On the subject of The Subliminal Legacy of the ‘Al Capone of St. Paul’ Leon Gleckman. I got hold of the John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936 by Paul MacCabee. By the way of clarification:
Leon Gelckman
“(page 35) This unorthodox “politician” was born in 1894 in Minsk, Russia (today in Belarus), the third of eight children raised by Gershon and Nechama Gleckman, Gershon was described in his son’s prison records as “a strict disciplinarian, a total abstainer and law-abiding man.” Nechama (Nettie), originally from Austria [I knew there was a Hungarian there] and the daughter of a rabbi, was described in government files as “a religious, tolerant woman.” The Gleckmans came to United States from Minsk through London, Nova Scotia, and finally Port Huron, Michigan, during the winter of 1903. As a teenager, Gleekman married clerical worker Rose Goldstein, with whom he had three daughters. Salesman by inclination, a bootlegger by vocation, and a sports buff by avocation, Gleckman was described in prison records as “self-confident, glib, respectful.”
Psychological tests at Leavenworth prison highlighted Gleckman’s intelligence. The prison analysis said Gleckman’s problem-solving abilities and insight exceeded those of 92 percent of the inmates, “showing that this man is of a high degree of planfulness and efficiency.” The prison file concluded by observing that Gleckman was “a rather aggressive, pleasant appearing cooperative hebrew…. His aggressiveness is characteristic of his general impressions derived from members of his race, but there is nothing offensive about them.”
Gleckman was first arrested in 1922, when Prohibition agents raided his Minnesota Blueing Company on University Avenue in Minneapolis. The government estimated that Gleckman’s two-story factory, equipped with thirteen stills, was generating annual profits of a million dollars. Right away, Gleckman showed the inclination for bribery that was to elevate him to boss of the St. Paul underworld.”
And here is the final chapter:
(page 284) “Leon Gleckman, the liquor czar who dreamed of becoming mayor of St. Paul, died in a bizarre car accident in July 1941. En route to his home, contemplating yet another prison term, he drove his Chevrolet into an abutment at Kellogg Boulevard and Wacouta Street, adjacent to St. Paul’s Depot Bar. He died of a fractured skull; his blood alcohol level was .23 – the equivalent of drinking thirteen ounces of 90-proof liquor. The death certificate called Gleckman’s death “probably accidental.” “You can’t prove it, but in my heart, as a policeman, I think [he] wanted to do himself in,” sad Joe Sherin, then a St. Paul patrolman. “We all think Leon killed himself..,. He was due to go to federal prison. He was the king of the bootleggers and he didn’t fancy sitting in the Can.”
Leon Gleckman would not approve of his grandson being viscous towards people facing long federal prison terms.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
1.The irony is that “prohibition” was a stupid artificial joke because it is impossible to “ban” humans from wanting and consuming alcohol. Millions become alcoholics like millions become drug addicts because it’s impossible to stop people’s cravings. Like trying to “control” hunger pains by banning hamburgers. So the stupid laws actually made this guy rich. Eventually this law was repealed, and then gangsters went on supplying other “drugs” to customers who want them and pay top dollar to get them. Many Chasidim and Israelis make nice “parnosa” from it and see no conflict with it, even if a few careless ones get caught and go to jail for it. A liquor store is a “licensed” seller of addictive and destructive alcohol that ruins and kills more people than “illegal” drug addiction. So the point is ultimately moot.
2. How can it be proven that the guy “killed himself” maybe he was just another drunken driver?
3. And, it could be that people who have some conscious or even unconscious guilt of conflict over an episode in their past, even in family’s past, the dark fears and conflicts of the hidden Freudian Id, try to act out by projecting an over-compensated super-ego.
4. Finally, all’s fair in love and war, and everyone who reads the FM blog that he is running a vendetta against Chabad and he backs it up. Other people also do that, just FM got real results he can quantify. There was trouble brewing in Postville and being reported in papers and books long before FM started yapping about the Rubashkins. A little bit it’s like killing the messenger because one hates the message.
Your spin bores me. This is just an interesting history, nothing more. The fact you feel compelled to write a long “defense” is telling.
Rosenberg has a pinned post on his blog begging for Passover donations to “feed the needy.” That’s fine, but he neglects to inform his potential donors that the 501(c) charity the money would go to is his.
He thinks he wasted his life with Chabad and so he spends all day long on a blog in which he posts sins of the Orthodox, real and imagined. I could get upset with him but not if I think forward in time. What’s his future? Well his future is spending all day long on a blog in which he posts sins of the Orthodox, real and imagined. Sounds like the head eating the tail and I should be upset?
{ 2 trackbacks }