Editing Joe Adonis (section)

==Criminal empire==
Adonis and Luciano soon controlled bootlegging in [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] and [[Midtown Manhattan]]. At its height, the operation grossed $12 million in one year and employed 100 workers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sifkakis|first=Carl|title=The Mafia encyclopedia|year=2005|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|isbn=0-8160-5694-3|page=50|edition=3rd}}</ref> Adonis also bought car dealerships in [[New Jersey]]. When customers bought cars from his dealerships, the salesmen would intimidate them into buying "protection insurance" for the vehicle. Adonis soon moved into cigarette distribution, buying up vending machines by the hundreds and stocking them with stolen cigarettes. Adonis ran his criminal empire from Joe's Italian Kitchen, a restaurant that he owned in Brooklyn. By 1932, Adonis was also a major criminal power in Brooklyn. Despite his wealth, Adonis still participated in jewelry robberies, a throwback to his early criminal career on the streets.

In 1932, Adonis allegedly participated in the kidnapping and brutal beating in Brooklyn of Isidore Juffe and Issac Wapinsky. In 1931, Adonis had lent the two men money for investment and kidnapped them in 1932 after deciding that he should be receiving a higher profit. Two days after the kidnappings, Adonis released Juffe and Wapinsky after receiving a $5,000 ransom payment. A month later, Wapinsky died of internal injuries from being assaulted.<ref name="kidnap charge">{{cite news|title=Adonis is Indicted on Kidnap Charge; Aide Under Arrest|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/05/06/archives/adonis-is-indicted-on-kidnap-charge-aide-under-arrest-seizure-of.html|access-date=March 19, 2020|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 6, 1940}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="dismissal indictment">{{cite news|title=AMEN GETS DISMISSAL OF ADONIS INDICTMENT; Freeing of Gasberg on Same Evidence Cause of Action|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/02/25/archives/amen-gets-dismissal-of-adonis-indictment-freeing-of-gasberg-on-same.html|access-date=March 19, 2020|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 25, 1941}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

Adonis placed many politicians and high-ranking police officers on his payroll. Adonis used his political influence to assist members of the [[Luciano crime family]], such as Luciano and Genovese, and mob associates such as [[Meyer Lansky]] and [[Louis Buchalter|Louis "Lepke" Buchalter]], the head of [[Murder, Inc.]]

As a syndicate board member, Adonis, along with Buchalter, may have been responsible for assigning some murder contracts to [[Murder, Inc.|Murder Inc.]]