Which of the "Chosen Ones" Am I? #3
Spoiler Alert: Clicking on the hyperlinks may reveal the identity of the "Chosen One." Links are provided for background purposes.
I was born in 1902 in Grodno, Russian Empire, present day Belarus, and was brought to the United States n 1911. I graduated from eighth grade in 1917 and landed a job with a tool and die maker. Four years later, I switched jobs and became an auto mechanic. I was soon servicing and camouflaging stolen cars for bootleggers.
By 1928, I attracted a gang of my own and was at the helm of a flourishing rum running operation. I also hired out gunmen as enforcers for other bootleggers.
As a mature adult, I was 5’4’’ tall and weighed 136 pounds. Acquaintances regarded me as clever and remarkably self-possessed.
I was an associate and protégé of Arnold Rothstein and close friends and partner with Lucky Luciano. I met Bugsy Siegel when we were teenagers and we became lifelong friends, with Siegel saving my life several times.
After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, with Frank Costello, I opened illegal gambling casinos in New York, New Orleans and Florida.
In the 1930s, I also went to Cuba and, after Fulgencio Batista, the dictator, legalized gambling, set up several casinos there.
I was named as a major crime boss while being investigated by the Senate Crime Investigating Committee in 1950 and 1951.
After a brief jail term for running a gambling operation in Saratoga Springs, New York, I moved to Florida and focused on my investments there, and in Nevada, Cuba and the Bahamas. My other ventures included loan sharking, the numbers rackets and legitimate businesses set up with underworld money.
In 1970 I tried to retire in Israel which started a two-year legal battle. My case went to Israel’s highest court, which ruled I was not entitled to citizenship because I was a “danger to public safety.” Seven countries, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Panama, all rejected my offer of $1 million dollars for sanctuary. I was arrested in Miami on November 7, 1972.
I died in 1983.
It's been said that the fictional character Hyman Roth in The Godfather, Part II, is modeled on me.
Which of the "Chosen Ones" Am I?
