Granted the "big guy" in New York who we see is Arnold Rothstein, but A) he's coming out of a gambling/book-keeping background which has him acting as unofficial consigliere and matchmaker for other mob leaders and B)he's still not working with only other Jews, since his right-hand guy is "Lucky" Luciano.
Who was also connected to Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Man, I want a good book on this subject.
One way or the other, it's a young man's profession, so I was right: No generational Jewish family-based mobs,
Hey, research!
not least because the first thing that seems to happen when good Jews go bad is that their fathers disown them.
Hm. What happens when they marry?
Asbury says, of "Little Augie" (one of the last "true gangsters" in Ne York, supposedly), that he was buried with a tombstone which said he was 25 even though he was 34, because "it had been nine years earlier that he had taken control of the gang, and on that same day, his father had declared him dead."
I had not heard that story.
I grew up knowing that both my mother and her brother had been declared dead by our religious cousins in Florida because they married outside the religion. This was denied vehemently by the current-generation representative of that branch who spoke to my mother after my grandfather's funeral, and I will admit someone must have kept tabs on us if she'd heard about the death, but she was strangely surprised to hear my uncle Jeff was alive . . .
no subject
Who was also connected to Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Man, I want a good book on this subject.
One way or the other, it's a young man's profession, so I was right: No generational Jewish family-based mobs,
Hey, research!
not least because the first thing that seems to happen when good Jews go bad is that their fathers disown them.
Hm. What happens when they marry?
Asbury says, of "Little Augie" (one of the last "true gangsters" in Ne York, supposedly), that he was buried with a tombstone which said he was 25 even though he was 34, because "it had been nine years earlier that he had taken control of the gang, and on that same day, his father had declared him dead."
I had not heard that story.
I grew up knowing that both my mother and her brother had been declared dead by our religious cousins in Florida because they married outside the religion. This was denied vehemently by the current-generation representative of that branch who spoke to my mother after my grandfather's funeral, and I will admit someone must have kept tabs on us if she'd heard about the death, but she was strangely surprised to hear my uncle Jeff was alive . . .