Harry Sagansky
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (August 2008) |
Harry J. "Doc" Sagansky (January 6, 1898-January 28, 1997) was a newspaper salesman, Dentist, bookie, organized crime figure. Growing up in Boston, Massachusetts to first generation Lithuanian-American immigrants, Sagansky sold newspapers while working his way through school and graduating in dentistry from Tufts University in 1918. Opening a practice at a liquor store at Scollay Square, he would become involved in illegal gambling during Prohibition.
By 1931, he begun investing in two Boston nightclubs and operated a loan agency. In 1943, he was arrested during a police raid and was charged with his role in the gambling syndicate and served a prison sentence for attempting to bribe a city official for political protection for a "Beano game".
During the 1950s, his involvement in illegal gambling operations was investigated by Kefauver hearings which authorities would claim was "the largest racket kingdom in existence in the city of Boston."
Throughout his life, Sagansky was a philanthropist whose donations towards Beth Israel Hospital would help contribute a nursing station and an observation unit as well as his his alma mater Tufts Dental School. He later died of natural causes while at Brandeis University's Beth Israel Hospital at the age of 99. "Doc" was survived by three sons, a daughter, eight grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
External links
- South Coast Today - Obituaries: Harry Sagansky, 99
- Harry Sagansky v. United States of America, on Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For the First Circuit