Customer Reviews

Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life (Super Sound Buys)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After I read this book I couldn't help but smile. This is the ultimate whitewash book. After having spent years of investigating Meyer Lansky and his criminal world, I can honsetly tell you, this is not a book about Meyer Lansky. This is a book about Robert Lacey misunderstanding Meyer Lansky. Laceys information comes mostly from Lanskys family, then especially from his disabled son, Buddy Lansky. What Lacey should've done is look more into the work Hank Messick did on Lansky. Messick got his information from the underworld itself and interviewed gangsters, prosecutors and FBI men. Lacey overlooks these sources. Let's be realistic here. Lacey claims Lansky poured all his money into The Riviera Hotel in Havana. This is a ridiclious claim!. Lansky was known to spread his money all over the place. His specialty was laundering mafia money through mob controlled banks (like Bank Of World Commerce) or through Swiss bank accounts. Lansky had used these methods since the '30s. He made a fortune from his bootlegging enterprises and it is well known Lansky skimmed more money from Vegas then probably any other mob figure. Top mafia informant, Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno, one-time underboss of the L.A. Cosa Nostra Family repeatedly emphasized Lanskys strong hold on the skimming in Vegas. "Meyer Lansky and his group skimmed more money then anybody in the world. From Las Vegas alone, they got 300 million easy!". That's a direct quote from Fratianno himself. Of course Lansky wasn't stupid and he would have many people believe that he indeed lost everything in Cuba. Hank Messick used to say, Meyer Lansky didn't own property, he owned people. And as far as the mystery surrounding Lansky, you have to look at the people around him. Appearantly men like Alvin Malnik missed Laceys eye. If you wanna know about Lansky, then read Hank Messick or "Mogul Of The Mob" by Uri Dan and Dennis Eisenberg.

The book is well written and is full of interesting personal facts about Lansky, but comes up shorthanded in details about the man's enterprise.There is little mention of his role in the
rampant bootlegging in the 1920's and the violence that went along with it.This is a good book if you are already familar with Lansky and want more information on his personal character.Much of the details are provided by his son Buddy and numerous others that were close to him, but not in a "business" sense.

According to the acknowledgements, Robert Lacey set out to write a biography about a monster and ended up writing about a more successful than average crook with a lot of family troubles. While there is still the "crime doesn't pay" moralizing, Lacey is too honest of a biographer to fall into the Kefauver conspiracy theory about the mob as a vast corporate entity and portrays Meyer Lansky and associates as business allies by convenience.

Most of the book seems to have been culled from interviews with Buddy Lansky, Meyer Lanksy's quadraplegic son who died shortly before publication. From that perspective most of Lansky's life involves his personal life including his fights with his first (insane) wife and his relationship with his second wife hated by all three children. There are anecdotes about his rebellious daughter Sandra, his emotionally crippled son Paul and his physically crippled son Buddy. In one of the anecdotes Paul's daughter, Myra Lansky, tries to contact him after 8 years of silence only to be told by Sandra to respect Paul's privacy. (like a father has a right to completely ignore and forget about his children). Another anecdote concerns the fact that Meyer blamed Buddy's wife for his financial troubles and Buddy told his wife "my dad thinks we should get a divorce" and on that alone, divorced her.

What comes out of this book is a miserable life of a guy who was a fighter all his life and didn't have enough business sense to go straight. All of his investments ultimately failed and his legal troubles ate up all of his money. He couldn't even emigrate to Israel when he rediscovered his Jewish roots.

While we are left with a sad portrait of Meyer Lansky's personal life there seems to be fairly light treatment of his professional life. Some of the gambling institutions are covered and there is a chapter on the Cuban connection but once we are in the last two decades it's all heart attacks and fights with the second wife. One feels slightly cheated even though the author makes a point to stress that Meyer Lansky was not as financial successful as the myths around him would have you believe ("bigger than U.S. Steel, $300 million, etc.) but he did somehow find the money to pay for that lawyer and those trips to Israel.

Toward the end this becomes a depressing grim book. The only point of gaiety is Meyer and all his friends sitting around tv watching a miniseries based on his exploits.

All in all this is an excellent gangster novel for anyone who wants a more truthful accounting of mob life in America. However, if these truths were discovered at the outset, the myth of Meyer Lansky would not have grown to the extent that books like this would need to be written. It's not as fun as the mythology, but then again that's the point.

If you want a mob book that buys into the conspiracy and mythology check out The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano.

This is the book for someone who really wants to know what the gangster life was all about. Quite unlike the dramatic movies, like the Godfather, and Godfather II, Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life tells the whole story about the infamous gangster. The author went through great lengths to get accounts from family and friends, business partners and enemies. I'm not much of a reader, but I finished this 550 page book in three days. I was interested in finding out the truth about Meyer Lansky. If that is what you are looking for, this is the book to read.

I noticed some of the reviews on Amazon of this book called it a whitewash. I would say thats true to say the least. For that matter at times it almost reads like a tribute. This shouldn't be surprising considering Laceys main primary source for this book was Lanskys son. You would think Meyer Lansky was just a hard working business man that straddled the line of legality from time to time when he ran his bootleg liquor and gambling parlors. He claims that Lansky never ordered a hit or even used intimidation when running his rackets. The only violent incidents mentioned were streetfights growing up and Lansky allegedly going with a group of hoodlums and breaking up a "Nazi" (they were actually pre-WW2 German-American nationalists) meeting.

Most historians acknowledge that the Mafia almost certainly had serious dirt on J. Edgar Hoover and many think Lansky was the one that had the pics to prove it if you know what I mean. There are even those that claim Lansky was in on the JFK assassination and attempts to kill Castro. I won't even bother with going into how Hollywood has made organized crime out to be an Italian/Sicilian thing when the truth is some of the most ruthless gangsters were Jews. I'll also skip over just how Russian the "Russian" Mafia really is.

This is a readable narrative on the life of Meyer Lansky (1902-1983), the "brains" of the mob. Author Robert Lacey traces Lansky's life from his immigrant Jewish roots, to his New York City heyday with Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, to his later years as a sort of Florida-based elder statesman. The author makes it seem as if Lansky was primarily about the gambling and casino business (which he was), but does not excuse his ties to the "muscle" side of the underworld. Illegal gambling enterprises, including supposedly legal ones in pre-Castro Cuba, did and do have their seedy and muscle side. The author also looks at Lansky's somewhat un-tranquil family life, and his later years in South Florida until he passed away from cancer. This highly intelligent casino purveyor had simple advice for many people he met. "Don't Gamble," he wisely told them.

A really important work that strips mercilessly away many of the hoary myths that have stuck barnacle-like to the subject of American organized crime. The tale that emerges is no less gripping for that; Indeed the struggles personal and financial that dogged this less than omnipotent Lansky become all the more compelling and human. This is not a reading that finds total acceptance, and time and the inherent shadow-dwelling of organized crime mean that the absolute truth will never be nailed down, but Lacey's conclusions (that the post-Kefauver view of the Mafia as a coherent, nationally structured organization with Lansky the criminal mastermind at the centre of events, his overseas bank accounts overflowing with untouchable millions is simply not sustainable), the product of good research and common sense, are hard to refute. A tendancy to chide Lansky for not taking the turns in life that Lacey (probably erroneously) believes were open to him is one slight irritant, but that apart the book is an essential step in restoring balance to accounts of the Mafia's wealth, power, indestructability and even existence as popularly held. No more talk of $300 million!

The life of Meyer Lansky (little Man), who became a Big Man in developing the casinos and all the entertainment in Free Cuba. Buy it!

Fascinating book about a highly successful businessman. If it were not for the excessive values imposed by prohibitions advocates and anti-gambling advocates, Meyer Lansky would have been a respected businessman. The book reveals, and I believe it to be true, that the demand for the "illegal" services of Meyer Lansky and other mobsters was from a whole cross section of society. Everyone from the average working person, to professionals, to politicians created the market for liquor and gambling that Meyer Lansky supplied. I think this book exposes a societal hypocrisy. The mere fact that we have a fascination with crime which we demonstrate by flocking to the theater to see The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Casino, and nominate academy awards to the actors and producers seems quite contrary to our law enforcement. While Meyer Lansky may very well have been involved in or responsible for some real crimes such as murder, extortion, narcotics, etc., the main "crimes" revealed in this book for which he was known (liquor and gambling), were really only competition with the government for distribution. Meyer Lansky was revealed to be honest and trustworthy amongst the people he dealt with, yet he is labeled a criminal. While many "legitimate" businessmen are complete crooks. You may not condone all of Meyer Lansky's activities (I don't), however, you will not be able to help having a certain respect for the man and what he did.

This is a very misleading book about a man who was so much more then what Lacey actually claims. His sources are very questionable, especially Lansky's crippled son Buddy. It was well known that Lansky's family had caused him much heartache and his son Buddy especially. He made some bad business decisions and his health kept declining each year. Lansky decided early to keep his family far away from the criminal world so if you wanna know about Lansky Mr. Lacey, investigate criminals, FBI bugs, trial transcripts etc. etc.

All of Lansky's friends died wealthy and you know why? because that was Lansky's own damn money. Robert Lacey doesn't get it. Avoid this book.