Organized Crime in America
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Benjamin Siegelbaum was born on 1902 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. His parents (dad Russian immigrant) raised five children, including Ben. Bens father was a day laborer in the garment industry, and his mother was a .
The Williamsburg section of Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century was the proverbial melting pot of America. Within its tight confines lived thousands of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants all struggling to make a life for themselves in the New World. Push car vendors and crime ruled the streets.
Ben Siegel began his life of crime at a young age. His best friend, Moey Sedway, was willing to assist with any plan Ben came up with. To pass the time they would launch a racket against the street vendors. Ben would ask a vendor for a dollar. If they vendor refused to pay Ben a dollar Moey would douse the vendors cart with kerosene and set it on fire. The next time that Ben would ask that same vendor for a dollar they usually paid it. After word spread that someone was setting carts on fire for money, Ben and Moey offered protection for money from all vendors to ensure that it did not happen to them.
During the same time period of the protection racket, Ben met his lifelong friend Meyer Lansky. Together Meyer and Ben would create the underworlds first murder-for-hire squad. Out of many stories of how Ben and Meyer met these two are the most popular;
The first, probably apocryphal, is that Bugsy had been enjoying the unpaid favors of a prostitute in the employ of a young Charlie Luciano and that Lucky was none too happy about her extracurricular activities. He began to beat the hooker and Siegel after catching them in the act and Meyer, then a tool-and-die apprentice, happened upon the scene. Lansky came to Siegels rescue by beating Lucky with one of his tools and the trio reportedly became friends.
Another version of how the two met retold in Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life by Robert Lacey, claims that Lansky was watching a street corner craps game when a scuffle broke out and a gun fell to the pavement. Siegel picked up the piece and was preparing to shoot the guns owner when police whistles sounded. Lansky knocked the gun from Siegels hand and dragged him away from the ruckus. Although Siegel was not happy about losing the gun, a friendship blossomed. Uri Dan, an Israeli journalist who interviewed Lansky for his biography Meyer Lansky, Mogul of the Mob, also cites this story.
Lansky theorized that the Jewish boys of his neighborhood should organize the same way that the Italians and Irish do. The first person recruited into his gang was Ben Siegal.
“I told little Benny that he could be my number two,” Lansky remembered years later. “He was young but very brave. His big problem was that he was always ready to rush in first and shoot – to act without thinking.”
Members of the newly formed “Bugs and Meyer Mob” included Abner “Longie” Zwillman, Lepke Buchalter (head of Murder Inc.), Jake Lansky, Arthuer Flegenheimer (Dutch Schultz), and “Doc” Stacher. Doc Stacher was quoted as saying “Bugsy never hesitated when danger threatened. While we tried to figure out what the best move was, Bugsy was already shooting. When it came to action there was no one better. Ive never known a man who had more guts.”
Lucky Luciano stated a similar Ben Siegal in his biography The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano: “We was like analyzers,” he said of himself and Meyer. “We didnt hustle ourselves into a decision before we had a chance to think it out. Siegel was just the opposite, and I guess thats what made him good for us, because he would make his move on sheer guts and impulse.”
The group slowly took control of everything from street gambling, protection service for cart vendors, and stolen cars. No one in the group had committed
murder. That all changed when Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegal became friends with Carlie “Lucky” Luciano. In 1915 Lucky went to jail on