Gerald Eisler

**Gerald Hymen Eisler** (1950-2006), was the adviser for the Siegel crime family from 1976 to 2006 when he was killed by Sid Rothman.

## Early life

Eisler was born on January 3, 1950 in New York City, to Jewish-American parents. His father was a chef in a bakery and his mother was a waitress at two famous restaurants. He grew up with three other siblings, including two brothers and one sister. He was known as a smart kid, a straight-A student and became valedictorian of his high school class in 1968. He befriended Michael Feinberg when they were in grade school. They later created a small gang with six friends with Michael being the braun and Gerald being the brain.

After high school, he went to Harvard law school and passed the BAR exam. He returned to New York in 1972 and soon became a lawyer at a law firm associated with the Siegel crime family. He later became re-associated with his childhood friend, Michael Feinberg, a associate in the family.

## Joining the Siegel crime family

Michael soon took him on jobs for the family. After getting recognized by Mickey Cohen, he began handing down jobs to Gerald directly. He handled union disputes and served as Cohen's secretary; setting meetings with other members of the family and other crime families. He started a smuggling ring in 1974, earning over a half a million for the family within a few months.

He became made in 1975 along with Michael, and several other friends.

## Wars

### Feinberg-Siegel power struggle

When Cohen died in 1976, Gerald, Michael and several other associates began greasing palms with other top Siegel family members. Before Ben Siegel II could take the throne as family boss, they ordered the deaths of several of his supporters, causing Siegel and multiple captains to back down in order to avoid a war.

While they killed several influential members that supported Siegel, they didn't kill the lesser known members of the family that supported Siegel, including: Lenny Bernard and Adam Banasik. This is mainly due to the fact that they were bringing in a lot of money for the family and Gerald suggested not killing them.

### Siegel-Feinberg War

Michael's and Gerald's actions later backfired about 29 years later when Siegel's son, Benjamin Siegel III, and several other powerful associates started a war with the Feinberg leadership.

## Personal life

Gerald was married to Italian-American doctor, Maria Scaleria, from 1973 to 1989 when she died in a car wreck. They had two kids together. He later started dating a German-American model, Christina Kliesch, in 2004. She was pregnant with their child when he was murdered in 2006.

## Death

On July 4, 2006, he was alerted by his soldiers that the Feinberg leadership was being picked off one by one. He knew that he would soon die too and accepted it. As he was waiting for his girlfriend to cook an early dinner, he leaned on the balcony of his girlfriend's suite in a hotel in Manhattan and noticed Sid Rothmans on a balcony on another hotel. At 4:23 pm, as he was waiting and enjoying the view of the balcony, he was shot once in the heart from a silenced Beretta M82 by Sid Rothman from a hotel balcony across the street.