Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers Reviews

• Flawed and skewed filled with claims bordering on ridiculous...

  
  By AKUURPDPR1FWT on 2006-09-18
  Gus Russo has again produced a massive criminal volume with Sidney Korshak as the featured figure. Having anxiously awaited the release of this book I expected more focus on Korshak but found frequent mentions yet little substance inregard to Korshak in the first few chapters. Istead the author uses much of the early going to lay the foundation for the introduction of the socalled Supermob which sprang from Chicago's Jewish community. In detailing the activities of the Supermob Mr. Russo seems to include every member of the old Lawndale Jewish community who managed to rise above their humble start to acheive wealth, power and or influence. Jacob Arvey, Jules Stein (MCA founder), Paul Ziffren, Alfred Hart, Alex Louis Greenberg, Abe Pritzker (founder of Hyatt Hotels), William Paley (CBS founder), Benny Goodman, Gloria Swanson, Tom Mix, Arthur Goldberg and many many others are listed as having participated in a vast conspiracy by a close knit group of Russian Jews to takeover America.
  
  In telling a story which involved Arnold Rothstein and Jacob Factor, it quickly became apparent that the author was taking liberty with fact. Mr. Russo details a scheme perpetraited by Rothstein and Factor which Mr. Russo says resulted in a $8 million dollar payout split between the Brain and Jake Factor in 1930. Unfortunately Rothstein was shot to death in November 1928. I guess the author is not aware that Dead men not only tell no tales but collect no debts either.
  Mr. Russo goes on to claim these men conspired to control Presidential elections and institute the laws and policies such as those which led to the detention of Japanese Americans and the massive selloff of their assets at bargain basement prices. Undoubtably there was some influence in the political realm "as is always the case with anyone with money," but to say these men specifically organized and ordered this action is ridiculous.
  
  Other dubious statements made in this book include "Las Vegas owes everything to Murray Humphries." As Mr. Russo continues where he left off in "The Outfit," with his promotion of the Chicago Italian organized crime group as the single most powerful entity in 20th century America. I found it interesting that the author could claim the Supermob controlled politicians from the local level all the way up to the White House yet the power consortium never challenged the wishes of their Italian counterparts.
  
  Once the action began to focus on Korshak the authors desire to hammer home just how powerful he believed his subject to be becomes apparent. Without explanation he details Korshak masterminding many Hollywood deals with movie moguls who "according to the author," owed their allegiance to the Supermob. Little if any attention was paid to the fact that many of the men had ties to organized crime figures in New York established long before Korshak arrived in Los Angeles. To make a long, long, long story short, Mr. Russo's telling of events and facts are constructed in a way which simply does what he obviously intends to do. Promote Chicago organized criminality to an unchallenge plain above law and order and logic.
  
  You can find much of the information contained in this book in Captive City, The Last Mogul, When Hollywood Had a King, Mr. and Mrs Hollywood and a number of other earlier released titles. Despite its shortcomings you have to admire Mr. Russo's enthusiasm in telling the story and compiling the information he did. Only if he would have paid more attention to Korshak's activities as an FBI informant instead of dismissing them as part of his routine in wielding power.
  
  

• Worth the wait?

  
  By A3SX56PTD8YB8 on 2006-09-20
  It's 490 years since Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia, a model for any society desiring to live rightly. The Utopians have little interest in money or the false pleasures of jewelry and high fashion. They disdain gambling and the pursuit of "empty and worthless honors," and anybody arrogant enough to run for public office can never gain it. The legal profession is absolutely banned, as is private property. Everybody works for the greater good of all. There is no "conspiracy of the rich," in which a few prey on the many and amass wealth through crooked schemes.
  
  America is not a utopia, but it continues to be a magnet for those who seek to prosper. Gus Russo's latest book, which was scheduled for release last spring, details the rise of a group of first-generation Americans who strove to fulfill the new land's promise. Focusing on some members of the Chicago Jewish community, he initially uses laudatory language about their energetic escape from Old World oppression and the fervor with which they sought to flourish in the U.S. He must hope the spare praise will insulate him against charges of anti-Semitism. And he's safe from libel suits, as his main subjects have passed on to the Great Country Club in the Sky.
  
  These folks were unabashed capitalists who followed Al Capone's dictum to "give people what they want." For Korshak, Ziffren, Wasserman, Pritzker, and Stein, it was Las Vegas and other luxury resorts, the movie industry and labor peace. They backed Democratic candidates for whom most working people voted, and they were ascendant when unions weren't the pale shell that they are today. Despite Russo's negative spin, I finished the book with some respect for Sidney Korshak. A longtime supporter of United Farm Worker boycotts, I was delighted to learn that Korshak facilitated the UFW's first contract with a grower and later got the Teamsters off their backs.
  
  Russo is meticulous to a fault; people are reintroduced numerous times, facts and figures are repeated, and some early quotes reappear later in the book. Another sour note is Russo's moral outrage at the end of the book over Joe Six-Pack patriotically paying his taxes while these alleged tax dodgers went unpunished -- even after millions were spent on FBI surveillance -- for bilking the government out of billions. Why was Korshak never charged with anything? Russo's easy answer is that the fix was always in. ... Convicted swindler Robert Vesco, who makes a brief appearance in this book, once dubbed American democracy "mob rule." Is it any better now, with sweetheart deals going to companies profiting from the blood-sucking, tax-wasting, budget-busting misadventure in Iraq? The Dow may be skyrocketing but so are housing, health care, and fuel costs; Joe Six-Pack's manufacturing jobs are going offshore and he never had it so bad.
  
  The four stars reflect my interest in the subject matter more than my appraisal of the writing and editing. My parents came from the Chicago community featured in the book. They knew people who knew people who knew these people, and they were rarely happier than after an evening at the allegedly mob-controlled Chez Paree nightclub.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• A great and sordid tale

  
  By A1Y3RKM0F8JECQ on 2006-09-30
  This is a greeat and depressing book. I documents how America is a country of many laws and little enforcement. Believe it. That the book was trashed as anti-Semetic in The NY Times Sunday Book Review only makes it a more important read (The dolt Times reviewer reviewer had a tribal agenda and comes from self-admitted mob affiliated tax cheat family should be all you need to know about that review)
  
  The book details how mob money gets washed into the highest levels in corporate America. Unfortunately most if not all the criminals are dead or we could hang them from local lamp posts. That their heirs now appear in society pages as philanthropists makes me want to vomit. Supermob is astomach churning review of what makes too much of America work. I say this from the vantage point of a businessman all too familiar with 'uppah class' (Im an art dealer) tax fraud and cheating. I used to be a Republican. Now I box and lift weights. Hey ya never know.
  
  Kudos to Russo and the honest reporters and government filed agents who tried to break the Supermob up. Alas the mob's political and judicial friends prevented justice. Once again.
  
  

• Defaming the dead for profit

  
  By A680RUE1FDO8B on 2007-01-23
  I'd never heard of Gus Russo before spotting this book. Now that I've read the book, I know why I'd never heard of Gus Russo and why I will never again lower myself to reading anything he writes.
  
  This book is simply bad. Russo apparently believes that every person of Jewish origins who came out of a certain Chicago neighborhood during a certain time and acheived any kind of financial success was somehow connected with organized crime. Russo's "Supermob," in fact, is almost entirely Jewish, although Russo defames many other people as well. Being Jewish myself, I find Russo's painting with such a broad brush to be offensive. Russo centers his story on the late Sidney Korshak, who was more than likely well connected with various criminal and political elements. Korshak, who died at age 88, was never indicted for any criminal activity of any kind, much less convicted of any crime. Thus, the noted lawyer/hotelier/industrialist Abe Pritzker, according to Russo, was connected with oranized crime because he borrowed money from sources that may have been controlled by possibly criminal elements. Talk about guilt by association to the 9th degree.
  
  Russo is, charitably, sloppy when it comes to facts. Less charitably, there are so many clear and obvious misstatements, distortions and omissions of fact in this book that nothing Russo says can be taken at face value.
  
  For example, one simple and egregious example appears on page 206. In one sentence, Russo refers to a Las Vegas hotel as having three-hundred rooms. Four sentences later, the same hotel at the same moment being described has five-hundred rooms. These kinds of inconsistencies and contradictions are found on almost every page - and, no, I am not exaggerating.
  
  Russo is a political partisan of the worst kind, the kind with only a desire to destroy someone he doesn't like, without regard for facts. Ronald Reagan is a particular target for Russo's blind zealotry. Russo prints a claim by woman named Selene Walters that she was raped by Reagan, an allegation she did not make for 39 years after the alleged event. Russo accepts the unsupported claim as fact . . . along with many other allegations, all in an effort to blacken Reagan's name. It's really strange stuff.
  
  On page 400 Russo talks about people in the entertainment industry - all Jewish, of course - who entered into "an unethical masterstroke that allowed the companies to avoid both U.S. antitrust laws and U.S. taxes." Russo doesn't explain how the arrangement, which was perfectly legal, was "unethical". But the participants were Jews, so in Russo's eyes, something must have been wrong. Russo further displays his ignorance by demonstrating that he doesn't understand the difference between tax avoidance, which is legal, and tax evasion, which is not. Russo, frankly, strikes me as just plain ignorant about a lot of things - but not the law of defamation.
  
  Russo specializes in the scurillous, which explains why all of his subjects are dead. The living, defamed in this manner by Russo, would surely sue.
  
  Russo ends his tub of nonsense by asserting his rectitude: "Their apologists assert that no proof can be found of Supermob lawbreaking. Pointedly, Sid Korshak was never convicted of so much as a parking violation. But the truth is Korshak and company constantly bent, folded, mutilated, and - yes - broke the law"
  
  Well, if you had to depend on the "evidence" presented here by Russo, the countless libels against so many people, you'd have to conclude that indeed, many of Russo's dead and defenseless targets were much suspected, but never indicted or tried or convicted, of breaking any law. They were successful and they became rich - things Russo will probably never be able to claim for himself. And perhaps that's why he seems to hate these Jews so much.
  
  Finally, Russo is a truly mediocre writer. His material is jumbled together, his words trip over themselves. He boasts of voluminous research and, like a child, put everything in this book. At 623 pages, a good editor could have cut at least a third, if not half, the pages with no loss. An honest editor, I think, wouldn't have touched the project.
  
  Russo himself has quite a history. A Kennedy assination theory conspiracist, he is reviled in some quarters of that cult for changing his mind often. This book is on a par with much of the trash produced by such conspiracists. At one time, Russo also claimed to be a Pulitzer Price nominee. The Pulitzer Prize committee, however, had no record of such a nomination. Russo has since stopped making the claim.
  
  Don't waste your money or your time on this dreadful nonsense.
  
  Jerry
  
  

• Fearless investigating

  
  By AL5IO4FWH69MV on 2006-10-31
  There is an old saying that, "every great fortune begins with a crime." As an avid reader of American economic history, I have noticed how the saying is apparently drawn from fact. Whether it is the Robber Barons of old, the stock manipulators in every era, or even Bill Gates' selling IBM an operating system for their newly designed PC (a system he didn't actually have), there is certainly a long list to support this view of "great fortunes." In his new book, Supermob, Gus Russo does it in spades. The main character, Sidney Korshak, and his relocated Chicago mobsters were able to use mob money and influence to partner with a host of West Coast movers - and to kick-start the careers of many wanna-be movers.
  With exhaustive sourcing, Russo has shown how a number of the Fortune 500 exploited mob connections and mob money build their empires. Far from the "hack job" described by an earlier reviewer, Supermob relies on previously unearthed real estate records, forgotten Congressional investigations, IRS records, FBI investigations, and interviews with insiders to show how the Supermob was built. Russo convincingly tracks the genesis of a number of fortunes that started as beneficiaries of crime. Not since Lundberg's The Rich and the Super Rich has any writer worked so hard to penetrate this world. As an added bonus, it is also a worthy successor to David Cay Johnston's Pulitzer Prize winning exposé of tax "avoiders," Perfectly Legal.
  I can't recommend this book enough for anyone interested in US history, sociology, and organized crime. I am certainly no conspiracy buff - and I know that Russo's book is going to be oversimplified as such by those who wish to deny the inherent greed and weaknesses in the American system - but there have always been two Americas (one for the rich and another for everyone else). Few writers have shown the courage to lift the veil of hypocrisy about our real history, name names and let the chips fall where they may.
  
  
  
• Kosher Consigleori
  By ADPXHKYEJNLNX on 2006-11-13
  This is an extremely long, detailed, thorough and dense examination of how a 'nice Jewish boy' from Chicago during the Depression became lawyer to the local Mob, and ultimately to the underworld bosses of Las Vegas.
  
  Sidney spent most of his life on the West Coast, far from his Chicago roots. He was the grandson of one of six brothers who immigrated from the Ukraine in the late 19th Century. Their story is emblematic of thousands, if not millions, of similar stories of immigrant striving toward respectability. Sidney graduated from college and law school and weht to work as an attorney. One of his original clients was reputed to be part of the Capone mob, and it was upward (or downward) from there, depending on your point of view.
  
  The book is incredibly well researched, sourced and detailed. In fact, thre's more on the underworld's machinations than there is detail on what made Sidney tick. There's little or no insight about his personal opinions of some of his 'clients.'
  
  This will appeal primarily to Californians, Chicagoans or students of the American 'Jewish Mafia' of the 1930s. Or perhaps those with a connection with the decendants of the other Korshak brothers, which today are legion, and living the prosperous American dream on the right side of the law. (It should be noted that Sidney was never indicted for anything, nor did he have so much as a speeding ticket on his record.)
  
  It's doubtful many will stick with the minutiae all the way through.
  
  
• The Real Tom Hagen
  By AGLDQK4S01KPH on 2006-09-12
  Super Mob by Gus Russo is a fantastic tale of Sidney Korshak, fixer of all things, lover of beautiful younger woman, Jill St. John, and Stella Stevens for example, and the model for the " Tom Hagen " character, played by Robert Duvall in the " Godfather" series. ( 1 -2 )
  
  From his graduation from DePaul University Law School in 1931 until his death more than sixty years later Sid Korshak was a power to be reckoned with wether it be making deals with the Hollywood moguls, Walter O' Malley owner of the baseball Dodgers, the Teamsters, the mob in Vegas, all backed by the powerful Chicago "Outfit", the term applied to discribe the Chicago mob. The " Outfit " is also the title of an earlier book by Russo. In this book more so than the first, which also has alot about Korshack, whose brother was Chicago City Treasurer, State Senator, and 5th Ward Democratic Committeeman (South Side Hyde Park ), and that the mob is much more than a bunch of Italian gangsters. Fans of Ronald Reagan will ( should ) get a far different impression of their hero after reading this book and observing Ronnie tenure as President of the Screen Actors Guild, where he is pictured as a stooge, working in cohoots with the Producers, to the detriment of those that he was supposed to be representing. A GREAT Book with one flaw,it does not explore the Jack Ruby - Sid Korshack connection, Ruby and the JFK assassination is touched on briefly. The author says that both Korshak brothers were grieved and upset over the Presidents death. I do not think so !
  
  
• Eye opening and highly detailed
  By A564DZAETCNK4 on 2006-09-17
  Wow. Russo does a fantastic job of investigative journalism connecting all the dots on slimy mob lawyer Korshak and all the schemes in which he participated. I think I'm probably like most readers stunned at how much crap the guy and his equally slimy friends got away with. Where was the justice system? Mostly bought off. Completely corrupt speaker of the U.S. House Ed McCormack helped protect him. Supposedly mobster hating Bobby Kennedy was oddly indifferent to pursuing Korshak, compared to pursuing Hoffa. Pat Brown, Reagan, Gerry Brown. Anyone who was anything in politics in CA was connected to him, except Nixon, oddly enough. And very fascinating are all the people like Bob Evans who knew what a criminal and scum Korshak was but who try to pretend (perhaps to themselves as well) that he was just a really neat guy who had this amazing ability to deliver crucial favors.
  
  
• Hack Job
  By A2M32ADVJ04G2S on 2006-10-23
  This book is a cheap shot at many people. It takes the worst spin possible on events of 40, 50 and 60 years ago and in every case adopts it as fact. The negative conclusions drawn by the author have alternative explanations, however, the author chooses to ignore them and conclude criminality or sleaziness in virtually every case. While many of the people profiled are in fact sleazy, many are not but have been painted with the same brush as if they are all the same. Unfortunately, most of the people smeared are dead and cannot speak in their defense or would not feel that a cheap hatchet job like this book would be worth the time to respond. One egregious example: Abe Pritzker and his family. The Pritzkers have been honest and upstanding businessmen since day one. They have built a fortune based on savvy business deals, high ethics and have been major philanthropists for three generations not only in Chicago but around the country. To drag them through the mud for the sole pupose of sensationalism and thereby selling books is a real injustice. If this could happen to the Pritzkers then it could happen to anyone in American business. The list of people smeared just goes on and on. The book is not worth the price of purchase unless you enjoy superficial analyses of complicated events with predetermined conclusions, all negative. Spend the money instead on seeing an old time James Cagney gangster movie and you will come out with the same number of facts and level of understanding and it will be far more exciting.
  
  
• Forest for the trees
  By A1P8KWZSPSC4AC on 2006-10-25
  Today, conspiracy theories, despite 9/11 and nineteen hijackers working together, have been consigned to the lunatic fringe. Even when confronted with evidence of conspiracy, many want to sweep it under the rug.
  
  It was well known that Sydney Korshak was the fixer for organized crime activities in Hollywood and the Southwest, but to the point the publishing of Supermob, no one had put together all of the connections of the organizations he worked for.
  
  Some may deny Korshak's machinations entirely, others may think the information in Supermob has been presented before (though I know of no book specifically focusing on Korshak). But as a rather devoted reader of all things that deal with the powers behind the headlines, I found Russo's book to be a revelation.
  
  Supermob shows how organized crime, particularly in the 40's through the 60's was a massively powerful force in our world and at the same time showed how organized crime was not as organized (stories about Jill St. John and Robert Evans and their celebrity connections to the mob to name just a couple) as we are led to believe.
  
  The chapters on the Japanese interment during WW II and the subsequent stealing of the property alone is reason enough to read Supermob. It shakes you to the core when you realize this was done in the less complicated time of the 1940's. What can the hidden powerbrokers of today do to us, particularly with the recent suspension of habeas corpus in the name of war?
  
  Mr. Russo's book puts together a group of apparently isolated instances and makes you see the larger picture. This is what good historic writing is supposed to be about.
  
  
• THE FIXER -Criminally! Politically! and Socially!
  By A3TDEHA4IVHHSG on 2006-12-25
  Certainly mob and corporate super-lawyer Sidney Korshak would'nt rush out and buy this book -that is if he was still alive. But then, thats one of the main reasons author Gus Russo could go ahead and write about him somewhat freely and in good health. A lot of people who knew Korshak, contributed to this epic of crime and corruption, both alive and dead. From Chicago to Hollywood, the State house to the White House, Las Vegas to Beverly Hills, it's all here in great detail and chronological reference. Russo has dissected with clinical skill, the man behind all the deals and dealings. The man who could end a strike or start one. The man who could get someone elected or buried. It's a far better story than "The Godfather" which incidently he played a vital behind the scenes part in, only it's for real. He played the unions against their employers, the Republicans against the Democrats and the Hollywood studios against themselves.
  
  This is a must-read for not just any serious student of power in America in the last century, but for anyone even slightly interested in who really runs our illusion of democracy. It's detractors may say who cares and how could any author dare to trash the cherished reputations of so many "distinquished" politicians and social crusaders. But the evidence is there and it all ties in -as in "follow the money". To the law he was "hands off", an "Untouchable" that even an army of Elliot Ness' could'nt catch. Yet to a beautiful starlet, he was more than touchable.
  
  Wherever Sidney is now, he probably be laughing at all those ignorant and naive people, who still refuse to believe in how things really get taken care of in this everso "politically correct" world. He'd certainly want to broker the deal that would get his life story made in Hollywood. Of course it would have to be a three-picture deal and maybe if De Niro was free... Well -they've already done "The Godfather" saga, but then that was a mob fairy tale. "Casino" on the other hand, was more to the point and like all the other parts of Korshak's "wonderful life" -is fully illuminated in this super-book!
  
  
• Supermob
  By A2MYJRFMZU8F34 on 2007-01-03
  A fabulous history of Chicago from a different perspective tying together Chicago politics, organized crime and the Jewish community. Meticulously researched, this was a fascinating read from start to finish. If you like the Godfather, in any iteration, this is a book not to miss.
  
  
• Good Pile of Research Notes but not a Book
  By A164FJ2Z5FD4RH on 2007-01-13
  Russo's huge discombobulated collection of random research notes is a nice example of how difficult it is to figure out who really runs anything in America. He has clearly investigated the Chicago Mob and its connection to the growth of the Los Angeles and the Las Vegas economies with the greatest diligence.
  But he has made little sense of it all. His notes go from topic to topic, more or less in chronological order, but there are gaping holes in every story where he could not find out what happened because no one wrote anything down ( on purpose....you don't leave trails of your law breaking....), and where he just gets lost and confused.
  Time and again, he tells the same stories, with facts that differ a bit each time, probably because the FBI files, or trial transcripts, or oral histories, differ --- to his credit, he 'sources' everything, so you know where each alleged "factoid" came from, but knowing how inaccurate FBI files can be about anything, reporting every ridiculous rumor an agent hears, and knowing how peoples' memories can 're-shape' events recalled decades later, one is left with more questions than answers about just how the Chicago Mob 'washed' their money by first investing in the Democrats in California, and then later in Ronald Reagan and the Republicans.
  Perhaps someone will one day take all these notes and try to figure out what they mean. In other words, perhaps someone will take the next step of sifting through this pile, separate the rumors, legends, and just good stories from real facts, the chaff from the wheat, and analyze just why we should know all this and how/why it may matter to us now.....
  Sidney Korshak was obviously a guy who could "fix" a lot of problems, but there's no real insight into his role in modern labor history, his role in Kevin Starr's California history, his real role even in Hollywood history....he's a good subject still waiting for a good biographer.
  Or perhaps the point of this whole pile of notes is that no one can ever tell the story because the players are gone now, and they covered up their story so well that this is the best we can get--- half stories not well told with big holes in them.
  (For example, ---- he suggests that Circuit Court Judge David Bazelon had something to do with Japanese farms being expropriated by the government and then by white California farmers after Japanese internment, but then he just tells about 2 or 3 pieces of property, mostly German/Axis property, and we really learn nothing about 99.5% of the Japanese land and what actually happened to it and what Bazelon really did or didn't do...this stuff is all available in property records etc...but Russo didn't go the length...
  etc...Obviously this could go on and on. The point is simple --- interesting bits and pieces lying in a heap don't equal any kind of edifice worth walking thru.
  Think twice before even starting into this --- read it as a collection of somewhat collected anecdotes, not as a tightly woven well reasoned analysis of much of anything....
  
  
  
• mob, and crime following the Chicago to LA route
  By ACDYHXA9KAG7O on 2007-05-09
  I loved this book - maybe because I knew half the people in it! It is a wonderful (true) yarn of Jewish immigrants settling in Chicago and how the succeeding generation made their way up the financial/political/power ladder, alas on the wrong side of the law. It reads like a novel and I always looked forward to getting to read more, and was sorry when it was over.
  
  
• A Peek Under the Covers
  By A2ZHZ8ZTHJKOS0 on 2007-11-13
  America loves mob melodramas, guys getting whacked because they crossed somebody or other. No one much cares whether the culprits get caught since it's all part of the underworld game. No one in authority much cares either, that is, until some hoodlum tries to beat his income tax after the gov't has demanded its cut. Then the bloodhounds of the IRS come calling and the careless capo gets a federal number.
  
  Economists call the early stages of capital accumulation "primitive accumulation". Few academics may call 20's style bootlegging primitive accumulation, but illegal whiskey sure raised a lot of money for the Capone-led Chicago gang. And like most rising business ventures, much of that money was used by astute managers such as Murray "The Camel" Humphreys to buy influence into the over-world of politics and law. What does it matter if the money's dirty, since it's still money, as any number of corrupted Illinois officials shows.
  
  But what happens when even a big city like Chicago becomes too small for the sums flowing into gangster coffers. Well. if you're a wizard like Humphreys, you start looking for new opportunities, especially where there is little or no competition. You also look for somebody who can pass for respectable, since you're past the primitive stage and now have the money to go legit. Enter attorney Sidney Korshak, discreet, smooth, and, above all, a protege of Jake Arvey, Chicago's master ward healer and political go-between. As Russo's lengthy account shows, the mob could not have made a better choice.
  
  Horace Greeley's famous directive was to, "Go West, young man," and that's just where Korshak took the mob money and contacts, helping to turn dusty Las Vegas into the underworld's Glitter Gulch, and Los Angeles real estate into a permanent citadel of mob influence. Along the way, he picked up such powers in their own right as MCA's talent impresario Lew Wasserman and Democratic party power-broker Paul Ziffren, along with numerous union bigshots. Together, theirs was an underworld shadow cast across two big states with a network of contacts reaching all the way to the nation's capital.
  
  But muscling in at the top means knowing how to cut deals with others at the top. Here Korshak proves to be the guy to go to whether the public knows his name or not. Want top talent for your TV show, see Sid; want no union trouble at the studios, see Sid; want a good deal on a tax scam, see Sid; want a big donation for a charity fund-raiser, yeah, see Sid. And all the time, there's the whispering in the background about the guy's connections with other guys, guys with guns. But then, isn't Sinatra's Rat Pack a really cool bunch of Hollywood swingers. Yeah, just ask the public or even President Kennedy.
  
  To me, it's not a pretty picture, all the way from the yawning silence of the LA Times to the hobnobbing with Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan, plus a Hollywood establishment that could apparently care less. Scattered investigations go nowhere, while whistle-blowers like Steve Allen get black-balled for their civic duty. But then, maybe this is just another success story of primitive accumulation working its way to the top and learning to get along, even as the top learns to get along with them. I believe it was Victor Hugo who said that behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Maybe then, the Chicago mob was just more obvious than those others like old Joe Kennedy, an Irish bootlegger reborn into the white-collar world despite the sinister origins. Disturbing or not, the book is well worth the read.
  
  As a general reader, I'm in no position to gainsay any of Russo"s facts, so I try to keep an open mind toward detractors. It's vital, however, that critics not simply denounce the work in unsubstantiated fashion. Chapter and verse should be cited in order to gain credibility. Of course, the text casts aspersions onto a number of prominent and reputable people, which places a heavy load on both the book and its detractors. Nonetheless, if Russo has to follow the rules, so should the critics.
  
  
• Much original research here
  By AVEYIDHA5F2MO on 2006-10-26
  I'm a longtime L.A. history buff, and I was impressed by Mr. Russo's original research into tax returns and property records, appearing here to an extent I've never before seen. So for that alone I thought this book was a great find.
  
  It's a massively ambitious piece of work, retelling the story of over half a century in one of America's major cities. So it's inevitable that some material has appeared elsewhere, but there's so much here that's new that it casts previous material into a new and challenging context. I find myself wanting to study more. You have a lot of "holy moley" moments in reading this, and Mr. Russo's style is lively throughout.
  
  And thank goodness, because it's a massive piece of work I'm still trying to digest (over 500 pages, with nearly 100 more pages of end matter). In the end, this is a fascinating read that made me rethink much of what I thought I knew about a city I've loved for many years. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Revealing look into a long career as ultimate fixer for the mob.
  By A2G8T73GXJN0EG on 2007-02-17
  Reading the life of Sid Korshack also covers an interesting saga of mob history, involving the creation of Las vegas, the entertainment industry and politics all comingled together, which the mob's hand reached into and used to great advantage for the purpose infuencing their criminal interests. There is a great amount of detail documented in this book, which at times begs belief, at the extent of the connections weaving through this mans life, blurring the line between criminal enterprise and the supposed gatekeepers sworn to uphold the law, who have no trouble acting in concert. Put together in a strong compelling narrative, a great read which flows nicely and has a definite ring of truth to it.
  
  
• Enigmatic, yet charismatic!
  By A1N4AADJK8I00M on 2007-09-13
  Sidney Korshak was one of the most secretive of powerbrokers in the 20th century, and this wonderful book finally unveils the secrets.
  Dr Peter Teiman
  Switzerland
  
  
• HOPING FOR AN UPDATE
  By A3HT4JISL1MGVA on 2006-09-28
  This book tells how Sidney Korshak and other mob fronts moved from Chicago to Las Vegas and Southern California in the 1940's. Using such notorious hangouts as the Bistro and City National Bank in Beverly Hills, some of which are still as sinister as ever, they gained influence in unions, business, and politics at the local and even national and international level.
  
  The only thing that detracts from the fine work is the author's political bias. He comes from a background at Public Broadcasting. Anyone who was anti-communist such as Ronald Reagan is labeled a tool of gangsters. Although the author exposes the Los Angeles Times as corrupt through most of the book, when he talks of their criticism of the anti-communist John Birch Society, he refers to Times journalists as America's top investigative reporting team.
  
  He leaves off with the death of Korshak. But there is reason to believe that a new generation of Supermob descendants is involved in such crimes as money laundering and RICO (racketeering).
  
  
• Onvestigating a Jewish Mob in LA/Hollywood
  By A1M8PP7MLHNBQB on 2007-02-01
  Mr. Russo has written a book that seems to say that a mob of Russian-American Jews really ran the mob activities during the last century. In this book, he mainly discusses the life of Sidney Korshak, a lawyer working Los Angeles that was called 'The Fixer.'
  
  This was at a time when most of us thought that the Italians, especially those from Sicily, controlled the mob activities in most of the United States. And I don't see any references in this book to various centers of mob related activities such as New Orleans.
  
  Mr. Russo presents an interesting survey of mob related activities, but essentially concentrates on the LA/Hollywood scene. And this could indeed have been the case. It's a ways to go however, from there to considering this to be the SuperMob over the rest of the country, the rest of the crime. Mr. Russo certainly seems to see a major conspiracy running the country. It makes interesting reading.
  
  It is important to remember as you read the book that Sid Korshak was never arrested, never even got a parking ticket (unless of course the were all fixed).
  
  

• The Outfit
• When the Mob Ran Vegas: Stories of Money, Mayhem and Murder
• Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster: The Incredible Life and Times of Mickey Cohen
• The King of the Sunset Strip: Hangin' With Mickey Cohen And the Hollywood Mob
• The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law Vs. the Mob