Talk:Samuel Levine (mobster)

A Jewish columnist, Brian Viner, at Great Britain's Jewish Chronicle notes Rich Cohen's look into Jeish criminal history, like this:

"That I know all this is thanks largely to my estimable cousin Ben, a fount of information on Jewish gangster matters. I phoned him the other night and he told me, just as I might tell someone that Arensal are top the league by a point, that of 60,000 Jews living in Argentina by the 1920s, 9,000 were involved in prostitution rackets. You have to admit it's a conversation stopper. Ben -- a big fan of Rich Cohen's book 'Tough Jews,' not the least for its story of Red Levine, a hitman who wouldn't kill anyone on Shabbat -- is a Glaswegian, whose own father was threatened with imprisonment in 1916 for his involvement in a gambling den. And, according to Ben, some of the nastiest loan sharks in pre-war Glasgow were Jewish." [VINER, B., 11-29-02, p. 37]

Is this a different person?

I know that there is not a lot of information here. Both books cited each contain just a few sentences each on Sam Levine. If you know more, I'd love to hear it. As far as I am concerned, this guy deserves a novel.

I will add that this is my first entry. No offense will be taken if you correct, insult and/or improve this meager effort.

- Steve, 20:31, 15 August 2005

Hey Steve, here are some things to add and you may want to go to the nytimes website and browse their articles for more info...

Red Levine wasn't involved in the killing of Joe Masseria.. that fictional account comes from the much maligned "Last Testament of Lucky Luciano" which was proven to be a fraudulent account of the real gangsters life. Joe Valachi placed Joe Stracci and Frank Livorsi(Two Ciro Terranova men) as the actual shooters..

Also Bo Weinberg was not involved in the Maranzano murder. That account came from chronic liar Dixie Davis who also created the Night of Sicillian Vespers myth...

Post-prohibition Red Levine became heavily involved in the newspaper racket.. a variant on the restaurant rackets of the time he provided protection for delivery and instituted himself into the unions involved in that trade. Again mor eon later court cases regarded to this can be found in the times.

Misc Information

To comment on the above topic, I would disagree with the comments made by Joe Valachi on the killers. It is well known that he did not have all his facts straight, especially when it came to naming off killers in older murders. In fact, he believed the [Second] Night of the Sicilian Vespers (I agree, a false occurrence) to be a true event.

Also, I believe this sentence: "...1931 murders of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and, along with Joe Adonis, Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, of Salvatore Maranzano." should be reworded. Someone mixed up the Maranzano/Masseria names; they should be switched. Jewish gangsters from the Bug and Meyer Gang murdered Maranzano... Adonis, Anastasia, Siegel, and Genovese murdered Masseria. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.161.169.105 (talk) 21:37, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Levi

“His last name Levine was originally Levin and came from the Jewish biblical tribe of Levi, whose descendants the Levites had distinctive duties in the Temple period. His ancestry goes back to when his forefathers were a member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, and is as such a direct patrilineal descendant of Levi, son of Jacob” (my emphasis) this must be a joke - and a bad one at that, so I'm going to delete it. Ajnem (talk) 12:03, 14 April 2011 (UTC)