Editing Meyer Lansky (section)

==Early life==
Maier Suchowljansky was born on July 4, 1902, in [[Grodno]],<ref name="meyerlanskyunderworldgenius">{{cite news|last1=Gage|first1=Nicholas|title=Meyer Lansky, underworld genius|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/46155119/?terms=%22louis%2BRothkopf%22|access-date=2016-03-07|work=The Ottawa Journal|date=November 15, 1971|location=Ottawa, Canada|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration }}</ref> [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Belarus]]), to a [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish-Jewish]] family.<ref>''Meyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits of New York's Master Manipulator'' pp. 14–16, Art Montague – 2005</ref> When asked his native country, Lansky always responded "[[Poland]]".<ref>[[Wojciech Orliński]] "Polak Potrafi. Ten został szefem wszystkich szefów" http://wyborcza.pl/piatekekstra/1,135750,15364121,Orlinski__Polak_potrafi.html.</ref> In 1911, Lansky emigrated to the [[United States]] through the port of [[Odessa]]<ref>''Meyer Lansky: The Shadowy Exploits of New York's Master Manipulator'' p. 17, Art Montague – 2005</ref> with his mother and brother Jacob, and joined his father (who had immigrated in 1909) living on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]], [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref>Ancestry.com. New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Year: 1911; Microfilm Serial: T715; Microfilm Roll: T715_1652; Line: 11; Page Number: 56.</ref>

Lansky met [[Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel]] when they were children. They became lifelong friends, as well as partners in the [[Rum-running|bootlegging]] trade, and together managed the [[Bugs and Meyer Mob]], with its reputation as one of the most violent [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] gangs. Lansky was also close friends with [[Lucky Luciano|Charles "Lucky" Luciano]]; the two met as teenagers when Luciano attempted to extort Lansky for protection money on his walk home from school. Luciano respected the younger boy's defiant responses to his threats, and the two formed a lasting partnership.<ref name=lacey /> They later associated with veteran gangster [[Arnold Rothstein]] until his murder in 1928.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=A_46aa7xG0YC&pg=PA419&lpg=PA419 David Pietrusza, ''Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series'', Basic Books, New York, 2011, p. 193.]</ref>