'We made love six times in a night that wouldn't stop': The daughter of mobster Meyer Lansky opens up about her passionate affair with Dean Martin and how her father helped win World War II
- Sandra Lanksy grew up feared and revered as the only daughter of mob boss Meyer Lanksky
- In Daughter Of The King: Growing Up In Gangland she describes how daddy would take her to famous clubs with her many mobster 'uncles'
- Even international superstar Frank Sinatra quivered in her father's presence, she recalls
- Sandra lived a lavish life funded by the proceeds of his gambling empire
- She enjoyed a passionate affair with crooner Dean Martin while he was married to another woman
- 'I didn't dare let Daddy know of my affair,' she writes. 'Daddy had a policy of zero tolerance'
- During World War II, Lansky - a Jew - was instrumental in helping the Government recruit criminals to watch out for German infiltrators
- Lansky died of lung cancer on January 15, 1983, age 80, worth almost nothing on paper
- 'I adore my dad. I wish he was here right now,' said Sandra, 76
By David Mccormack
Published: | Updated:
As the only daughter of one of American's most notorious mobsters, Sandra Lansky lead a charmed life as a young girl who everyone – even Frank Sinatra – feared because of her close connections to the mob.
Now 76, Sandra has written a book – Daughter Of The King: Growing Up In Gangland – all about her experiences growing up with her father, Meyer Lansky, and many of the most feared Mafia bosses of the 20th century, how she feels an important part of their legacy has been forgotten and all about the passionate affair she shared with crooner Dean Martin.
Known as the ‘Mob's Accountant’, Lansky was a major organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the 'National Crime Syndicate' in the United States.
As the only daughter of one of American's most notorious mobsters, Meyer Linsky, Sandra, right, lead a charmed life as a young girl who everyone feared because of her close connections to the mob
For decades, the stoic, well-dressed Jew, was one of the most powerful individuals in America. His gambling empire stretched from Las Vegas to Havana, with his partners in crime, Lucky Luciano and Bugsy Siegel.
‘They spoiled me rotten,’ Sandra told the Tampa Bay Times about the mod bosses who her father worked with and whom she called uncle.
But while all of them ended up either murdered or in prison, the U.S. Justice Department never found her father guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling.
Sandra lived a charmed existence for much of her life of the back of her father’s reputation and his considerable wealth.
Sandra Lansky lived a charmed existence for much of her life of the back of her father's reputation as a mob boss and his considerable wealth
She fondly remembers the time he took her to the Majestic Theatre to see Carousel, the hottest ticket on Broadway, and he bought all the seats in front of them so their view was unimpeded.
The Daddy's girl got married at the tender age of 15. However, her playboy husband turned out to be a 'gay fortune hunter' so she quickly moved on to dating singers and movie stars.
In her book, she writes of how Frank Sinatra once came over to say hello to her father and spilled a champagne bucket of ice in her lap and looked as though he had made a fatal mistake.
While Frank Sinatra ran scared of her after spilling ice all over her in front of her father, Sandra established a much stronger bond with another crooner, Dean Martin.
She fondly recalls the night they made love six times.
‘I had never seen anything like Dean Martin’s masculinity. We made love six times in a night that wouldn’t stop. I counted.
Sandra Lansky fondly recalls her affair with crooner Dean Martin and how they made love six times one night
'He wasn’t a big man, just about five foot nine, but he was strong, a boxer from a steel town, and he made me feel that he was ravenously grateful for a woman’s softness after being locked in the blast furnaces all day.
‘His image as a heavy drinker was for the press. With me he wanted to be fully conscious and savor every moment. Between rounds of lust, we’d split a co*ke,’ she writes.
While Sandra was enjoying an affair with Dean, his wife gave birth to a daughter Gina, but the pair had an unspoken pact not to discuss their families.
‘I didn’t dare let Daddy know of my affair. Dean asked me to travel with him to Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco, to go with him on the road, to be his girl. But not his wife. That would have been the rub for Daddy. I never thought of him as vindictive, but he was over-protective.
‘He would have felt Dean was using me. That I was using Dean would not have occurred to old-fashioned Daddy. Where misbehavior was concerned, Daddy had a policy of zero tolerance.’
But the casual nature of her relationship with Dean suited Sandra just fine, she as enjoyed the company of countless other men.
After years refusing to talk about her upbringing, Sandra Lansky had a book about her family published earlier this year
‘I was living the glamorous life of the madcap Manhattan heiress/gay divorcee. I would still see Dean Martin from time to time, meeting him for a secret rendezvous in Chicago or Boston. Dick Shawn would call when he was in the city. There were plenty of other stars, Jeff Chandler, David Janssen, Hugh O’Brien — Wyatt Earp himself.’
Next she fell for a man called Gabby Harnett who she thought was the one, until he revealed himself as an undercover cop who wanted her to rat on her father.
When Harnett asked for her help she ran straight to her daddy, who she said forgave her for not realizing sooner. He then decided to 'use him.'
'The plan was to feed Gabby and the FBI disinformation to send them on wild goose chases. He gave me a list of names to drop, names and places,' she recalled.
She said they had a few more dinners, and numerous meetings that included FBI agents.
But then she became distracted with a guy from a major Mafia family, Vince Lombardo.
In 1964, Sandra married Vince Lombardo, a mobster, who promised her father he'd get out and stay out as long as he was with Sandra.
'Vince made the deal,' she said and the couple remained happily married until earlier this year when he died.
In 1964, Sandra married Vince Lombardo and the couple remained happily married until earlier this year when he died
Her father and uncles may have been some of the most powerful criminals in the world, but Sandra firmly believes they also did a lot of good, such as raising money for orphans and helping to battle Nazi infiltrators during WW II.
Lansky was apparently instrumental in helping the Office of Naval Intelligence's Operation Underworld, in which the government recruited criminals to watch out for German infiltrators and submarine-borne saboteurs.
During this time, Lansky helped arrange a deal with the U.S. Government via a high-ranking U.S. Navy official.
This deal would secure the release of Luciano from prison; and in exchange, the Italian Mafia would provide security for the war ships that were being built along the docks in New York Harbor.
German submarines were sinking Allied shipping in great numbers along the eastern seaboard and the Caribbean coast, and there was great fear of attack or sabotage by Nazi sympathizers.
'They did a lot of good,' Sandra told the Tampa Bay Times. 'At the end of the war, he was given a copy of the signing of the surrender, from the Navy department.'
'He was very proud of that,' she said.
In her book, Sandra describes how daddy would take her to Broadway shows where the ushers knew his name and to famous supper clubs with her many mobster 'uncles.'
It was in one of these supper clubs, The Riviera club in New Jersey, where she and 'Daddy' ran into Sinatra.
Power of the mob: 'Frank (Sinatra) right, was more fidgety in Daddy's presence than any bobby-soxer would have been in his,' Sandra recalls in the book of her father, left
She recalls one night, when she was 10 or 11, Sinatra came over to their table to say hello after his set. She said she felt very grown-up, out 'on the town' with Daddy but Sinatra was less excited.
'I had never seen anyone so nervous as Frank, particularly a star who had all the teenagers in New York screaming for him,' Sandra writes. 'But Frank was more fidgety in Daddy's presence than any bobby-soxer would have been in his.'
She said the crooner was so anxious that when he reached over to shake her hand, he knocked over an champagne bucket of ice, which was chilling her ginger ale, into her lap.
'He nearly died,' she remembers, adding 'Maybe he was worrying about dying for getting me all wet. Maybe Daddy had given him one of his looks.'
Either way, Frank quickly got on his knees and began frantically drying her off with a bunch of napkins.
He only relaxed when she began laughing and said that he was tickling her.
She said the twinkle returned to her father's eyes, and Frank began to breathe easier.
The singer then gave her a big hug, as if she had saved his life by forgiving him.
Booked: Gambling boss Meyer Lansky, right, smokes a cigarette as he is booked on charges of vagrancy at the West 54th Street police station in Manhattan in 1958
The first time she became aware of his murderous ways was early October of 1951, when her father took her to dinner with 'Uncle Willie' Moretti - the underboss of the Genovese family.
The pair chatted about Havana and her Daddy was 'quiet, thoughtful and a little sad' as they reminisced about old times.
Willie turned to Sandra and joked that Lansky took her mother on honeymoon with the gangster Dutch Schultz. 'Is that any way to treat a lady?' he said.
At that, the mob boss became uncomfortable and asked for the check.
The next day at school she noticed one of the school janitors was reading a newspaper with Uncle Willie on the cover.
She said she almost burst out with how she had dinner with him last night. Then she read the other half of the paper. 'Dead!' it said. 'Mob Boss Exterminated in N.J.'
Dead: Cliffside Park, New Jersey-Racketeer Willie Moretti lies in his own blood after being shot to death ina restaurant in 1951. Sandra recalls having dinner with 'Uncle Willie' the night before his murder
And he was pictured in a pool of blood lying on the tile floor of a bar. 'I ran to the bathroom and threw up,' she writes.
Lansky died of lung cancer on January 15, 1983, age 80, worth almost nothing on paper.
However, the FBI believe he had over $300 million in hidden bank accounts and his family still wonders where it went.
After years refusing to talk about her upbringing, the writers Nick Pileggi and Norah Ephron convinced her to tell her story and matched her up with a writer.
Daughter Of The King: Growing up In Gangland, was published earlier this year and she still mourns her father.
'I adore my dad,' she said. 'I wish he was here right now.'
