Fred Lavner

Izzy Fred Lavner

What a time! Philadelphia from the Roaring 20s to the boom years of the 1950s and 60s, when cash was king and there were always sharpies and racketeers looking to take it from you. In most urban cities at the time, this would've been The Mob, a loose alliance of gangsters and gamblers with almost anything and everything for sale. Izzy Lavner was known as one of the most prodigious bookies in Philadelphia, having made and lost many fortunes over a 65-year life in crime, while becoming the most arrested career racketeer in history. And his story is one for the books!