1 mil was not a huge amount of money even back in the 70's when the story took place - especially in a place like NY. It's certainly not worth one's life.
If he was gonna rip off a mob boss, it should have been enough to be worth it to walk away from an apparently successful law practice and high roller lifestyle. Besides the coke, broads, high dollar restaurants, etc - there was the huge home, expensive apartment, Mercedes, boat, etc - probably all mortgaged to the eyeballs, unless he'd already somehow piled up MANY millions through either huge personal injury settlements, illegal under the table activities, or whatever.
He'd need probably at least 10 times that even back then just to have lived such a high roller lifestyle more or less permanently. Probably 20 times that to replace the mansion, hip apartment, fancy cars, boat, etc - he'd probably need to pay cash for those things without a successful law practice income / equity to borrow against.
Kleinfield Reminds me a little of getbigger Scott Rothstein.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/09/florida.rothstein.ponzi.scheme/http://blogs.trb.com/news/local/south_florida/blog/2010/02/scott_rothstein_auction_next_u.html
