The Bugs (Bugsy) and Meyer Mob was a Jewish-American street gang in Manhattan , New York City 's Lower East Side . It was formed and headed by mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky during their teenage years shortly after the start of Prohibition . The Bugs and Meyer mob acted as a predecessor to Murder, Inc.

Origins [ edit ]

Lansky and his friends organized a protective society in order to defend against the Italian and Irish gangs. Lansky and his younger brother Jacob, were joined by Meyer "Mike" Wassell, Samuel "Red" Levine , Irving "Tabbo" Sandler, Joseph "Doc" Stacher , and several others. ^[1]

Some accounts are varied about Lansky meeting Siegel: one account claims that Lansky met Siegel and Charles Luciano the same day when Lansky intervened in an altercation between Siegel and Luciano over a prostitute that Luciano was pandering . ^[1] However, this story has not been corroborated in Lansky's authorized biographies. ^[1]

According to Lansky, Siegel and Lansky met on the street corner in the poverty-stricken Lower East Side of Manhattan when they were both teenagers. ^[1] Returning home from school one day, Lansky witnessed a street craps game break out into a fight when police whistles were heard. As the law drew near, Lansky forced Siegel to drop a gun that Siegel was trying to brandish. Siegel was angered with Lansky about losing the gun. Despite the confrontation, Siegel and Lansky became close friends. ^{[1] [2]}

In the outfit, Lansky was considered the "brains", while Siegel was the "brawn". ^[3] Siegel, the youngest of the gang, was known around his neighborhood as chaye ; a Yiddish word meaning "untamed" or "animal". He had a reputation for having a short temper and people described him as being "crazier than a bedbug," ^[3] which gave him the nickname "Bugsy" that he came to hate. ^[1]

Formation [ edit ]

The two soon formed a gang called the Bugs and Meyer mob. In the early 1920s, the Bugs and Meyer mob was in operation, working with Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Luciano's right-hand man Frank Costello . ^[4] Lansky and Siegel recruited expert gunmen; ^[3] they supplied bootleggers with stolen trucks and drivers. Lansky was experienced with automobiles and mechanics and soon the Bugs and Meyer mob was active in car theft. ^[1] At this time they were joined by Abner "Longie" Zwillman and his brother, Irving, Moe Sedway , and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter . ^[5] The gang handled protection, truck hijacking , murder, and illegal gambling. ^[3] They were also enforcers of Costello in both New York and Louisiana . They were ultimately responsible for helping to destroy or subordinate by assassination and political bribery most of the Italian-American gangs. ^[6]

Organization [ edit ]

The gang grew a violent reputation as they would extort money from Jewish moneylenders and storekeepers, as well as Irish and Italian shop owners and gamblers. ^[1] The Bugs and Meyer mob fronted illegal operations by owning a car and truck rental garage that served as a warehouse for stolen goods. ^{[1] [7]} Lansky and Siegel, being longtime associates of Luciano, would frequently employ the gang to work with Joe Adonis's Broadway Mob throughout the 1920s. ^[8]

During this period, the New York City Police Department recalled the gang being "vicious". ^[7] One veteran New York detective described Siegel as "seem[ing] to like to do the job himself. [...] He got his kicks out of seeing his victims suffering, groaning, and dying". ^[7]

During the Castellammarese War , Lansky and Siegel helped Luciano eliminate the " Mustache Petes " and organize the modern American Mafia . ^{[1] [9]} Bugsy Siegel (along with Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia , and Vito Genovese ) was reputedly one of the hitmen that shot and killed Joe Masseria on April 15, 1931. ^{[10] [11]} Lansky also assisted Luciano with the murder of Salvatore Maranzano by recruiting Jewish hitmen that included Siegel, Red Levine , and Abraham "Bo" Weinberg . On September 10, 1931, Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death in his Manhattan office. ^{[1] [12]}

When Lansky and Luciano formed the National Crime Syndicate in the early 1930s, Lansky, along with Siegel, ^[9] pushed for a special outfit to handle "enforcement," or murders for the entire syndicate. This outfit was later named Murder, Inc. by the press . ^{[8] [13]} Several members of the Bugs and Meyer mob served as advisers or hitmen for Murder, Inc. when it was later headed by Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. ^[8]

References [ edit ]

Notes [ edit ]

Bibliography [ edit ]

• Rockaway, Robert A. (2000), But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters , Gefen Publishing House, ISBN   978-9652292490
• Sifakis, Carl (2005), The Mafia Encyclopedia , New York: Checkmark Books, ISBN   978-0816056958
• Montague, Art (2005), Meyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits Of New York's Master Manipulator , Heritage House Publishing Co, ISBN   978-1-55265-100-1

Further reading [ edit ]

• MacCabee, Paul (1995). John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks' Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920?1936 . Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN   978-0-87351-316-6 .
• Pryor, Alton (2001). Outlaws and Gunslingers . Roseville, California: Stagecoach Publishing. ISBN   0-9660053-6-8 .

External links [ edit ]

• "Meyer Lansky: Mastermind of the Mob - The Bugs and Meyer Mob" (PDF) . Archived from the original on 2007-07-05. {{ cite web }} : CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link )   (590  KiB ) by Mark Gribben