Did Lansky have anything to do with Harry Shipp of Montreal ?

Interesting irony:

]oseph (Doc) Stacher was a boyhood chum and close associate of Lansky--they were born in the same year (1902) and both immigrated from Ukraine. He ran gambling rackets for Abner "Longy" Zwillman, helped arrange a critical alliance meeting between Lansky and Italian mobsters in 1931, and was Lansky's right hand man for gaming in Vegas and the Caribbean.

In '64, Stacher was indicted for tax evasion. The Feds revoked his naturalization and wanted to deport him to Ukraine. But this was the Cold War, and the government was loathe to ship anyone--even criminals--"behind the Iron Curtain." Stacher applied for permission to live in Israel under Israel's Law of Return, and was accepted. He lived the rest of his life peacefully in Israel as a "returned Jew."

Lansky tried the same ploy in 1970, when he was the target of a Justice Dept. "strike force." But the Feds plied the Israeli government with reams of material from Lansky's FBI file--they even invited the government's prosecutor in Lansky's citizenship case to Washington, rolled out the red carpet for him, and gave him access to the FBI building and everything in it. Lansky's only "criminal conviction" of record was a guilty plea to a misdemeanor gambling charge in Saratoga Springs, NY, for which he served less than three months in the local jail. But, with constant pressure from the US government, the Israelis ordered Lansky to leave as a "threat to national security."

As you pursue and review the list of names on the Lansky chart, you'll notice several bona-fide mafiosi. Not just "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo, who was Meyer's longtime friend, partner, and Mafia benefactor, but also several relatively important "made" Genovese Family soldiers.

They include Matteo (Matty Brown) Fortunato, who later rose to a "capo" status, soldier Nicholas (Bobby Blanch) Belangi, and soldier Paolo (Paul) Marchione. Also connected to Lansky's crew was Matty's brother, Eugenio (Gene Brown) Fortunato, a top family associate.

The Fortunato brothers and Marchione were partnered and supervised gambling and other rackets around the Albany and Saratoga Springs sections of Upper NYS for Lansky and Alo. Belangi was a key operative, money courier, and the sometime driver-bodyguard for Meyer whenever he visited NYC.