Morris Moe Dalitz was America s most secretive and most successful mobster. As a major architect of the United States national crime syndicate Dalitz was active in various fields of organized crime from 1918 until his death all while spinning a web of myth and mock-respectability around himself so dense that decades after his demise most mistake the legend for reality. From Prohibition-era bootlegging to the Reagan years no other individual was present at so many pivotal events in gangland history. It s impossible to fully understand the modern Mob without knowing about Dalitz his career and the cunning publicity campaign that transformed his image from thug to that of a revered philanthropist. This exhaustive biography tells the story of Dalitz s life and the syndicate that he and like-minded individuals built from scratch.