Description:

MEYER LANSKY
(1902 - 1983) Mafia "founding father" and accounting genius, close friend and associate of "Lucky" Luciano, Joe Adonis, "Bugsy" Siegel and Albert Anatasia, involved in natiowide rackets whose profits he laundered through legitimate businesses. He fled to Israel to avoid prosecution in 1970, but was denied citizenship after a long court battle and returned to the U.S. on Nov. 7, 1972 where he was arrested aboard the airplane to face trial. He would be acquitted of all charges in 1974, but spent the interim, and the rest of his life fighting for Israeli citizenship. Good content A.L.S. "Meyer", 2pp. 4to., [Miami], Aug. 9, 1973 to his friend Joseph (Yoskeh) Sheiner, a member of the Israeli Security Agency and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's director of security in the 1960s. Sheiner accompanied Lansky on his famous 36 hour flight seeking asylum and secretly tried to obtain him asylum in Paraguay. Lansky writes of his travails in court, in part: "...My most important matter I won. The year doesn't annoy me at all; I just wanted to win this frame up and I'm sure it will be the same with the other one, most likely without a trial. They well know that I'm innocent...I have to pay for it through the nose...Now with the exposure of Mitchell and Watergate would it not be a good time to expose [Israeli Judge] Shapiro...and Berg...Israel cannot be complacent with our politicians, especially the ones that are controlled by the oil interests...". Light toning at margins, two file holes, else very good.

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September 11, 2013 11:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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