Wikipedia's first sentence called it “jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the jewish and italian mafia into a national organized crime”. Today it says “jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together jewish and italian-american organized crime groups into a nat”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Joseph "Doc" Stacher ( 1902 - 1977 ) was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate. Born in Poland around 1902, Stacher immigrated with his family to the United States in 1912. As a teenager living in Newark, New Jersey he became known as a pushcart thief, later befriending future Jewish gangsters such as Meyer Lansky and Abner Zwillman . By the 1920s Stacher was running much of Zwillman's gambling operations. In 1931 Stacher helped Meyer Lansky organize a conference of Jewish organized crime leaders at the Franconia Hotel, which later would see the merging of the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national crime syndicate. Running West Coast and Caribbean gambling operations for Lansky during the 1930s, as well as becoming a silent partner of movie studio Columbia Pictures in the late 1930s, Stacher would later supervise gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada , particularly the Sands and Fremont Casinos . Stacher continued running Mafia gambling operations until 1964, when Federal authorities arrested him for tax evasion . While the Government was in favor of deporting him federal law prohibited deporting anyone to a communist controlled country.1However, because of the " Law of Return " Stacher was allowed citizenship in Israel , supposedly with the help of singer Frank Sinatra , who was allegedly instrumental in persuading an Orthodox member of the Israeli parliament to support Stacher, who immgrated there in 1965.2While living in Israel he served as the primary source of Israeli journalists Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau for a biography of Meyer Lansky. Stacher continued living in Israel until his death in 1977.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17141638.
The opening as it stood in 2010 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Joseph "Doc" Stacher (b. 1902-d. 1977) was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate .Born in Letichev , Ukraine around 1902, Stacher (who shortened his name from Oystacher) immigrated with his family to the United States in 1912. As a teenager living in Newark, New Jersey he became known as a pushcart thief, later befriending future Jewish gangsters such as Meyer Lansky and Abner Zwillman . By the 1920s Stacher was running much of Zwillman's gambling operations. In 1931, Stacher helped Meyer Lansky organize a conference of Jewish organized crime leaders at the Franconia Hotel, which later would see the alleged merging of the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national crime syndicate . Running West Coast and Caribbean gambling operations for Lansky during the 1930s, as well as becoming a silent partner of movie studio Columbia Pictures in the late 1930s, Stacher would later supervise gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada , particularly the Sands and Fremont Casinos . Stacher continued running Mafia gambling operations until 1964, when Federal authorities arrested him for tax evasion . While the US government was in favor of deporting him to his native Poland , federal law prohibited deporting anyone to a communist-controlled country.However, because of the " Law of Return ", Stacher was allowed citizenship in Israel and successfully immigrated there in 1965. While living in Israel he served as the primary source of Israeli journalists Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau for a biography of Meyer Lansky . Stacher continued living in Israel until his death. He died under mysterious circumstances in a Munich , West Germany , hotel room on February 28, 1977.His death was reported as a heart attack and his body shipped back to Israel .He was buried secretly and the nameplate of his grave was altered to hide his burial site.Only eight men were at the funeral, so the family had to ask a reporter and photographer to attend the ceremony.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 362314442.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Joseph "Doc" Stacher (b. 1902-d. 1977) was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate . Born in Letichev , Ukraine around 1902, Stacher (who shortened his name from Oystacher) immigrated with his family to the United States in 1912. As a teenager living in Newark, New Jersey he became known as a pushcart thief, later befriending future Jewish gangsters such as Meyer Lansky and Abner Zwillman . He "was the fat boy that every gang needs.Short and boastful, Joe Stacher shared Meyer's fondness for craps, and he had no hesitation in claiming to be the better player." By the 1920s Stacher was running much of Zwillman's gambling operations.In 1931, Stacher helped Meyer Lansky organize a conference of Jewish organized crime leaders at the Franconia Hotel, which later would see the alleged merging of the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national crime syndicate . Running West Coast and Caribbean gambling operations for Lansky during the 1930s, as well as becoming a silent partner of movie studio Columbia Pictures in the late 1930s, Stacher would later supervise gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada , particularly the Sands and Fremont Casinos . Stacher continued running Mafia gambling operations until 1964, when Federal authorities arrested him for tax evasion . While the US government was in favor of deporting him to his native Poland , federal law prohibited deporting anyone to a communist-controlled country. However, because of the " Law of Return ", Stacher was allowed citizenship in Israel and successfully immigrated there in 1965. While living in Israel he served as the primary source of Israeli journalists Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan, and Eli Landau for a biography of Meyer Lansky . Stacher continued living in Israel until his death. He died, according to some reports, under mysterious circumstances in a Munich , West Germany , hotel room on February 28, 1977. His death was reported as a heart attack and his body shipped back to Israel . He was buried secretly and the nameplate of his grave was altered to hide his burial site. Only eight men were at the funeral, so the family had to ask a reporter and photographer to join the ceremony in order to attain a minyan .Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 614946522.
The opening as it stood in 2020 15 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Joseph Stacher (c. 1902 – 1977) (alias Doc Stacher, Joseph Rosen, Doc Harris el al) was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 914638773.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
American syndicate leader (1902–1977) Joseph Stacher (c. 1902 – 1977) (alias Doc Stacher, Joseph Rosen, Doc Harris el al) was a Jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the Jewish and Italian Mafia into a national organized crime syndicate .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1172486259. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the jewish and italian mafia into a national organized crime”. Today it says “jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together jewish and italian-american organized crime groups into a nat”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together the jewish and italian mafia into a national organized crime
Now
jewish syndicate leader who helped bring together jewish and italian-american organized crime groups into a nat
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.