meyer lansky house hallandale
And they also ran the Club Boheme and the Club Greenacres. Left, the Roadside Rest on Miami Beach. Joe Sonken's Gold Coast Restaurant, it read. It wasn't until 1914 that 12-year old Meyer Lansky and his family migrated to The Lower East Side of Manhattan, where their first known address was a third floor . Flamingo Las Vegas. They orchestrated weapons smuggling and other schemes that were part of a plot to kill Fidel Castro at the Gold Coast. The settlement was named for Luther Halland, brother-in-law of James Edmundson Ingraham, a Flagler associate. The character Johnny Ola, portrayed by Dominic Chianese, in the film The Godfather Part II (1974) is based on Alo. THE HANGOUT JOE SONKENS GOLD COAST RESTAURANT 606 N. OCEAN DR., HOLLYWOOD. This underworld tour is far from comprehensive, simply because South Florida is a mecca for the mob. In 1986 Fortune magazine ranked him as the fourth-richest mobster in the country. It opened in 1954 and closed on March 30, 2008. Five Families of New York City | Powered by BloggerDesign by Hudson Theme | Blogger Theme by NewBloggerThemes.com. In 1972 Sonken was arrested by Broward Sheriffs undercover deputies and charged with operating a gambling house out of his restaurant. Secret mistress of infamous Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky speaks for first time of her 12-year affair with the 'Mob accountant' and says the Murder Inc. founder was sensitive to the point of tears Numbers aren't adding up here. Had enough of the Jungle Queen? We had an ocean right here, after all, she pointed out. (Another possibility involves internal mob drama, as the FBI believed Ippolito could have been related to a member of a Tampa-based mob syndicate.) Less than two years later, another journalist, Kennedy family insider Pierre Salinger, announced to a Senate committee on organized crime that Sonken was "a notorious Chicago figure." In 1946 he formed a company to distribute slot and pinball machines. On paper, he was worth almost nothing. Broward County increasingly tantalized organized crime families. Alo lived on South Lake at 1248 Monroe Street. Known as the "Mob's Accountant," he was notorious in his own right, operating criminal rackets from Miami to Las Vegas to Cuba and. It is located near the end of a cul-de- sac on two lots and is assessed at $351,730. My favorite meal at Pumperniks and Rascal House was a hot Pastrami or Corn Beef sandwich on oversized slices of seeded Jewish Rye bread loaded with sauerkraut, topped with melted Swiss Cheese and seasoned with a thick spread of spicy mustard. one of the robbers yelled as they made their way to Pendleton's car. Call it Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous. He testified in 1968 before a state crime investigation committee checking into the mob presence in his restaurant, but nothing ever came of the committees report. Then, lines of people often wound around the block waiting to get into Wolfies. Time slowed to a crawl. Mobsters living in or visiting South Florida meet at Joe Sonkens and receive or pass messages there, says Lieutenant Green, because it is one way of circumventing wiretaps on their telephones. THE RELATIVES ARE VISITING AGAIN AND youre stumped as to where to take them. with this post, location or person. Scarfo not only lived in the Spanish-style house he called Casablanca South, he rewarded loyal crime-family members with weekends there. Meyer Lansky In His Own Words Throughout the 1960s the G-men eavesdropped on the private conversations of Meyer Lansky by bugging his personal residence where he lived with his wife in Hallandale, FL and the hotel rooms in which he stayed when in New York City according to FBI files. It would be wonderful if someone would catalogue them, locate the architects, and provide accurate dates, before they are all torn down, as another of my favorites was (it was on the south side of City Hall Circle). (Two houses down, 543 Palm Drive, was the home of Joseph LaRatro, now dead, who authorities say was a capo in the Lucchese La Cosa Nostra crime family.). Local papers also covered how Sonken told diners he'd give them "people bags" instead of "doggie bags" for leftovers. But you'd think I killed my mother or something the way the coppers hassled me." Before last years marathon trial in New Jersey, Accetturo was one of the main mob figures in South Florida, according to Lt. Dave Green of the Broward Sheriffs Office. My thanks to all of you who write me to share with me your knowledge of early Hollywood history. He is the coordinator of the message center.. "You better not hurt the hostages!" He was tough enough to be violent when he had to be violent, says Col. Clinton Pagano, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. In 1979 the House of Representatives Assassinations Committee . For several years now, I've had an odd contact in my cell phone: the Miami Beach address of the long-deceased gangster Meyer Lansky. They also opened the It Club on US 1 between the port and the airport (a strip joint, now gone), and had a bookie operation in the Hollywood Yacht Club (is this the more elegantly-named Deauville?). Matthew Pearl, all rights reserved. Scarface first wintered in Miami Beach in 1927, using the name Al Brown. Catena made much of his fortune in the gaming industry. If so, Provenzano was one of the worlds best-paid truckers, with a penchant for violence, profanity, silk shirts and pinky rings. Upon their arrivals, all began to give generously to Hollywoods churches, synagogues, fraternal organizations, hospitals, and more. "If you want excitement, skydive." Hoffa arrived, got into a car with several men and was never seen again. Sonken once opened a bag of bagels on a Sunday morning, sniffed, and threw them against the wall. He died in prison 11 years later, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering charges. Weed shows his awareness of International Modern architecture, choosing this Modern style as best suited to the Florida tropical climate. Kaufman and the Lanskys soon teamed up with another well-known mobster, Vincent Jimmy Blue-eyes Alo, and opened another casino in Hallandale, the Colonial Inn, which was a carpet joint a fancier, upscale gambling establishment with bookmaking, roulette and craps tables. Almost every night there was a new food critic, chef from another restaurant, politician, or entertainer such as Sammy Davis Jr. at the place. And below is one of my favorites, with raised vertical trim, and complete with portholes.. Now 86, Catena bought a neatly landscaped, gray and white, one-story home in a quiet, affluent Boca Raton neighborhood in 1966. The boss of the Philadelphia-Atlantic City crime family, Scarfo was sentenced last April to life in prison for the murder of another Mafioso, and in May was sentenced to 55 years in prison after his conviction in a racketeering conspiracy that included nine murders and four attempted killings. One question asked repeatedly of suspected mobsters was: "Do you know Joe Sonken?". The task force, if successful, might have pressured Sonken to turn over information against his big-name customers. In this photo Harding is the tall, white-haired man with a bow tie, in the photo center. "Get the hell out of here and take your gang with you," Sonken said, much to Sinatra's shock, remembers Thomas Lentini in his memoir, Silk Stocking Bandits. The result is 2019's "Meyer," for which Lang wrote the story and text (illustrations by Andrea Mutti and Shawn Martinbrough), a fictionalized account of Lansky's last days hiding out in a Miami . Patrons have included John Gotti, boss of the Gambino Mafia family in New York and currently the most powerful mobster in the country; Joseph Todaro, head of the Magaddino family in Buffalo; and Edward Sciandra, acting boss of the Bufalino family based in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1928 Lansky was charged in connection with the shooting of a gangster, but after his recovery the victim refused to testify. Hallandale Beach (formerly known simply as Hallandale) is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. Physical Description. 1915, March 26 Miami Beach is incorporated, population 150. Everything we did back then is legal now, Jimmy Blue Eyes was said to lament soon afterwards. He gave the boot to Frank Sinatra and his crew for being disruptive. March 1, 1923, the first full-page ad for HOLLYWOOD BY-THE-SEA appears in the Miami Times Union. Growing up on tough streets, he eventually became an organized crime figure instrumental. So your age is between 70s and 90s. He dressed in a white, open-collared shirt with a dark sport coat and white socks. When someone asked what he knew about Meyer Lansky, Sonken would say, "He orders spaghetti." They tossed the sport coats they'd worn during the robbery into an alley a miscalculation, it turned out, because the stolen money was in the pocket of one of the coats. Former Chicago mob hitman Nicholas Calabrese has died, a source said Monday. A LITTLE HISTORY FROM THE INTERNET (credit goes to the writer's of the information, not me.). He returns home to Marseilles, Illinois, then with a friend goes over to Indianapolis, where he begins to work for J. W. Young. Hallandale soon was home to all types of gambling establishments. When called the "Toots Shor of the South" in 1970 by the Miami News referencing a famous New York restaurateur Sonken quipped back that Shor was the "Joe Sonken of the North.". The dapper but hot-tempered Scarfo, 60, has been in prison ever since, and it is likely he will spend the rest of his life there. Jerry Catena is a successful businessman as well as an organized-crime figure.. It may not be Chicago, but you can truthfully say that Al Capone slept and died here. local news and culture, Matthew Pearl Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Originally, the Epicure Market was to be contained within a new condominium building on the location, but a downturn in the real estate market in the late 2000s (decade) put an end to the condominium project. Note the stairs to the deck, the straight horizontal and vertical lines, and the use of pink stucco. But the police weren't done by a long shot. The Club Boheme was on Hallandale beach, literally on the beach, just south of Hallandale Beach Boulevard. If Al Capone was actually in as many places in old South Florida as the legends say and for as many years he would have slept in more places than George Washington! Kaufman was connected to New York mobster named Vincent Jimmy Blue-Eyes Alo, who was also a longtime friend of Meyer Lansky. The heat turned up on Sonken when a 1957 article by columnist Jack Anderson claimed the restaurateur didn't just serve steaks to the mafia, he was mafia. He entered the meat industry before losing a bundle in the Great Depression and then overseeing a lounge at the Devonshire Hotel in the city's North Loop. After selling Mother Kelly's, Sonken opened Gold Coast Restaurant in late 1953 a few blocks north of the Hollywood Boulevard bridge. Yet Lummus admitted that his real-estate firm had sold Capone the Palm Island house. The new owner is a front called Tiger Business LLC in Weston. Young got the idea from a similar arrangement in California, and had them erected as he was building the Beach Hotel, since there were so many people clamoring for housing in Hollywood in 1925-1926. While Capones thugs machine-gunned seven members of the rival Bugsy Moran gang in Chicago, a half-dozen bodyguards served champagne to Capones guests, providing him with scores of witnesses who could account for his whereabouts at the time of the killings. More links between Hallandale and Hollywood are mentioned further along. This led one fashion designer to offer to publicly dress him. Born to a father from Russia and a Polish mother, Joe Sonken worked from the time he was 10, leaving school after eighth grade. He is buried at Mount Nebo Cemetery, 5505 NW Third St., in Miami Beach. He called Meyer Lansky, New York's preeminent Jewish gangster. This was Joe Sonken's fiefdom. The 21-month trial is thought to be the longest federal criminal trial ever held. Meyer Lansky was the highest-ranking non-Italian in the American Mafia. So whats the connection? In addition to Hollywood stars such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Cary Grant, some of the mob's heavy-hitters, like Meyer Lansky, Vincent Alo, and Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, would frequent Joe Sonken's Gold Coast Restaurant. This was going to create a loss of revenue for the hotel, he points out, and very likely other local merchants. His basset hounds,. On the day of the St. Valentines Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, Capone invited more than 100 people to his Palm Island home for a party. And drove for Lansky when he was in western n.y, If you're interested, I'd like to hear more about your dad. Meyer Lansky's former home at 612 Hibiscus Drive, Hallandale Beach. Operation Cherokee would end up taking its toll on Green, his wife, and their three children. "Respectfully, you understand. Lansky moved from New York to Miami Beach in 1933 and to Hollywood in 1934. These businesses flourished, helped along by Broward Sheriff Walter Clark, who allowed slots and casinos to thrive in the county in the 1930s and 40s and even held a share in one, according to an article in the Sun-Sentinel on May 09, 2005. "Get me outta here," Sonken yelled in the last moments before the car sank. Pumperniks owner Charles Linksman attributed Wolfies survival to its proximity to theaters and boxing ring. Meyer arrived at the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1911. "Take ten." Starting with the Plantation, according to various sources, by 1936 the former tomato packing barn, called the Plantation, was operated by Julian Potatoes Kaufman with bookmaking, roulette, crap tables, etc. The chief spokesman is Oscar Johnson, manager of the influential Hollywood Beach Hotel, who says that 60 to 70 guests had already checked out, heading to areas where gambling was available, notably Havana. Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House was a Jewish delicatessen at the intersection of 172nd Street and Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. "Ever hear of the mafia?" Sonken didn't hold grudges. They even declared certain areas of South Florida murder-free. Enter dates to see prices. In 1978, officers from a state task force burst into Gold Coast amid a busy lunch crowd, alleging Sonken had bought stolen food products. Sonken, five feet six when he was standing straight, ran right into the gunman's path to assist his customer. Sonken has been the subject of some scrutiny over the years, but he has never been convicted of any crime. As you can see, these arent pup tents or camping tents. A man on a walk to get a newspaper saw them and called the police from a pay phone. So if you hear that somebodys grandmother lived in a tent on the beach, she no doubt was not exactly roughing it here in Tent City. A white-hot spotlight landed on the mob and followed it to Florida. But while all that gambling was taking place in Hallandale, the guys in charge kept their families safe in the adjacent and beautiful city of Hollywood. "Don't take two," said Sonken. Agents were in the midst of a historic undercover operation using the restaurant as a staging ground at the time the car rolled into the drink. "Their members are doing business, even in a social or a relaxed setting," Bertucelli explained to the Chicago Tribune. The few criminal charges brought against Sonken never stuck, and in May 1994, the restaurant was sold and turned into a Miami Subs Grill. "I run a good, clean place here," Sonken complained this time, noting that the dozens of officers who raided Gold Coast's food "acted like they were looking for John Dillinger." "I can't swim!". Gangsters from the Northeast also enjoyed it for the reasons anyone does the weather, for one, which hearkened back to the "old country." In this photo in the Hollywood Herald, Roosevelt is the first man in a dark suit stepping off the gangplank, and waving. PERHAPS THE MOST VICIOUS mob boss in the country, this diminutive don (he hates being called Little Nicky) lived part time in his two-story, four- bedroom, five-bath waterfront home in Fort Lauderdale from 1985 until his arrest in New Jersey in January 1987 on charges of extortion. A good friend of mine who now lives in Aventura grew up in North Miami Beach. In a sit-down at Gold Coast with a union leader, capo "Tony Jack" Giacalone, of the mob's so-called Detroit Partnership, demanded payment for helping make Hoffa disappear. The center-Strip resort features more than 3,500 guest rooms and suites . He passed away in 1963 in Miami of a stroke. anonymously (anonymous users cannot post links). Hallandale was indeed the hotbed of sin of Broward County in the 30s. In fact, in 1937 Oscar Johnson, the same manager of the Beach Hotel that was a major source of revenue in Hollywood in the 1930s, and whose hotel would overlook the trailers, said that such mobile housing was the thing of the future and didnt object. These addresses are all public knowledge, by the way. In May 1928, City Council members unanimously opposed Capones presence in their community. This ad appeared in the Hollywood Herald on February 28, 1936. In fact, in the 30s and 40s, Hallandale had legal slot machines everywhere in drugstores, gas stations, stores and even fishing camps. Poker games and parties were common at the Capone estate. The Pennsylvania Crime Commission said in 1987 that his use of naked brutal power and blatant and undisciplined violence is what ultimately undermined his regime. Julian Kaufman was a Chicagoan who was on the run from Al Capone. They also opened the It Club on US1 between the port and the airport (a strip joint, now gone), and had a bookie operation in the Hollywood Yacht Club. Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House location was converted to an Epicure Gourmet Market, owned by Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House's parent company Jerrys Famous Deli headquartered in Studio City, California. "I do, Judge," the mobster answered. Reporters gathered outside the gate to his home. Customers arriving by yacht would dock at the back, double-docking on weekends as the restaurant grew in popularity. NICODEMO LITTLE NICKY SCARFO 3100 NE 47TH ST., FORT LAUDERDALE. His Gold Coast had long been a place of infinite possibility, where an impromptu jazz-concert-as-wake for a blind pianist could be followed by a hostage-taking robbery. In addition to stars from the sports world and the "other" Hollywood, like boxer Rocky Marciano and The Honeymooners' actress Audrey Meadows, who serenaded the restaurant-goers for three hours one night, another crowd made itself comfortable and conspicuous at Sonken's gangsters, including the mob's business mastermind, Meyer Lansky. The restaurant has cameos in the FBI's JFK assassination files and the pages of a 1980 Elmore Leonard novel. He died last December at age 71 of a heart attack at the federal prison in Lompoc, Calif. His second wife, Marie-Paule Provenzano, has put the Hallandale house up for sale. There was no way to avoid proximity to mobsters in the hospitality field in 1930s and '40s Chicago. "I don't like it," Sonken told a reporter. After nearly 50 years of involvement with organized crime, Meyer Lansky was never found guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling. January 30, 2018 His basset hounds, Amos and Tillie, tagged along. And it was all about the drinking. On the canal at the rear of the house, the 5-foot, 5-inch gangster docked his 40-foot yacht, Casablanca: Usual Suspects. Catena was the underboss, or number two man, in the mighty Vito Genovese Mafia family of New York. Sandi scoffs at that rumor. The restaurant's name referenced its double identity "Gold Coast" was both a term for Florida's Atlantic cities, including up-and-coming Hollywood, and for the once-swampy stretch of Chicago that through creative redevelopment improbably became elite. Hollywood Historical Society, gift of Katharine LaBelle. 1897, March Flyers go out to Sweden to advertise Halland, a new Swedish colony in southeast Florida, where the climate is conducive to year-round farming. While he was a resident of Miami, his brother Jake made his home at 1146 Harrison Street. The restaurant has an attractive, ethnic ambience, with red- leather booths and chairs, red tablecloths, an autographed photo of singer Connie Francis on the wall, and attentive waiters and musicians who stroll about the dining room. He had run up tabs worth thousands of dollars, and owed thousands more to Sonken in rent for a commercial property. From nearby appeared a Gold Coast regular, a guy who had spent so much time there that a booth could have been named after him. 9. Two years later he and five others were indicted in connection with a scheme to drug horses at Calder Race Course, which authorities said netted $500,000 between 1975 and 1977. This 1940s postcard indicates that their complaints fell on deaf ears. The boom years for Wolfies and all of Miami Beachs deli-style eateries came after World War II when Jewish veterans and retirees, mostly from New York and the Northeast, flowed into Miami Beach by the thousands as permanent residents, snowbirds, and tourists. Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House was not the same as the original Wolfie's, another famous Jewish deli and restaurant in Miami Beach, also started by Wolfie Cohen, on the corner of 21st Street and Collins Avenue (closer to South Beach), For several years, Wolfie's featured a sign that read "The only thing that needs to come dressed is our chickens! (meaning dining was casual, not clothing optional). Once the car with the robbers and hostages began to move, police resumed their positions and opened fire, shooting at the tires. In the 1970s mobster Meyer Lansky, pursuing the simple life of a philosophical, Chevrolet-driving, book-borrowing library patron, was often spotted noshing in Wolfie's. By the mid-1980s, after the original Pumperniks closed (another Wolfie Cohen 1950s start-up), Wolfie's was one of few, or perhaps the only, large-scale deli left on the . Today, Catena lives the life of a retired businessman and revered Mafia don. 1 photonegative - b&w - 4 x 5 in. Eventually, Frank Ippolito and Manuel Talavera received sentences for robbery and kidnapping (Talavera, who had two prior robbery convictions, received 120 years in state prison, where he remains). On July 30, 1975, he arranged to meet Hoffa at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit for a peace talk. 4,646 views 0 faves 0 comments Taken on December 17, 2008 All rights reserved Additional info Viewing privacy Public Safety level Safe Content type Photo License History S Search Photo navigation < > Thumbnail navigation Z Zoom B Back to context Now Scarfos crime family is in a shambles and the search for a new boss has begun. Stuff and the service are excellent.". When people heard about what had happened to Sonken's car, many including some restaurant staff figured someone had messed with it. Please log in if you don't want to post With that in mind, join us on Sunshines exclusive tour of the homes and the haunts of the hoods. Miami's independent source of called Lt. Neil Robar of the Hollywood Police, ordering his officers to stand down. He saw the car in the water and froze. He has lived there year- round for at least 10 years. A year later Tony Pro was convicted of ordering the 1961 murder of Anthony Castellito, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 560 in New Jersey, in which Provenzano and two brothers had held powerful positions for many years. Gold Coast had never before been robbed. These addresses are all public knowledge, by the way. Pivotal moments in mob history transpired over homemade ravioli and Gold Coast's famous Chicken Vesuvio (baked with potatoes and onion). And (going out of chronology) on July 30, 1937 the Hollywood police raided the Plantation in Hallandale. His success was such that Lansky once made an uncharacteristic but famous boast to an associate: Were bigger than U.S. Steel.. It was, in fact, Kaufman who alerted the Lanskys to the potential of Hallandale. Last year, Accetturo was one of 20 reputed mob figures acquitted by a federal jury in Newark on racketeering charges. Scarfo was often seen taking cronies for a quiet cruise on the Intracoastal Waterway. Sonken turned on a dime from wry to angry. He is buried in Chicago. Steve Bertucelli, who became director of the Broward County Sheriff's Office's Organized Crime Division (OCD) in the 1980s, licked his wounds from the ill-conceived stolen food gambit against Gold Coast, which he had spearheaded as part of the Metro-Dade Police. And months before the sale, the mayor had said, Capone is no worse than a lot of others down here.. Meyer Lansky In His Own Words Throughout the 1960s the G-men eavesdropped on the private conversations of Meyer Lansky by bugging his personal residence where he lived with his wife in. Just for fun, and unlikely to be connected to either Fisher or Young. Below is a little information I gleaned from websites. The site, a city block at Washington Street between the Atlantic Ocean and A1A, is now a city park and rec building. Kaufman was connected to New York mobster Vincent Jimmy Blue-eyes Alo. Meyer, Bernard & Paul Lansky. Johnson wasnt against gambling per se, but he hopes that the racketeers in gambling would be suppressed.. One. Gold Coast didn't miss a meal. In his seminal book on South Florida's crime scene, Syndicate in the Sun, journalist Hank Messick referenced Anderson's allusion to Sonken as a sinister kingpin. In the photo at left, Harding, center, still wears his golfing plus-four pants, as he greets Youngs sales force. Your film on Meyer Lansky is loosely based on . Both photos were published in Youngs Hollywood Reporter, edited by Behymer. In the next paper, on March 12, 1937 the headline states that Hollywood merchants did not want a lid on gambling in Broward. Catenas arrests date back to 1923, for alleged activities ranging from bribing a juror to suspicion of murder. Mingling with people interested in suspiciously low-priced liquor, he zeroed in on Patrick DeCrescito, 59, a bartender at Gold Coast. . I'd been planning to write about Lansky in some wayI . If South Florida was the mob's version of Switzerland, Gold Coast was its United Nations, where rival wise guys agreed to get along. The interiors were in similar pastel shades of yellow, coral and blue. They were simple frame structures with canvas roofs. Sporting a large neon sign in the front, the building was designed in the 1950s. Kaufman died of a heart attack at age 40, avoiding prosecution for his crimes. The large rectangular sign rose on stilts against the growing skyline of what was then called "Hollywood-by-the-Sea."