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Samuel "Red" Levine (December 27, 1902/1903(?) – April 7, 1972) was an American mobster, described as head of
Lucky Luciano Charles "Lucky" Luciano (, ; born Salvatore Lucania ; November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962) was an Italian-born gangster who operated mainly in the United States. Luciano started his criminal career in the Five Points gang and was instrumenta ...
's hit squad of
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
gangster A gangster 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 '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
s.


Early life

Levine was born in
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
, and grew up on the
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally a ...
of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of counties in New York, origin ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
. To help his family, he worked on an ice truck at age 8, and was assigned to truant schools until he lied about his age and joined the US Navy at 15. He said he was in fights on board constantly because of his red hair and his Jewish heritage. He subsequently jumped ship in the
Republic of Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
and ventured back to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.


Mob career

Levine was a member of the notorious Mafia gang, Murder, Inc., and is credited with being the trigger man, with
Dutch Schultz Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901October 24, 1935) was an American mobster. Based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s, he made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the n ...
lieutenant Abraham "Bo" Weinberg, in the 1931 murders of Joe "The Boss" Masseria and, along with
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 ...
, Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia and Benny "Bugsy" Siegel, one of the three hitmen sent by
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 deve ...
to assassinate the Sicilian Mafia boss
Salvatore Maranzano Salvatore Maranzano (; July 31, 1886 – September 10, 1931) was an Italian-American mobster from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led what later would become the Bonanno crime family in New York City. ...
in his office. They managed to enter by posing as government agents. Once inside Maranzano's office on the 9th floor of
The Helmsley Building The Helmsley Building is a 35-story skyscraper at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th Streets in New York City, just north of Grand Central Terminal, in Midtown Manhattan. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and was d ...
, they disarmed the guards and shot and stabbed Maranzano to death. Levine had a longstanding rivalry with fellow Murder, Inc. hitman, Charles "The Bug" Workman. He was irritated that the greedy Workman took most of the murder contracts that would have otherwise been handed over to him. In his court testimony,
Abe Reles Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles (; May 10, 1906 – November 12, 1941) was a New York Jewish mobster who was a hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for Meyer Lansky's National Crime Syndicate. Reles later turned government witne ...
recalled that Levine once complained to him that "any time I've got a contract Charlie is around to do the killing." A portrait of the seldom-photographed Levine appears in the book ''New York City Gangland'', depicting him during his career as a Murder, Inc. assassin. There is no mention of him when most of the Murder, Inc. and their surrounding factions were rounded up and successfully prosecuted by the end of 1940. He simply faded into the background and was not heard from again until some undetermined point in time. A short piece in ''
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 ...
'' from December 22, 2009, yielded a few clues to the post 1940 whereabouts of Levine. According to Sanford L. Smith, son of Izzy Smith who owned the Zion Memorial Chapel on Canal and Ludlow streets in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, they had Levine on the payroll as late as 1965 or 1966. "Red
evine ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake in ...
was one of the few guys from Murder Inc. who never got killed or went to prison. He was on our payroll. He needed to show legitimate income. Red got a check of $200 every week," Smith told ''The New York Times''. A bit more of the timeline of Levine's life surfaces in an article from '' The Village Voice'' dated March 6, 2001, which briefly discusses Levine's activity with the
Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union The Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union is an independent union for employees of newspapers based in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In 2009, for the first time in its history, The union affiliated with another, choosing the International B ...
(NMDU) and suggests that Levine's participation in the union took place in the 1970s when he was more than 70 years old: "Formed in the early 1900s, the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union was equal parts Irish, Italian, and Jewish, a reflection of the city's then dominant ethnic groups. Well into the 1970s, Jewish racketeers played a major role in the union. One of them, Red Levine, was reputed to have been one of the assassins of Salvatore Maranzano, the old-school mobster who helped to found America's Cosa Nostra. Law enforcement officials, as well as longtime union members and mob associates (often the same thing in the NMDU) say that Levine cleverly allowed each of the city's five Mafia families to have a piece of the newspaper delivery action, which included bootleg sales of stolen papers as well as loan-sharking and gambling among drivers." In his later years, Levine reportedly spent time in the
Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are s ...
district, frequenting the Knotty Pine Social Club, a known Mafia hangout operated by Genovese capo
Peter DeFeo Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a s ...
, as well as the Raven Knights Social club, more commonly known in later years as the "Ravenite". He had one son who was arrested as a young adult for mob related crimes.


In popular culture

Levine was portrayed by Paul Bruce in the original 1959 television series "
The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The Un ...
". Levine is the great-uncle by marriage of the American artist Sam Gould, of the arts collaborative
Red 76 Red 76 is a multi-artist collective started in Portland, Oregon. Since 2000 they have produced numerous projects and appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''Artforum'' and ''Modern Painters'', and shown at Southern Exposure and Yerba Buena Center fo ...
. The group's project Levine's Market and Meeting House is a loose homage to Levine.


Notes and references


External links


Kill the Dutchman!: The Story of Dutch Schultz
by Paul Sann

Levine's involvement in the murder of Salvatore Maranzano

brief mention of rivalry with hitman Charles "The Bug" Workman

by Rupert Bottenburg * ttp://www.red76.com/levines.html Levine's Market and Meeting House {{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Sam 1900s births 1972 deaths Jewish American gangsters Murder, Inc. 20th-century American Jews