Gus Greenbaum

Gustav "Gus" Greenbaum (* 1894 ; † December 3, 1958 in Phoenix (Arizona) ) was an American mobster and associate of the Chicago Outfit . Today it is included in the Kosher Nostra . He was best known for his involvement in the La Cosa Nostra gambling operations in Las Vegas .

Life

Kosher Nostra

Gus Greenbaum had been connected to the Kosher Nostra Meyer Lansky since the late 1910s and was attributed to his Bugs and Meyer Mob . After the end of alcohol prohibition , Greenbaum began working with the Chicago outfit . (Often his membership is formulated in the outfit; in view of his non-Italian origin, this can generally be excluded.)

With the help of his friends Bugsy Siegel , Jack Dragna and Mickey Cohen , he succeeded in 1928 in gaining control of the "Trans-America Wire Service" in the south-west, which in particular transmitted the results of sports betting.

Carlos Marcello wanted to complete the monopoly by taking over Continental Press , but James M. Ragen , who had bought it from Moe Annenberg on November 15, 1939 , refused .

On August 15, 1946, Ragen was murdered; a not entirely risky approach: Ragen belonged to the Ragen's Colts and his brother Frank Ragen had even made it to the police chief of Chicago . One witness was murdered and another disappeared without a trace. In the murder are Dave Yara , Leonard Patrick , Willie block , Gus Alex and Strongy Ferraro have been involved.

The trick of the news monopoly was to give the mobsters an information advantage, because today's mass media, which published sports results immediately, did not exist back then. Greenbaum was an efficient game organizer and business was flourishing. In 1946 he was so successful that he was able to withdraw from day-to-day business to leave it to Kemper Marley and Alex G. "Fats" Cohen .

Las Vegas

After World War II , Greenbaum went to Las Vegas and along with Morris Rosen and Moe Sedway took control of the gambling activities for the outfit . When Bugsy Siegel was murdered in 1947, they both took over his casino hotel, The Flamingo .

The casino project was completed and expanded from the original 97 to 200 guest rooms. At the end of 1947, the flamingo was already making a profit of four million US dollars. In 1950 Greenbaum was also the driving force behind the Tropicana’s $ 50 million success, and his reputation among the mobsters was accordingly high. Presumably he controlled other casinos and gambling activities in Arizona . As the person in charge of the mob in Las Vegas, he ordered the murder of Tony Brancato and Tony Tombino after they had robbed a casino owned by the US-based Cosa Nostra.

Following his success, he was also offered the Riviera Casino because it had produced a loss of US $ 5 million. Greenbaum didn't want this job, but Anthony Accardo and Jake Guzik - as influential outfit advisers, de facto the extended arm of the outfit leaders - wanted to convince him. Greenbaum turned the job down because it was against his plan to return to Phoenix as he had had enough of Las Vegas. A week later, his sister-in-law was found dead in her bedroom, and Greenbaum took over as manager of the Riviera after all.

The end

Apparently the only way he could get on with the extended job was through drugs, excessive gambling and women’s stories. In 1958, John Roselli , a confidante of Greenbaum, was appointed to Paul Ricca and Anthony Accardo to ask Greenbaum to resign. It was also found that Greenbaum was skimming profits, which had already been noted by Sam Giancana .

Greenbaum was to sell his shares and then leave Las Vegas unmolested; however, he declined and continued to divert some of the money that had already been skimmed from the casinos for the outfit by the tax authorities .

Now Marshall Caifano was the "enforcer" (am: "enforcer") for the outfit in Las Vegas to solve the problem. On December 3, 1958, Greenbaum was discovered in his bedroom with his throat cut. His wife was found with a broken skull and her throat also cut.

Johnny Roselli later blamed Meyer Lansky for the murder; he wanted to get rid of Greenbaum in order to increase his own shares in the Riviera.

Movie and movie quotes

• In the film casino there is the character of "Phillip Green" who, like Greenbaum , acts as the front man of La Cosa Nostra . However, the film depicts the situation in the 1970s when Greenbaum was already dead, and especially Allen Glick as a stooge of the Mobster acted.
• 1972: In the film The Godfather , Bugsy Siegel is portrayed in the person of Moe Green - alongside Moe Sedway and Gus Greenbaum . At least the first name of the fictional character comes from Sedway.

literature

• Fried, Albert: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6
• Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States . Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
• Sifakis, Carl:

1. The Mafia Encyclopedia . New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
2. The Encyclopedia of American Crime . New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0

Web links

• The Greenbaum Murder by John William Tuohy (English)
• HiddenMysteries Conspiracy Archive - The Rest of the Story: THE ARIZONA PROJECT (English)