Polish-American organized crime and Hymie Weiss (Wojciechowski) both having a Polish heritage. Fred Goetz was involved in carrying out the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In New Jersey, the organization led by Mickey Cusick, was the prominent boss of bootlegging in Southern Jersey. The infamous gangster Meyer Lansky, one of the leaders of the National Crime Syndicate and associate of Lucky Luciano, was actually a Polish Jew. Joseph Filkowski led a mostly Polish bootlegging ring in Cleveland, Ohio, along with gangster Joseph Stazek. In Pittsburgh, Paul Jarwarski was also a prominent figure, carrying out the first armored car robbery. In Buffalo, New York John
Ida Lansky influence on Lansky was photographer, Carlotta Corpron, who worked in the Bauhaus style and who taught at Texas Woman's University. Lansky was one of her students and was introduced to the avante-garde, Bauhaus ideal by Corpron. Lansky's earlier photographs were considered "regular," though they show an "interest in reflection, distortion and abstraction." Lansky was invited by Henry Holmes Smith to participate in a group exhibition, "Photographer's Choice", at Indiana University. "Photographer's Choice" included works by Ansel Adams, Nathan Lyons and other well-known photographers. Lansky was considered one of only a few artists in the mid-twentieth century who saw photography as