And (going out of chronology) on July 30, 1937 the Hollywood police raided the Plantation in Hallandale. As a Jewish teenager growing up in Miami, he often ate breakfast at the Wolfie's on Lincoln Road. Carl Fishers Alton Beach Realty Company is developing land on the beach. How many times had he pulled out of this spot in the last 33 years? He died in prison 11 years later, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering charges. President Warren G. Harding is invited for a round of golf at the nine-hole Hollywood Golf & Country Club and lunch at the Hollywood Hotel (later Park View Hotel), pictured here. Wolfies was a 24-hour-a-day haven for the elderly living in kitchenless beachfront rooming houses (destined to be restored as art deco boutique hotels in the 1990s). The site, a city block at Washington Street between the Atlantic Ocean and A1A, is now a city park and rec building. Meyer Lansky was born in 1902 in Grodno, Russia (present day Belarus), immigrating to America as a child. Sonken, five feet six when he was standing straight, ran right into the gunman's path to assist his customer. Meyer Lansky's former home at 612 Hibiscus Drive, Hallandale Beach. Three of these four Michigan-born brothers became full-fledged, successful gambling operators in the first half of the 1900s, their reach spanning five states: Michigan, Ohio, Florida, California and Nevada. THE HANGOUT JOE SONKENS GOLD COAST RESTAURANT 606 N. OCEAN DR., HOLLYWOOD. My grandfather worked in Cleveland for the Jewish group I would enjoy discussing him with you to find out more about him and tell you what I know about him. One of Sonken's bartenders, Henry Leddy, had been taking bets on jai-alai and horse races. My favorite meal at Pumperniks and Rascal House was a hot Pastrami or Corn Beef sandwich on oversized slices of seeded Jewish Rye bread loaded with sauerkraut, topped with melted Swiss Cheese and seasoned with a thick spread of spicy mustard. Meyer Lansky died on Jan. 15, 1983, after fighting lung cancer. Late one Tuesday night, a heavyset man in a worn-out sport coat lumbered out of a sprawling restaurant on Hollywood Beach to his parking spot, the one closest to the building. Never a true Mafioso because he was Jewish, not Italian, Lansky outlived nearly all of his Mafia associates. This was going to create a loss of revenue for the hotel, he points out, and very likely other local merchants. We had an ocean right here, after all, she pointed out. This case fell apart when it became clear Leddy had gone behind Sonken's back. The building was repaired and reopened but the old sign was torn down and replaced with a plain sign lower to the ground. "We're coming out!" He installed a wall around the grounds and added a 60-by-40-foot pool and a two-story bathhouse, built in the style of a Venetian loggia. My grandfather and his partners were referred to in the movie the Irishman as " the Jews in Miami with the racetracks and laundrymats". "If you try anything, we'll kill them! While Hallandale was home to most of the gaming establishments in the 20s and 30s, Hollywood was also pretty busy. H. Rheinfrank. Seventy years ago today, February 14, 1948, a display ad for the erstwhile Colonial Inn in Hallandale, Florida, ran in the Ft. Lauderdale News. Forbes had estimated his wealth at $300 million, but there was very little money in the will. He has lived there year- round for at least 10 years. Joe Sonken was as much a celebrity as many of the famous people who frequented his restaurant. Who wanted to put an end to Joe Sonken? March 1, 1923, the first full-page ad for HOLLYWOOD BY-THE-SEA appears in the Miami Times Union. This house was one of the Homes of Tomorrow in the 1933 Fair, and its architectural style had a broad influence, particularly in Hollywood. After Kaufman took on the Plantation, Alo and Lansky came down here and opened several more gambling establishments including the Barn and the Colonial Inn in Hallandale. Wowmy father ran booze from Canada in the 20s late. So closely was Wolfies identified with Miami Beach that in 1959 Northeast Airlines chose it to cater meals for Miami-to-NY passengers; Lindys supplied delicacies to those flying south. "Tony Pro" Provenzano, of New York's Genovese crime family, apparently also plotted the as-yet-unsolved Jimmy Hoffa murder at Gold Coast. After Genoveses death in 1969, Catena was regarded as the most powerful mobster in New Jersey, and reputedly controlled pillage, loansharking and gambling at the port in Newark. Accetturo recently left town, and authorities speculate that there could be a contract on his life. On the evening of Jan. 25, the news finally came: The most famous gangster of them all was dead at the age of 48. Left, Tent/Beach City, 125-26. Once, when Sonken heard a reporter snooping around the restaurant asking about the mafia, the boss waved the phone receiver from behind the bar and announced loudly, "Call for Mr. Capone, telephone call on line two for Mr. Al Capone!" Copyright var creditsyear = new Date();document.write(creditsyear.getFullYear()); By the time he died at age 81 in 1983, federal agents estimated Lanskys fortune in numbered foreign bank accounts at $300 million. Sonken turned on a dime from wry to angry. But while all that gambling was taking place in Hallandale, the guys in charge kept their families safe in the adjacent and beautiful city of Hollywood. He was indicted on charges of income-tax evasion, contempt of court and of plotting with two others to skim more than $14 million from the Flamingo Hotel and Casino (built by his old pal Bugsy Siegel) in Las Vegas. An FBI report put Sonken's position this way: Sonken "could not explain why these individuals of the hoodlum element frequent his restaurant, except that he has good food.". Among the gambling houses he opened were the Greenacres Club in Hollywood and the Colonial Inn near Hallandale. Those interested, it said, should apply to Halland Land Company, 5 Water Street NY for land prices. If you have been following this blog, you know that it was Fisher and his developing Miami Beach that brought J. W. Young here, seeking a site for his city. Sonken once opened a bag of bagels on a Sunday morning, sniffed, and threw them against the wall. Pivotal moments in mob history transpired over homemade ravioli and Gold Coast's famous Chicken Vesuvio (baked with potatoes and onion). He persuaded Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to allow gambling only in hotels worth more than $1 million, then proceeded to build the only hotels that qualified. Finally, a notice in the Miami News of March 5, 1931, that I find truly exciting. He divorced her in 1948 so he could marry a New York City manicurist, Thelma Teddy Schwartz. "If you try anything, we'll kill them!". It is located at 612 Hibiscus Dr Hallandale, Florida. Weve definitely become the headquarters for the mob.. Poker games and parties were common at the Capone estate. I'd been planning to write about Lansky in some wayI . Musicians played at the piano or strolled around the tables, and one evening Sonken gave permission to a group of enthralled diners to bring his guitarist on their yacht for a cruise. Lansky and Batista fled Cuba on the same day. The modest, pallid gold exterior at 606 N. Ocean Dr. (now GG's Waterfront Bar & Grill) gave no indication of its capacity, which reached 300 after several expansions. They orchestrated weapons smuggling and other schemes that were part of a plot to kill Fidel Castro, a CIA operation later investigated for connections to Kennedy's death, according to FBI files declassified in 1992. They tossed the sport coats they'd worn during the robbery into an alley a miscalculation, it turned out, because the stolen money was in the pocket of one of the coats. Meyer Lansky In His Own Words Throughout the 1960s the G-men eavesdropped on the private conversations of Meyer Lansky by bugging his personal residence where he lived with his wife in Hallandale, FL and the hotel rooms in which he stayed when in New York City according to FBI files. Gold Coast attracted Bertucelli and his team like moths to flame. Green called South Florida the "haven for every crud in the United States." Sonken went to court to demand his food back. In the next paper, on March 12, 1937 the headline states that Hollywood merchants did not want a lid on gambling in Broward. I don't bother nobody. One alternative is a tour of the homes and hangouts of South Floridas mobsters, past and present. In 1968, the same year Sonken gave one of his many English bulldogs to a state senator, the Florida Legislature convened an organized crime committee and called in Sonken. Bertucelli had convinced a former colleague, Dave Green, to join his department. In keeping with the Streamline concept of the Modern style is the flat roof with metal railing, suggesting the deck of an ocean liner. Stuff and the service are excellent.". In the photo at left, Harding, center, still wears his golfing plus-four pants, as he greets Youngs sales force. Each dish that came out of the kitchen was meant to be a masterpiece, and Sonken showed a knack he'd nurtured at Mother Kelly's for attracting celebrity clientele. Today, Catena lives the life of a retired businessman and revered Mafia don. 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 National Crime Syndicate in the United States.. A member of the Jewish mob, Lansky developed a gambling empire that stretched around the world. He often appeared to be sleeping in the courtroom, though prosecutors said he was faking. Accetturo, 51, who got his nickname from the club-wielding caveman in the movie One Million, B.C., moved to South Florida from New Jersey in 1971. These addresses are all public knowledge, by the way. The 21-month trial is thought to be the longest federal criminal trial ever held. The few criminal charges brought against Sonken never stuck, and in May 1994, the restaurant was sold and turned into a Miami Subs Grill. He also persuaded mob bosses to move their money into more profitable and less risky ventures such as gambling, banking and real estate. Provenzano first moved to Hallandale in December 1974, buying a waterfront house one block away from his last home, at 531 Palm Drive. However, with Accetturos attention diverted for so long due to the trial, he appears to have lost some clout. Nope, sorry. And why would they when they could have electricity and maid service in Beach/Tent City! When gambling became legal in the Bahamas in the early 60s and a casino was opened at the Lucayan Beach Hotel, it was learned that several of Lanskys associates were involved. They would send an officer into Gold Coast not just to eavesdrop. His Gold Coast had long been a place of infinite possibility, where an impromptu jazz-concert-as-wake for a blind pianist could be followed by a hostage-taking robbery. After Meyer Lansky's death at age 80 from lung cancer in 1983, it was widely rumored that he was worth a staggering $400 million, and maybe as high as $600 million. Gold Coast had never before been robbed. They also opened the It Club on US 1 between the port and the airport (a strip joint, now gone), and had a bookie operation in the Hollywood Yacht Club (is this the more elegantly-named Deauville?). So your age is between 70s and 90s. After nearly 50 years of involvement with organized crime, Meyer Lansky was never found guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling. He was short of stature and balding, with a face that was at times pugnacious, and usually inscrutable. Detectives said they had placed bets with a bartender on jai-alai and horses.