Who Was Abner 'Longy' Zwillman? New Jersey's Capone
Mobsters DailyAbner "Longy" Zwillman was Newark's Prohibition bootlegging king, a power in New Jersey politics and Hollywood finance, who was found hanged at his West Orange home in February 1959 — a death officially ruled suicide and argued about ever since.
New Jersey's Capone
Zwillman built his fortune on illegal liquor, moving it through Newark with the protection of bought politicians, and graduated into nightclubs, gambling and legitimate business fronts. He moved in the top circle of the era, a peer of Meyer Lansky and a New Jersey counterpart to Dutch Schultz across the river. His money reached Hollywood too: loans and influence around Columbia Pictures made him a studio-era power as well as a street one, and his romance with Jean Harlow became tabloid legend.
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Found hanged in 1959
By the late 1950s the walls were narrow: tax trouble, Senate committees, deportation talk aimed at his associates, and the humiliation of a wiretap in his own home becoming public. On February 27, 1959, he was found hanged in the basement of his West Orange mansion. The official ruling was suicide. The doubts have never fully died — men in his position had enemies, and the timing was convenient for several of them — but no evidence of murder has ever been proven, and historians still file it as a probable suicide that the underworld chose not to believe.
Frequently asked questions
Why was Zwillman called Longy? The nickname came from his height — he stood well over six feet — and followed him from his Newark street days to the society pages.
Was Longy Zwillman murdered? His 1959 hanging was officially ruled a suicide. Theories of murder persist, but none has ever been supported by proof.
What was Zwillman's connection to Hollywood? He lent money into the studio world, was close to Columbia chief Harry Cohn, and was famously linked with star Jean Harlow.
Keep reading: Who was Arnold Rothstein? · Lucky Luciano and the modern Mafia · Who was Johnny Torrio? · Who Was Roger 'the Terrible' Touhy? The Bootlegger Capone Framed
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