Abner Zwillman

Abner Zwillman, known as Longy Zwillman, was a Newark-born bootlegger who became one of New Jersey’s leading mobsters from the 1920s through the 1940s. The work’s biographical account places him in the organized-crime networks of the Prohibition era and records the eventual public exposure of his criminal activities before his suicide in 1959.

Identity and Rise

Born in Newark in 1904, Zwillman began as a bootlegger during Prohibition. He rose to become a leading New Jersey mobster, a career spanning the 1920s through the 1940s. His trajectory connects his local origins to a wider criminal network extending along the East Coast.

Place in East Coast Racketeering

Zwillman was counted among East Coast racketeering’s “Big Six,” alongside Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Frank Costello. He also had a local rival in Ruggiero Boiardo, another Newark crime figure. The biographical account distinguishes their positions: Boiardo’s influence was strongest in Newark’s Italian First Ward, where he owned a popular restaurant.

Exposure and Death

In 1951, televised hearings by the Senate Crime Committee exposed extensive criminal activities associated with Zwillman. The account does not describe the specific findings or his response, but places the hearings within the later years of his prominence. He died by suicide in 1959, eight years after the hearings.