These Mobsters Were Never Brought To Justice

You didn't need to be the head of one of the Five Families to exert power in the Mafia. For 40 years, Meyer Lansky masterminded the organization's corruption of labor unions, corporations, and politicians while earning millions for himself from illegal operations.

You didn't need to be the head of one of the Five Families to exert power in the Mafia. For 40 years, Meyer Lansky masterminded the organization's corruption of labor unions, corporations, and politicians while earning millions for himself from illegal operations.

Jewish Lansky was born Maier Suchowljansky in a Russian-owned region of Poland and emigrated to New York to escape the pogroms in 1911. He formed a gang with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel — their activities escalated from running a craps game to stealing cars, burglaries, and liquor smuggling during Prohibition, and then kidnap and murder. The pair established a group of hitmen that later inspired the Mafia's more formal hitmen branch, Murder, Inc.

These activities drew attention from the Mafia. Lansky and Siegel worked for Joe Masseria and then Lucky Luciano. Lansky helped the latter establish a nationally organized syndicate in 1934, according to the New York Times. He funneled most of the money he made into gambling but also into prostitution, drug trafficking, extortion, and racketeering, as well as several legitimate businesses.

The law tried to come for Lansky without much success, aside from a few short jail terms. In 1970, he moved to Israel to escape an indictment from a grand jury, a move that worked until the Israeli government reluctantly extradited him in 1972. The charges on tax evasion, conspiracy, and skimming were all ultimately dropped. Lansky died of cancer, aged 81, in 1983.

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