Media Inc.: Consolidated Television, Tele-King and investment diversification by organized crime

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article documents the involvement of leading members of American organized crime, specifically the East Coast Syndicate lead by Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello, with some US media industries in the 1940s and 1950s. It does so by tracing the creation, ownership and business history of two television-manufacturing companies, Consolidated Television Incorporated and the Tele-King Corporation, which it has been alleged were controlled by Syndicate interests. It uses various forms of primary and secondary sources to do this, such as FBI files, witness testimony and published accounts. It also examines the types of media products that these companies manufactured, why Syndicate members ventured into this investment sector, and how Syndicate control was initially exerted, maintained, and then exposed.</jats:p>