Mr. Mob

This biography tells the story of America's most secretive and most successful mobster, Morris 'Moe' Dalitz. As a major architect of the United States' national crime syndicate, Dalitz was active in various fields of organized crime from 1918 until his death, all while spinning a web of myth and mock-respectability around himself so dense that even now, two decades after his demise, most journalists mistake the legend for reality. He is remembered as the mobster who never spent a night in jail, or even went to trial, despite a life of crime that spanned over three-quarters of a century. From Prohibition-era bootlegging to the Reagan years, no other individual was present at so many pivotal events in gangland history. In short, it's impossible to fully understand the modern Mob without first knowing about Dalitz, his career, and the cunning publicity campaign that transformed his image from thug to that of a revered philanthropist. Based on years of research in Dalitz's hometown of Las Vegas, as well as interviews with attorneys, journalists, government officials, local law enforcement officers and federal agents, this exhaustive biography tells the true story of Dalitz's life and the syndicate that he and like-minded individuals built from scratch, seeing the promise of America and making it their own.