wow. 5oo mil. hard to argue with that one.

Owney Madden was around when all the top guys that people on this forum are always talking about so it gos with out saying he is rigjht up there.

Jimmy Hoffa

Hugh apples McIntosh

Meyer Lansky

Moe Dalitz.

Thats an interesting guy with a history.

Anyone read "the life and crimes of Moe Dalitz"?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/078643516X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/177-4848752-3356616

Milton "Maishe" Rockman, longtime advisor to John Scalish and his brother in law. He was a guy who could shut down a multi million dollar project by making one call to Bill Presser. He was respected nationwide, but especially with the Genovese Family in NY. It's hard to say if he was the most powerful "ever," but he certainly carried alot of weight in the midwest and throughout the nation due to his relationship with the Old Mayfield Road Mob in Cleveland and his close, personal relationship with Bill Presser.

it'd be out of meyer lansky and the chicago top level bosses such as tony accardo,paul ricca, jake guzik and some others idk. BUT if i had to pick one it'd of been lansky during his time him and luciano were so close his power was unmatched by the rest BUT once luciano got locked up his power started dwindling and finally had no power once frank costello along with albert anastia starting to move on lansky. as for the chicago outfit always had a hold on things and was part of the mob not the mafia so they had just as much power/sway in the underworld as the five families.

It has probably already been mentioned but Burton Kaplan.

The guy had a huge impact on Lucchese family business for a 5 or 6 year period and most of the higher echelon guys in the family didn't know who he was.

Doc Sagansky from Boston has gotta be up there.. Real old timer. Was involved in some sort of gambling from Prohibition through to the 1990's.. Had one of the biggest gambling operations in the area for yeeeears. Pretty sure Angiulo didn't tax him much or maybe not at all I can't remember, but after Jerry got put away Vinny Ferrara and his guys shook down Sagansky for something like a quarter million, and Doc paid it cash like a day later.. Also pretty sure he didn't admit anything about the shakedown when everyone got pinched for it since there was a bug in Ferrara's office at the time of the shakedown thanks to Steve Flemmi.

Just from my observation and I could be off but I'd say Jewish gangsters are a strong number 2 behind Italians when it comes to historical significance, power and money making ability. Maybe because like Italians the biggest names in Jewish crime came from a much romanticized era. I'd bet Colombian, Mexican and probably current Italian DTOs make more money than the Jews or Italian Americans did its just they came from a time that many people for one reason or another are nostalgic about.

Also probably because these two groups in particular seemed to work fairly well together. When did Jewish gangsters or OC Jewish figures stop having such a large presence in the underworld particularly NY,Chicago,Philadelphia? 1950,1960,1970?

Vito Arena