The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter: America's Most Ruthless Labor Racketeer [Hardcover]

Paul R. Kavieff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 2006

Louis Lepke Buchalter was the most powerful and ruthless organized crime boss in the history of the U.S. underworld. A business genius with a penchant for murder, his rackets penetrated the garment, banking, and flour trucking industries in New York.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kavieff's brisk biography of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the only major crime boss in U.S. history to be executed, unevenly weaves the labor racketeer's story with that of the bustling early 20th century New York mob scene, resulting in a book that's not quite a biography and not quite an underworld history. Buchalter grew his rackets by foregoing large one-time fees for services rendered-arbitrating, through violence and the threat of violence, "the differences between labor and capital"-in favor of "prolonged strikes that increased the chances for everyone to make a profit." Lepke's association with Murder Inc., "the enforcement branch of the Supreme Court of the underworld" that carried out approximately 1,000 murders between 1931-40, Kavieff suggests, further consolidated Lepke's power and amplified his reputation as a treacherous figure, prompting special mob prosecutor Thomas Dewey and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who described Lepke as "the most dangerous criminal in the U.S.," to put bounties on his head. After going underground, Lepke eliminated witnesses who could help prosecutors secure indictments against him until, tricked into believing he could escape Hughes's prosecution, he surrendered to Hoover. Following a contentious legal saga, Lepke was convicted on drug and racketeering charges and for his involvement in the murder of a small-time underworld figure, the crime that landed him in the electric chair in 1944. Though well-researched, Kavieff's account is told in dry, stilted language and suffers from meandering passages, but readers interested in the seedier side of pre-WWII New York will appreciate Kavieff's gritty portrait of the city's underworld.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books (January 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569802912
• ISBN-13: 978-1569802915
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,169,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Biography of a Pioneering Mob Boss, March 7, 2006

By 

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter: America's Most Ruthless Labor Racketeer (Hardcover)

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the Godfather of American labor racketeering, emerges from the shadow of "Murder, Inc." in this great biography by Paul Kavieff. Brisk, well written, and entertaining, it's also accurate and splendidly documented. Lepke was one of the founding fathers of organized crime, who quietly built a massive empire based on labor rackets and narcotics while others dominated the headlines with booze wars, losing it suddenly in an eruption of paranoia and violence while on the lam. This is Kavieff's best book yet, following "The Purple Gang" and "The Violent Years", and makes his transition of interest from the Detroit to New York underworld seem unusually smooth.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lepke, September 21, 2006

By 

Jim Martin (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter: America's Most Ruthless Labor Racketeer (Hardcover)

I think this is Paul Kavieff's best book thus far... After reading Murder Inc. this book kept the story line going by diving into the background of a huge underworld Brooklyn figure, namely Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. They have an excellent chapter on Murder Inc. which is a very good summation of Turkus' book, and still brings some new things to light. Lepke forced his way into the garment industry and made his stake like no one else before him; then came Murder Inc. Lucky Luciano personally elected Lepke to head the murder department for the mob. With his own personal group of seasoned assassins, there was nothing stopping him. Lepke was untouchable, that is until Dewey showed up, and then the real trouble started.

Lepke was an amazing individual who had all the components to become anything in life. The fact that Lepke was ruling through his superior labor racketeering skills, while everyone else was involved in the usual rackets (prohibition, numbers running, etc.) truly displays the vision this man had. He preferred to stay in the shadows, and never share his time with the likes of "shtarkers" (strong-arm guys who performed the dirty work). He took himself out of the gutter, and situated himself overlooking Central Park. He ruled with an iron hand and every one paid tribute!

He and his partner, Gurrah Shapiro were millionaires in the early thirties. They had their hands in legitimate businesses and many other rackets including: the garment industry, the motion picture union, the taxi racket, the restaurant racket acquired from the Dutchman and much more. The money coming in was boundless. They literally had a monopoly on a few different industries. "The Gorilla Boys" were like the "Underworld Rockefellers!". This book was a quick read and really ironed out all the details in a very smooth manner. I hope to find a few more books with the same straightforward, and clear-cut precision that Mr. Kavieff has accomplished here.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Louis "Lepke" Buchalter Is Like Other Mobsters, March 20, 2007

By 

C. W. Emblom "Bill Emblom" (Ishpeming, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter: America's Most Ruthless Labor Racketeer (Hardcover)

I have read several books on the mob and they all have one thing in common. There is no loyalty within the mob. Each mobster will look out for number one whenever the law closes in on them. Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and his comical partner, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro managed to gain control of the lucrative garment trade in New York City for their own benefit. When the law began to close in on Lepke he, like others before him and since, began to have witnesses who knew anything about his infamous past, eliminated. After being in hiding for over a year the mob forced Lepke into surrendering to the law. Lepke thought a deal had been made when, in reality, none had been agreed upon. He surrendered to gossip columnist Walter Winchell with F.B.I. chief J. Edgar Hoover in the car behind him. The message to Lepke was surrender or be hit by the mob. Oddly enough, it was a hit on an individual named Joseph Rosen that sent Lepke, along with Louis Capone and "Mendy" Weiss to the electric chair in Sing Sing prison in 1944. This book reinforces my long held belief that there is no loyalty within the mob. The author has done a wonderful job with this book. It will have a place with my other books on crime figures in our infamous past.