The very first meeting of U.S. crime bosses occured in Atlantic City N.J., in early May 1929. Several of the mob mentors developed an idea of creating a national crime cartel by the mid-1920s, not the least of whom was Chicago's evil genius, Johnny Torrio. Torrio as early as 1920, when he assumed mob leadership when his uncle Big Jim Colosimo was murdered, had attempted to quell the battling gangs of Chicago, divide up the city into sacrosanct territories where the gangsters could peddle their bootleg booze without being harrassed by other gangs.
Since the gangs were so diverse in more than one way, nationally and culturally, Torrio's hopes of an organized crime twisted away into thin air. But "Young Turk" criminals in the East, where Torrio relocated after being nearly shot and killed in 1924, eagerly listened to his theories about sharing in the wealth that all the gangs would contribute to, and about establishing a hiearchy of bosses that would sit on the executive board, that he called the"National Combination".
Torrio's ideas were very much embraced by the diplomatic bootlegger and gambling boss of New York, Frank Costello. His new ideas also caught on with Charles Luciano and his associates, Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, Vincent Mangano, and Frank Scalise. They all had had enough of the wild shootouts that had been goin g on all over the nations mafia cities. They all wanted to be sure that they would have control of the rackets and the most lucritive areas for those rackets. Luciano and friend Meyer Lansky looked upon the organization of a national syndicate as sound business practice.
Lansky's trip to Atlantic city had to objectives, to enjoy his honeymoon with wife Anna Citron, and help establish and form the National Crime Syndicate. The New York delagation was made up of Luciano, Buchalter, Lansky, Costello, Adonis, Anastasia, Scalise, Mangano, Frank Erickson, who had taken over for Arnold Rothstein after his death, and the always unpredictable numbers king and and bootlegger from Brooklyn, Dutch Shultz. From Cleveland came Moe Dalitz and Louis Rothkopf. The boss of New England, Charles "King" Solomon. Detroit's Purple Gang, represented by Joe Bernstein. Crime boss of Kansas City, Johnny Lazia. Waxey Gordon Max "Boo-Boo" Hoff, and Nig Rosen from Philadelphia. Willie Moretti and Abner Zwillman representing New Jersey. Host of the convention was Atlantic City crime boss Enoch L. "Nucky" Johnson, a swaggering giant who booked his contemporaries into the best hotels along the Boardwalk. The most powerful crime boss, at that time of course was, Al Capone, who made the trek to Atlantic City with a large retinue. Capone arrived with Jake Guzik, Frank Nitti and his bodyguard, Frank Rio. he also brought along one of the real reasons for the convention, his friend Moses Annenberg, who owned the Daily Racing Form.Capone and Annenberg figured out a way to control the horse betting results throughout the nation. This was the foremost centerpiece of what business was discussed at the meeting. Luciano brought up a point about running whores on an interstate basis. Many of the other bosses didn't real show any interest to this particular subject so they quickly moved on to other topics, almost as fast as they would change from room to room,and hotel to hotel. They didn't want to run the risk of being caught by the local police.
Shorty after the meeting adjourned, Capone and his bodyguard were arrested outside of a movie theatre, for carrying a gun in public. But this was set up by Capone because he was being persued by George Moran gunman, who were looking for retaliation from the February 1929 murder setup that would be called the ST. Valentine's Day massacre.
The Atlantic City Conference did more than just establish a nationwide gambling syndicate. The conference galvanized the gangs of America into a powerful single unit which was directed whose decisions were sacrosanct, and whose influence would affect every American, in one form or another, for generations to come.
Mafia History | |Castellammarese War | | Syndicate | | The Five New York Families | | Other Italian Crime Groups | | Structure of the Mafia Family | | Bios | | Murder, Inc. | | Atlantic City Conference | | Gangster Flicks || Mobspeak Glossary | | Friends of Mine | | Home