Chapter summary
CHAPTER 1 (1952)
THE AUTHOR IS INTRODUCED TO THE SEDWAYS
I met the Sedway family 10 months after my friend’s father, Moe Sedway, Chief Lieutenant to Mob Boss Meyer Lansky, had died from a heart attack. I had met his second son, Robbie at Hawthorne Grammar School in Beverly Hills. We were both still in single digits at the time. During those early years I came to know his mother Bee, her bodyguard Moose, and his six-year older brother Dickie. I have concluded that I must have a photographic memory because I can recall details of their family-life and that entire era in Beverly Hills, in detail, like it was only yesterday, as you will see.
CHAPTER 2 (1935)
BEE KITTLE
When Bee Kittle, soon to become Bee Sedway, graduated from high school in upstate New York in the city of Elmira, little did she realize that within the next six months she would become a gangster. The day after her cap and gown ceremonies from high school she hopped a train and was Broadway bound. She landed the first and only job she ever auditioned for, on the chorus-line at a former speakeasy, a Vaudeville show at ‘The Paradise Cabaret’, which was in the heart of Manhattan’s theatre district.
CHAPTER 3 (1920s)
THE ROARING TWENTIES
The Beginning of ‘Prohibition’ saw the Birth of Organized Crime
EARLY MOB ALLIANCES AND THEIR HISTORY
- Moe Sedway and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel
- Moe Sedway and Meyer Lansky
- Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, childhood history
- Meyer Lansky
- Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the ‘Shake-Down’ Artist and Meyer Lansky
- Lansky and Siegel
- Lansky, Luciano, Sedway and Siegel
- Frank Costello, the Prime Minister of the Underworld
CHAPTER 4 (1920s)
THE GENIUS BEHIND ORGANIZED CRIME:
ARNOLD "THE BRAIN" ROTHSTEIN
The genesis of organized crime came from an Orthodox Jewish gambler, Rothstein. Even his privileged upbringing could not steer him clear from a life of crime. He never had his own crew, but would become a partner through financing, primarily the Bootlegging, Gambling and Narcotics operations of others. A chance meeting at a friend’s sons Bar Mitzvah brought Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky together and the birth of organized crime began on that day. He took Lansky’s “Bugs and Meyer Gang,” a crew that Lansky and Siegel put together of young street toughs, off the street-corners and into fully furnished office suites. Rothstein had these young men dress in fashionable business suits. He had each office equipped with a phone, so they would not have to stand on the street corner next to a pay phone waiting for an assignment. Additionally, Rothstein took the game of craps off the street-corner and reimaged it in a large building onto a table lined with green felt complete with bright lights shining from overhead. He was the initial visionary.
CHAPTER 5 (1930s)
"LEPKE" AND "GURRAH" AND 'MURDER, INC.'
Louis “Lepke” Buchalter came up with the business-concept for ‘Contract Killing’, along with his partner Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro. While the two controlled the Unions for over twenty years, in addition “Lepke” came up with the concept of ’contract killing’ which a newspaperman called ‘Murder, Inc’ ‘Murder, Inc’. was in operation from 1929-1941. It is estimated between 1,000 to 1,400 killings assignments were completed in just that short twelve-year run. No one knew for sure, but each killer knew approximately how many hits they had personally accomplished. Once the assignment was complete, and was paid, nothing was left in writing.
CHAPTER 6 (1922)
J. EDGAR HOOVER, HEAD OF THE FBI
From day-one, J. Edgar Hoover denied the existence of ‘Organized Crime’. He only claimed to be after real criminals like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’, and ‘John Dillinger’ for example. Hoover intentionally kept his association with organized criminals under wraps. The gang bosses had photographic proof that Hoover was a homosexual and cross-dresser. Hoover did not want that information to leak out. It would have meant the end of his career in disgrace if it had. For decades he personally allowed ‘Organized Crime’ to grow in America for purely selfish motives.
CHAPTER 7 (1930-1931)
THE CASTELLAMMARESE WAR: A bloody power-struggle for control of the Italian American Mafia that took place in New York City from February 1930 to April 15, 1931 between two Capos (Bosses) Joe “The Boss” Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. This battle resulted in the break-up of the traditional Sicilian hierarchy. This defeat created the formation of the New Mafia Order’, called “The Commission’. The killings of these controlling Capos were engineered secretly by one Italian and one Jew, “Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky. “Lucky” Luciano, was the Chief Lieutenant consecutively to both Joe “The Boss’ Maserria and Salvatore Maranzano. Their hand-picked killers came from their exclusive ‘old-boys club’, known as ‘Murder, Inc.’
Please Note:
There are a total of 40 Chapters plus an Epilogue. They span the beginning of organized crime, Pre-Prohibition, to the beginning of the end of the Mob's influence in Las Vegas, the mid-1950s.
Acquired by Blackstone Publishing
Forthcoming Release 2024. Please sign up to receive news about preorder availability and other updates.