Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This biography of the only mob boss to be executed is a reasonably interesting read. However, it doesn't quite have the humour of Cohen's "Tough Jews" or the factual authority of Turkus's "Murder Inc.". Kavieff fails to really get inside Lepke and having read most of the books about Jewish gangsters, I didn't feel this gave me any more of an insight into him. Its the personal stuff which I find interesting, ie what made a guy like Lepke tick? There are more antecdotes about Lepke in Rockaway's "But He Was Good to His Mother" than in this biography. Still worth a read though if you want a good account of how the mob took over the garment industry in 1930s America.

The author has done a fine job in presenting a multitude of facts and statements about the life of this evil, ruthless racketeer and his criminal associates. This book reminds me of the Dillinger Gang by Jeffrey King who employed a similar style in that book as presented here. Buchalters early life is well covered as the author as he presents an average quiet student at school somehow degenerated into a ruthless, selfish, vicious thug but one with an astute criminal cunning with brilliant organizational ability. He was also the unseen boss in a ruthless criminal gang known as Murder Incorporated that operated out of Brownsville New York.

He was able to climb to the top echelons of the criminal world in New York and spread his heartless and evil influence via his gang over parts of Northeast USA.


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.

Great biography. Covers all the little facts never before documented on this famous gangster.Anyone who enjoys this book will also appreciate author's previous book on the "Purple Gang.

very nice book and interesting read. very much recommended. good book and well written story of the life and the time period in which lepke was an underworld force.

A well-researched biography of the man described by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as "the most dangerous criminal in the U.S." The author provides a wealth of little known information regarding his subject, especially in his documentation of "Lepke's" formative years on the Lower East Side. I found Mr. Kavieff's writing a bit tedious at times, but if, to paraphrase Dragnet's Sergeant Joe Friday, you want "just the facts," you will probably enjoy this book.