MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Reputed underworld financier Meyer Lansky died today at Mount Sinai Medical Center of lung cancer. He was 80.
Lansky entered the hospital Dec. 31 suffering from dehydration, a hospital spokesman said. He died at 6 a.m. The spokesman said no family members were present at his death.
Lansky, who was called the brain behind the international expansion of the mob, wanted to die in Israel.
A Russian-born Jew, he had bought a gravesite at Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery in 1972 just before he was labeled a 'danger to public safety' and kicked out of Israel.
'If I can't come back alive, at least my body will,' Lansky said after he bought the gravesite.
In 1980, Lansky claimed he was dying of cancer and wanted to visit Israel once more before he died. The Israeli government, however, denied him a visa.
U.S. Justice Department Strike Force investigators tried for years to put Lansky behind bars, but he beat a 1972 casino skimming charge before a federal jury in Miami and had a 1973 grand jury contempt sentence thrown out by a federal appeals court.
In 1918, he was arrested for felonious assault in New York, but the charge was later reduced and he paid a $2 fine without ever serving any jail time.
Persistent rumors that Lansky had amassed $100 million to $400 million from the skimming operation brought a team of Internal Revenue Service investigators into the investigation. Three IRS agents traveled throughout Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas and Great Britain as well as the United States to track the flow of crime funds into legal fronts -- said to be Lansky's specialty.
Agent Tom Harrison, head of the IRS team, said in Miami before the skimming trial: 'I sincerely feel you could not fathom in your mind's eye -- it's almost admirable in a sheer organizational way -- the sophistication which has been reached. I think the news media and the public will finally learn about a sophistication in crime which is the epitome of top organized crime in America.'
Lansky is credited by federal crime probers with masterminding the complicated process of laundering money from several illegal gambling operations. The Kefauver Senate Committee heard in the early 1950s how the money was sent out of the country, then returned in the form of new, legal investments, which fueled the international growth of organized crime. Soon mob-controlled gambling spread across south Florida, throughout Las Vegas, Cuba, Europe and the Caribbean.
Lansky entered the hospital Dec. 31 suffering from dehydration, a hospital spokesman said. He died at 6 a.m. The spokesman said no family members were present at his death.
Lansky, who was called the brain behind the international expansion of the mob, wanted to die in Israel.
A Russian-born Jew, he had bought a gravesite at Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery in 1972 just before he was labeled a 'danger to public safety' and kicked out of Israel.
'If I can't come back alive, at least my body will,' Lansky said after he bought the gravesite.
In 1980, Lansky claimed he was dying of cancer and wanted to visit Israel once more before he died. The Israeli government, however, denied him a visa.
U.S. Justice Department Strike Force investigators tried for years to put Lansky behind bars, but he beat a 1972 casino skimming charge before a federal jury inMiami and had a 1973 grand jury contempt sentence thrown out by a federal appeals court.
In 1918, he was arrested for felonious assault in New York, but the charge was later reduced and he paid a $2 fine without ever serving any jail time.
Persistent rumors that Lansky had amassed $100 million to $400 million from the skimming operation brought a team of Internal Revenue Service investigators into the investigation. Three IRS agents traveled throughout Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas and Great Britain as well as the United States to track the flow of crime funds into legal fronts -- said to be Lansky's specialty.
Agent Tom Harrison, head of the IRS team, said in Miami before the skimming trial: 'I sincerely feel you could not fathom in your mind's eye -- it's almost admirable in a sheer organizational way -- the sophistication which has been reached. I think the news media and the public will finally learn about a sophistication in crime which is the epitome of top organized crime in America.'
Lansky is credited by federal crime probers with masterminding the complicated process of laundering money from several illegal gambling operations. The Kefauver Senate Committee heard in the early 1950s how the money was sent out of the country, then returned in the form of new, legal investments, which fueled the international growth of organized crime. Soon mob-controlled gambling spread across south Florida, throughout Las Vegas, Cuba, Europe and the Caribbean.
