[3] As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,113. A New Jersey mob associate named Anthony Little Pussy Russo put it more crudely in a secretly taped conversation in 1978. He is buried in Chicago. The site, a city block at Washington Street between the Atlantic Ocean and A1A, is now a city park and rec building. The boss protected his clientele's peace and privacy. From nearby appeared a Gold Coast regular, a guy who had spent so much time there that a booth could have been named after him. We cant say he actually set foot here since he arrived by special train, then walked via a gangplank from the train to the destroyer Monaghan, which took him to the Bahamas. But the presence of the larger-than-life mobsters the knights errant of modern life always stood out. In Miami, Sonken partnered with two Chicago transplants who'd left the Devonshire under the dark clouds of their reputations: Petey Arnstein, a reputed jewel thief, and Arnstein's wife, Ollie, identified by police as a brothel madam. His mission was to collect enough evidence from mafiosi and underworld players, to disrupt the invasive species at the roots. After reaching North Miami Beach, the thieves released the hostages and traveled on foot until they were picked up by an accomplice. He often appeared to be sleeping in the courtroom, though prosecutors said he was faking. Sonken displayed Chicago memorabilia street signs, pennants, and jerseys around the restaurant. Meyer Lansky's former home at 612 Hibiscus Drive, Hallandale Beach. Ralph Morse, LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images T. J.. 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. 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.". When a couple complained loudly that the presence of Sonken's dogs in the restaurant was unsanitary, a flick of his wrist was all it took for the maitre d' to escort out the troublemakers. We had an ocean right here, after all, she pointed out. Mobsters living in or visiting South Florida meet at Joe Sonkens and receive or pass messages there, says Lieutenant Green, because it is one way of circumventing wiretaps on their telephones. Tony Pro flew to Florida and held a poolside press conference at his Hallandale home to proclaim his innocence. Provenzano claimed that he was in New Jersey the day Hoffa disappeared. Bertucelli would have to gird himself to keep taking on Sonken. Meyer arrived at the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1911. Stakes were high. Another March, 1937 ad was for entertainers at the Deauville Yacht Club, which was in Hollywood 2 blocks North of Hollywood Beach Hotel. Its surprising to think that the small unpretentious building on the pier in North Lake was once some sort of night club. 68 reviews. By Shelley Sackett When Jonathan Lang '98 set out to write a graphic novel about the notorious Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky, he was determined to capture the mobster's life in all its moral complexity.. Someone just bought a house in Hallandale Beach that comes with a bit of history. One question asked repeatedly of suspected mobsters was: "Do you know Joe Sonken?". Meyer Lansky, n Maier Suchowljansky (1902-1983), just may be the U.S. icon of 20th century gambling, illegal and legal. Another Chicago native, Sonken was said to be close to many of that citys organized crime figures. Located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, Flamingo Las Vegas is a true desert oasis. He served five years. Who wanted to put an end to Joe Sonken? Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House location was converted to an Epicure Gourmet Market, owned by Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House's parent company Jerrys Famous Deli headquartered in Studio City, California. Left, Tent/Beach City, 125-26. Prohibition was totally ignored by the population.. A year later Tony Pro was convicted of ordering the 1961 murder of Anthony Castellito, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 560 in New Jersey, in which Provenzano and two brothers had held powerful positions for many years. Meyer Lansky was undoubtedly one of the most famous mobsters of all time. His house is now up for sale. Meyer Lansky, known as the Mobs Accountant, became important in the gambling scene in Miami, while his brother Jake lived and worked in Hollywood. The restaurant's name referenced its double identity "Gold Coast" was both a term for Florida's Atlantic cities, including up-and-coming Hollywood, and for the once-swampy stretch of Chicago that through creative redevelopment improbably became elite. 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 employees could only wish the police were there on Labor Day 1973. Also in March, 1920, chief Boatswains Mate Anton Christopher Mickelson receives an Honorable Discharge from the U. S. Navy, which he had joined before World War One. This of course is Hallandale. His remains were interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Rockaway recently spoke to HistoryNet about his latest film and its exploration in morality. "I don't like it," Sonken told a reporter. In contrast to Mafia dons who are constantly accompanied by bodyguards, Lansky was often seen walking his little dog alone along busy Collins Avenue. Where Capone was a paunchy, loud and flamboyant thug, Lansky was small and thin, a soft-spoken, grandfatherly sort who dressed and lived conservatively. IN CLOSING - It would be nice if you posted a comment with your memories of these wonderful places. His aim, at least in part, would be unswerving: to finally bring down Joe Sonken and the Gold Coast Restaurant. According to an interesting website called AmericanMafia and other sources, Alo was a longtime friend of Meyer Lansky. "Don't come here when you're in a hurry," Sonken told the Fort Lauderdale News (forerunner of the Sun-Sentinel) in 1954. Left, Tent/Beach City, 125-26. The Boston-born Bertucelli later told the Sun-Sentinel of his job that "it was like a chess game." Johnson wasnt against gambling per se, but he hopes that the racketeers in gambling would be suppressed.. Accetturos case ended in a mistrial when a key witness suffered a heart attack, but five co-defendants were convicted. A white-hot spotlight landed on the mob and followed it to Florida. Scarfo not only lived in the Spanish-style house he called Casablanca South, he rewarded loyal crime-family members with weekends there. He married Anna Citron in 1929, and they had three children. Note: VirtualGlobetrotting is an entertainment website is and is not associated And thank you to all my readers! Meyer Lansky was the highest-ranking non-Italian in the American Mafia. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida This is the land-facing side of the 1933 Florida Tropical House, designed by Robert L. Weed. Meyer and Jake Lansky, Julian Potatoes Kaufman, and Vincent Jimmy Blue Eyes Alo were the most famous of Hollywoods big criminal names in the 20s and 30s. Gold Coast had never before been robbed. A jury acquitted him of the charges. More links between Hallandale and Hollywood are mentioned further along. It is located . With the spread of air conditioning and jet travel, it became easier to visit or live year-round, spurring a construction boom for which the mob was perfectly positioned. Im not a member of the Mafia, he said. But on this day in May 1986, his 8-year-old ocean-blue Oldsmobile barreled backward, crashing through the dock and plunging into the Intracoastal. Cary Grant frequented the restaurant when he was in town, at one point giving Sonken a case of Faberg perfume (Grant was on the company's board); the restaurateur would hand out gift-wrapped bottles of the perfume to female customers, generating press mentions in the Miami News on top of earlier ones that reported spotting Grant. "Those aren't from Sage!" If you Google any of the restaurants you will find small tidbits of information and memories posted by people who lived in Florida or visited Florida when these establishments were open. Gold Coast didn't miss a meal. After selling Mother Kelly's, Sonken opened Gold Coast Restaurant in late 1953 a few blocks north of the Hollywood Boulevard bridge. The house, located on Palm Island in Biscayne Bay, was built in 1922 by St. Louis brewer Clarence M. Busch. Later he became a major stockholder in Bally Manufacturing, the worlds largest maker of slot machines. It would be wonderful if someone would catalogue them, locate the architects, and provide accurate dates, before they are all torn down, as another of my favorites was (it was on the south side of City Hall Circle). Hallandale Beach, Florida (FL), US Meyer Lansky, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Belarusian-born 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. In 1986 Fortune magazine ranked him as the fourth-richest mobster in the country. Young got the idea from a similar arrangement in California, and had them erected as he was building the Beach Hotel, since there were so many people clamoring for housing in Hollywood in 1925-1926. In January 1947, Capone collapsed with a brain hemorrhage, followed a week later by bronchial pneumonia. Joseph Sonken died at age 83 in 1990 with no wife or children, in Plantation, Florida. Sonken opened the Gold Coast Restaurant in late 1953 and quickly began attracting a celebrity clientele. 9. His basset hounds, Amos and Tillie, tagged along. The agents had sold him $10,000 worth of anchovies, mushrooms and olive oil for $4,450 on the theory that Sonken would have to know that the groceries were hot to be sold so cheaply. The Society section of the same paper, March 12, 1937 announces that the Club Boheme Is Scene of Pleasant Affair, a beautifully appointed luncheon given to Hollywood matrons by Mrs. Harry Hutchinson and Mrs. Wm. Joe Sonken's Gold Coast Restaurant, it read. "Yeah," said Sonken dryly. Call it Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous. However, with Accetturos attention diverted for so long due to the trial, he appears to have lost some clout. 63ms. | The following year he bought the white stucco, waterfront house for $40,000. The gunmen handcuffed the two bartenders and the night manager, Gale Pendleton. In 1978, officers from a state task force burst into Gold Coast amid a busy lunch crowd, alleging Sonken had bought stolen food products. He was important in the Chicago underworld, running one of the ritziest casinos in the city. It didnt last long, since patronage was limited to the groups invited guests, and the city rescinded the lease in 1931. So you are in your 80s? After being instrumental in creating the National Crime Syndicate, an amalgam of Italian-American Mafia and Jewish-American Mobsters, he worked his way up to its top position of chairman. It also attracted politicians looking for the liberal vote and visiting borscht-belt performers such as Milton Berle and Henny Youngman, as well as big and little gangsters and bookies with a yen for chicken livers, pastrami, and cheesecake. Which means you were born between 1920-50s. Provenzano was identified by authorities as a captain in the Genovese crime family, and served 4 1/2 years in prison in the 1960s after his conviction for extortion of a trucking company executive. In 2005, Hurricane Wilma damaged both the original Rascal House sign and the building. By one account, Sonken fled to South Florida in his 30s to evade a crackdown on Chicago's mob-linked establishments. Today, Catena lives the life of a retired businessman and revered Mafia don. You could go to any intelligence center in the country and they have something on Joe Sonken, Green says. They ran greyhound race tracks and laundrymats along with vending companies from Philadelphia to Miami. When his case came to trial, Accetturos doctors claimed that he was suffering from Alzheimers disease. "If you try anything, we'll kill them! "He realized he didn't have a big enough police force to take on the mafia," so he channeled the incursion in a way that pumped up the economy. Join the New Times community and help support He is the coordinator of the message center.. Lansky moved to Florida, and for many years lived in a house in Hallandale. THE MAN WHO MANY BELIEVE set up the presumed murder of former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, didnt have much time to enjoy his 2,948-square-foot home on the Intracoastal, which he bought in Hallandales Golden Isles neighborhood in 1977. On the evening of Jan. 25, the news finally came: The most famous gangster of them all was dead at the age of 48. Matthew Pearl, all rights reserved. Even by Mafia standards, Scarfo was unusually violent. In this photo in the Hollywood Herald, Roosevelt is the first man in a dark suit stepping off the gangplank, and waving. With that in mind, join us on Sunshines exclusive tour of the homes and the haunts of the hoods. And they also ran the Club Boheme and the Club Greenacres. He was born Maier Suchowjansky in the Soviet Union, and arrived in the United States at age 9, where his family settled in New Yorks teeming immigrant slums. Everything we did back then is legal now, Jimmy Blue Eyes was said to lament soon afterwards. "I'm 65 years old. Stepping back in time through Gold Coast's doors reveals a reality with more twists than a mob movie. Born to a father from Russia and a Polish mother, Joe Sonken worked from the time he was 10, leaving school after eighth grade. According to authorities, Pro- venzano regularly was host for meetings of mobsters at his Sea Inn restaurant next to the Gulfstream Park racetrack. On July 30, 1975, he arranged to meet Hoffa at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in suburban Detroit for a peace talk. Seven years later, Lansky died of natural causes. The settlement was named for Luther Halland, brother-in-law of James Edmundson Ingraham, a Flagler associate. There he transferred to the presidential yacht Potomac for a fishing vacation. His basset hounds,. In 1932 Capone was sentenced to imprisonment at Alcatraz for income-tax evasion. #9 Best Value of 2,407 places to stay in Gunzenhausen. Nor is there any indication of a movie sound stage in the many plans, plats, and descriptions of buildings erected by Young or his Hollywood Land & Water Company. Meyer Lansky, known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Belarusian-born 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. Joe Sonken was as much a celebrity as many of the famous people who frequented his restaurant. We're coming out, or you're all dead!". Im a truck driver.. The ad doesnt explain why one might want to be there all night, but the reason was well-known in Hallandale, Hollywood, Miami, and so forth. Visit our homepage at hollywoodgazette.com. 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. Meyer, Bernard & Paul Lansky. 11.3 miles from Stadtkirche St. Marien. People fled. "Get me outta here," Sonken yelled in the last moments before the car sank. Lansky, born in Russia in 1902, arrived in New York in 1911. Later, Lansky concocted another scheme. Six years earlier, Green had dropped out of undercover work. Ben Kramer, a speedboat racer and smuggler, once left $10,000 in cash in a garbage bag in his trunk in the Gold Coast parking lot. As longtime Gold Coast employee Rip Ortega remembers, Sonken "wouldn't let you know how smart he really was.". He came to South Florida in the 1940s from Chicago and opened his Hollywood restaurant and bar in 1948. He died of lung cancer in 1983 at age 80, leaving behind a widow and three children. Upon their arrivals, all began to give generously to Hollywoods churches, synagogues, fraternal organizations, hospitals, and more. Steve Bertucelli, who became director of the Broward County Sheriff's Office's Organized Crime Division (OCD) in the 1980s, licked his wounds from the ill-conceived stolen food gambit against Gold Coast, which he had spearheaded as part of the Metro-Dade Police. "Oh, it was Joe Sonken's," he explained later. The asking price for the house has been reduced from $850,000 to $795,000. 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. Every customer was important, but Sonken didn't kowtow. In at least one year, his salary from various union posts exceeded that of the top man, Hoffa. Society columnist Walter Winchell even met with gangsters to learn underworld gossip. On paper, he was worth almost nothing. Mizners most productive years were behind him, but Robert L. Weed would design the Florida Tropical House for the 1933 Worlds Fair in Chicago. Following their lead, other locals who supported them and their businesses also became big contributors to the citys organizations, and generally, most city leaders and residents looked the other way and didnt make a fuss over what was going on. Surveillance was conducted on Gold Coast from the parking lot, from across the street, from the waterway, and by undercover agents with body cameras and recording devices hiding behind Sonken's big red menus. While in prison for murder, Provenzano was also convicted of labor racketeering charges. He was short of stature and balding, with a face that was at times pugnacious, and usually inscrutable. "Ever hear of the mafia?" When someone asked what he knew about Meyer Lansky, Sonken would say, "He orders spaghetti." Mingling with people interested in suspiciously low-priced liquor, he zeroed in on Patrick DeCrescito, 59, a bartender at Gold Coast. Meyer Lansky lived in Miami Beach, but his brother Jake lived in Hollywood at 1146 Harrison Street. Boy, do I miss those days. It sold last month for $1.2 million. 1915, March 26 Miami Beach is incorporated, population 150. As a Jewish teenager growing up in Miami, he often ate breakfast at the Wolfie's on Lincoln Road. (There was also one on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, Hallandale, Florida). Dont laughthis is a photo I took 5 years agoyou can find many other photos of this famous house. They even declared certain areas of South Florida murder-free. A former busboy recalls clinking two glasses together while clearing a table, when the old man, as staff called the restaurateur, shouted, "Where's the fucking cocksucker busboy?" Starting with the Plantation, according to various sources, by 1936 the former tomato packing barn, called the Plantation, was operated by Julian Potatoes Kaufman with bookmaking, roulette, crap tables, etc. Harding and Behymer had been fellow lecturers on the Chautauqua circuit out of Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century. All the powerful families have people down here. Amanda Jones specializes in social media marketing. Or perhaps it was one of the scores of mobsters who made his restaurant a second home. Now 81, she still lives in their Imperial House condo. Hollywood Historical Society, gift of Katharine LaBelle. "If you try anything, we'll kill them!". Kaufman was connected to New York mobster named Vincent Jimmy Blue-Eyes Alo, who was also a longtime friend of Meyer Lansky. A voracious reader, he also quickly exhibited the remarkable math and gambling skills that helped him become "the mob's accountant" as. If anyone has more info on the Deauville Yacht Club I would love to hear about it. The dapper but hot-tempered Scarfo, 60, has been in prison ever since, and it is likely he will spend the rest of his life there. His success was such that Lansky once made an uncharacteristic but famous boast to an associate: Were bigger than U.S. Steel.. For rent This 2148 square foot single family home has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Thanks, Diane Gehrum. The character Johnny Ola, portrayed by Dominic Chianese, in the film The Godfather Part II (1974) is based on Alo. Almost every night there was a new food critic, chef from another restaurant, politician, or entertainer such as Sammy Davis Jr. at the place. The committee produced nothing concrete against Sonken, but a few years later he found himself dragged into a holding cell at the Broward Sheriff's Office.
