Waxey Gordon (1886/1889-June 24, 1952) was a Jewish gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) Events January 18 _ Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1952 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Bootlegging is the illegal sale or manufacture of cigarettes, liquor, and other consumer goods (such as compact discs or DVDs) subject to taxes for the purposes of evading those taxes, or licensing fees. ...

Born Irving Wexler to immigrant parents in New York's Lower East Side around 1889, Gordon became known as a pickpocket and sneak thief as a child, becoming so successful he earned the nickname "Waxey" for supposedly being so skilled in picking pockets it was as if his victims' wallets were waxed. Joining "Dopey" Benny Fein's labor sluggers in the early 1910s Gordon helped organize Fein's operations before being noticed by Arnold Rothstein, who hired him away from Fein and put him to work as a rum-runner during the first years of Prohibition. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... Categories: Manhattan neighborhoods | Stub ... Pickpocketing is a crime, a form of larceny which involves the stealing of money and valuables off the person of a victim without them noticing. ... Dopey Benny Fein (1889-19??) was an early Jewish gangster who dominated New York labor racketeering in the 1910s. ... Events and trends Science Einsteins theory of general relativity Max von Laue discovers the diffraction of x-rays by crystals Alfred Wegener puts forward his theory of continental drift War, peace and politics Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary leads to World War I October Revolution in... Arnold Rothstein (1882 - November 4, 1928) was a New York gambler widely reputed to have been behind the Black Sox scandal during the 1919 World Series. ... Rum-running is the business of smuggling or transporting of alcoholic beverages illegally, usually to circumvent taxation or prohibition. ... This article is about the prohibition of alcoholic beverages; separate articles on the prohibition of drugs in general and writs of prohibition are also available. ...

Gordon's success later led him to run all of Rothstein's bootlegging on most of East coast, specifically New York and New Jersey, and importing large amounts of Canadian whiskey over the U.S.–Canadian border. Gordon, now earning an estimated $2 million a year, began buying numerous breweries and distilleries as well as owning several speakeasies. Gordon began to be known to live extravagantly, traveling in limousines and living regularly in prominent Manhattan hotel suites, as well as owning mansions built for him in New York and Philadelphia. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (acting) Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ... A brewery is a facility that produces beer. ... Distillation is a means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points. ... A Speakeasy was an establishment that was used for selling and drinking of alcoholic beverages during the period of U.S. history known as Prohibition, when selling or buying alcohol was illegal. ... A limousine (or limo) is a long luxury car, traditionally black in color. ... Manhattan is an island bordering the lower Hudson River. ...

With Rothstein's death in 1928, Gordon's position began to decline. He made an alliance with future National Crime Syndicate founders Charles Luciano, Louis Buchalter, and Meyer Lansky. Gordon, however, constantly fought with Lansky over bootlegging and gambling interests and soon an unofficial gang war began between the two; several associates on each side were killed. Lansky, with Luciano, supplied New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey with information leading to Gordon's conviction on charges of tax evasion in 1933. Gordon was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The National Crime Syndicate was the name given to an organized crime syndicate, set up in the 1930s, by Charles Lucky Luciano and based out of New York City. ... Charles Luciano (11 November 1896_ 26 January 1962), better known as Lucky Luciano, was a legendary mobster with a long criminal history. ... Louis Lepke Buchalter (6 February 1897 - 4 March 1944) was a Jewish-American mobster who was the notorious head of Murder, Inc. ... Meyer Lansky (born Majer Suchowliński, July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), was a gangster born in Grodno, then part of the Russian Empire but now in Belarus. ... Thomas Dewey - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... This article contrasts tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax resistance and tax mitigation. ...

Upon Gordon's release, he found his gang long since disbanded and his former political connections no longer willing to respond. He was said to have remarked to a reporter, "Waxey Gordon is dead. Meet Irving Wexler, salesman."

Gordon, however, soon began operating illegal gambling in New Jersey, then moved to selling narcotics. In 1951 Gordon was arrested for selling heroin to an undercover police officer. The 62-year-old gangster reportedly offered the detective all his money in exchange for his release. When the detective refused, Gordon pleaded with the detective to kill him instead of arresting him for "peddling junk." Gordon was later convicted and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment in Alcatraz, where he died of a heart attack on June 24, 1952. 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Asian heroin Black tar heroin Bayer Heroin (TM) Primary worldwide producers of heroin. ... Alcatraz Island is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1952 - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...

Reference

• Nash, Jay Robert. Encyclopedia of World Crime, Vol. II (D–J), Crimebooks Inc., 1990.

External link

• Crime Magazine - Waxey Gordon's Half Century of Crime (http://crimemagazine.com/waxey.htm), by Allen May.