MEYER LANSKY was the brains behind the financial side of the Mafia, earning him the nickname “The Mob’s Accountant.” Rising up with the Jewish mob, he used his strong connections with the Italian-American mafia to help form the National Crime Syndicate, a group that united organized crime outfits throughout the United States.

A major force in New York’s bootlegging scene during Prohibition, Lansky later used his brilliant mathematical mind to establish a sprawling gambling racket that eventually expanded all over the world. This extremely lucrative enterprise made Lansky one of the most financially successful gangsters of all time.

Shown here for an arrest in the 1930s on an illegal gambling charge, Lansky was able to mostly evade the authorities throughout his legendary organized crime career of fifty-plus years. He retired to Miami in his later years, where he died in 1983 at age 80.