Meyer Lansky and the US Navy
Meyer Lansky was a member of what was known as the Jewish Mafia – a term he despised – and in an organized crime career that spanned five decades managed to avoid being convicted for anything other than the minor charge of illegal gambling. Lansky was deeply involved in the organization of the Italian Mafia and was heavily involved with Murder Incorporated. After the war, he was instrumental in the development of Las Vegas as a mob playground. Lansky was also deeply involved in consolidating Luciano’s power by arranging for the murders of rival bosses.
Before the United States entered the Second World War Lansky had attracted the attention of US intelligence agencies by his active disruption of American Nazi Party and German American Bund meetings in New York and New Jersey. Lansky, who was Jewish, would personally lead several of his cronies into the meetings and physically attack the participants. “We threw some of them out the windows,” he said of one such meeting, “We wanted to show them that Jews would not always sit back and accept insults.”
When the US Navy experienced a lack of cooperation while interrogating the largely Italian community of fishermen and stevedores which populated the New York docks, hoping to screen out potential saboteurs and spies, they decided to approach the Italian mob. They did so by going through Lansky, appealing to his anti-Nazi feelings.
The US Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence also suspected large numbers of German and Italian sympathizers were working the bars and other dives around the docks, attempting to gain information from dockworkers and sailors on the scheduled departures for vessels. This information was then transferred to German U-Boats waiting off of the American coast. Lansky, after negotiating a suitable deal for Luciano’s freedom, provided additional security to report to the FBI and ONI those individuals who seemed to have a special interest in ship movements.
Shipyards in New York and New Jersey were soon working at full capacity building Liberty ships to carry cargoes as well as the warships necessary to carry the war to the Axis at sea. Members of Lansky’s organizations provided extra security in and around the shipyards, minimizing the risk of sabotage to the vessels under construction in the yards. Other than the release of Luciano, which took place after the war was won, what the US Navy gave in return for Lansky’s support is unknown.