Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was a Jewish-American organized crime figure and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc., during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor union racketeers in New York City during that era.
Buchalter in 1939
Buchalter during his 1941 sentencing in New York for murder
Cover of the first issue of Crime Does Not Pay (Lev Gleason Publications, July 1942) , featuring the story of "Killer Lepke - alias Louis Buchalter"
Jewish-American organized crime
Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian cosa nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.
Some Kosher Mafia members numbered in police reports
The Siegel family's memorial plaque in the Bialystoker Synagogue.
Meyer Lansky in 1958