Monya Elson (May 23, 1951) is a Russian-American mobster involved in counterfeiting, drug trafficking and other criminal activities in the Russian-Jewish neighborhood of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn as well as suspected of ordering the deaths of Elbrous Evdoev and members of the rival Vyacheslav Lyubarsky organization. May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... A Russian-American is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States who has Russian heritage. ... A Russian-language bookstore under the elevated train tracks in Brighton Beach Newly built luxury co-ops on Brighton Beach Brighton Beach is a community on Coney Island in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. ... Brooklyn (named for the Dutch city Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ...

After his arrival in the United States, Elson was among one of many Russian criminals operating in Brighton Beach (otherwise known as "Odessa-by-the-Sea") during the early 1980s and 90s. As he began rising to prominence within the local underworld, he would be the target of several attempts on his life beginning on May 14, 1991 when he was shot by a rival gunman for the attempted murder of Vyacheslav Lyubarsky. He was later suspected in the murder of Lyubarsky and his son Vadim who, returning from dinner with his wife Nellie, were ambushed by an unidentified assailant outside their Brighton Beach apartment and shot to death on January 12, 1992. May 14 is the 134th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (135th in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

One of Elson's enemies, Alexander Slepinin, was found shot to death in his car on June 23, 1992. A suspect in the murder, authorities believed Slepinin death was retribution for the gangland murder of associate Efrim Ostrovsky.

Another Russian-born criminal, Elbrous Evdoev, reported to New York police that Elson had attempted to have him killed after being shot in the shoulder and hand on July 4, 1992. Evdoev would survive two more attempts on his life before his body was found frozen solid after being dumped in a snow bank near an auto yard in Pine Brook, New Jersey on March 6, 1993. Montville Township is a Township located in Morris County, New Jersey. ...

Several months later, Elson was shot in the forearm in Los Angeles on November 6 and, after being driven to a nearby hospital by Leonyard Kanterkantetes, was discharged shortly after. Only two days later, another attempt to murder Elson failed after an Armenian mobster was injured when the car bomb he had been putting under Kanterkantetes's car detonated prematurely.

In yet another attempt on his life, Elson was wounded along with both his wife and bodyguard Oleg Zapinakmine by Boris Gregoriev in front of his Brooklyn home on July 26, 1993. On September 24, only two months following the failed assassination, Zapinakmine was murdered in front of his home.

Yet another victim whose death Elson supposedly ordered was associate Alexander Levichitz, also known as Sasha Pinya, who survived an attack after suffering three shots to the head near the Arbat Restaurant on the evening of January 17, 1994.

Fleeing the country after being indicted in 1995 for the murders of Slepinin and others, Elson was arrested in Fano, Italy and eventually extradited back to the United States where he was tried and convicted on three charges of murder. As of 2005, he remains in prison.

Further reading

• Friedman, Robert I. Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2000.

References

• Devito, Carlo. Encyclopedia of International Organized Crime. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8160-4848-7

External links

• New Jersey State Commission of Investigation: "The Tri-State Joint Soviet Émigré Organized Crime Project"
• U.S. Dept. of Justice: Two Russian Organized Crime Figures Charged In Plot to Murder Businessman