Who Plays Lansky? : Mob and the Movies: Life or Art?

Meyer Lansky--the underworld financial genius who parlayed six decades of loan sharking, gambling, prostitution and murder into a $300-million fortune--had acquired the status of a living legend when he was deported from his retirement refuge in Israel in 1972 and returned, a haggard and tired man, to face arrest in Miami.

“That’s life,” the 68-year-old gangster told reporters at the time. “At my age, it’s too late to worry. What will be will be.”

As it turned out, Lansky wound up spending his retirement years not in jail but in a Miami Beach waterfront condo, his ill-gotten millions tucked safely away in Swiss bank accounts. He died 13 years later as the undisputed patriarch of organized crime, a man who had outlived by decades such contemporaries as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel and presided over the mob’s modern-day entree into the banks and boardrooms of America.

Given the scope of Lansky’s criminal career, it’s hardly surprising that his life would become grist for a Hollywood movie. More intriguing, perhaps, is that four years after Lansky’s death, two of the nation’s most powerful Mafia families apparently became embroiled in a squabble over just who would bring Lansky’s life story to the screen.

According to recently unsealed federal affidavits, there is evidence that New York’s Genovese crime family exerted its muscle to ensure that a favorite actor, James Caan, would portray the venerable Lansky in any film made of his life. Caan, of course, is best known for his role in another gangster film--Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 classic, “The Godfather.”

In response to the apparent Genovese extortion attempt, the FBI alleges, a prominent Hollywood studio executive who was backing another Lansky film project turned to the rival Gambino crime family for help. According to the FBI, the executive, Eugene F. Giaquinto, boasted that “with one phone call,” he could have New York Gambino soldiers “all on planes” to Los Angeles.

Secretly Recorded Calls

Although the episode as related in court documents at times has a certain confused quality to it, a series of coast-to-coast telephone conversations secretly recorded by the FBI suggest that Giaquinto regarded the dispute so seriously that he acquired a gun to protect himself.

“Giaquinto said he wasn’t calling out the troops, but he didn’t want to be alone. He said he had the lady and the kids, and the move was also on him,” according to one FBI affidavit that is part of a wide-ranging probe of organized crime infiltration of the entertainment industry.

Why so much high-powered interest in a single film project? In part it may reflect what law enforcement officials say is La Cosa Nostra’s continued fascination with its own depiction in print and on the screen.

Los Angeles police still chuckle about the surveillance photo they took of the late Frank (Frankie Flowers) D’Alfonso, a soldier in the Angelo Bruno crime family, as he lounged by a Southern California swimming pool reading “The Last Mafioso,” a book about mob informant Aladena (Jimmy the Weasel) Fratianno.

After “The Godfather” was released, recalled Capt. Stuart Finck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department’s organized crime intelligence division, a New York undercover policeman documented instances in which real-life Mafiosi were affecting the traits of Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Caan.

Indeed, during filming of that movie, the production company was having trouble obtaining locations around New York City until producer Al Ruddy sat down with the late Joseph Colombo, then head of the Colombo crime family, and agreed not to use the words “Mafia” or “La Cosa Nostra” in the script.

Resistance ‘Disappeared’

“Suddenly any real resistance to the film disappeared,” Ruddy recalled.

Said Finck: “It’s a question sometimes of does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?”

The tale of the Great Lansky Film War begins, say sources close to the current investigation, at a time when “The Untouchables”--a cinematic remake of Treasury Agent Elliot Ness’ campaign against Chicago mobster Al Capone--had already grossed nearly $75 million at the box office, on its way to becoming one of the biggest hits of 1987. Suddenly, Meyer Lansky and his friends were becoming a hot property all over Hollywood.

But it was sometime writer, producer and labor negotiator Martin Bacow who had a script already in hand. A close associate of the late Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser, Bacow had come to be known as the Teamsters’ “man in Hollywood.”

He claimed to have known Lansky personally. In mid-1987, he began boasting about his project to trade publications and studio officials all over town, saying he had Lansky’s blessing on the script and promising that it would contain startling revelations about the mobster’s alleged fixing of the 1960 presidential election.

Film executive Giaquinto, then president of MCA Inc.’s Home Video Division, was enthusiastic. He drafted a tentative agreement with Bacow under which MCA would pay Bacow $4.5 million for the video and pay-TV rights to the film after it was made.

According to Bacow and the FBI affidavits, the trouble started when actor Caan was seen dining at La Dolce Vita, a Beverly Hills restaurant, with several members of the Los Angeles Mafia family. The group included Michael Rizzitello, who law enforcement officials believe was vying for leadership of the Mafia in Southern California.

Caan, it seems, had a Lansky project of his own on the drawing board. And over dinner with the Los Angeles mobsters, the actor was overheard to say that Bacow’s movie would “never be distributed,” according to Bacow.

Key Figure in Investigation

Caan has become a key figure in the FBI investigation, according to knowledgeable sources, though there is apparently no evidence that the actor knew that the mob tried to intercede on his behalf. His attorney, Donald E. Santarelli, said the actor is “stunned and amazed that there’s an allegation” of threats surrounding the film project.

Caan never made any threats about the distribution of Bacow’s film, said Santarelli, a former deputy U.S. attorney general who is in private practice in Washington. The actor was unaware of any attempt--either by alleged organized crime figures or anyone else--to interfere with Bacow’s project, he said.

Santarelli acknowledged that Caan did have dinner with some members of the Los Angeles crime family; the actor, he said, has had a “fascination” with organized crime figures since his Oscar-nominated performance as Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather.”

“Hanging around with mobsters is how he developed that character,” he said, adding that Bacow may have simply overreacted to Caan’s cultivated tough-guy image: “Jimmy oftentimes puts on lions’ clothing and acts like a lion.”

The FBI believes the key figure behind the alleged extortion attempt was Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo, a reputed lieutenant in the Genovese crime family living in retirement in Florida.

The 85-year-old Alo was Lansky’s closest friend and primary liaison to the Italian Mafia. Considered in his heyday to be even more powerful than his boss, Vito Genovese, he was once described by a Justice Department official as “one of the most significant organized crime figures in the United States.”

In addition to Alo, the FBI says the cast of players included former Sonny and Cher manager Joe DeCarlo, who Bacow claimed was acting as a messenger for Alo; Donald (Donjo) Medlevine, well known in entertainment industry circles for managing such clubs as the Chez Paree in Chicago and the Circle Star Theater near San Francisco, and Michael Villano, a New York businessman who the FBI believes is Giaquinto’s link to the Gambino crime family and its reputed boss, John Gotti.

Aftermath Unclear

What happened after Caan’s dinner with the Los Angeles Mafiosi is unclear since FBI agents have only the frantic telephone conversations of Bacow and Giaquinto to rely on.

According to FBI affidavits and police reports, DeCarlo paid a visit to Medlevine, whom Bacow has described as a “partner” and an “adviser” on the Lansky film.

DeCarlo has a colorful history of his own. In 1962, he was acquitted along with mobster Mickey Cohen of plotting to murder notorious gambling loan shark Jack Whalen. Nicknamed “The Enforcer,” Whalen was gunned down in a Sherman Oaks restaurant while dining with Cohen, DeCarlo and two other men.

DeCarlo delivered a message to Medlevine that “the guy in Florida wanted to talk to (Bacow)” about the film, Bacow later told film executive Giaquinto. FBI agents believe that “the guy in Florida” was Alo. DeCarlo also indicated that he knew about Caan’s dinner with the Mafiosi, Bacow said.

Bacow angrily told Giaquinto that he “wasn’t giving them a piece” of his picture, according to the affidavits. “They’d have to be crazy to stop a picture,” he said at one point, vowing to fight back.

Giaquinto said he had been asked whether Bacow “had permission” to make a movie about Lansky and said he would telephone “Michael”--probably referring to Villano, the FBI says--for help.

On the morning of July 17, 1987, Villano phoned Giaquinto from his office near Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and said he was sending someone to Los Angeles to “get all the facts.” After that, he said, they would know “what move to make.”

Giaquinto complained that Genovese family members were “all over the place.”

“Shame on them, then,” Villano replied.

After the conversation, Giaquinto telephoned Bacow and reassured him.

“Giaquinto said if they want war that he had a meeting in New York, and he had anything he wanted, and it came from No. 1,” the affidavits relate.

Bacow asked if it was “the G guy,” meaning Gotti.

“Yes,” Giaquinto replied.

‘Resolved in One Minute’

Villano, he said, “told me to tell you that it will be resolved in one minute, no matter where the move (is) coming from.”

Later, Giaquinto was overheard talking to a man named “Tommy” who is otherwise unidentified in the affidavits. According to Giaquinto, the response from the Gambino family was more than just talk.

“Giaquinto said to Tommy he had John Gotti send someone out and they were knocking heads against the wall,” the affidavits report. “Giaquinto said he was working on a big movie that he called ‘the next Godfather’ and someone tried to make a move. He said they sent 30 people out here and squashed it.”

There is no indication in the affidavits or police reports of whether the Gambinos really did send 30 soldiers out to counter the move or whether Giaquinto was merely boasting. Law enforcement officials refused to elaborate on the affidavits.

Indeed, some of the conversations between Bacow and Giaquinto are open to widely divergent interpretations.

For example, the FBI states in an affidavit that one cryptic discussion about “writing a contract” may indicate that the mob “would carry out a contract murder if Giaquinto gave them the order; or that this overheard conversation had to do with Giaquinto using his influence at MCA to obtain a film-distribution contract on the Lansky project.”

Bacow believes he was, in fact, the target of an attempted extortion by organized crime figures.

“What they tried to do was become my partner. They wanted to put Jimmy Caan in the movie,” he said in an interview.

“Their thing was to stop it and try and get a piece of the action because they’re estimating the picture to do $100 million. When you’re talking about $100 million, that’s a lot of money, even if you say it real fast.”

But Bacow was vague when asked about what was done to counter the perceived threats. “As soon as people found out about it, I guess, nature took its course,” he said. “With certain people, you just don’t try to make moves and create problems.”

Target of Investigation

Indeed, investigators are trying to determine whether Bacow made any threats of his own to protect his project. For the last year, he has been a key target of a Hollywood labor-racketeering investigation centered on allegations that he threatened studio executives with labor troubles in exchange for payoffs or other cooperation. Bacow has vehemently denied the allegations.

According to Santarelli, Caan wanted to make his own movie about Lansky and had acquired certain proprietary rights from Lansky’s widow, Thelma, who lives in Miami.

The attorney acknowledged that Caan does know Alo, who maintains a home in Hollywood, Fla., not far from where Caan owned a condominium until five years ago. More recently, Caan stayed at the nearby Turnberry Isle country club-hotel, where he and Alo would occasionally dine together.

Caan discussed his desire to make a Lansky movie with Alo on several occasions, but Alo never had more than a passing interest in the project, Santarelli said.

DeCarlo and Medlevine both deny that their meeting, in which the FBI alleges that DeCarlo acted as a “messenger” for Alo, was anything of the kind.

“I met with DeCarlo, he talked to me about (the Lansky movie),” Medlevine recalled in an interview. “He said some other people would be interested in it, and mentioned Caan’s name. (But) he wasn’t strong on it. . . . He was always nice talking to me.”

DeCarlo described the FBI affidavits as “dialogue out of a B movie.”

‘I Don’t Care’

“I have no interest in this movie,” he said in a recent interview. “I don’t care about it. I don’t care who does it. It has nothing to do with me whatsoever. If they both make it or they don’t make it or they both kill each other making it, I don’t care.”

One person who apparently took the purported move by the Genovese family seriously was Los Angeles Police Detective John St. John (not to be confused with the homicide detective of the same name who inspired the television series “Jigsaw John”).

According to confidential police documents obtained by The Times, St. John and his partner in the organized crime intelligence unit, Detective Louis W. Graham, drove to the Benedict Canyon home of the actress Cher one evening in the summer of 1987, looking for DeCarlo, who was living there at the time.

According to statements that St. John and Graham later gave to police internal affairs investigators, they encountered DeCarlo in the driveway and talked to him for nearly an hour about his meeting with Medlevine and about Alo, whom DeCarlo said he had met only once.

The two detectives came under investigation in September, 1987, after the FBI informed the LAPD that they suspected that St. John had provided Bacow and Giaquinto with confidential information about the federal investigation.

St. John took early retirement last year. Graham was suspended without pay for one month and reassigned. Giaquinto was placed on a forced leave of absence from his position at MCA in December, pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Though he remains on the company’s payroll, he has been replaced as president of MCA’s home video division.

For his part, Bacow laments that the Mafia brouhaha has cast a cloud over his plans to sell his Lansky script. “My name has been besmirched. All the studios are scared to even talk to me now,” he complained.

And although Caan has been tied up on other film work, Santarelli said the actor still wants to make the Lansky movie--”but not now, for obvious reasons.”

MEYER LANSKY’S CAST OF CHARACTERS Meyer Lansky: Organized crime’s financial genius and, ultimately, the mob’s undisputed patriarch, who became a multimillionaire during six decades of loan sharking, gambling, prostitution and murder.

John Gotti: Reputed boss of New York’s Gambino crime family and considered the country’s most powerful mobster.

James Caan: Best known for his acting role in the 1972 movie “The Godfather,” Caan apparently was favored by New York’s Genovese crime family to portray Lansky in a film about the mobster’s life.

Martin Bacow: Called the Teamsters’ “man in Hollywood,” the self-employed labor negotiator claimed that Lansky himself had given him his blessing to produce a film on his life.

Eugene F. Giaquinto: A prominent Hollywood studio executive and Bacow associate who, according to FBI affidavits, warned that if the Genovese family tried to muscle in on Bacow’s Lansky film, he could have Gambino soldiers “all on planes” to Los Angeles.

Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo: Reputed lieutenant in the Genovese crime family and one-time Lansky liaison to the Mafia, Alo is believed by the FBI to be behind an alleged extortion attempt to control production of the Lansky film.

Michael Villano: New York businessman who the FBI believes is Giaquinto’s link to the Gambino crime family, and who declared “shame on them” when informed by Giaquinto that the Genovese family was laying claim to the Lansky film.

Joe DeCarlo: Former Sonny and Cher manager who Bacow alleged was acting as Alo’s messenger in an effort to intimidate Bacow from making the Lansky film, a charge DeCarlo adamantly denies.

Donald (Donjo) Medlevine: Nightclub and theater owner and Bacow friend who, according to affidavits, got a message from DeCarlo that Alo was concerned about production of a Lansky film based on Bacow’s script.

John St. John: Former Los Angeles organized crime intelligence detective who came under investigation by the FBI for allegedly giving Bacow and Giaquinto confidential information about the federal probe into the mob’s role in the Lansky film squabble.