[Marxism] Obama's Annenberg Connection

[Anthony Boynton]

The thread here on Barak Obama's "community activism"
struck a chord somewhere in the back of my brain. I
was surprised to learn of his connecton to the
Annenberg Foundation. The Annenberg family has a long
and sleazy record, which has been papered over by
its"charitable activities. The families very close
relation with Richard Nixon (who appointed Walter as
ambassador to England), and later with Reagan and the
Palm Springs Republicans, is only the most recent
chapter. 

A little digging brought up the article below on the
foundations of the family. 

So my natural question was, and is, is Senator Obama
the long groomed Democratic Party candidate of the
Annenberg family, or is he just someone who happened
to pass through their organization on his way to
bigger and better things?
			
	
			

October 10-16, 2002

city beat
Paper Trail

Take away the name and the philanthropy and the
Annenberg family history reads just like any other mob
story.

by Brendan McGarvey

Walter Annenberg is dead. Long live Walter Annenberg’s
billions. One of the richest men in the United States,
Walter Annenberg was a generous philanthropist who
gave millions to universities, art museums, charities
and PBS. He was a friend to kings and presidents.
Annenberg was the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of
Saint James, London, for Richard Nixon. A media
magnate who once owned local institutions like the
Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, the Daily News and
Channel 6, Annenberg split his time between his estate
in Wynnewood and a second one in Palm Springs, Calif.

And, oh yeah, Walter Annenberg was indicted in one of
the largest tax evasion cases in the history of the
United States. Annenberg was indicted with his father,
Moses Annenberg, and two other business associates in
1939.

They were charged with evading more than $2 million in
taxes and another $3 million in penalties and
interest.

On Aug. 18, 1939, Walter Annenberg, his father and two
other business associates surrendered to the U.S.
Marshal. They posted bond, and were released to await
trial.

Later that same month, Moses Annenberg, Philadelphia
nightclub owner Jack Lynch and two others were
indicted for conspiring to bribe a Philadelphia
detective. Lynch allegedly wanted to influence the
detective if and when he was called before a grand
jury investigating four corporations owned by Moses
Annenberg.

In April 1940, Moses Annenberg agreed to plead guilty
to one count -- "willfully" evading $1,217,296 -- and
to pay almost $9 million in fines and penalties. In
exchange for his plea the government agreed to drop
all charges against his son, Walter Annenberg.

Moses was sentenced to three years in prison. He was
sent to Lewisburg federal pen, but released early
because of poor health, and he died a month later.

Walter parlayed the family fortune into billions and
spent the rest of his life making people forget how
Moses Annenberg had acquired this great American
fortune in the first place.

The story of Walter Annenberg's father is a tale of a
hardworking immigrant and financial genius who got his
start working alongside violent Chicago gangsters
while employed by newspaper titan William Randolph
Hearst at the turn of the last century. It was a time
when "circulation wars" literally meant gunmen and
sluggers beating and killing rival news dealers to
gain a monopoly for their newspaper.

Both Moses and his older brother, Max Annenberg, were
involved in the brutal Chicago newspaper wars in the
first decade of the 20th century in which 14 news
dealers were murdered.

Max and Moses Annenberg were hired by William Randolph
Hearst as circulation managers for his newspapers.
Their job was to hire and dispatch gangs of
plug-uglies to intimidate anyone selling The Chicago
Tribune.

One member of the Annenberg crew was the exceptionally
notorious and bloodthirsty Dion O'Banion. O'Banion
captained his own gang of neighborhood toughs. A
decade after working for the Annenbergs, O'Banion
headed his own mob, but was rubbed out by gangland
rival Al Capone in 1925.

Bleeding -- literally -- people and money, the owner
of the Tribune, Bertie McCormick, decided to hire
Moses Annenberg away from Hearst. For a while, the
Annenberg brothers were sending out thugs to battle
each other. Fifteen years later, Max Annenberg was
alleged to be an associate and friend of Chicago crime
boss Al Capone.

In 1938, the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes,
traveled from Washington D.C. to give a speech in
Philadelphia condemning Moses Annenberg, who, at that
time, was backing the Republican candidate for
governor of Pennsylvania.

Ickes charged it was Annenberg's violent tactics
during the Chicago newspaper wars that inspired
gangsters like Al Capone. Ickes said that "the hiring
of Moses Annenberg by Hearst was the beginning of the
subsequent flood of lawlessness that almost engulfed
law enforcement in the United States."

But Moses Annenberg didn't just rely on gangsters to
improve newspaper circulation. He also came up with
the idea of giving away free silver teaspoons to each
new subscriber and made so much money he branched out
on his own, buying newspapers in Milwaukee and New
York.

But it was Moses Annenberg's involvement in the shady
world of illegal gambling that put him in touch, and
in business, with mobsters all across the nation.

In 1924, Annenberg got involved with a racing news
service in Chicago and Milwaukee. The service provided
horse race information to gambling parlors -- also
known in those days as "pool rooms." With that
information, bookies could set odds and collect from
gamblers or pay out winnings. It was called the
General News Bureau and it was owned by Chicago's
largest gambler/bookie, Mont Tennes. Tennes agreed to
sell out to Annenberg after his house was firebombed.

Annenberg took on a partner named Jack Lynch. But
Lynch sued Moses, alleging that more than a million
dollars had vanished from their business.

Annenberg's lawyers argued that "the General News
Bureau is aiding and abetting an illegal enterprise,"
and the Illinois Supreme Court agreed, ruling that it
was an illegal business; therefore, the dispute
between Lynch and Annenberg was outside the scope of
the law.

Lynch turned to Al Capone's number-one guy, Frank
Nitti, to back him against Annenberg. Moses reputedly
enlisted the trigger-happy organizer for the Chicago
Motion Picture Operators' Union, Ralph O'Hara, to
watch his back. But when O'Hara's boss was murdered
gangland-style, the Chicago mafia took control of the
union.

Before the disagreement between Lynch and Annenberg
was settled, George Downs, an Annenberg lieutenant
operating in Miami, Fla., was found shot to death,
execution-style, in the Everglades. At the time Downs
was killed, Moses Annenberg was running newspapers in
Florida, the Midwest, New York and Philadelphia.

Critics charged Annenberg was using his newspapers to
back local politicians who would close down rival
bookmaking services and allow his illegal racing wire
to operate without competition. Within a few years
Annenberg had a nationwide monopoly. Annenberg's
Nationwide News Service and subsidiaries were
servicing bookies in 223 cities, 39 states and three
Canadian provinces.

Gamblers, bookies and underworld syndicates were
Annenberg's customers.

Ironically, there were reports that those who didn't
take the Annenberg race wire service were themselves
the victims of beatings, fire bombings and, on
occasion, murder. The crime syndicates had come to be
dependent on Moses Annenberg. Without his service they
couldn't operate their illegal gambling rackets.

Moses Annenberg made millions and millions of dollars
until the federal government indicted him for not
paying taxes on his illegal businesses. This
underworld money was the source of the great Annenberg
fortune and helped to finance Walter Annenberg's own
generous philanthropy.

© Copyright 1995 – 2007 Philadelphia City Paper. All
rights reserved.



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