| Founded | 1920s |
|---|---|
| Founded by | Ben Siegel and Meyer Lansky |
| Founding location | New York,NY USA |
| Years active | 1920s — 1930s |
| Territory | Manhattan |
| Ethnicity | Jewish Americans mainly from theLower East Side |
| Criminal activities | Murder,gambling,bootlegging,theft,racketeering,extortion |
| Allies | Charles "Lucky" Luciano,Frank Costello,Joe Adonis |
| Rivals | Waxey Gordon,Joe Masseria,Salvatore Maranzano |
TheBugs (Bugsy) and Meyer Mob was aJewish-American street gang inManhattan,New York City'sLower East Side. It was formed and headed by mobstersBugsy Siegel andMeyer Lansky during their teenage years shortly after the start ofProhibition. The Bugs and Meyer mob acted as a predecessor toMurder, Inc.
Lansky and his friends organized a protective society in order to defend against theItalian andIrish 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 andCharles Luciano the same day when Lansky intervened in an altercation between Siegel and Luciano over aprostitute that Luciano waspandering.[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 ofManhattan when they were both teenagers.[1] Returning home from school one day, Lansky witnessed a streetcraps 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 aschaye; aYiddish 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]
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 withCharles "Lucky" Luciano and Luciano's right-hand manFrank Costello.[4] Lansky and Siegel recruited expert gunmen;[3] they suppliedbootleggers 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 byAbner "Longie" Zwillman and his brother, Irving,Moe Sedway, andLouis "Lepke" Buchalter.[5] The gang handled protection,truck hijacking, murder, and illegal gambling.[3] They were also enforcers of Costello in both New York andLouisiana. They were ultimately responsible for helping to destroy or subordinate by assassination and political bribery most of theItalian-American gangs.[6]
The gang grew a violent reputation as they wouldextort 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 withJoe Adonis'sBroadway Mob throughout the 1920s.[8]
During this period, theNew 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 theCastellammarese War, Lansky and Siegel helped Luciano eliminate the "Mustache Petes" and organize the modernAmerican Mafia.[1][9] Bugsy Siegel (along with Joe Adonis,Albert Anastasia, andVito Genovese) was reputedly one of the hitmen that shot and killedJoe Masseria on April 15, 1931.[10][11] Lansky also assisted Luciano with the murder ofSalvatore Maranzano by recruiting Jewish hitmen that included Siegel,Red Levine, andAbraham "Bo" Weinberg. On September 10, 1931, Maranzano was shot and stabbed to death in his Manhattan office.[1][12]
When Lansky and Luciano formed theNational 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 thepress.[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]
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