Emmanuel Kimmel (April 14, 1896 – July 18, 1982) was a notable underworld figure between the 1930s and 1960s and the founder of the

Kinney Parking Company Kinney Parking Company was a New Jersey parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel, Sigmund Dornbusch, and mob figure Abner Zwillman. History Kinney Parking Company was incorporated in 1945 by Manny Kimmel. In 1961, Kinney reached an agreement ...

, a chain of parking lots and garages which evolved into the media conglomerate

Warner Communications Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

and ultimately the present day

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...

. According to

Connie Bruck Connie Bruck is an American journalist and a reporter on subjects covering business and politics. She has been a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' since 1989. Before joining ''The New Yorker'', she was a staff writer at ''The American Lawyer'' for ...

, he cooperated with the major racketeer and bootlegger in Newark,

Abner Zwillman Abner "Longie" Zwillman (July 27, 1904 – February 26, 1959) was a Jewish-American mobster who was based primarily in North Jersey. He was a long time friend and associate of mobsters Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Zwillman's criminal organi ...

. According to

William Poundstone William Poundstone is an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the ''Big Secrets'' series and a biography of Carl Sagan. Early life and education Poundstone attended MIT and studied physics. Personal ...

, Kimmel leased his garages to Zwillman, for storage of liquor during the

Prohibition Era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

. FBI kept tabs on him for his business dealings with known mafia figures, and compelled him to testify in the trials of two of them; Abner Zwillman and

Joe Adonis Joseph Anthony Doto (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto, ; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), known as Joe Adonis, was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New Yo ...

. An illegal bookie in his early years, running the numbers game and other illicit gambling bookmaking activities in New Jersey, he was perhaps the biggest horseracing bookmaker in New York at one time, and owner of several racing horses himself. He is also known for his early forays into card counting in blackjack in the early sixties as "Mr. X" in the classic book on

card counting Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low ...

, ''Beat the Dealer'' by

Edward O. Thorp Edward Oakley Thorp (born August 14, 1932) is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack researcher. He pioneered the modern applications of probability theory, including the harnessing of very small correlatio ...

.Pogue, David
"Wanna Bet?"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', September 25, 2005. Accessed September 28, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimmel, Manny American gamblers American Jews Bookmakers Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey 1896 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople