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Abner Zwillman

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Abner Zwillman

Abner "Longie" Zwillman (July 27, 1904 – February 26, 1959) was a Jewish-American mobster who was based primarily in North Jersey. He was a longtime friend and associate of mobsters Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Zwillman's criminal organization was a part of the National Crime Syndicate and mainly operated from the 1920s to the 1950s, with its peak in the late 1930s.

Zwillman was the founder of the New Jersey Minutemen, a militant anti-fascist group which operated in Newark, New Jersey from 1933 to 1941. They were antagonists of the pro-Nazi German American Bund and the Christian Front.

Abraham "Abner" Zwillman was born on July 27, 1904, in Newark, New Jersey, the second child of Lithuanian Jews Abraham Reuben (born Abram Tzvilman) and Anna (Ella) Slavinsky, who had emigrated from Skapiškis in 1903 with their daughter, Bessie. His father was a grocer. The couple had five more children – Ethel (Etta), Barney, Frieda (Phoebe), Larry, and Irving – born until his father's death in 1915.

Zwillman was forced to quit school to support his family after his father's death. Zwillman first began working at a Prince Street café, the headquarters of a local alderman in Newark's Third Ward. However, in need of more money, Zwillman was eventually forced to quit, later selling fruits and vegetables in his neighborhood with a rented horse and wagon.

Zwillman was unable to compete with the cheaper Prince Street pushcarts, however, so he moved to the more upper-class neighborhood of Clinton Hill, where he began selling lottery tickets to local housewives. He observed that much more money was made selling lottery tickets than produce, so he concentrated on selling lottery tickets through local merchants. By 1920, Zwillman controlled the bulk of the numbers racket with the help of hired muscle.

At the start of Prohibition, Zwillman began smuggling whiskey into New Jersey through Canada, using several World War I armored trucks. Zwillman later joined a syndicate headed by Joseph Reinfeld to smuggle liquor from Canada using ships. They were reputed to have controlled 40% of liquor smuggling. Zwillman used this revenue to greatly expand his operations in illegal gambling, prostitution, and labor racketeering, as well as legitimate businesses, including several prominent night clubs and restaurants.

In 1929, he was sent to prison for six months for assaulting an associate. It was the only crime for which he was ever convicted.

Zwillman dated actress Jean Harlow at one time and got her a two-picture deal at Columbia Pictures by giving a huge cash loan to studio head Harry Cohn. Zwillman also bought Harlow a jeweled bracelet and a red Cadillac. He referred to her in derogatory terms to other mobsters in secret surveillance recordings. He married Mary de Groot Mendels Steinbach in 1939. She was the only daughter of Eugene Mendels, whose father, Emanuel S. Mendels, was a founder of the American Stock Exchange (then known as the Curb Exchange). The Zwillmans had a daughter, Lynn Kathryn Zwillman born c. 1944. Mary Zwillman had a son, who became Abner Zwillman's stepson, from a previous marriage.

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