Rubin (Ruby) Lazarus - National Gambling Boss

One of the most active and notorious racketeers in his day was Ruby Lazarus.

He was an “on record” associate of the Genovese Family through his longtime partnership with Harlem-based caporegime Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and his contemporary, the Florida-based capo Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo .

Lazarus was most often identified by both local and federal authorities as a large-scale bookmaker who accepted bets on both horse races and sporting events.

He was a major underworld player which was clearly evidenced by the fact that, over the years, he was tied into numerous probes that spanned the entire country, including the mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of another top New York City bookie.

Continue reading to learn more about the life of notorious racketeer Rubin (Ruby) Lazarus.

Ruby Lazarus - A Notorious Racketeer

During his time in the American underworld, Ruby Lazarus was to become one of the better-known gambling racketeers throughout the United States.

Born in 1911, Rubin Lazarus - aka “Ruby,” “Ruby Strauss,” and “Fat Ruby” - originally hailed from New York City.

At the height of his power during the 1950s through 1970s era, Lazarus and his wife Beverly maintained dual residences in New York and Florida.

They resided for years in New York City in a private home they owned at 47-21 41st Street in the Sunnyside section of Queens County.

Rubin (Ruby) Lazarus

Down in Miami, Florida, they maintained a second residence in the form of a luxury apartment located at 1751 Washington Avenue, Unit #2G, overlooking the famed Miami Beach strip.

When in Miami, Ruby Lazaras was generally known to frequent the Sea Gull Hotel in Miami Beach where he reportedly did a lot of his illicit bookmaking business.

Tied into the Genovese

Although he maintained lifelong friendships and criminal associations with many fellow Jewish hoodlums, Ruby Lazarus was technically tied into key members of the old Vito Genovese Family of New York.

He was an “on record” associate of the family through his longtime partnership with Harlem-based caporegime Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and his contemporary, the Florida-based capo Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo.

Other top mafiosi Lazarus affiliated with over the years included such iconic underworld figures as the Genovese crew’s notorious capo of East Harlem, Michael (Trigger Mike) Coppola , one of Coppola’s key soldiers Pasquale (Patsy) Erra , Gambino family capo Anthony (Tony Baker) Napolitano, and Profaci family capo Nicholas (Jiggs) Forlano.

Some fellow Jewish mobsters and other top hoodlums he numbered among his cronies included gamblers Israel (Ice Pick Willie) Alderman, Jerome (Jerry) Zarowitz, Charles (Ruby) Stein , Seymour Katz, Gilbert Lee (Gil the Brain) Beckley, Hugh Carroll, Hyman (Hy) Goldbaum, Edward Torres, John (The Greek) Prokos and his brother Chris Prokos, and Danny Peters.

A Major Underworld Player

Ruby Lazarus was most often identified by both local and federal authorities as a large-scale bookmaker who accepted bets on both horse races and sporting events.

He was a major underworld player which was clearly evidenced by the fact that, over the years, he was tied into numerous probes that spanned the entire country.

From the east coast to the west coast, Ruby Lazarus was considered a major gambler whose contemporaries viewed with respect and reverence for his criminal abilities and money-making potential.

Lazarus operated for decades as both a major bookmaker who handled wagers from customers nationwide and as a “layoff service” and gambler's “clearing house” that was offered to other bookies around the country who, on occasion, had accepted more betting “action” than they alone could handle.

Vincent Alo

He was a known “associate” of the Genovese crime family who most likely operated under the auspices and oversight of capos Vincent Alo and/or Anthony Salerno. Over the years, Lazarus had been closely tied to both these men.

As far back as at least the early 1950s, local and federal authorities connected Ruby Lazarus to many high-profile gambling and corruption investigations in Florida, New York, Connecticut, Indiana, California, and elsewhere.

He was a known “KG” or known gambler who was convicted of being a Miami Beach racetrack bookie.

Clamming Up

He figured into a major criminal case back in 1959 when he was first subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury probing illegal bookmaking from a restaurant based in Terre Haute, Indiana.

He and a second notorious racketeer named “Ice Pick Willie” Alderman were both later jailed after refusing to be sworn in to answer questions regarding the operation of an illegal bookmaking ring that had accepted bets from local gambling customers.

Lazarus in the hallway waiting to testify before the grand jury.

Citing his constitution privilege before the grand jury, Lazarus would only give his name and Washington Avenue address when asked about phone calls he had allegedly made to Indiana syndicate members.

The government contended these members handled more than $8,000,000 in bets generated from a Terre Haute restaurant. Lazarus was eventually excused as a witness by the court.

In October of 1963, Lazarus was again targeted by authorities after he was tied into a large-scale interstate gambling operation that police say had handled millions of dollars in illegal wagers on that season’s Baseball Worlds Series.

A Mysterious Murder

During this same time period, Lazarus was also peripherally tied into a police investigation into the mysterious disappearance and presumed murder of another top New York City bookie by the name of Reuben (Ruby) Markowitz.

The wealthy Markowitz who had allegedly operated a major gambling business with over 1000 wagering clients that he serviced using a sophisticated “remote-call back” telephone answering system where bettors would leave messages with their telephone numbers that Ruby Markowitz would then call back to book their bets.

As it turned out, one of his betting clients was suspected of having killed him after the gambler suffered major financial losses while wagering with Markowitz’s bookmaking office and didn’t have the funds to pay off his debt.

Jerry Zarowitz chatting with singer Frank Sinatra and actress Marilyn Monroe at Caesars Palace in Vegas.

In March 1967, a Federal Judge sitting in a Los Angeles courtroom ordered Lazarus to either testify before a grand jury then probing illegal gambling on the baseball's World Series or be jailed for criminal contempt of court.

Lazarus served over 8 months behind bars rather than answer a series of sensitive questions regarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in bets placed by various high-rollers as to who his Mafia backers and partners were in this particular gambling operation.

Don't Talk

During his incarceration, information was received by the FBI through informants that Genovese Family soldier Louie Rotondo had been ordered by his mob superiors to faithfully deliver $150 per month to Beverly Lazarus on behalf of “Fat Tony” Salerno and the “boys” while her husband was confined to jail under the stipulation that she not speak to any law enforcement agencies.

Better known as FBI #2639857, Louie Rotondo was a known “lieutenant” and frontman for Salerno. Rotondo was said to be active in mob operations in both New York City and Miami, Florida.

Anthony Salerno

According to authorities, Lazarus and “Fat Tony” Salerno had flown together from Miami Beach to Palm Springs, California where they huddled in a closed conference over a number of days with capo “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo and other top Jewish gambling figures such as bookmakers Jerry Zarowitz and Elliott Paul Price.

Side note: Zarowitz had once served nearly 20 months in jail in 1947-48 on a conspiracy conviction growing out of an attempted “fix” of a NFL Championship game between the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears in 1946.

In 1958, Zarowitz invoked the Fifth Amendment before a Federal Grand Jury investigating a multimillion-dollar gambling syndicate in Indianapolis. However, when threatened with a contempt citation, he changed his mind and cooperated with the grand jury.

According to the Nevada Gaming Commission, by the 1950s, he was operating as a big-time sports bookmaker down in Miami. He was also directly connected and employed by the famed Caesars Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas as the casino’s credit manager.

These Palm Spring mob confabs were said to have been held over three days and allegedly concerned the loss and subsequent debt by Lazarus of over $200,000 in the mob’s gambling bankroll due to improprieties on the part of Lazarus.

The meetings were held to flesh out what was to be done about it and to hold Ruby responsible for those losses and subsequent repayment.

Logging His Movements

In 1966, during the long undercover investigation related to this case, FBI agents maintained near-constant surveillance of Lazarus and his associates and their criminal activities.

Through this surveillance and several well-placed bugs and federal informants, authorities were able to keep a log of his movements.

In July 1970, he was one of ten top racketeers and mafiosi again indicted by a Federal Grand Jury sitting in New York after a joint one-year-long investigation into the New York City Mafia by the FBI and detectives from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The Federal Strike Force charged the suspects with a variety of federal and state offenses for organized crime-type activities ranging from illegal betting to loansharking.

Indicted along with Lazarus were some top names in the underworld including Nicholas Forlano and Anthony Napolitano who were both listed as “capo regimes” in the Colombo and Gambino families, respectively.

The “Jiggs” up for Lazarus and Forlano!

Forlano was specifically charged along with five other men for gambling conspiracy and telephone transmissions of illegal bets in interstate commerce from New York State and Connecticut.

Others Named

Named in the indictment along with him were his longtime partner Charles (Ruby) Stein, Charles Karp, Ruby Lazarus, and two men from West Haven, Connecticut, James DeNegris Jr. and James Conforte Sr.

Stein and Karp were also indicted on state charges of criminal usury or loansharking. They were accused of having made two loans of $3,000 and $10,000 to borrowers who had paid as much as 104% interest yearly.

According to the indictment, they themselves borrowed the money at 1% weekly and then in turn put it out “on the street” at 2% and 3% weekly to their loan clients.

Karp was additionally charged with commercial bribery, attempted grand larceny, and forgery.

These criminal charges were related to a stock market account he had opened with the Moore & Schley Brokerage House that had shrunk from $99,151 in May 1969, to $49,137 by the following August.

Karp then allegedly offered a margin clerk a $5,000 bribe to alter records and fraudulently transfer Karp’s debt of about $50,000 to another account.

Two other men named in a state indictment were hoodlums Seymour Katz and Natale (Nat Brown) LoCicero.

Katz was charged with criminal contempt for giving, “equivocal, evasive, and patently false answers before the grand jury.” He had been questioned about an alleged $60,000 loan that he and Karp obtained from shylock Ruby Stein.

The Case Drags On

Gambino capo Anthony Napolitano was also accused of criminal contempt when he refused to answer the grand jury’s questions about his dealings with Jiggs Forlano.

LoCicero was charged with loansharking after he was accused of lending out $5,000 and then charging a whopping 150% annual interest rate.

Another of those charged in the case was Joseph Giamio who was hit with perjury charges for his false testimony before the grand jury regarding illegal betting on sporting events.

The case was dragged out until March 1973 when Lazarus, Forlano, and Forlano’s longtime partner Ruby Stein all pleaded guilty to federal gambling charges for conducting a large-scale gambling operation that accepted wagers by telephone between New York and Connecticut during 1969.

They were just about to go to trial the following week when the trio decided to take the plea before Federal Judge Constance B. Motley in U.S. District Court.

All three defendants faced two years in prison and $10,000 fines.

Ruby Lazarus

Another Bookmaking Conviction

Back on September 13, 1970, Lazarus found himself standing in a courtroom up in White Plains, New York waiting to be sentenced on his conviction for bookmaking.

Standing next to him were his two codefendants who had been arrested at the same time as Ruby several years earlier on October 21, 1968.

The case had stemmed from their arrests during a 1968 raid that police conducted on a Yonkers residence located at 1202 Saw Mill River Road.

At the time of the police raid, authorities found Lazarus, Hugh Carroll, and Rosemarie Fucella actively accepting bets over several telephones inside a home where their gambling ring operated from.

Police also confiscated as evidence several telephones, a bag stuffed full of betting slips, writing pads, notations, pencils, an electric calculator, sports odds and betting-line sheets, and several additional betting slips opening laying on a work table.

Millions of Dollars in Wagers

Police estimated that the gambling ring headed by Lazarus was doing approximately $600,000 in wagering volume each weekend for a total of over $31,000,000 in betting action per year.

The men were later found guilty after a jury trial of promoting gambling and possession of gambling records (both felonies).

Over the objections of prosecutors who had strongly recommended the jurist sentence both men to serve a minimum of three years to a maximum of four years in jail, County Court Judge George Burchell sentenced Lazarus and Carroll to each serve one-year jail terms at the county lockup.

Fucella was found guilty of one misdemeanor count of possession of gambling records for which she received probation and a $750 fine.

After spending a lifetime in the gritty American underworld, Ruby Lazarus is believed to have passed away in 1991. He was believed to have been about 80 years old.

Until next time…”The Other Guy”

Rubin (Ruby) Lazarus – National Gambling Boss

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