Moses Polakoff Is Dead at Age 97; Was Lawyer for Lucky Luciano

published 14/06/1993 at 21:07 PM by Shawn G. Kennedy

Moses Polakoff, a lawyer who represented notorious underworld figures like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, died at his apartment in Manhattan on Saturday. He was 97 years old.

After a brief career that began with prosecuting offenders, Mr. Polakoff established a private practice defending them.

Mr. Polakoff, who was born March 24, 1896, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, graduated from Townsend Harris High School, a public school for gifted students.

After serving in the Navy in World War I, Mr. Polakoff resumed his studies at New York Law School. He was a managing clerk in the firm of Hayward & Clark before being appointed an Assistant United States Attorney in New York in 1921.

In 1925, he resigned from the United States Attorney's Office to establish a private practice that lasted until his retirement in 1989. In 1924 he married Ruth Kirsch, who worked in the United States Attorney's Office. Dempsey Divorce Lawyer

Although Mr. Polakoff was known mostly for his criminal cases, he also represented a wide variety of clients on other matters. In the early 1940's for example, he was the lawyer when the heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey and his wife, Hannah Williams, the actress, were divorced. Mr. Polakoff also represented several New York City nightclubs, including The Versailles Club.

Mr. Polakoff's service to Charles J. (Lucky Luciano) Lucania did not keep the crime boss out of prison. In 1937 Mr. Lucania was jailed after being convicted of running a prostitution ring. But in 1946 Mr. Polakoff obtained clemency for his client from Gov. Thomas E. Dewey in exchange for Mr. Lucania's secret assistance to the Government during World War II. The 1977 book, "The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration of the Mafia and the U.S. Navy," by Rodney Campbell (McGraw-Hill), describes how the Navy used Mr. Lucania and other crime figures for services like obtaining information about suspicious activities on the waterfront.

In 1957, Mr. Polakoff won a libel case against the New York World-Telegram Corporation after charging that the newspaper had falsely linked his name with unsavory characters.

Mr. Polakoff's wife died in 1955.

He is survived by three daughters, Joan Meltzer of Engelwood, N.J., Nancy Nemlich of White Plains, and Suzanne DePuyt of Mahwah, N.J.; seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.