The Roll of the Jewish Mafia: Kosher Nostra in Cleveland
In a Cleveland police interview conducted in 1956 a suspect stated that “I joined up with [Person Q] and about three or four weeks later he told me that the big boss wanted to see me and I understand that the big boss was a man by the name of [Person S] and he wanted to take the matter up with me about him having a third of my clearing house business.” Clearing houses were places in which illegal numbers lottery bets were processed. It would be natural to assume that Person S, the “big boss” of the Cleveland numbers game was an Italian, but in fact he was a Jew.
Jews were more heavily involved in the Cleveland Mafia then they are given credit for. From the late 1920’s until the late
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The job of assistant safety director included establishing the policies and strategy of the police in order to fight crime. Because of his job as assistant safety director Sutton had access to police files. Before accepting the job as assistant safety director Sutton had worked for the FBI, which gave him previous background into the workings of organized crime as well. Sutton’s papers include his own notes, memorandums, and police files. Because a portion of the contents that make up the Alvin J Sutton papers is composed of police files their use is consequently restricted. Because of the restricted nature of the files, the names of individuals referred to from the files are redacted in this paper. Transcripts of the Kefauver Hearings, which were carried out by a special senate committee aimed at uncovering organized crime that crossed state borders also provides evidence illuminating the structure of the Mafia. Examples of activities undertaken by key members of the Cleveland Mafia will serve to clarify the role the Jewish Mafia played in establishing illegal …show more content…
The majority of casinos owned by the Cleveland Mafia were located at clubs owned at least in part by the Cleveland Syndicate. The Cleveland Syndicate were a group of Jewish gangsters who merged with the Mayfield Road Mob to form the overall Cleveland Mafia. To grasp how the Jewish element of the Cleveland Mafia facilitated the establishment of illegal gambling, one must first understand how the Cleveland Mafia itself was structured, and how the different elements both Jewish and non-Jewish related to each other and worked