Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers PDF
Preview Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers
^ •M mm How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Iidden Power Brokers GUS RUSSO - I .4.9! HOW DOES A LAWYER WITH HO PHOHE, HO OFFICE, AHD HO FILES BECOME OHE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MEH IH AMERICA? A (•claimed investigative reporter Gus Russo returns with his most extraordinary hook yet, the remarkable story of the — "Supermob" a cadre of men who, over the course of decades, secretly influenced nearly every aspect of American society. Supermob presents stunning revelations about national icons such as Ronald Reagan, Jules Stein, Lew Wasserinaii. Paul Ziffren, Abe Pritzker, and others. Although most of these men were meticulously low profile, Supermob pulls the lid off of their half-century infiltration into American business, politics, and society. At the heart of it all was the Chicago Outfit's fair-haired boy, Sidney Korshak, a.k.a. "The Fixer," who from the 1940s until his death in 1996 was not only the most pow- erful lawyer in the world, according to the FRI, but also the enigmatic, almost vaporous player behind some ofthe shadiest deals ofthe twentieth century. With the mob's vise grip over American labor, it was Korshak whom they designated to manage their investments: from the Outfit's hitherto undisclosed California land grabs (the real ''Chinatown" storv) to Hollywood quidpro quos, from casino monopolies to underhanded hotel deals. As the underworlds primarylink to the corporate upperworld, Korshak backroom dominance 's and talent for anonymity remains unparal- leled. Controversial, exhaustively researched, endlessly entertaining, and lavishly illustrated with many previously unseen photos, Supermobis aprobinginvestigationinto alittle known chapter of American history. w M/IT N %* e Boston Pu ,* WH «s y^ material **, "^"ted tie SUPERMOB BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America Live by the Sword: The Secret WarAgainst Castro and the Death ofJFK Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run (with Henry Hill) SUPERMOB How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers Gus Russo BLOOMSBURY — Copyright©2006byGusRusso All rightsreserved. Nopartof thisbook may beusedorreproducedinany manner whatsoeverwithoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisherexceptinthecaseof brief quotationsembodiedincriticalarticlesorreviews. Forinformationaddress BloomsburyUSA, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork, NY 10010. PublishedbyBloomsburyUSA,NewYork Distributedtothetrade byHoltzbrinckPublishers Allpapers usedbyBloomsburyUSA arenatural,recyclableproducts madefrom woodgrownin well-managedforests. Themanufacturingprocessesconform totheenvironmental regulationsof thecountryoforigin. Libraryof Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Russo, Gus. Supermob howSidneyKorshak andhiscriminal associatesbecameAmerica's : — hiddenpowerbrokers/GusRusso. 1stU.S. ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13: 978-1-58234-389-1 ISBN-10: 1-58234-389-6 — — 1. Korshak,SidneyR—oy, 1907-199—6. 2. Lawyers Illinois Chicag—o Biography. 3. Lawyers California Biography. 4. Organizedcrime United States. I. Title. KF373.K67R87 2006 364.1092—dc22 [B] 2006015747 FirstU.S. Edition2006 987654321 10 TypesetbyWestchesterBookGroup PrintedintheUnited Statesof America by QuebecorWorldFairfield Contents Cast of Characters vii Preface xv 1. The Lawyer from Lawndale 1 2. From Lawndale to the Seneca ... to the Underworld 24 3. Birds of a Feather 56 4. Kaddish for California 74 5. The Future Is in Real Estate 91 6. "Hell, That's What You Had to Do in Those Days to Get By" 116 7. Scenes from Hollywood, Part One 147 8. Jimmy, Bobby, and Sidney 162 9. Forty Years in the Desert 195 10. The Kingmakers: Paul, Lew, and Ronnie in California 227 11. The New Frontier 246 12. Bistro Days 275 13. "He Could Never Walk Away from Those People" 296 14. Scenes from Hollywood, Part Two 328 15. "A Sunny Place for Shady People" 337 • 16. Coming Under Attack 360 17. From Hoffa to Hollywood 373 18. From Dutch Sandwiches to Dutch Reagan 402 19. AiringDirty Laundry and LaunderingDirty Money 426 20. Pursued by the Fourth Estate 445 21. The True Untouchables 473 22. Legacies 506 Acknowledgments 529 Appendix A: Supermob Investments 533 Appendix B: Pritzker Holdings 537 Appendix C: Ziffren-Greenberg-Genis Documents 545 Notes 549 Bibliography 587 Index 599
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