Abner "Longie" Zwillman (July 27, 1904 – February 26, 1959) was a

Jewish-American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

mobster who was based primarily in

North Jersey North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of northern New Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquial one rather than an administrati ...

. He was a long time friend and associate of mobsters Lucky Luciano and

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 Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the ...

. Zwillman's criminal organization was a part of the

National Crime Syndicate The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to the multi-ethnic, loosely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian-American Mafia ...

and mainly operated from the 1920s to the 1950s, with its peak in the late 1930s.

Early life and career

It is believed that Zwillman was born on July 27, 1904, in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Russian-Jewish immigrants. He was forced to quit school to support his family after his father's death in 1918. Zwillman first began working at a Prince Street café, the headquarters of a local

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

in Newark's Third Ward. However, in need of more money, Zwillman was eventually forced to quit, later selling fruits and vegetables in his neighborhood with a rented horse and wagon. Zwillman was unable to compete with the cheaper Prince Street pushcarts, however, so he moved to the more upper-class neighborhood of Clinton Hill, where he began selling lottery tickets to local housewives. He observed that much more money was made selling lottery tickets than produce, so he concentrated on selling lottery tickets through local merchants. By 1920, Zwillman controlled the bulk of the

numbers racket The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a b ...

with the help of hired muscle.

Prohibition

At the start of

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

, Zwillman began smuggling whiskey into

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

through Canada, using several

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

armored trucks. Zwillman later joined a syndicate headed by Joseph Reinfeld to smuggle liquor from Canada using ships. They were reputed to have controlled 40% of liquor smuggling. Zwillman used this revenue to greatly expand his operations in illegal gambling, prostitution, and labor racketeering, as well as legitimate businesses, including several prominent night clubs and restaurants. In 1929, he was sent to prison for six months for assaulting an associate. It was the only crime for which he was ever convicted. Zwillman dated actress

Jean Harlow Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...

at one time and got her a two-picture deal at

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

by giving a huge cash loan to studio head Harry Cohn. Zwillman also bought Harlow a jeweled bracelet and a red Cadillac. He referred to her in derogatory terms to other mobsters in secret surveillance recordings. He married Mary de Groot Mendels Steinbach in 1939. She was the only daughter of Eugene Mendels, whose father,

Emanuel S. Mendels Emanuel S. Mendels, Jr. (1850–1911) was an American businessman and broker. He was a leading curbstone broker who organized the Curb Market Agency in 1908 that developed appropriate trading rules for curbstone brokers. Later he formed the Ne ...

, was a founder of the

American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...

(then known as the Curb Exchange). The Zwillmans had a daughter, Lynn Kathryn Zwillman born c. 1944. Mary Zwillman had a son, who became Abner Zwillman's stepson, from a previous marriage.

The "Al Capone of New Jersey"

After

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 ...

's murder in 1935, Zwillman took over those of Schultz's criminal operations that were in New Jersey. The press began calling Zwillman the " Al Capone of New Jersey." However, Zwillman often sought to legitimize his image, offering a reward for the return of the Lindbergh baby in 1932, and contributed to charities, including $250,000 to a Newark slum-clearing project. Shortly after taking over Schultz's operations, Zwillman became involved in local politics, eventually controlling the majority of local politicians in Newark for over twenty years. During the 1940s Zwillman, along with long-time associate

Willie Moretti Guarino "Willie" Moretti (February 24, 1894 – October 4, 1951), also known as Willie Moore, was a notorious underboss of the Genovese crime family and a cousin of the family boss Frank Costello. Criminal career Born Guarino Moretti in Bari ...

, dominated gambling operations in New Jersey, in particular the Marine Room inside Zwillman's Riviera nightclub, The Palisades. In 1951, Zwillman's activities were a major focus of the Kefauver Committee's investigation of organized crime. While Zwillman acknowledged that he was a bootlegger during Prohibition, he insisted that his subsequent businesses were legitimate. Zwillman was also close to many celebrities, including Joe DiMaggio. When Zwillman was being investigated, along with other alleged "Outfit" members, by the Kefauver Committee he reportedly planted three trunks full of money with DiMaggio to hide it from the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

. It was not returned after Zwillman's death. In 1956, Zwillman was tried for income tax evasion. The jury became deadlocked and the charges were dismissed. Several associates of Zwillman were subsequently arrested and charged with bribing two of the jurors.

Death

During the 1959 McClellan Senate Committee hearings on organized crime, Zwillman was issued a

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

to testify before the committee. Zwillman was found hanged in his

West Orange, New Jersey West Orange is a suburban township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 48,843, an increase of 2,636 (+5.7%) from the 46,207 counted in the 2010 Census.

residence on February 26, 1959, shortly before he was to appear. He was buried at B'nai Abraham Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Union, New Jersey, after a funeral attended by 1,850, including celebrities and his 80-year-old mother, Ella. Though the funeral was presided over by a rabbi, there was an abundance of flowers and an open casket—atypical of Jewish custom. Zwillman's death was ruled a suicide, attributed to intractable

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

and health problems. His stepson, John Steinbach, said that he was also depressed about Senate investigations into

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

racketeering and a jury tampering investigation, related to a previous failed attempt to prosecute him. However, police found bruises on Zwillman's wrists, supporting a theory that Zwillman had been tied up before being hanged. It is often speculated that

Vito Genovese Vito Genovese (; November 21, 1897 – February 14, 1969) was an Italian-born American mobster who mainly operated in the United States. Genovese rose to power during Prohibition as an enforcer in the American Mafia. A long-time associate and chi ...

had ordered Zwillman killed. Others have alleged that

, suspecting that the New Jersey gangster had agreed to become a government informant, gave permission for the Italian Mafia to take action against Zwillman. The theory that he was hanged was also supported by deported mobster

Charles "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 instrument ...

, who allegedly told journalist Martin Gosch in Italy that the suicide theory was nonsense, and that before hanging him, Zwillman's killers had trussed him up like a pig. Martin Gosch's biography (which he co-authored with Richard Hammer) of Lucky Luciano is somewhat controversial and considered partly fictional by some mob experts. However, the authors have stated that the contents are entirely based on their interviews with Luciano, who died before the book was published. His widow remarried three years later, to sports figure

Harry Wismer Harry Wismer (June 30, 1913 – December 4, 1967) was an American sports broadcaster and the charter owner of the New York Titans franchise in the American Football League (AFL). Early years Harry Wismer was born on June 30, 1911 in Port Huron ...

. His daughter Lynn married Winslow G. Tuttle in 1968.

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