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Title: The last Jewish gangster: Julius Bernstein's once-secret FBI file revealed
Source:
The Daily Mail
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... le-revealed.html#ixzz1neUy0bdC
Published: Feb 27, 2012
Author: The Daily Mail reporter
Post Date: 2012-02-29 20:59:56 by X-15
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Keywords: None
Views: 242
Comments: 5
The extraordinary mob life of Julius Bernstein, the last of New York's great Jewish gangsters, has been revealed for the first time in the release of a once-secret FBI file. The gangster known as Spike managed to stay out of jail for more than 40 years as he devoted his life to organised crime with one of the Mafia's 'Five Families'; the Genovese family. Pages of the once confidential file have been obtained by the New York Daily News through the Freedom of Information Law The papers detail Bernstein's life shaking down the Sbarro restaurant chain for cash payoffs, seizing control of a bus drivers’ union and working alongside the legendary Gambino family capo Matthew Ianniello, reports the Daily News. 'I’ve been a thief all my life,' Bernstein once bragged. But before his death at the age of 85 in 2007, Bernstein became an FBI informant. 'Wiseguys trust me.That’s why sitting here is killing me,' he said on his first day as an informant, reports the Daily News. Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, Bernstein grew up in an Italian/Jewish neighbourhood. Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel paired up with Italian mobsters like Charles (Lucky) Luciano, while Louis (Lepke) Buchalter ran Murder Inc., a franchise of Jewish and Italian assassins. Returning as a hero after fighting with U.S. forces on D-Day, Bernstein formed a friendship with Matthew Ianniello, who was known as an up-and-coming mobster, according to the Daily News. Despite their close alliance Matty, who was best man at Bernstein's wedding, could not bring his friend into the Mafia because of his Jewish heritage. Bernstein instead served as a trusted 'associate' of the Genovese family. His big moment came in 1971 when the Genovese were seizing control of labor unions and he was planted at Local 1181 - a school bus drivers’ union that became a steady illegal income, reports the Daily News. Over the next 35 years, Bernstein's salary soared to $216,000 a year, and he drove a union-owned Lincoln Continental as he squeezed every illegal penny he could out of the union by shaking down bus company owners, uniform makers and a medical clinic. Bernstein earned enough trust to manage the bookmaking operation of the then-Genovese boss Frank (Funzi) Tieri. Bernstein says it was Tieri who told him about the family’s decades-long shakedown of the now-global Sbarro restaurant chain, reports the Daily News. The empire began in 1959 as a single Italian grocery in Bensonhurst run by Sbarro brothers, Mario, Joseph and Anthony. Bernstein told the FBI that the 'protection' payments began in the 1960s. By 2004, they were paying $20,000 a year - Bernstein said he was ordered to take over collecting the two annual payments of $10,000. The gangster’s luck finally ran out at the age of 82 in July 2005 after his arrest for union corruption which saw him facing up to 20 years in prison. He admitted several extortion charges in 2006 - including the Sbarro shakedown - and made an extraordinary decision to become an FBI informant. Even then, the gangster had not quite reformed and eight months later he collected a $20,000 payment from a bus company owner inside a hotel bathroom, reports the Daily News. On October 21, 2007, Bernstein died aged 85 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Poster Comment: The "Last Jewish Ganster..."?? Hahahaha, that's rich. I guess The Daily Mail won't address the jewish gangsters in Russia and Israel who run the international porn trade, and let's not even mention the Federal Reserve. Lots of jew pictures at the link, we've seen them before so I didn't include them.
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
Author Yuri Lina said it best. "Jews GET money, they do not earn it".
What are your recollections, if any, about the characters/businesses mentioned in the article??
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
-Alex Kurtagic
#3. To: X-15 (#2)
I never heard of him, but he's a relic from the old Brownsville, Brooklyn "Murder, Inc" boys who, in their day, were as tough and as crazy as they came.
#4. To: X-15 (#0)
2 phunnie! The "Last Jewish Ganster..."?? Hahahaha, that's rich.
"When a man no longer enjoys wine, women or song he can always go hunting".
#5. To: HOUNDDAWG (#4)
Them days are over, of course. Dey vill do a retrospective on PBS hosted by a rebbe.
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