Published: 30 November 2018
Last updated: 5 March 2024
"IN 1977, GRANDPA MEYER and I were at Wolfie’s in North Miami Beach, and I noticed two young boys in yarmulkes looking over at us. I was standing behind Grandpa when the boys walked up. One said: ‘Hey, Mr Lansky, we’d like to get your autograph!’ Grandpa paused for a moment. He looked seriously at the boys and said: ‘What did I do? Win an Academy Award?’
“One of the boys looked earnestly at Grandpa and said: ‘Well, we thought it would be worth some money some day.’ Grandpa smiled and replied: ‘Sorry, son, I don’t sign autographs’.”
This was how Meyer Lansky II learned that his grandfather was famous. Far from winning an Oscar, Grandpa Meyer was part of the Jewish mafia that ran hand-in-hand with the Italian mob in the US in the first half of the 20th century.
Until he was 12, Lansky II, now 61, had no idea that his grandfather, along with another infamous Jewish gangster, Bugsy Siegel was credited with “creating Las Vegas”. Or that, like “Lucky”Luciano, Al Capone and Vito Genovese, the “Mob’s Accountant” was one of the most notorious organised crime figures of all time.
FULL STORY Grandpa was a gangster (Jewish Chronicle)
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The Meyer Lansky story – not only for anarchists
Photo: Meyer Lansky, the mob's accountant (Jewish Chronicle)
