek and pulled the trigger. When Howard fell, Capone put five more slugs into his body.

  At the inquest, no one in the bar remembered seeing or hearing anything. Just one more unsolved Chicago killing.12

  Guzik was born in Russia in 1886, the son of Max and Fannie Guzik, who immigrated to the United States when Jack was one year old. In Chicago the elder Guzik supported his family of ten children by running a small cigar store. Jack found other means of employment, becoming a bartender and pimp in his older brother Harry’s whorehouse.

  When in a reminiscing mood, Jack would tell how policemen and judges would visit his home at all hours of the night. Each would want “a couple of dollars” or “a pass” so they could use the girls at the nearby whorehouse without paying. He never cared how many gentiles were within hearing when he declared, “Those cheap goys never wanted to spend a nickel. Always trying to get something for nothing. I never saw a goy judge after that I didn’t want to vomit.”13

  When Prohibition began, Guzik joined Johnny Torrio’s outfit. It was there he met Capone. After Capone killed Joe Howard, Jack became his trusted aid and spent the rest of his life enriching Capone and his heirs. Each of Capone’s successors, Frank Nitti, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca, Sam Giancana and Tony Accardo, trusted Jack implicitly, allowing him to exercise his own judgment in what was
best for the mob.

  There are two versions of how he got the nickname “Greasy Thumb.” According to the first, “Greasy Thumb” alluded to Jack’s beginnings as a clumsy waiter whose thumb constantly slipped into the soup. The second has it that his thumb was always greasy from counting Capone’s money.14

  From 1927 to 1929 Guzik earned $1 million but only paid $60,240 in income tax. According to the Internal Revenue Service, he should have paid $250,000, and in 1932, Jack went to prison for five years for tax evasion.

  While in prison, Jack underwent a series of physical and psychiatric tests. He was found to have a history of gonorrhea and syphilis, and was judged to have “a mental age of 13 years 2 months, with an intelligence quotient of 82 indicating subnormal intelligence.’’15

  In his later years, Jack became outspoken on nearly every subject and made good copy for the Chicago press. He especially loved to pontificate about judges, for whom he had little regard. “You buy a judge by weight, like iron in a junkyard,” he said. “A justice of the peace or a magistrate can be had for a five-dollar bill. In the municipal courts he will cost you ten. In the circuit or superior courts he wants fifteen. The state appellate court or state supreme court is on par with the federal courts. By the time a judge reaches such courts he is middle-aged, thick around the middle, fat between the ears. He’s heavy. You can’t buy a federal judge for less than a twenty-dollar bill.’’16

  Guzik also became thin-skinned regarding his image and sued the press whenever he felt slighted by them. In 1955, he sued the Chicago American, one of William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers, for a story that appeared on February 20, 1955. The article was written in a humorous vein by Elgar Brown, one of the paper’s reporters. Brown’s article referred to Guzik variously as “Old Baggy Eyes,’’ “Mr. Fix,’’ “Dean Jake, of Old Scarface U,‘f- “Chief Pander,’’ “a potbellied toughy,’’ and “Gangland’s Fearless Fosdick.’’17