Hyman Larner (November 4, 1913 – October 12, 2002) was an American

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

associated with

Sam Giancana Salvatore "Mooney" Giancana ( ; born Gilormo Giangana, ; May 24, 1908 – June 19, 1975) was an American mobster who was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966. Giancana was born in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents. He joined the 42 ...

and the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or the Organization, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family based in Chicago, I ...

. Known in the newspapers as "the Ivy League Mobster", he was the head of the Chicago Outfit's

slot machine A slot machine, fruit machine (British English), poker machine or pokie (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. A slot machine's standard layout features a screen disp ...

racket. Larner, who was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, kept a low profile but was very powerful with the Chicago underworld. After Eddie Vogel retired from the gambling machine business, Larner became the power behind the scenes. When he testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management in 1959, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights fifty-four times. Larner expanded the Outfit's gambling and smuggling operations to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, moving the organization's Miami operation's headquarters to Panama where

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

was more easily facilitated by local banks. These operations were conducted as a partnership between the Mafia and the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

. By 1966, this partnership had developed into

arms smuggling Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal tra ...

to the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

for the Israeli

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

, all via Panama. Larner had friends among world leaders and key players in the Central Intelligence Agency and the

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

, and he was also well connected with

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

bosses like the

Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...

Allen Dorfman Allen Melnick Dorfman (January 6, 1923 – January 20, 1983) was an American insurance agency owner and a consultant to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Central States Pension Fund. He was a close associate of longtime IBT Presid ...

and media mogul

Hank Greenspun Herman Milton "Hank" Greenspun (August 27, 1909 – July 23, 1989) was the publisher of the ''Las Vegas Sun'' newspaper. He purchased the ''Sun'' in 1949, and served as its editor and publisher until his death. Greenspun was also a prominent real ...

. One of Larner's closest friends was

Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was an American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the dev ...

, and the two shared in their passionate

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and defense for the Jews' divine right to the land of Israel.

Notes

References

1913 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American criminals 21st-century American criminals 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews American male criminals Jewish American gangsters Chicago Outfit mobsters American Zionists {{US-crime-bio-stub