National Crime Syndicate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a supposed loosely-organized organized crime syndicate, set up in the 1930s, by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and based in New York City.
As revealed by the findings of U.S. Senate Committee in the 1950s chaired by Estes Kefauver, it was described as a confederation of mainly Italian and Jewish organized crime groups throughout the U.S.
According to some writers on the Mafia, the Syndicate was founded at a May 1929 conference in Atlantic City, attended by leading underworld figures throughout the country, including Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Johnny Torrio, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Dutch Schultz, Louis Lepke, Vince Mangano, gambler Frank Erickson, Frank Scalise and Albert Anastasia.[1] Others describe the Atlantic City meeting as a coordination and strategy conference for bootleggers.[2]
The supposed enforcement arm of the Syndicate was what the media dubbed Murder, Inc., a gang of Brooklyn thugs who carried out murders in the 1930s and 1940s for various crime bosses. It was headed by Gurrah Shapiro and Anastasia, who reported to commission members Lepke and Adonis.
In his 1991 biography of Meyer Lansky, Little Man, journalist Robert Lacey argues that no National Crime Syndicate ever existed. "[J. Edgar] Hoover's personal position, that the Mafia did not exist, has proved to be as erroneous as the Kefauver's Committee's belief in a national conspiracy."[3]
