Moe Sedway

Moe Sedway actually Morris Sidwirtz or Sedwits (* 1894 in Poland ; † 1952) was an American mobster who is now part of the Kosher Nostra .

Life

In 1901 the Sedwits family emigrated from Poland to the USA. In 1914, Moe became a US citizen. The family went to New York City , where he stayed until 1938.

In 1919 he was arrested in the vicinity of a craps game and therefore spent around a year in a reformatory. Sedway's entries in the New York City Police Department grew in the early 1920s.

His acquaintance with Meyer Lansky began when he and Bugsy Siegel founded a car rental company on Cannon Street , which also served to camouflage their own smuggling activities during the US alcohol prohibition . Sedway - in tow with Siegel - would later work closely with him in Las Vegas; in the end Meyer Lansky became Sedway's chief commanding officer.

In the 1930s it was his main task to win customers for the “Trans-America race wire service” , which made it possible to offer sports betting far away from the actual competition venues, as the results were transmitted promptly.

His business trips took him to Las Vegas . In 1935 he was charged with conspiracy, but not convicted; he eventually gave up New York as a place of residence and went to Los Angeles . In 1940 he was arrested for gambling in San Diego ; from 1941 he stayed permanently in Las Vegas. Together with Gus Greenbaum , he ran the El Cortez Hotel in 1945 . Sedway also took over the financing and construction of the Flamingo Hotel after William R. Wilkerson ran into financial difficulties. He saw the flamingo property as an opportunity to gain a foothold in Las Vegas and to expand there. According to his son Robbie, he gave the friend of his wife Beatrice "Bee", Mathew "Moose" Pandza, the order to murder Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, which he carried out on June 20, 1947 with a 0.30 M1 rifle. Sedway and Greenbaum took possession of the flamingo immediately after Bugsy Siegel's death . They also opened the flamingo to less exclusive guests and the flamingo was booming . In the first year alone, the two made a profit of around $ 4 million.

Jack Dragna , the local boss of La Cosa Nostra in California was not a friend of this expansion of the Mobster with Meyer Lansky to Las Vegas. He sent his "enforcer" (on: "enforced") Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno to assert his rights. Sedway was physically attacked and the higher-ranking Doc Stacher , basically Lansky's right-hand man, was also physically attacked. The National Crime Syndicate had originally planned Las Vegas as an open city that was not assigned to any clan or group as territory. When Lansky approached Tommy Lucchese about it, there was initially no solution. Lansky did not seek the conflict, but offered Jack Dragna a share in the flamingo, which the latter refused.

Sedway was involved in gambling projects in other places; u. a. at the Hollywood Yacht Club , where he was Julian Kaufman's partner .

In 1950 Sedway was questioned by the "Kefauver Committee" , which was chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver .

estate

Moe Sedway was in the cemetery Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood ( Los Angeles (County) buried). He left a widow : Bea Sedway, with whom he had children.

Adaptations

• 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.
• 1986: In the historical novel Nevada by Clint McCullough makes Meade Slaughter acquaintance with Bugsy Siegel and Moe Sedway.
• 1991: Moe Sedway is played by Joseph Roman in the US film Bugsy .

literature

• Sally Denton, Roger Morris: The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947-2000 . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2001, ISBN 0-375-40130-X .
• Robert Lacey : Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life . Century, London 1991, ISBN 0-7126-2426-0 .
• Hank Messick: Lansky . Robert Hale & Company, London 1973, ISBN 0-7091-3966-7 .
• Ed Reid, Ovid Demaris : The Green Felt Jungle . Pocket Books, Montreal 1964.

Web links

• Kefauver Committee - Testimony of Moe Sedway (1950) Statements by Moe Sedway before the "Kefauver Committee" 1950 (English)
• Moe Sedway on Find A Grave (English)
• Police photo on www.mugshots.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert A. Rockaway: Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel & Co. Life stories of Jewish gangsters in the USA , Hamburg 1998; Concrete literature publisher, ISBN 3-89458-170-0
2. ↑ Kefauver Committee - Testimony of Moe Sedway (1950) ( Memento of the original dated November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Statements by Moe Sedway before the "Kefauver Committee" 1950 (English) 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Robert Lacey: Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life. Little Brown and Company, Boston 1991, ISBN 0-316-51168-4 , pp. 61,128,189,192,194,196.
4. ↑ AmericanMafia.com - Muscling In by John William Tuohy on www.americanmafia.com (English)