Early Career
Buchalter took the nickname "Lepke" at an early age. The name was an abridgment of the diminutive "Lepkeleh" ("Little Louis" in Yiddish) that his mother had called him as a boy. After his father died, his mother's health began to fail. The doctors recommended she move to Arizona to improve her health; Buchalter was left as his sister's responsibility. Immediately after Buchalter's mother left New York, he ran away from his sister and never saw her again. Buchalter began, at an early age, to control the streets of New York City. When arrested as a child for breaking and entering, he was wearing stolen shoes, both for the same foot and an unmatched pair. He was sent to the Catholic Protectory and labeled incorrigible. By 1919, at 22, Buchalter had served two prison terms in Sing Sing Prison.
Upon Buchalter's release, he started working with his childhood friend, mobster Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. Through force and fear, they began gaining control of the garment industry unions on the Lower East Side. Buchalter then used the unions to threaten strikes and demand weekly payments from factory owners while dipping into union bank accounts. Buchalter's control of the unions evolved into a protection racket, extending into such areas as bakery trucking. The unions were profitable for him, and he kept a hold on them even after becoming an important figure in organized crime.
Buchalter and Shapiro moved into new and fashionable luxury buildings on Eastern Parkway (135) with family who were active synagogue goers (Union Temple and Kol Israel Synagogue of Brooklyn).
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