Final_Judgment

[76] Final Judgment 137
It was upon Luciano's deportation, that Luciano actually named Lansky
as his official spokesman. According to Luciano, "I worked it all out with
Lansky, and that's the point where Meyer became the real treasurer of the
outfit. I put him in charge of my money and later on he started to take care
of the finances of quite a few guys." 199
Lansky was—despite his Jewish origins—the capo di tuti capi ("boss of
all bosses") in Luciano's absence. Theoretically, Lansky could never be a
"member" of the Mafia, but he certainly ranked higher than even "made"
members who had been inducted into the so-called "honored society."
LANSKY, DEWEY & THE CIA
Both Dewey and Lansky did, of course, stand to benefit from Luciano's
imprisonment. The case of Dewey and his Lansky connection is most
interesting.
As a consequence of his prosecution of Luciano, Dewey won widespread
political fame and in 1938 ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of New York.
In fact, at that time, Lansky reportedly donated fully $250,000 (in 1938
dollars) to Dewey's campaign.
Dewey did not win that race, but during the remaining period of his
service as New York's "racket-busting" prosecutor he did obtain a conviction
of one of Lansky's Jewish rivals in organized crime, Louis "Lepke"
Buchalter, who eventually died in the electric chair.
Then, in 1942 when Dewey once again—this time,
successfully—sought the governorship, Lansky provided additional financial
support and political muscle. Dewey, as governor, commuted Luciano's
sentence. In return for his freedom, Luciano agreed to go into exile to his
homeland of Italy. Thus, Lansky's influence widened in Luciano's absence
abroad.
This would not be, however, the end of the Dewey-Lansky relationship.
Dewey later became a major stockholder in the Mary Carter Paint Company
in the late 1950's.
According to former CIA contract agent Robert Morrow, "Carter Paint
was originally an active corporation set up by Thomas Dewey [and CIA
director] Allen Dulles to use as a CIA front. In 1958, Dewey and some
friends had bought controlling interest in the Crosby Miller Corporation,
with two million dollars in CIA money—authorized by Allen Dulles. Then,
in 1959, the Crosby Miller Corporation was merged with the CIA-owned
paint company. As an example of one of its early activities, it provided
laundered CIA money for the Bay of Pigs army. In 1963, Mary Carter Paint
spun off its paint division, after a Florida land scandal, and became Resorts
International.” 200
Resorts International, Inc. controlled virtually all of the resorts in the
Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean where Lansky reorganized his
gambling operations after being forced out of Cuba in 1960.