{{Short description|American mobster (1899–1994)}} {{More footnotes|date=March 2008}}
'''Joseph Maurice Linsey''' (born '''Linsky''';<ref name="nat">'''Massachusetts, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950'''</ref> May 27, 1899 – November 24, 1994) was an American bootlegger in Boston during the Prohibition era associated with Joseph Kennedy and Meyer Lansky. He later became a prominent businessman and philanthropist, specifically making contributions to Brandeis University. In 1960, he was the national chairman of the Brandeis Athletic Associations.<ref name="obit">{{cite news |last1=Long |first1=Tom |title=Joseph Linsey, |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/440633858/?terms=Joseph%20Linsey&match=1 |access-date=27 October 2023 |work=The Boston Globe |date=November 30, 1994 |page=61}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Cost of Fielding Team Also Cited |author=Robert M. Lipsyte |date=May 17, 1960 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=47}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
==Biography== Linsey was born in Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus)<ref name="nat"/> to Jewish parents Abraham Linsky and Sarah Slotnick and immigrated with his family to Boston at age 1.<ref name="obit"/> After his father died of tuberculosis in 1908,<ref>''Massachusetts, U.S., Death Records, 1841-1915''</ref> his mother remarried grocer Joseph Ackner.<ref> ''1910 United States Federal Census''</ref> He went to work at the age of 9 delivering groceries and later became apprenticed as a meatcutter. He became a U.S. citizen at age 19 and adopted the name Linsey.<ref name="nat"/>
At the start of Prohibition, the 21-year-old Linsey began bootlegging illegal liquor with Charles "King" Solomon from a front business, the National Realty Company. He also bought Canadian liquor from the Bronfmans and, although serving a year<ref name="obit"/> for violations of the Volstead Act,<ref>{{cite news |title=Rosenstiel Link to Crime Denied |author=Nicholas Gage |date=March 12, 1971 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=33 |quote=Linsey and Fusco were both convicted of bootlegging.... Linsey and Fusco have been identified as agents of Meyer Lansky, the alleged underworld leader....>}}{{subscription required}}[https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/12/archives/rosenstiel-link-to-crime-denied-but-schenley-aide-concedes.html]</ref> he was acquitted from his two later indictments on similar charges. He was alleged by Vinnie Teresa to have been involved in wholesale gambling in the time after the Prohibition era.
He married model Thelma Ray in 1969. He died of heart failure at Boston's Faulkner Hospital in 1994, aged 95.<ref name="obit"/>
==References== {{reflist}} * Ex‐Head of Schenley Industries Is Linked to Crime ‘Consortium’ ''The New York Times'' February 19, 1971 [https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/19/archives/exhead-of-schenley-industries-is-linked-to-crime-consortium.html?_r=0] * Hartford Judge Backs Newspaper ''The New York Times'' March 23, 1973 [https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/21/archives/hartford-judge-backs-newspaper-says-its-publisher-need-not-reveal.html] * Publisher Loses In Connecticut ''The New York Times'' May 18, 1975 [https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/18/archives/publisher-loses-in-connecticut-expaper-owner-ordered-to-reveal.html] * Dollar Settles a $5 Million Connecticut Libel Suit ''The New York Times'' June 13, 1976 [https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/13/archives/dollar-settles-a-5-million-connecticut-libel-suit.html]
==Further reading== * Etzkowitz, Henry and Peter Schwab. ''Is America Necessary?: Conservative, Liberal, & Socialist Perspectives of United States Political Institutions''. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1976. {{ISBN|0-8299-0090-X}} * Fox, Stephen. ''Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America''. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. {{ISBN|0-688-04350-X}} * Fried, Albert. ''The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. {{ISBN|0-231-09683-6}} * Lacey, Robert. ''Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life''. London: Century, 1991. {{ISBN|0-7126-2426-0}} * Stein, Benjamin J. ''A License to Steal: The Untold Story of Michael Milken and the Conspiracy to Bilk the Nation''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. {{ISBN|0-671-74272-8}} * Summers, Anthony. ''Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1993. {{ISBN|0-399-13800-5}} * Smith, Joseph ''History of The American Greyhound Derby: The Kentucky Derby of Greyhound Racing''. Boston: Big Jackpot Betting, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-4679-4556-1}} * Temple, Robert ''The History of Greyhound Racing in New England''. Boston: Xlibris Corp, 2010/ {{ISBN|978-1-4568-4077-8}}{{Self-published inline|date=January 2018}}
==External links== *{{fg|131620160}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linsey, Joseph}} Category:1899 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Jewish American gangsters Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:Businesspeople from Boston