Murder Incorporated

Stanley Diamond

2008-02-13T19:35:00.001-08:00

born c.a. January 4th, 1922 New York City. New York-March 31st, 1991 New York City, New York was an American-Jewish mob associate of the Lucchese crime family. The character of Lester Diamond in the film Casino, based on the real-life Leonard Marmor, portrayed by James Woods, is named after him.

Stanley Allen Diamond was born in New York City, New York to Yiddish-speaking parents of Austrian-Polish-Jewish background, specifically from the area of Lviv, Galicia. He was fluent in Yiddish as well as German, which he was raised speaking, along with English. He was a sociopath and suffered from severe Autism and Aspergers Syndrome which caused him to have anger management problems.

Stanley was an expert "stick up man" during hijackings who would jump into the hijacked truck and shove a gun in the driver's face. He allegedly despised his Ukrainian heritage at an an early age. Despite La Cosa Nostra regulations that only Italians could become officially initiated into the mafia, Diamond reportedly believed that his expertise as a "stick up man" and willingness to murder might eventually lead to his becoming a made man in the Lucchese crime family. He was paid a fixed rate for each hijacking, usually a flat several thousand dollars just for shoving a gun in the truck driver's face. He did not receive any percentage of the actual hijacked goods.

Stanley is also suspected in murdering Jimmy Burke’s business partner and friend Dominick Cersani including a warehouse foreman who lived in the Boontown Projects of Hoboken, New Jersey in the 1980's. Stanley was one of the fortunate members of the Vario Crew to survive the after effects of the Lufthansa heist and when Henry Hill turned state’s evidence in 1985 and testified against the members of the Vario Crew. Stanley was a regular habituate of Robert's Lounge, The Bamboo Lounge and The Suite.

Stanley was a close friend of Henry Hill, Thomas DeSimone, Anthony Stabile, Jimmy Burke and Joseph Allegro,. Stanley could never become a made member of the Vario Crew, like Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke because of his Jewish and Polish-Austrian heritage, but did not suffer the racial discrimination as did African-American crew member Parnell Edwards. Like Tommy DeSimone, Stanley was known to have a violent temper and was prone to outbursts which made him feared even by fellow mobsters. Stanley Diamond was one of Paul Vario's shooters who was known who sit around all day and brag to the other soldiers about his favorite mob executions he performed. He became friends with Tommy DeSimone, Henry Hill and Jimmy Burke. When hijacking transport trucks it was either Tommy DeSimone, Joseph Allegro or Stanley Diamond who would run up to the truck as it was stopped at a red light in the early morning hours and threaten the driver with a gun and put him in the mobster's car while other guys drove the truck to the stop.

In 1970, after Jimmy Burke told of plans to extort his thriving bookmaking business and Krugman threatened to go to the District Attorney, Frank Menna was the unfortunate employee who was beaten in the salon, in front of Krugman, by Stanley Diamond and Thomas DeSimone on orders by Jimmy Burke. Frank is lucky to have survived the beating due to DeSimone and Diamond's ruthlessness as sidewalk soldiers for Paul Vario. The beating was shown in the film to involve Martin Krugman and not Menna who is strangled by Jimmy Burke with telephone wire in the presence of Henry Hill.

Stanley murdered the freight supervisor of the legitimate truck warehouse near the James A. Farley Post OfficeNew York City's General Post Office, located at 421 Eighth Avenue, between 31st Street and 33rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Garden at West 36th Street. The identity of the supervisor is not discovered, but he is described by Henry Hill as a "big chesty guy" who did not know who Jimmy Burke was and would not let Burke unload the hijacked cigarettes after his unloaders could not produce their union identification cards. After they could not come to an agreement Stanley Diamond and Henry Hill, while driving the truck several blocks from the warehouse down 9th Avenue, they noticed the back doors to the truck were open and cartons of Laredo cigarettes were spilling out onto the street. The truck was blocked off by a police cruiser and Diamond and Hill both bolted from the truck as it sat idling in the street. That very night Burke sent Diamond and Tommy DeSimone to Hoboken, New Jersey where the cargo supervisor lived as a bachelor to "straighten him out". They were just supposed to rough him up and tell him about Jimmy Burke. Instead Diamond and DeSimone got so mad at the cargo supervisor that they murdered him. The two were so angry that the supervisor wouldn't listen to Jimmy Burke at the warehouse, that he lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and that they had drive twenty-five miles all night to New Jersey to talk to him, they got themselves so worked up, that Diamond and DeSimone couldn't stop themselves from killing him.

Stanley Diamond was ordered along with Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Thomas DeSimone and two carloads of Lucchese crime family side-walk soldiers to beat up the waiters and kitchen staff at Don Pepe's Vesuvio Restaurant located at 135-58 Lefferts Boulevard in South Ozone Park, Queens, just a few blocks south of the Lucchese crime family hijacking headquarters, Robert's LoungeH e assisted in beating the employees with an inch of lead pipe as the kitchen staff left the restaurant at 11 P.M. Some of the employees fled the scene and scrambled into the cars, so Stanley and others had to chase them all around the neighborhood late into the night. Stanley and the others had been ordered to beat the staff after a certain waiter spilled a drink all over Paul Vario's wife, Phyllis and then sloppily tried to blot up the spilled drink on the front of her dress.

Thomas E. Dewey - The Man who brought Murder Inc. to its knees !

2008-01-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

Thomas Edmund Dewey was the Governor of New York (1943-1955) and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 1944 and 1948. As a leader of the liberal faction of the Republican party he fought the conservative faction led by Senator Robert A. Taft, and played a major role in nominating Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency in 1952. He represented the Northeastern business and professional community that accepted most of the New Deal after 1944. His successor as leader of the liberal Republicans was Nelson A. Rockefeller, who became governor of New York in 1959.

Early life and family

Dewey was born and raised in Owosso, Michigan, where his father owned, edited, and published the local newspaper. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1923, and from the Columbia Law School in 1925. While at the University of Michigan, he joined Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national fraternity for men of music. He was an excellent singer with a deep, baritone voice, and in 1923 he finished in third place in the National Singing Contest. He briefly considered a career as a professional singer, but decided against it after a temporary throat ailment convinced him that such a career would be risky. He then decided to pursue a career as a lawyer. He also wrote for The Michigan Daily, the university's student newspaper club.
In 1928 Dewey married Frances Hutt. A native of Sherman, Texas, she had briefly been a stage actress; after their marriage she dropped her acting career. They had two sons, Thomas E. Dewey, Jr.and John Dewey. Although Dewey served as a prosecutor and District Attorney in New York City for many years, his home from 1938 until his death was a large farm, called "Dapplemere", located near the town of Pawling some 65 miles (105 km) north of New York City. According to biographer Richard Norton Smith in Thomas E. Dewey and His Times, Dewey "loved Dapplemere as [he did] no other place", and Dewey was once quoted as saying that "I work like a horse five days and five nights a week for the privilege of getting to the country on the weekend." Dapplemere was part of a tight-knit rural community called "Quaker Hill," which was known as a haven for the prominent and well-to-do. Among Dewey's neighbors on Quaker Hill were the famous reporter and radio broadcaster Lowell Thomas, the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, and the legendary CBS News journalist Edward R. Murrow. Dewey was a lifelong member of The Episcopal Church.

New York prosecutor and District Attorney

During the 1930s, Dewey was a New York City prosecutor. He first achieved headlines in the early 1930s, when he prosecuted bootlegger Waxey Gordon while serving as Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Additionally, he relentlessly pursued gangster Dutch Schultz, both as a federal and state prosecutor. Schultz's first trial ended in a deadlock; prior to his second trial, Schultz had the venue moved to Syracuse, then moved there and garnered the sympathy of the townspeople so that when it came time for his trial, the jury found him innocent, liking him too much to convict him. Following that trial, Dewey and Fiorello H. LaGuardia found grounds with which to try Schultz a third time, driving Schultz into hiding in Newark, New Jersey There, Schultz put into action a plan to assassinate Dewey. Crime boss Lucky Luciano, fearing that if Dewey was murdered, the FBI and federal government would wage all-out war on the Mafia, ordered that Schultz be killed before he had the chance to finalize his plans. Luciano's plan went accordingly, and before Schultz could finish organizing his plot to kill Dewey, Schultz was shot to death by a Mafia hitman in the restroom of a bar in Newark. Shortly thereafter, Dewey turned his attention to prosecuting Luciano. In the greatest victory of his legal career, he convinced a jury to convict Luciano of being a pimp who ran one of the largest prostitution rings in American history,

However, Dewey did more than simply prosecute famous Mafia figures. In 1936, while serving as special prosecutor in New York County, Dewey helped indict and convict Richard Whitney, the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, on charges of embezzlement. In the 1920's Whitney had been a prominent New York business tycoon and socialite. Dewey also led law-enforcement efforts to protect dockworkers and poultry farmers and workers from racketeering in New York. In 1936 Dewey received The Hundred Year Association of New Yorks Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." In 1939 Dewey prosecuted American Nazi leader Fritz Kuhn for embezzlement, crippling Kuhn's organization and limiting its ability to support Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

Dewey was elected District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan) in 1937. By the late 1930's Dewey's successful efforts against organized crime - and especially his conviction of Lucky Luciano - had turned him into a national celebrity. His nickname, the "Gangbuster", became the name of a popular radio serial based on his fight against the mob. Hollywood film studios even made several movies based on his exploits; one starred Humphrey Bogart as Lucky Luciano and Bette Davis as a call girl whose testimony helps to put him in prison.

Governor of New York

In 1938, at age 36, Dewey ran unsuccessfully for Governor of New York against the popular Democratic incumbent, Herbert Lehman, Franklin Roosevelt's successor. He based his campaign on his record as a famous prosecutor of organized-crime figures in New York City. Although he lost, Dewey's strong showing against Lehman (he lost the election by only one percentage point), brought him national political attention and made him a frontrunner for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. In 1942 he ran for Governor again, and was elected in a landslide. In 1946 he won a second term by the greatest margin in state history to that point, and in 1950 he was elected to a third term.

Dewey was regarded as an honest and highly effective governor. He cut taxes, doubled state aid to education, increased salaries for state employees, and reduced the state's debt by over $100 million. Additionally, he put through the first state law in the country which prohibited racial discrimination in employment. As governor, Dewey also signed legislation that created the State University of New York. He played a major role in the creation of the New York State Thruway, which would eventually be named in his honor. He also created a powerful political organization that allowed him to dominate New York state politics and influence national politics.
He also strongly supported the death penalty. During his 12 years as Governor over 90 people were electrocuted (including two women) under New York authority.

Presidential candidacies

Dewey ran for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination, but lost to Wendell Willkie, who went on to lose to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the general election. For most of the campaign Dewey was considered the favorite for the nomination, but his strength ebbed as Nazi Germany swept through Western Europe in the late spring of 1940. Some Republican leaders considered Dewey to be too young (he was only 38) and inexperienced to lead the nation through the Second World War. Furthermore, Dewey's isolationist stance became increasingly difficult for him to defend as the Nazis conquered Holland, Belgium, France, and threatened Britain. As a result, many Republicans switched to supporting Wendell Willkie, who was a decade older and an open advocate of aid to the Allies. Dewey's foreign-policy position evolved during the 1940s; by 1944 he was considered an internationalist and a supporter of groups such as the United Nations. It was in 1940 that Dewey first clashed with Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio. Taft - who would maintain his isolationist views and economic conservatism to his death - would become Dewey's great rival for control of the Republican Party in the 1940's and early 1950's. Dewey would become the leader of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, who were based in the Northeastern and Pacific Coast states, while Taft would become the leader of conservative Republicans who dominated most of the Midwest and parts of the South.

Dewey won the Republican nomination in 1944 but was defeated in the election by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the incumbent. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Theodore Roosevelt's daughter and a socialite well known for her wit, called Dewey, alluding to his pencil-thin moustache, "the little man on the wedding cake," a bit of ridicule he could not shake. At the 1944 Republican Convention Dewey easily defeated Ohio Governor John Bricker, who was supported by Taft; he then made Bricker his running mate in a bid to win the votes of conservative Republicans. In the general campaign in the fall Dewey crusaded against the alleged inefficiencies, corruption and Communist influences in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs, but avoided military and foreign policy debates. Although he lost the election, Dewey did better against Roosevelt than any of his four Republican opponents. Dewey was the first presidential candidate to be born in the twentieth century; he is also the youngest man ever to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Dewey nearly committed a serious blunder when he prepared to include, in his campaign, charges that Roosevelt knew ahead of time about the attack on Pearl Harbor; Dewey added, "and instead of being reelected he should be impeached." The U. S. Military was aghast at this notion, since it would tip the Japanese off that the United States had broken the Purple Code. Army General George C. Marshall made a persistent effort to persuade Dewey not to touch this topic; Dewey yielded. (Source: Presidential Campaigns (1985) by Paul F. Boller, Jr.)

He was the Republican candidate in the 1948 presidential election in which, in almost unanimous predictions by pollsters and the press, he was projected as the winner. The Chicago DailyTribune printed "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" as its post-election headline, issuing a few hundred copies before the returns showed conclusively that the winner was Harry S. Truman, the incumbent.

Indeed, given Truman's sinking popularity and the Democratic Party's three-way split (between Truman, Henry A. Wallace, and Strom Thurmond, Dewey had seemed unstoppable. Republicans figured that all they had to do was to avoid destroying a certain election victory, and as such, Dewey did not take any risks. He spoke in platitudes, trying to transcend politics. Speech after speech was filled with empty statements of the obvious, such as the famous quote: "You know that your future is still ahead of you." An editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal summed it up:

No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.

At one campaign stop, Dewey saw a large number of children among the crowd. He addressed them and said they should be glad he got them a day off from school to see him. One kid hollered, "Today is Saturday!" The crowd laughed.

Part of the reason Dewey ran such a cautious, vague campaign was because of his experiences as a presidential candidate in 1944. In that election Dewey felt that he had allowed Franklin Roosevelt to draw him into a partisan, verbal "mudslinging" match, and he believed that this had cost him votes. As such, Dewey was convinced in 1948 to appear as non-partisan as possible, and to emphasize the positive aspects of his campaign while ignoring his opponent. This strategy proved to be a major mistake, as it allowed Truman to repeatedly criticize and ridicule Dewey, while Dewey never answered any of Truman's criticisms.

Dewey was not as conservative as the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, which also proved problematic for him. Truman tied Dewey to the "do-nothing" Congress. Indeed, Dewey had successfully battled Ohio Senator Robert Taft and his conservatives for the nomination at the Republican Convention; Taft had remained an isolationist even through the Second World War. Dewey, however, supported the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, recognition of Israel, and the Berlin airlift.

Dewey was repeatedly urged by the right wing of his party to engage in red-baiting, but he refused. In a debate before the Oregon primary with Harold Stassen, Dewey argued against outlawing the Communist Party of the United States of America, saying "you can't shoot an idea with a gun." He later told Styles Bridges, the Republican national campaign manager, that he was not "going around looking under beds. As a result of his defeat, Dewey became the only Republican to be nominated for President twice and lose both times. He is also the last presidential candidate to wear permanent facial hair, in his case a moustache.

Dewey did not run for President in 1952, but he did play a major role in securing the Republican nomination for General Dwight Eisenhower, the most popular hero of the Second World War. The 1952 campaign was the climatic moment in the fierce rivalry between Dewey and Taft for control of the Republican Party. Taft was an announced candidate, and given his age he freely admitted that 1952 was his last chance to win the presidency. Dewey played a key role in convincing Eisenhower to run against Taft, and when Eisenhower became a candidate Dewey used his powerful political machine to win "Ike" the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere. At the Republican Convention Dewey was verbally attacked by pro-Taft delegates and speakers as the real power behind Eisenhower, but he had the satisfaction of seeing Eisenhower win the nomination and end Taft's presidential hopes for the last time. Dewey then played a major role in helping California Senator Richard Nixon become Eisenhower's running mate. When Eisenhower won the Presidency later that year, many of Dewey's closest aides and advisors, such as Herbert Brownell, would become leading figures in the Eisenhower Administration.

Later career

Dewey's third term as governor of New York expired in 1955, after which he retired from public service and returned to his law practice, Dewey Ballantine, although he remained a power broker behind the scenes in the Republican Party. In 1956, when Eisenhower mulled not running for a second term, he suggested Dewey as his choice as successor, but party leaders made it plain that they would not entrust the nomination to Dewey yet again, and ultimately Eisenhower decided to run for re-election. Dewey also played a major role that year in convincing Eisenhower to keep Nixon as his running mate; Ike had considered dropping Nixon from the Republican ticket and picking someone he felt would be less partisan and controversial. However, Dewey argued that dropping Nixon from the ticket would only anger Republican voters while winning Ike few votes from the Democrats. Dewey's arguments helped convince Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket. In 1960 Dewey would strongly support Nixon's losing presidential campaign against Democrat John F. Kennedy.
By the 1960s, as the conservative wing assumed more and more power within the GOP, Dewey removed himself further and further from party matters. When the Republicans in 1964 gave Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, Taft's successor as the conservative leader, their presidential nomination, Dewey declined to even attend the Convention; it was the first Republican Convention he had missed since 1936. President Lyndon Johnson offered Dewey positions on several blue ribbon commissions, as well as a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, but Dewey politely declined them all, preferring to remain in political retirement and concentrate on his highly profitable law firm. By the early 1960's Dewey's law practice had made him into a multimillionaire.

In the late 1960's Dewey was saddened by the deaths of his best friends Pat and Marge Hogan, and by his wife's long, painful, and losing battle against cancer. Frances Dewey died in the summer of 1970 after battling cancer for more than three years. In early 1971 Dewey began to date actress Kitty Carlisle Hart, and there was talk of marriage between them. However, he died suddenly of a heart attack on March 16, 1971, while vacationing in Florida. He was 68 years old. Both he and his wife are buried in the town cemetery of Pawling, New York; after his death his farm of Dapplemere was sold and renamed "Dewey Lane Farm" in his honor.

Legacy

In 1964, the New York State Legislature officially renamed the New York State Thruway in honor of Dewey. The official designation is, however, rarely used in reference to the road, and the naming was opposed by many Italian Americans, who are a relatively large and important demographic presence in the state. However, signs on Interstate 95 from the end of the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx to the Connecticut state line (and vice-versa) designate the Thruway as being the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway

Dewey's official papers from his years in politics and public life were given to the University of Rochester; they are housed in the university library and are available to historians and other writers

In 2005, the New York City Bar Association named an award after Dewey. The Thomas E. Dewey Medal, sponsored by the law firm of Dewey Ballantine LLP, is awarded annually to one outstanding Assistant District Attorney in each of New York City's five counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond). The Medal was first awarded on November 29, 2005.

Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon

2008-01-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon was a Jewish hitman in New York's Murder Inc gang, one of many members who were implicated by the testimony of former member and government informant Abe "Kid Twist" Reles.

A longtime member of Murder Inc., Magoon was heavily involved in the painters unions with Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein during the 1920s and 30s. Magoon was one of the most feared members of Murder, Inc.; he even famously challenged Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss and lived to tell the tale.

In 1940, Abe Reles and Louis Levine began to give evidence to New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey on Murder, Inc. Magoon decided to follow suit and helped testify against the other members of Murder Inc. along with Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum and Sholem Bernstein.

To this day, few details exist about Seymour Magoon. In 2003, Magoon's skeleton was uncovered in the desert outside Las Vegas. The incident inspired "Whatever Happened to Seymour Magoon?", a 2005 episode of "Las Vegas".

The Half Moon Hotel

2008-01-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

The Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, New York was where Abe Reles, informant for the FBI who brought down numerous members of Murder, Inc. "fell" to his death on November 12, 1941 a few hours before he was scheduled to testify against Albert Anastasia

The name "Half Moon" refers to the name of explorer Henry Hudson's ship, which anchored off Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn (the location of Coney Island), on its way to finding a short cut to Asia.

In the late 1940's The Half Moon Hotel became a maternity hospital called Harbor Hospital. In the 1970's it became a senior citizen's home.

Cyclone Louie

2008-01-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis was an early New York gangster and member of the Eastman Gang under Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach

Born Sam Tietch, Lewis performed as a wrestler and strongman, supposedly wrapping iron bars around his neck and arms, at Coney Island side shows before joining the Eastmans. Following Monk Eastman's imprisonment, he sided with Zwerbach during the struggle for leadership of the gang and, after the murder of rival Richie Fitzpatrick's in 1904, carried out the elimination of the remaining members of the Fitzpatrick faction

As a bodyguard, Lewis became Zwerbach's right hand man during the next four years and was involved in the murder of a gambler known as "The Bottler", a member of the Five Points Gang who operated struss games on Suffolk Street, shooting him twice in the chest in full view of twenty people.

Trouble continued between the Eastmans and the Five Points Gang Until May 14, 1908, when he and Zwerbach got into a fight with Louis "The Lump" Pioggi, a member of the Five Points Gang, over his former girlfriend and dance hall girl Carroll Terry and eventually forced him to jump out the first story window of a Manhattan bar breaking his ankle.

Returning to gang leader Paul Kelly, the two plotted the murder of their rivals and later that night, with several other gang members, Lewis and Zwerbach were ambushed while leaving a Coney Island bar and gunned down, with Zwerbach shot one in the head and Lewis five times in the head and chest.

About Steve Kaplan

2006-07-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

Not far away, up in Atlanta, the lights to the Gold Club have finally gone out. The club, once a prominent Atlanta strip club, was strung by a federal indictment which claimed the bar was a front for prostitution, that it over billed patrons, provides free sex to celebrities, bribed police officers and bought protection from the Gambino organized crime family and laundered its money.

The clubs owner is Steven Kaplan, a longtime associate of John A. Gotti Jr. and 15 others, including two strippers, were charged in a federal indictment that alleges the Gold Club was controlled by New York's Gambino crime family. Law Enforcement official identify Kaplan as a longtime associate who worked in Junior Gotti's crew when Junior was a capo.

The indictment said that the elder Gotti collected payment from clubs that Kaplan owned in Manhattan and Boca Raton, Florida and that after the elder Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992, his son took over the family and the collection of the payments from Kaplan.

The indictment says Kaplan paid the Gambinos protection money, bribed Atlanta police, overbilled patrons and laundered millions in illegal profits since 1988. Prosecutors also allege that after John Gotti, Jr. was indicted in New York one of his subordinates used Kaplan to keep a potential witness quiet about the Gambinos' control of Scores, a Manhattan strip club.

Kaplan is accused of providing dancers and hookers to celebrities and athletes as part of a $50 million criminal operation with ties to the Gambino family. NBA stars cooperated with the FBI agents who were investigating the Gold Club and said that the club's owner, Steve Kaplan, procured hookers for pro basketball players at least seven times between 1994 and 1998.

The indictment against Kaplan stated that in April of 1997, Kaplan brought strippers to the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, to perform a lesbian sex show. Afterwards the women offered sex to some of the Knicks players.

It also alleges that Kaplan provided strippers as prostitutes to NBA players at an Augusta, Georgia hotel, at the Gold Club's Gold Room and inside the Atlanta Swiss Hotel.

According to the 97-page indictment, Kaplan provided strippers to perform oral sex on unnamed pro basketball players inside his Gold Rooms which the players allegedly "rented" using "Gold Bucks" or fake money that the club normally sold to patrons to slip into strippers' G-strings or "rent" one of the club's 19 VIP Gold Rooms for watching nude lap dances in private. On one occasion, Kaplan approved comp slips for "Patrick Ewing and friends" for a total bill of $2,233, including a $991 tab in a single night, and that he also authorized free liquor and sex shows to former Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman and professional wrestlers Randy (Macho Man) Savage, Diamond Dallas Page, Lou Sabh, Scott Steiner and Saturn.

Officials say that the favors were probably provided to attract celebrities to the club rather then to influence athletes to throw games or to divulge information that could help gamblers. The indictment describes Kaplan handing a bag of $20 bills packaged in $2,000 bundles to a Gambino capo identified as "M.D." during a ride to LaGuardia Airport in 1997.

It also described a scheme by club employees to charge thousands of dollars to unsuspecting customers on their credit cards for food and drinks, which were never authorized. Some club members of club management were also charged with double-billing, fraudulently obtaining signatures and altering credit card receipts.

The racketeering indictment charges that Kaplan intimidated his competitors by using his Mafia ties and corrupted two Atlanta police officers in return for special favors and that he skimmed cash from his businesses to evade paying taxes.

The government has moved to seize Kaplan's Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island, home. Otherwise, Kaplan is an American success story. The son of a magazine stand operator inside New York's Grand Central Terminal, he earned enough money in his life to consider making a bid to purchase an NBA franchise.

Maxie Eisen

2006-07-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Maxie Eisen was a Jewish Prohibition gangster and labor racketeer allied with Dion O'Banion in the early 1920s and later for the Saltis-McErlane Gang after O'Banion's death in 1924. As President of the Kosher Meat Peddler's Association, Eisen helped O'Banion infiltrate several trade unions, and later for other gangsters, until the end of Prohibition becoming an important Chigago political "fixer" for the Chicago Outfit. Shortly after Hymie Weiss's death Eisen, with Unione Siciliana President Antonio Lombardo, was partly responsible for arranging a truce between the North Side Gang and the Chicago Outfit in 1926.

Mike Heitler

2006-07-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Michael "The Pike" Heitler was a Prohibition gangster involved in prostitution for the Chicago Outfit.

Michael Heitler began operating brothels in Chicago during the early 1900s based out of West Madison Avenue. By 1911 he had become a leading crime figure as a top liutenant to Chicago racketeer Jacob "Mont" Tennes, later driving rival Jack Zuta out of business with then ally Jake Guzik. Although arrested briefly for white slavery, Heitler continued to run independently of Jim Colosimo, and later Johnny Torrio, until the early 1920s after the formation of the Chicago Outfit.

Reluctantly joining Capone's organization, Heitler began informing Chicago police of criminal activities after rival Jake Guzik gained control of the organizations prostitution operations informing Judge John H. Lyle of extortion and other illegal activities in the Four Deuces nightclub. Heitler was soon found out by Capone after receiving a letter to the state's attorney office detailing Capone's prostitution operations and subsequently fired. Heitler continued to send information to police later claiming Capone's involvement in the death of Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle which was received by Capone. Heitler may have also been involved in the conviction of Jack Guzik and Ralph Capone for tax evasion in 1930. Heitler, last seen with Capone associate Lawrence Mangano, was later found dead after a fire in his home on April 30, 1931.

Jack "Legs" Diamond (Not Jewish)

2006-07-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Jack "Legs" Diamond also known as Gentleman Jack, was the alias of Jack Moran, an Irish-American gangster based out of New York City. A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, he survived a number of attempts on his life between 1919 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld." In 1930, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody what can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?"

Diamond entered crime as a member of a gang called the Hudson Dusters. In 1918-1919, he was jailed for being a US Army deserter. Hired by "Little Augie" Jacob Orgen to murder an enemy, Diamond became Augie's personal bodyguard. He was shot twice when Louis Buchalter, seeking to move in on the labor rackets that Orgen was running in the garment district, shot and killed Orgen.

Diamond then went to work for Buchalter overseeing bootleg alcohol sales in downtown Manhattan. That brought him into conflict with Dutch Schultz, who planned to move beyond his base in Harlem. Diamond was shot five times on one occasion when Schultz's men surprised him at a private dinner and three times on another, when Schultz gunmen opened up with machine guns, killing two bystanders.

On December 18, 1931, Diamond's enemies finally caught up with him, shooting him after he had passed out at a hideout on Dove Street in Albany, New York. The killers shot him three times in the back of the head at approximately 5:30 AM.

There has been much speculation as to who was responsible for the murder, including Dutch Shultz, the Oley Brothers (local thugs), and the Albany Police Department. According to William Kennedy's O Albany, Democratic Party Chairman Dan O'Connell, who ran the local political machine, ordered Diamond's execution, which was carried out by the Albany Police. The following are Dan O'Connell's own words recorded during a 1974 interview by Kennedy and appears on pages 203 and 204:

In order for the Mafia to move in they had to have protection, and they know they'll never get it in this town. We settled that years ago. Legs Diamond...called up one day and said he wanted to go into the 'insurance' business here. He was going to sell strong-arm 'protection' to the merchants. I sent word to him that he wasn't going to do any business in Albany and we didn't expect to see him in town the next morning. He never started anything here.
"Prior brought him around here...but he brought him around once too often. Fitzpatrick finished Legs." O'Connell added that Fitzpatrick (a Police sergeant and future chief) and Diamond were "sitting in the same room and (Fitzpatrick) followed him out. Fitzpatrick told him he'd kill him if he didn't keep going."

Given the power that the O'Connell machine held in Albany and their determination to prevent organized crime from establishing itself in the city and threatening their monopoly of vice, most people accept this account of the story. In addition it has been confirmed by other former machine officials.

Owney Madden ( Jewish by Association)

2006-07-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

Owney "The Killer" Madden was a leading Irish gangster in Manhattan during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.
Early life and the Gopher Gang.

Born in Leeds, England to an Irish-born dockworker in 1892 and christened Owen Victor Madden, Owney Madden emigrated with his family to the United States in 1903. Settling in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Madden soon joined the Gopher Gang with his brother later that year. Described by associates as "that little banty rooster from hell", Madden quickly became a fierce fighter known for his skill with a lead pipe and gun in fights with rivals the Hudson Dusters.

By 1910, at age eighteen, Madden had become a prominent member of the Gophers and was suspected in the deaths of five rival gang members. His reputation soon gained him leadership of one of the three factions of the Gophers. He was earning as much as $200 a day from the Gophers' criminal activities, such as the gang's protection racket which forced local businessmen to pay in the face of firebomb threats.

During this time Madden enjoyed an opulent lifestyle and he was often accompanied by several women. However, he became known for his violent jealousy when he shot and killed a store clerk named William Henshaw who had asked out one of the girls often seen with Madden, while onboard a trolley. Henshaw initially survived the attack and was able to identify Madden as his assailant. When Henshaw later died of his wounds, police arrested Madden. Despite the attack having happened before dozens of people, the case had to be dismissed after no corroborating witnesses came forward.

Over the next three years, the Gophers reached the height of their power as Madden recruited various gunmen into the gang. As Madden began encroaching into rivals' territory, particularly the Hudson Dusters, he was ambushed and shot eight times on November 6, 1912 outside of a 52nd Street dance hall by eleven members of the Dusters. Madden survived the attack, however, and refused to identify his attackers to police, stating "Nothing doing. The boys'll get 'em. It's nobody's business but mine who put these slugs in me !". Within a week of his release, six members of the Hudson Dusters had been killed.

In 1914, Madden became involved in a dispute with Patsy Doyle, a prominent member of the Hudson Dusters, over a woman named Freda Horner. In a breach of gangland ethics (later known in Cosa Nostra-related circles as Omertà), Doyle informed police of Madden's operations. Following Doyle's assault on Madden's close friend Tony Romanello, Madden arranged for Doyle's murder. Madden relayed a message to Doyle through a friend of Freda Horner's named Margaret Everdeane to meet him , supposedly in order to reconcile. As Doyle arrived on November 28, 1914, Madden ambushed Doyle killing him. The police questioned Horner and Everdeane who both confessed to their role. Madden was eventually sentenced to twenty years at Sing Sing Prison.

The 1920's

After serving nine years of his sentence, Madden was released on parole in 1923. The Gopher gang had broken up, and many members of his own faction were either in jail or working for bootlegging gangs. Madden initially became a strikebreaker for a New York taxi company but soon found work under Dutch Schultz in his fight against Jack "Legs" Diamond, Waxey Gordon, and Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll during the struggle to control New York City's bootleg liquor trade. He later opened the Cotton Club, formerly Jack Johnson's Club Deluxe, which became one of the city's most popular nightclubs. Madden also operated legitimate laundry and coal delivery businesses. With the support of Tammany Hall politician Jimmy Hines, he received considerable police protection.

The 1930s

In 1931, shortly before the end of Prohibition, Madden left Shultz's organization and entered into partnership with boxing promoters "Broadway" Bill Duffy and George Jean "Big Frenchie" DeMange. Between them, they controlled the careers of the top five boxing champions including Rocky Marciano, Max Baer, and Primo Carnera. As Primo Carneras manager, Madden arranged fixed fights which led eventually to Carnera's winning the NBA World Heavyweight Championship in 1933. Carnera held onto the title for nearly a year, until suspicions from reporters about fixed fights led to Madden deserting the Italian strongman, setting up Carnera's famous defeat at the hands of Max Baer on June 14, 1934.

In 1932, Madden was involved in the murder of Vincent Mad Dog Coll who had been extorting several mobsters including DeMange and Madden. After being arrested for a parole violation that same year, Madden began facing greater harassment from police, until he finally left New York in 1935.

Arkansas

Leaving behind racketeering, Madden settled in Hot Springs, Arkansas where he opened the Hotel Arkansas, a spa and casino, in 1935. He also became involved in local criminal activities. The Hotel Arkansas became a popular hideout for mobsters; Charles Luciano was apprehended there in 1935. Madden became a naturalized US citizen in 1943, and eventually married the daughter of the city postmaster. He lived in Hot Springs until his death in 1964. At the time of his death he was said to have left $3 million in assets.

Jewish Strong Arms - The Labor Slugger wars

2006-07-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

With the industrialization of the United States and the emergence of labor unions in the late nineteenth century and into early 1900s street gangs began to be hired by companies as strikebreakers and to discourage union activity. Unions themselves would also hire labor sluggers primarily as protection from these strikebreakers and to recruit, by force if necessary, new union members. Many of these workers were recently arriving immigrants, particularly Jewish and Italians, in New York's East Side. Gangs made up of immigrants from similar backgrounds often sided with unions of their compatriots, but also were quick to exploit the lucrative opportunities for labor racketeering.

Labor Slugger War: 1913-1917

By 1912 two major gangs, one led by "Dopey" Benny Fein and another by Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig, dominated labor slugging in New York. The various remaining gangs, who had been largely rendered powerless by Fein and Rosenzweig's brutal tactics, united in a loose alliance in an attempt to break the monopoly held by the two gang leaders.
Declaring war, a major gunfight was fought on Grand and Forsyth Streets in late-1913 between Fein and Rosenzweig against several gangs, including Billy Lustig, Paul Phili, Little Rhody, Punk Madden (not to be confused with Prohibition gangster Owney Madden), and Moe Jewbach. While there were no casualties on either side, gang leader Paul Philip was later killed by Rosenzweig gunman Benny Snyder.

Later arrested by police, Snyder confessed to the murder and agreed to testify against Rosenzweig, who also later testified against the gang. Although Fein and Rosenzweig defeated the gangs eventually, Rosenzweig's conviction in 1915, as well as Fein's arrest on a separate murder charge soon after, would see Fein also testify against his organization as an investigation was launched on labor slugging activities. Eleven gangsters and twenty-three union officials were arrested.

Second Labor Sluggers War: 1918-1919

The subsequent investigations and imprisonment of labor sluggers Benny Fein and Joseph Rosenzweig had effectively ended labor slugging and other labor-related racketeering until the release of "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and Johnny Spanish in 1917. Former rivals, Kaplan and Spanish formed a gang made up mostly of ex-Five Points Gang members that soon dominated labor slugging in New York virtually unchallenged. However infighting between Kaplan and Spanish began again, with Spanish leaving the gang in late 1918. The two factions began fighting for several months until Spanish was killed, supposedly by Kaplan, on July 29, 1919.

Third Labor Sluggers War of 1923

With the death of Johnny Spanish, Kaplan completely controlled labor slugging operations for over four years. In the early 1920s, however, Kaplan began to face competition from rival Jacob Orgen's "Little Augies", including Jack Diamond, Louis Buchalter, and Gurrah Shapiro. In early 1923 war broke out between Kaplan and Orgen over striking "wet wash" laundry workers. Violent gunfights were fought throughout the city until Kaplan's death by Orgen gunman Louis Kushner while in police custody for a concealed weapons charge in August 1923.

Fourth Labor Slugger War of 1927

Orgen, now in complete control of labor racketeering, began expanding into bootlegging. However city officials began investigations into labor racketeering, putting pressure on labor slugging in particular. Advised by Meyer Lansky to instead infiltrate the unions, Orgen refused, continuing labor slugging operations.

In October 1927 Organ was killed by former associates Buchalter and Shapiro, who also wounded Orgen's bodyguard Jack Diamond, in a drive-by shooting. As Buchalter took over as the principal labor racketeer in New York City he began to focus on control of labor unions and extortion, while offering his services to others in organized crime, eventually becoming head of Murder, Inc., as labor racketeering was divided among members into the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s.

Johnny Spanish

2006-07-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

Johnny Spanish was a Jewish gangster who was a rival of former partner "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan during a garment workers' strike which later become known as the Second Labor Sluggers War in 1919.

Born in 1891 as John Weyler (or Wheiler), he claimed to be related to Valeriano Weyler, the famous Cuban dictator. He became involved in labor racketeering and murder, reportedly involved in a killing at age seventeen, before organizing his own gang allied with the Five Point Gang. Spanish soon became notorious for his daring holdups of saloons and other businesses, particularly in his robbery of a Norfolk Street saloon owned by Mersher the Strong Arm. Spanish, who had earlier boasted to return and rob the saloon at a certain time, appeared at the scheduled time, shooting up the bar and assaulting several customers who resisted, before making his escape.

In 1909 Spanish started working together with "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan. They fell out because of a dispute over Spanish's then girlfriend, engaging in a vicious street fight in which the Dropper nearly stabbed his rival to death. Once he recovered, Spanish began taking over control of the Lower East Side "stuss games", a variant of faro.

However during a particularly violent gunfight in one of his attempts to gain control over a particular gambling operation owned by Kid Jigger, an eight year old girl was killed. Forced to flee the city, he discovered, when he returned after several months, that his girlfriend had left him for Kaplan. Spanish abducted the woman, who was now pregnant, and drove to a marsh outside Maspeth, New York, in a rural area of Long Island, where he tied her up against a tree and shot her in the abdomen several times. The woman was found alive several hours later, giving birth to her baby who had three fingers shot off.

Spanish was arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1911; coincidentally around the same time Kaplan was arrested for robbery. After being released from prison in 1917 Spanish rejoined Kaplan, as well as several other former Five Point Gang members, working as "labor sluggers".

However Spanish and Kaplan soon began fighting again as the gang split into two separate factions, as each attempted to gain dominance over the New York's "labor slugging" operations. Johnny Spanish during this period became one of the biggest drug dealers in Manhattan, selling both cocaine and heroin. He was assisted by his brother Joseph, appropriately nicknamed, "Joey Spanish". Yet there was too much bad blood between Spanish and the Dropper for either of them to relax. Spanish was shot and killed while entering a Manhattan restaurant at 19 Second Avenue by three unidentified men on July 29, , 1919. Charges were brought against Kaplan, who had been identified at the scene, but were later dropped.

The Boys from Brooklyn

2006-07-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Killing is an essential part of an organized crime racket – for criminals understand only the law which comes from the barrel of a gun. Every mob must, from time to time, mete out its own justice, either to a member of the gang or someone who threatens the gang’s security. But sometimes, a local gunman isn’t right for the job. It could be because the killing will immediately point to the mobster who ordered it or for some other reason that makes it inopportune for the local killers to take the contract. Over the years, various mobs had traded favors by sending someone to take out the bum, like Pittsburgh Phil and his trip to Florida. Other times, freelancers could be found to take the job.

The Syndicate board of directors needed the ability to enforce its edicts. Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky had a number of hired guns, but they had other interests, as well. The Bugs and Meyer mob wanted more than just to do the crime Syndicate’s dirty work. It was essential that such an enforcement arm be skilled, relentless and willing.

Thanks to Joe Adonis, the dapper gangster with the movie star looks who sat on the national Syndicate board of directors, a group of killers in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn began to pick up some of the contracts. And over time, the Syndicate members began to realize that the Brooklyn gang was almost always successful.

"The precision-like technique they had perfected came to be looked on with great respect and approbation by mob moguls the country over, for the painstaking attention to detail and its neat finality of accomplishment," Turkus wrote.

Lepke Buchalter, for example, used the Brooklyn boys exclusively, paying a flat-rate $12,000 annually for their services. "Those kids in Brooklyn got it taped real good," Lepke once told a pal. "That Reles and Pittsburgh Phil, and that Maione know how to cover up a job so nobody knows a thing." Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, one of the killers whom Lepke so admired, was a cunning, wire-haired fireplug of a man, a bootlegger who rarely touched alcohol and was tough enough to take two bullets – one in the gut and another in the back – as he ascended to his leadership role in the Brownsville mob. Kid Twist had hands that could strangle a man – and often did. His fingers were broad and flat at the ends and "one could almost imagine this low-browed bandit driving rows of nails into a board merely by snapping the fat heads of his fingers down, one by one," Turkus recalled.

Kid Twist and his mobster buddy Buggsy Goldstein had been living a charmed life, by crime standards. Together, they had been arrested more than 70 times and had only served 50 months behind bars between the two of them. Unlike Pittsburgh Phil and Happy Maione, who killed merely because they liked to kill, Kid Twist only killed when necessary. He was Brooklyn’s Public Enemy Number One from 1931 to 1940, when he strolled into a borough police station and started what would become the downfall of Murder, Inc.

Kid Twist was small in stature, but large in ego. He wasn’t afraid of the law and was often openly defiant when he appeared before a court. In 1934, when he was sentenced to three years for assault, the soda-jerk-turned-crime-lord was castigated by the judge. "Reles is one of the most vicious characters we have had in years," said the judge. "I am convinced he will either be sentenced to prison for life or be put out of the way by some good detective with a couple of bullets." Reles sneered at the judge and whispered to his attorney, who then turned to the court. "I will take on any cop in the city with pistols, fists or anything else," Reles said. "A cop counts to fifteen when he puts his finger on the trigger before he shoots."

He was, Turkus claimed, a moral imbecile. Reles admitted to 11 killings and the law could link him to 14 others. In one of those, Reles protested, he had only held one end of the rope and didn't pull it, so it couldn’t possibly be considered a murder count against him.

Reles and Buggsy had taken over Brooklyn, Inc. in 1931, after killing the Shapiro brothers, who had visciously raped the woman who would later become Reles’s wife, to send the headstrong Kid Twist a message. Meyer, the elder of the Shapiros and the reigning gangster in Brownsville, escaped the Reles death squad a remarkable 19 times but succumbed in the end. He was found under the beach in Canarsie; an autopsy revealed sand in his lungs. Reles had buried the gangster alive.

The Joe Rosen Story

2006-07-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

The quiet of the dawning Sunday morning was broken by the sound of firecrackers as the man leaned over his sleeping son. Louis Stamler, a tailor, was waking the boy so he could go to work, when he heard the sharp reports. Stamler rushed to the window of his Brownsville home in time to see a large, black sedan rush away from the front of the candy store across the street.

Curious, Stamler quickly dressed and crossed the still dark street. Looking in the window of Rosen’s Candy Store, he saw the figure of a man lying on the floor of the store. Stamler ran down the block where he saw an approaching policeman and brought the flatfoot to the store. Inside, 46-year-old Joe Rosen, a former garment industry trucker, lay covered in blood, 17 holes in his body. He was quite dead. The gunmen had been good shots; a man’s hat could cover the 10 entry wounds, police reported. The date was September 13, 1936. Rosen, who was not known to police and appeared to be unconnected to the mob, was, in fact, a Murder, Inc. rubout. Eventually, Lepke Buchalter would forfeit his own life for Rosen’s.

Lepke was in Leavenworth serving a fourteen-year term when he was turned over to Dewey for the first time. The prosecutor quickly put together a case on Louis’s union rackets and managed to get a 30-year sentence. Then New York turned the racketeer back over to the feds. It looked like Lepke was going to prison for a long, long time.

But that was before Kid Twist started singing and mentioned a Joe Rosen contract. Quickly, the New York authorities brought Reles before a grand jury and got an indictment on Lepke, Frank Costello, Louis Capone and Pittsburgh Phil, who was already in the Sing Sing death house with Happy Maione, the first victims of Kid Twist’s aria of murder.

It took sixteen months of legal wrangling between the feds and New York before Lepke was brought from Kansas to stand trial for Rosen’s slaying. When the case finally went to trial, more than five years had passed since Joe Rosen was gunned down in his candy store.
Rosen, it seemed, was not as clean as he led people to believe. And he wasn’t very smart, either. He had owned a trucking firm that brought garments to non-union shops in Pennsylvania when Lepke announced that there would be work stoppage.

"Louis," Rosen protested. "That will cost me my business."

Lepke promised Rosen that he would be taken care of. But Rosen was right; the work stoppage, which helped Lepke gain control of a garment trucking firm, forced Rosen out of business.
The trucker went to his friend, Max Rubin, who had been with him when Lepke announced the stoppage. "You and Lepke promised you would take care of me," he said. "Everyone is back at work and I’m on the streets."

Lepke got Rosen a job with Garfield Trucking, but Rosen was fired in less than a year. "This is no good," Rubin told Judge Louis. "We’ve got a desperate man on our hands." Rubin and Lepke once again helped out Rosen to keep him quiet. They set him up in the candy store, where he and his wife were able to eke out a small living. But Rosen wasn’t a businessman and the candy store soon ran into trouble. Rosen pressed his luck and demanded more help from Lepke and Rubin. He was told to get out of town and to keep his mouth shut. Sadly, Rosen didn’t listen and he ended up dead that Sunday morning.

But Lepke, the man who had helped build the national crime Syndicate, the racketeer who had his fingers in nearly every New York union – from the bakers to the garment workers – the killer who had overseen a murder squad that was responsible for nearly a thousand deaths around the country, had made a very simple mistake. Lepke, the man who had insulated himself from the lower echelon killers and who took pains never to talk when someone he didn’t trust implicitly was in the room had screwed up. He had lost his temper over the gall of a small candy store owner who threatened to talk and didn’t realize that an underling had heard him issue the order to take care of Rosen. Lepke had broken his own cardinal rule and left a witness.

When Allie Tannenbaum, the killer who had stalked Big Greenie, took the stand in Lepke’s murder trial, Judge Louis wasn’t concerned. After all, Allie had nothing to do with Rosen’s slaying and couldn’t help the prosecution’s case. But Lepke was wrong. Allie was a hanger-on in the scheme of things; he reported directly to Lepke, but he took his orders from Mendy and Gurrah. Lepke might have wanted Allie to do a job and might want to know how it turned out, but he never directly told Allie to kill anyone.

But in court that day, Allie dropped a bomb on Lepke. He told the story of the hit on Irv Ashkenaz, a Lithuanian taxicab driver who was talking to the law about Lepke’s involvement in the taxi rackets. The order for the contract came from Mendy Weiss, but Allie was required to report to Lepke about the results. He was confident that day in the fall of 1936 when he reported to Lepke’s office. The hit had gone well and he was sure the soft-eyed, quiet ganglord would be pleased. Allie was surprised by what he encountered when he strolled into the office.
Lepke on trial for Rosen's murder

"Lepke was yelling that he gave this Joe Rosen money to go away, and then he sneaks back into a candy store, after he tells him to stay away," Allie testified. "Lepke was hollering: ‘There is one son of a bitch that will never go down to talk to Dewey about me.’ Max (Rubin) was trying to calm him down. He was saying, "take it easy; take it easy Louis. I’ll handle Joe Rosen; he’s all right.’"

"What did Lepke say to that?" Turkus asked. "He says, ‘You told me that before.’ He says ‘This is the end of it. I’m fed up with that son of a bitch.’ He says, ‘and I’ll take care of him," Allie recalled.Two days later, Allie testified, he read in the morning papers that "Joe Rosen" had been killed in his candy store in Brooklyn. The papers said Dewey had been looking for Rosen. In Allie’s mind, that clinched it. Lepke had killed the shopkeeper.

The testimony of Allie Tannenbaum was good enough for the jury. Four hours after they were handed the case, at 2 a.m., the verdict came back against Lepke. The co-founder of the national Syndicate was guilty of first degree murder. The penalty for murder at the time in New York was death by electrocution.

The Electric Chair at Sing Sing

2006-07-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

On June 4, 1888, NY Gov. Daniel B. Hill signed a bill authorizing the use of the electric chair. Electrocution was considered a more humane method of execution than hanging. Thus "the chair" replaced "the rope."

The hangings had been carried out in the respective counties with relevant jurisdiction in the particular cases. But given the specialized nature of the equipment involved in electrocution, executions by electricity were carried out only at state prisons: first at three -- Auburn, Sing Sing and Dannemora -- but later only at Sing Sing.

William Kemmler, the drunken axe-murder of his girlfriend, was the first to be executed by electrocution in NYS. That was August 6 1890 at Auburn. There were 54 other electrocutions at Auburn prison, the last taking palce May 1, 1916 -- Charles Sprague.

Sing Sing's chair was first put to use on July 7, 1891, when it executed 5 men for unconnected murders -- first Harris Alonzo Smiler, and then Shibaya Jugiro, James Slocum, Joseph Wood, and Martin Loppy. Its last execution -- also NYS' last execution -- took place August 15, 1963: Eddie Lee Mays. A total 614 men and women were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing.

Louis Capone, Lepke Buchalter, Mendy Weiss died in the electric chair in Sing Sing Prison on the night of Saturday, 4 March 1944. Harry Strauss, Frank Abbandando, and Harry Maione were also electrocuted in Sing Sing.

More about the leaders of Murder Inc.

2006-07-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

They were Jewish gangsters.

They grew up going to synagogue and celebrating holidays and Sabbath, but as they got older, they were anything but orthodox. Jewish gangsters didn’t think of God, ethics, being a good Jew, or even consider tikkun olam or tzedaka. They were thugs, hoodlums, criminals, and anything synonymous with these traits. Yet, Jewish gangsters of America innovated organized crime. They made it as we know it today. These people made it organized.

If you watch The Godfather series or Goodfellas or Bugsy, the crime you see is what Jews made it. They were masterminds of the mob. Jewish gangsters were descendants of immigrants trying to make a living, the “American Dream”. Other immigrants also started the life of crime, in fact, any nationality you could think of had gangsters; Italians, Irish, you name it, there were gangs for them. They were all either immigrants, or second generation Americans. You have to look at the irony of the situation. The immigrants wanted their children to lead a successful, law-abiding life, and live the “American Dream”. Now the irony was, in the time of the Depression and Prohibition, when organized crime flourished, you couldn’t be both successful and law abiding, in most cases. The only real successful people were the gangsters. The law-abiding ones were dirt poor. There is some history, not much, but definitely some history of organized crime in America.

There were gangs in New York since the 1800’s. The names and trademarks of some of these gangs are quite strange. The True Blue Americans were a gang that wore stove-pipe hats and long blue coats. The Plug Uglies wore primitive football helmets. Despite their odd names and tendencies, there were definitely vicious gangs and gangsters. The Bowery Boys were precursors to the Brownsville Gang, who would later become Murder Inc. There were mythical gangsters used to evoke fear into the hearts of other gangsters. In the 20’s and 30’s, organized crime was at its climax. This was due to the fact that America was in need because of the Depression and Prohibition was at its height. These circumstances especially benefited crime, being that people were looking for an easy way out of the Depression and some booze.

But Jewish crime, such as Murder Incorporated, all came tumbling down in the 1940’s. For Jewish organized crime in America, believe it or not, there were multiple gangs. There was the Purple Gang in Detroit, which were infamous for being super-violent and importing alcohol from Canada during prohibition. There were also many other smaller gangs. But by far, the largest, most successful one was Murder Incorporated (Murder Inc.). Few words can sum up Murder Inc., they were a driving force in America. They could control government by buying out judges, senators, and such. Murder Inc. may have only dealt with murder, but members of it dealt with every other sort of crime you could think of. The bosses usually dealt with bootlegging, gambling, and labor rackets. Everyone else dealt lightly in other things such as pimping, gambling, racketeering, and every other criminal activity. But mainly, most men of Murder Inc. were hit-men. They were all, bosses and hit-men, bad men. Murder Incorporated killed over 1000 people across the nation.

They were also known as the Combination. The term “Syndicate” is often used when talking about organized crime. The Syndicate was Murder Inc. Murder Incorporated was interesting because it truly was organized crime. It ran like a business. In fact, this business was conducted in some of the most common places. In Brooklyn, most business was run in the back-rooms of candy stores, or in the back table of an all-night lunch counter. The hit-men would get phone calls from bosses to kill somebody in the candy stores. The same candy stores that kids grew up going to, were a hot-spot for crime. Even though it consisted of mostly Jews, there were also some Italians, such as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. There was a board of directors. This consisted of mob bosses. These were people such as Meyer Lansky, Benny Siegel, Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, and Louis Lepke. Murder Inc. specialized in making contracts to murder people. There was a special process for this. First, someone had to request for another person to be killed. Then, it was voted on by the board of directors. They would set up court hearings in place such as hotel rooms. Usually, even after approved by the board of directors, the contract was passed by Meyer Lansky. No one person was killed unless Lansky approved of it. A contract could not be made because of a personal grudge. It purely had to violate the laws of the Combination. Also, you could not kill a government official, a reporter, a civilian, or anyone on the board of directors. Of course, in the case of Dutch Schultz, the rules got so twisted, that he was killed. Murder Inc.’s motto was, “We only kill our own,” which basically meant, they only kill criminals.

It was as if Murder Incorporated was a criminal league of crime fighters. Eventually, Murder Inc. was national and made many contracts across the U.S. Of course, they wouldn’t have been this successful if there wasn’t an exact and fool-proof way to kill. It was a whole special, 8-step process. First, the contract was made. A killer was then selected from a completely different state than where the murder was going to occur. Or, a friend of that person would be hired to kill him. The killer would pack a travel bag for a week’s stay. The hit-man would then keep a close eye on the mark (the victim). This was to figure out his schedule and find a good place and time to kill the mark. Find the mark in a secluded place and murder him. Popular methods were shooting, strangling, or using an icepick. This was mainly because they weren’t very messy methods. They would feel betrayal because a friend killed them, or confusion, having no idea what happened in their last moments of death. The killer would then dispose of the body. A popular way of disposing of it was burning it in a pit or open field. The killer would then get on a train and get out of the state A.S.A.P. The police would have no suspects, motives, or sometimes, not even a single witness. Usually escape from the mob was impossible. There were rarely any exceptions. If you wanted to become a family man, or found god, you would be murdered because you knew too much.

The only exception was if you were a boss. Yet, there were a few successful escapes. One of the rare escapes was that of Gangy Cohen. One day, he just disappeared. But, then a couple of small time gangsters, Pretty Levine and Dukey Maffeatore went to go see the movie Golden Boy. Pretty spotted Gangy as one of the spectators in the movie. Soon Dukey was convinced, and so were Kid Twist and Pittsburgh Phil. Gangy ran away to become a movie star. If you were lucky like Gangy, you could run away, but that was rare. Most of the time, a gangster was murdered, sent to jail, or death-row. Death-row was probably the least punishment of all. You could rot away to nothing in jail, and you have to live your life in paranoia of being killed as a gangster. It's almost as if death-row were doing gangsters a favor.

Meyer Lansky was one of the most influential men in Murder Incorporated. He was a man of many myths. One of those was that he first met Benny “Bugsy” Siegel and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano at the same time. Bugsy and Lucky were arguing. For some reason, Lansky showed up, so he hit Lucky over the head with a tool or blunt object to end the fight. Another time, but this time it actually happened, Lansky was confronted by Lucky and his gang. Lucky offered protection. It was then that Lansky defiantly told Lucky to “go (fork) yourself.” So Lucky then offered Lansky protection for free, when Meyer Lansky obstinately told Lucky to “shove your protection up your (where the sun don’t shine)” Meyer Lansky did have these two people as enemies at first, but he soon became quick friends. In fact, they were all head members of Murder Inc. Lansky was considered the “Mastermind of the Mob”. He took care of mostly the business aspect of the mob. There were many inspirations for Meyer Lansky to go into a life of crime. As a child, Lansky’s family didn’t have a big enough oven to cook the Sabbath chloent. Meyer’s mother would give him a nickel to go to the local bakery. At the bakery, the owner would let Meyer use the oven to cook the Sabbath meal. While on his way to the bakery every Friday, he would pass kids gambling and playing craps. Well, one day, curiosity got the best of young Meyer. He decided to gamble the nickel on a craps game. But, not surprisingly, he lost. That Sabbath, the Lansky family would have no chloent. He felt he let his whole family down. Especially, his mother, whom he loved dearly. He also let himself down, and swore never to lose ever again. It was pretty ambitious, and probably every young kid in history has said that at one point or another. But Meyer was actually determined to make it happen. Meyer studied the craps games carefully every chance he got. He learned the tricks and the cheats. Well, another Sabbath, he took that nickel his mother gave him, and he bet on the craps game again. He won. After that one successful time, he never gambled with Sabbath money again. He was able to gamble with his own money. He gambled all over the Lower East Side, and never lost again. Meyer was so successful, he started to keep a big wad of money in the hole of his mattress. A big wad of money was pretty good when your parents are Russian immigrants just getting by. Heck, a big wad of money was good for anyone in the 1920’s. Also, the history of Jews compelled Lansky to lead a life of crime. Jews were always being pushed around. Meyer Lansky felt it was his obligation to get back at society and make sure no one pushed Jews around in America. Meyer Lansky was also bullied by older Italian and Irish boys. This was such as the time when Lucky offered protection. Meyer felt he had an obligation. Meyer Lansky controlled everything that went on in the Combination. No one was killed until it was passed by Meyer Lansky. Meyer was close friends with both Salvatore Luciano (a.k.a.: Charlie “Lucky” Luciano) and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. In fact, at one time, they were arch-enemies, but for some reason, Meyer Lansky had a way of making enemies into his friends. Lansky was a rather short man. He earned his nickname “Little Man” because he only reached a height of about 5 foot. Even though Meyer Lansky was mainly the head of Murder Inc., he also greatly dealt with illegal gambling and other money laundering schemes. Meyer Lansky, like all other prominent figures in the Jewish mob, was taught the tools of the trade by the infamous Arnold Rothstein.

Without Rothstein, Lansky would probably have no idea how to operate organized crime. Rothstein also taught Lansky good fashion taste and etiquette. Rothstein wanted to make Lansky a gangster and a gentleman. Meyer Lansky had a historic meeting with Arnold Rothstein in 1920. It was actually two parts, but in the same day. First Rothstein met Lansky at a Bar Mitzvah. Rothstein told Lansky that he had interest in the kid’s skills. So then, they went to Rothstein’s apartment at the Park Central Hotel to have a six hour chat. Rothstein explained to Lansky that he wanted Lansky to be part of a scheme in which they would illegally import premium alcohol from various countries during the prohibition time. Lansky would be paired with Lucky Luciano. Lansky was star-struck by Rothstein the whole time, and it was an offer that he couldn’t refuse. This was before the Bugsy and Meyer mob. This was the first big time scheme of Lansky’s career. Some major gambling operations were in Havana, Cuba and Las Vegas. In Havana he operated the Montmartre Club; in Las Vegas he helped fund the Flamingo. Under the Law of Return, in 1970, Meyer Lansky moved to Israel. Even though Meyer Lansky gained a new appreciation for Jewish culture and religion, he really moved to get away from the FBI, who had him under surveillance. Meyer Lansky successfully convinced Israeli officials that he did not lead a life of crime and was able to be “just another face in the crowd”. This was until word got out that he resided in Tel Aviv. The Press found him and stalked him. The FBI also found out and started to go after him. Lansky traveled across Europe, trying to outrun the Feds. He then tried to run to Paraguay, but they would not accept him. So then, Meyer Lansky, for the first time in his life, surrendered. He flew to Panama City, Florida. He was then arrested and tried in Miami. But surprisingly, he was tried for tax evasion, and not racketeering. He was acquitted. Lansky then resided in Miami. Later, he would be tried again for tax evasion and illegal gambling, but always acquitted. Meyer Lansky died of natural causes in his home in Miami on January 15, 1983. On his deathbed, he claimed that he never personally killed a man.

Arnold Rothstein was the single most influential man in not only Murder Incorporated, but also organized crime in America. He made it the way we know it today. When you watch any movie that has to do with any gang in America that takes place in the 20th century, Arnold Rothstein made it the way it is in those movies. He talked the talk and walked the walk. He had the etiquette of an aristocrat when his parents were just poor, Jewish immigrants. Rothstein was pretty versatile when it came to crime. He dealt in almost everything. Arnold Rothstein was famous for illegal gambling and importing alcohol during Prohibition. Also, before it was a major problem, Rothstein dealt illegal drugs. Arnold Rothstein had various nicknames. Each of them had a valid reason for them being nicknames. He was called “The Big Bankroll” because he always carried a huge wad of cash with him everywhere he went. If he went to go buy an apple from a street vendor, he would leave a tip of $50. He was called “The Brain” because he made the mob what it is known as today. Finally, he was called “A.R.” as an abbreviation of his name. But this was also a show of respect. It included his first and last name. It was just easier than saying Arnold Rothstein all the time. Rothstein was an exceptional pool player. He was a pool shark on and off. One day, a few gamblers seeking vengeance on A.R. decided to bring in a true pool shark from Philly. So they brought in Jack Conway. He challenged A.R. to a game of pool. A.R. got to chose the hall. He chose John McGraw’s Billiard Hall. The game would take place Thursday evening. The stipulation was first to get 100 points wins. Like any good pool shark, A.R. let Jack Conway win. Rothstein challenged Conway to another game. He won that one, and the one after, and kept on a winning streak. By the morning, he was up by $3000. They played until Saturday morning. Jack Conway was about to challenge A.R. to another game, when John McGraw, owner of the pool hall told them to stop. By that time Jack and A.R. were both delirious, and giggled like little girls after just about every other word they said. Rothstein then put his arm around Conway and took him to the Turkish Bath. It just goes to show how much money gangsters made. Arnold Rothstein was constantly looking for new blood. If A.R. saw you, and thought he could make you an exceptional gangster, he took you in. He always paired up people, such as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano. Being recruited by Arnold Rothstein was like being sent from the minors to the majors. You were now playing with the big players. A great attribute of Rothstein was that he was racially indifferent. In his gang, there were definitely a variety of races. There were Jews, Irishmen, Blacks, Italians, even women. If A.R. liked what he saw, he would take you in. One thing that gave Arnold Rothstein his fame was the 1919 World Series. He was single-handedly responsible for the Black Sox scandal, fixing the World Series. Or, rather, so the myth goes that he fixed the World Series. The story goes that to win a bet, Arnold Rothstein paid 8 members of the starting line-up of the Chicago White Sox a large sum of money. In return, the players would throw the game. Ban Johnson convicted Rothstein of fixing the World Series. The real story is that Rothstein had nothing to do with it. The 8 players were just really mad at the cheapskate owner of the White Sox. So they threw the game. Game 7 of the World Series. Rothstein ended up suing Ban Johnson for Libel. Arnold Rothstein was shot dead November 4, 1928, in the lobby of the Park Central Hotel in New York City. It's ironic that Rothstein gave birth to a great gang when talking to Meyer Lansky in the Park Central Hotel, and he died in the same place. Rothstein was shot dead, but his legacy lives on to modern pop culture.

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was the gangster associated with starting Las Vegas. He was a pure hothead, someone who would shoot then ask. Siegel was also a grade “A” sociopath. He could be your best friend one minute, and shoot you the next. It was for these reasons that he earned the nickname “Bugsy”. Specifically, he would “go bugs” when trouble came about. It was a derogatory nickname that he hated with a passion. Some people were shot for calling him “Bugsy”, which is sort of ironic. Even though he was a hothead, it wasn’t his only weakness. Bugsy loved the ladies. He would do anything for them. One of Bugsy Siegel’s best friends was Meyer Lansky. The were founding members of Murder Inc. They started the Bugsy and Meyer Mob. They weren’t really a gang, but more of a two-man power-trip. Meyer was the brain and Bugsy was the muscle. Even though the myth says that Bugsy made Las Vegas, he really didn’t. It was mainly his idea to put a casino in Nevada, because at the time Nevada was one of the only places you could legally gamble. He also pushed to get funding for the Flamingo Casino, which was named after his wife, Virginia Hill. But, nothing happened until after he died. The myth was made popular by the 1991 movie Bugsy. It was a great movie, and was nominated for many Oscars, but popularized the myth. Then again, the truth never stands in the way of a good story. Bugsy Siegel was the epitome of the gangster as we know it today. Like how A.R. made the mob as we know it today, Bugsy Siegel made the gangster as we know it today. He was short tempered, suave, had good taste, and was a gentleman with the ladies. One of the great true stories about Bugsy Siegel was that he had the opportunity to kill two major Nazis. They were Hermann Goring and Joseph Goebbels. One of Bugsy’s many mistresses was Dorothy DiFrasso. Her husband was close to Mussolini. The husband also invited various Nazis to stay at his house. DiFrasso invited Bugsy to stay while these two Nazis were there. Bugsy was just about to kill them when DiFrasso convinced Bugsy if he killed them, then she would be killed. Like Lansky and Luciano, Bugsy was taught style and crime by Arnold Rothstein. Bugsy Siegel mainly dealt in money laundering, gambling, and murder, even though he wasn’t a hit-man (remember, he’s called “Bugsy”, he would kill people anyway). Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was shot dead in his home June 20, 1947. The murder is unsolved.

Louis “Lepke” Buchalter was probably one of the more troubled souls of Murder Incorporated. He grew up a rough childhood. His nickname is actually short for the Yiddish word “Lepkelah”. This means “Little Louis”. Louis was a boss of Murder Inc. The only thing he really bothered with was the labor rackets. He was also taught by Arnold Rothstein. In fact, Lepke inherited the labor rackets from Rothstein. During the fall of Murder Inc., Lepke went into hiding. J. Edgar Hoover talked to one of Lepke’s reporter friends. The reporter convinced Lepke to come out of hiding. Lepke figured out it was a trick when he was sentenced to death-row. Lepke was the only mob boss ever in America to be sent to death-row. He was sent with his accomplices Mendy Weiss and Louis Capone, who had no relation to Al Capone. He was the first to go to the chair on March 2, 1944. Normal procedures went through, shaving their heads, sponging off the sweat, pouring salt on their heads to absorb sweat, and sticking electrodes on the body. A rabbi was reciting kiddish while Lepke was being electrocuted.

Abraham “Kid Twist” Reles was by far the most significant hit-man in Murder Incorporated. He was born and raised in Brooklyn. Reles took his nickname from a 19th century gangster. This gangster got his name because he would twist the life out of people. Reles preferred an ice-pick, he just liked the nickname. Reles was one of the most trustable men in Murder Inc. It was against his principals to rat on anybody. But one day, he had an epiphany. He thought, I can kill, or be killed; I can rat, or be ratted on. So he decided to confess to the police. The police brought him in. He confessed about everything he could think of about anybody he could think of. This filled up 75 notebooks. During the trials that these confessions led to, Reles had to be protected. He was guarded in the Half Moon hotel in Brooklyn with other rats such as Dukey Maeffatore, Sholem Bernstein, Allie Tannenbaum, Pretty Levine, and Mickey Sycoff. Reles kept himself entertained by playing bad practical jokes on his roomies and listening to the radio. He was getting sicker and sicker. One thing he did to irritate his roomate was coughing up tons of phlegm which was full of blood, and keeping in a glass by a window. He would wait until the glass was full to empty it out. One fateful day, Abe Reles was found dead on the ground ten stories below than the window to his bedroom. Many theories arose of how he ended up there. One was he couldn’t live with the guilt, so he jumped to his death. Another was one of his irked roomies pushed him out the window. Yet another was a guard pushed him out for various reasons. But, the reason the police department came up with was completely different. They said he was trying to pull a prank. He was probably drunk. He made a rope of bed sheets. When the guards weren’t there, he would use the rope to climb down the side of the building. He would then go through one of the windows and knock on the door of the guarded hotel room. It would be a great prank. But the rope couldn’t support his weight, so it broke. Abe Reles was found on the ground with a smirk on his face.

If you have ever heard of the Beer Baron, Arthur “Dutch Schultz” Flegenheimer was that man. He was the only boss of Murder Incorporated to be killed by Murder Inc. During prohibition, he bootlegged beer and sold it on the black market. He got his nickname from a 19th century German ganster. Like Abe Reles, he just liked the name, so he used it. In his time as a boss, he became so paranoid that he branched off of Murder Inc. and made his own gang, purely for protection. As result of his paranoia, he wanted Tom Dewey to be killed. Tom Dewey was the Attorney General of the USA at the time and he wanted to crack down on organized crime. Dutch Schultz had the right idea. But in turn he broke Murder Inc. rule number one. That was “We only kill our own”. Tom Dewey was not their own, a criminal. He was a government official. For that, Dutch Schultz had to be killed. The funny thing is, everyone else was so scared of Tom Dewey, they didn’t notice that a rule was broken until about 24 hours before Dewey was supposed to be killed. The hit-man for killing Dutch Schultz would be Charlie “The Bug” Workman. Schultz was killed in the Palace Chop House, a steak house in Hoboken, New Jersey. His body guards were shot dead, but miraculously, after being shot three times in the stomach, Dutch Schultz crawled to the bathroom. An ambulance came and rushed Schultz to the hospital. On his death bed, he converted to Catholicism. When a detective came to ask Dutch Schultz what happened, he spoke incoherently and nonsensically, and sometimes complete gibberish. The detective took all of this gibber-jabber down in his note pad. This has become a local legend. He died three days after he was shot.

Beansie Rosenthal and Charles Becker

2006-07-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

In the history of the United States, there has been relatively few police officers convicted and executed for a crime. One such officer was Charles Becker, a high-profile lieutenant for the New York City Police Department during the heydays of Tammany Hall, who was convicted of murder. . . . His trial and re-trial were the biggest to ever hit New York. . . . For three years it would dominate the headlines of a frenzied press.

Whether or not he was actually guilty remains an open question. Yet his sinister ties with The Tenderloin underworld cannot be denied. . . . Becker had much against him: a blindly ambitious District Attorney who astutely saw a death sentence for Becker as a free pass to the Governor’s Mansion, a hostile press dedicated to the ruin of a corrupt police lieutenant, and a devil’s pact hatched in New York vilest prison, The Tombs, by three desperate killers eager to trade Becker’s life to save themselves from the electric chair. . .

The original building that earned the name "The Tombs" for itself and succeeding jails on the same site in Lower Manhattan (Centre, Elm, Franklin and Leonard streets) was inspired by an ancient Egyptian mausoleum a travel writer described and drew in a book. The Tenderloin, the area now known as Times Square, which is centered at 42nd Street and Broadway, had hundreds of gambling casinos and was under siege by a virtual army of prostitutes. . . . It was common practice for pimps and casino owners to seek protection from prosecution by paying off the Police Department.

Originally from Sullivan County, Charles Becker . . . moved to the big city in 1888. Tall and handsome, Becker was a powerfully built man with huge shoulders. He got his first job as a bartender on the Bowery, but soon graduated to bouncer . . . . There Becker met Monk Eastman, a deranged killer who ruled a vicious gang of murderers and outlaws. . . .
Through this friendship, Becker met other criminals, including several politicians. One of these was Big Tim Sullivan, a state senator, who was regarded as the King of the Tenderloin and the overseer of all graft and bribery in Manhattan. Sullivan took a liking to Becker, and in 1893, arranged for Becker’s entry into the Police Department.

As a police officer, Becker had a checkered career; several times he was investigated and brought to departmental trials on charges of brutality and false arrest. In 1896 he mistakenly shot and killed an innocent bystander while chasing a burglar. Becker attempted to cover up by trying to pass off the dead man as a known burglar. He was suspended for 30 days. . . . In 1898, the Police Department transferred him to the 16th Precinct, The Tenderloin, plunging him into the depths of the corruption cesspool.

At the 16th in January 1907, Commissioner Theodore Bingham promoted Becker to sergeant for assisting in an earlier investigation. . . . It led shortly to his becoming the bagman for the precinct captain. Becker’s cut was 10 percent of the take. In the first year he made $8,000. While at the 16th he also met Helen Lynch, a Manhattan school teacher he would soon marry.
Mark S. Gado is a detective with the City of New Rochelle Police Department, where he has been employed for 22 years. He recently was assigned to the Westchester County D.E.A. Task Force in White Plains, N.Y. Mark Gado has been a freelance writer for 20 years. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Strange Days magazine and The Law Enforcement Journal.

Then in 1910, Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo formed special squads to break up the street gangs that ruled Lower Manhattan. Becker was made commander of one team. . . . Waldo expanded their duties to include crackdowns of the West Side gambling dens. Instead, Becker used his squad to shake down the casino owners. . . .

Becker hired Big Jack Zelig, a known murderer who took over part of the Monk Eastman gang after Eastman was gunned down outside a Manhattan bar by unknown killers. Zelig used his boys to make the collection rounds. One of them was Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz. His specialty was to place the recalcitrant in his lap and break the man’s back, a lesson he often put on display in East Side saloons. Gyp the Blood frequented these clubs with his sidekicks, Lefty Louie, Dago Frank and Whitey Lewis. Together they had little trouble enforcing Becker’s rules over the Broadway gambling dens.

In the summer of 1912 a low-level gambler named Hertman "Beansie" Rosenthal was given permission by State Sen. Big Tim Sullivan to open a new casino at 104 W. 45th St. named the Hesper Club. . . .When Sullivan became gravely ill and unable to run the show any longer, Becker swiftly reasserted himself. . . . Instead of cowering, as Becker had assumed, Rosenthal began to complain loudly to Tammany Hall politicians, saying he would not stand for such shoddy treatment at the hands of a renegade cop.

Meanwhile, Becker was receiving pressure from Police Commissioner Waldo to raid The Hesper. Finally, Becker raided the club and shut it down. . . . Rosenthal was insane with rage. . . .On the night of July 15, 1912, Rosenthal went to the District Attorney’s office . . . . After meeting with District Attorney Charles Whitman, Rosenthal left the Criminal Courts building at 11 p.m. and headed to the Cafe Metropole on W. 43rd St., a local hangout for gamblers. News of Rosenthal’s meeting with the DA had already spread throughout the Tenderloin. Newspaper in hand, Rosenthal walked into the Metropole, took a seat alone in the back of the room and began to read. . . . A few minutes before 2 a.m., a waiter approached him.

"There’s someone in front to see you, Beansie" he said. Rosenthal walked to the front door. He saw several men lurking in the shadows to his left. "Over here Beansie!" one of them said. As he moved closer, four quick shots rang out. Rosenthal collapsed to the sidewalk. One of the killers strolled over to the body, aimed a pistol at Rosenthal’s head and fired one shot into it. The gunmen then raced across the street to the getaway car, jumped in and roared off down 43rd Street. . . . The killers escaped down 6th Avenue even though police had commandeered a passing auto and had given chase . . . .

Since it was common knowledge that Rosenthal was ratting on Lt. Becker to the D.A. just hours before he was murdered, it was widely assumed that Becker was the killer. Conveniently for Becker, however, he was home in bed at the time of the shooting, an alibi that was later corroborated by a newspaperman. . . .

Whitman found that several witnesses had noticed the license number of the getaway car. It was traced to Boulevard Taxi Service at 2nd Avenue and 10th Street. Records there showed the car had been leased to Bald Jack Rose, Becker’s collection man. The actual driver was William Shapiro, a small-time hood . . . . Whitman also discovered that Bridgey Webber and Harry Vallon, former opium dealers from Chinatown, were seen hanging around the Metropole a few minutes before the shooting and that it was Vallon who sent the message inside the bar for Rosenthal. Based on this information, Webber and Vallon were arrested.

Two days after being implicated in the killing, Bald Jack Rose surrendered to the D.A. Through Rose, Whitman found out where Shapiro was hiding. When he was jailed, Shapiro denied any complicity in the killing. Whitman, in exchange for information, gave Rose, Webber, Vallon and Shapiro immunity. Shapiro then confessed. He admitted that he drove the Packard that carried the killers to the Metropole. He identified the men in the car with him as Louis "Lefty" Rosenberg, Frank "Dago Frank" Cirofici, Jacob "Whitey Lewis" Seidenschmer and Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz. All were rounded up by the police and thrown into The Tombs, Manhattan’s most dreadful prison. Vallon, Webber and Rose were locked up together in a separate part of The Tombs, a circumstance that allowed the three to develop one, rock-solid story. Whatever hopes Whitman had, if indeed he had any, of uncovering the truth were destroyed by this one decision. . . .

On July 29, 1912, based largely on a written statement by Bald Jack Rose, Lt. Charles Becker was indicted. Later that day Becker was picked up at the Bathgate Avenue Station in the Bronx where he was on duty. Brought into court for arraignment, he uttered two words: "Not Guilty!" and whisked away before hoards of reporters could question him.

Virtually every newspaper in New York allied itself with the crusading D.A., who was taking on the status of a mythical hero. . . .

Slightly over two months after his arraignment, Becker’s trial began. On the bench sat Judge John W. Goff, an avowed enemy of the underworld and veteran of the 1894 investigation into New York City corruption. Becker’s attorney was John F. McIntyre, a prominent criminal attorney and a former D.A. himself. . . . With Goff ruling almost exclusively in the prosecution’s favor, the trial would make a mockery of justice.

On Oct. 12, 1912, Bald Jack Rose . . . mesmerized the courtroom with a detailed account of Becker’s sinful ties with the West Side underworld. He testified that Becker had said to him: "He (Rosenthal) ought to be put off this earth. There is a fellow I would like to have croaked! Have him murdered! Cut his throat, dynamite him or anything!"

Rose said he called on Gyp the Blood and Whitey Lewis. Rose said they, in turn, recruited Lefty Louie and Dago Frank. Rose testified they all accepted the contract for $1,000. With Shapiro at the wheel of the Packard, Rose said the five of them went to the Metropole on the night of July 15 and killed Rosenthal.

In the following days, dozens of implicated people took the stand. A sea of contradictory testimony overwhelmed the court, for each witness wanted to save himself. . . .
McIntyre based his defense on destroying the credibility of the prosecution’s three main witnesses: Bald Jack Rose, Webber and Vallon, urging the jury not to believe three criminals who had spent their lives hustling on Tenderloin streets. "You can recognize what self-confessed murderers and perjurers will do when they realize their necks are about to go to the halters," McIntyre argued, making much of the fact that these three were locked up together in The Tombs prior to trial. There, he said, they held several meetings to coordinate their story. McIntyre said the real murderers were Webber and Vallon, both of whom had been granted immunity by Whitman on condition they make Becker the fall guy. McIntyre said that all Webber and Vallon had to do to save their own necks was to stick to their story, for Whitman had no evidence against Becker except the statements of these men.

After nearly four days of instruction by Judge Goff, the case was given to the jury. . . . By midnight the jury reached a verdict. Goff turned to the jury: "And how do you find the defendant?" he said.

"Guilty, your honor!"

Five days later, Becker appeared before Goff for sentencing. . . . Becker was sent to Sing Sing prison on the banks of the Hudson to await execution on Dec. 12, 1912, just six weeks after the sentencing.

Following Becker’s trial, the prosecution put Gyp the Blood, Lefty Rosenberg, Dago Frank and Whitey Lewis on trial for Rosenthal’s death. The trial lasted seven days and was presided over by Judge Goff, who displayed the same bias and iron-fisted rule as he did at Becker’s trial. All four were sentenced to die. The press responded in a chorus of approval. . . .

Becker’s case was brought before the State Court of Appeals. On February 24, 1914, the conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered. Citing Judge Goff’s shocking bias, the court launched a blistering attack on the judge’s behavior . . . . The next trial would begin on May 6, 1914.

Becker and his wife were elated. . . . But there was a cloud on the horizon. The same Court of Appeals rejected another trial for the four gunmen. . . .

On the early morning of April 13, 1914, Dago Frank, Whitey Lewis, Lefty Louie and Gyp the Blood had a last meeting with their loved ones. From his cell, Dago Frank issued a final disturbing statement: "So far as I know, Becker had nothing to do with the case. It was a gambler’s fight. I told some lies on the stand to prove an alibi for the rest of the boys." . . . Despite a last minute sabotage of the electric chair by person unknown, the sentence was carried out.

Becker’s new trial began on schedule. Bald Jack Rose, now a born-again Christian and heavily in demand on the lecture circuit, was resurrected to repeat his damning testimony. Bourke Cockran, a famous criminal, handled the defense. The prosecuting attorney was once again Whitman . . . . On the bench sat Judge Samuel Seabury, who had a reputation of being fair to both defense and prosecution.

On May 22, 1914, in the very first re-conviction in the city’s history, Becker again was found guilty of murder. . . . He was sentenced to die on July 16, 1914, and was taken back to Sing Sing. But again death would have to wait. More appeals were filed and the execution was postponed.

In November of that same year, Whitman was elected governor of the state of New York. . . .
Bald Jack Rose was barnstorming around the country playing the criminal lecturer. Shapiro was in New Jersey and had started a farm. Gyp the Blood and the others were all dead. . . . Whitman sat in the Governor’s chair and Becker, marooned in the dungeons of Sing Sing, awaited his fate.
Becker had exhausted all the appeals that were possible and his death seemed imminent. But there was still one way out. Under state law, a death sentence may be commuted to life by a stroke of the Governor’s pen. Ironically, the Governor in this case was also the former prosecutor. Never before in American history had such a bizarre turn of events taken place. How could Whitman decide on the issue when it was he who put Becker on death row in the first place? Some of the press echoed this sentiment. . . . It was suggested that the appeal for clemency be turned over to the lieutenant governor for review. But Whitman wouldn’t hear of it.

The execution had been reset for July 30, 1915. . . . In a final declaration of innocence, Becker wrote a letter to Whitman: "I am innocent as you of having murdered Herman Rosenthal or having counseled, procured or aided his murder or having any knowledge of that dreadful crime."

At last, the day before Becker’s scheduled execution, Helen Becker herself visited the Governor’s office to plead for her husband’s life. . . . Still Whitman would not change his mind.
At 5:30 a.m. on July 30, 1915, Becker, dressed in black, his trousers slit up the sides, walked down death row. While dozens of reporters watched, he was hastily strapped into the electric chair. His last words were: "Into thy hands O Lord, I commend my spirit!" . . . . Becker was strong, so much so that the voltage needed to kill him had been misjudged. . . The execution was becoming a nightmare. The voltage was increased and mercifully, the third jolt finally killed him. It had taken eight minutes, each one faithfully recorded by the newsmen assigned to witness the execution. Lt. Charles Becker of the New York City Police Department was dead.

Isadore " Kid Cann" Blumenfeld

2006-07-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

Isadore Blumenfeld commonly known as Kid Cann, was the most notorious mobster in the history of Minnesota.

He was born in the shtetl of Rumnesk, Romania, but was brought to the United States at the age of two. By his 20s, Blumenfeld and his brother (Harry "Yiddy Bloom" Blumenfeld) held considerable power in north Minneapolis, and oversaw illegal activities such as bootlegging, prostitution, and labor racketeering. A number of deaths are attributed to him or his gang, including prominent journalists who were killed after writing articles explaining the inner workings of his organization. Blumenfeld was Jewish, and associated himself with many other Jewish mafia men.

There was a high degree of political and civil corruption in the region in the 1920s and 1930s. The main newspapers in the area hardly mentioned what was going on, as any outlet that published articles critical of the status quo were threatened. Some small alternative newspapers attempted to report what was going on, but reporters and editors quickly became targets.

Howard Guilford of the Twin City Reporter was shot and killed on September 6, 1934. A decade later the paper lost another reporter when Arthur Kasherman was killed on January 22, 1945.
The most notorious death was that of Walter W. Liggett, founder and editor of the weekly paper The Midwest American. He had been threatened and offered bribes to stay quiet, but he persisted in reporting on links he found between area crime syndicates and the governor of Minnesota, Floyd B. Olson. Liggett was beaten up, framed, and finally died after being shot in the alley behind his home on December 9, 1935. His wife and daughter were nearby when it happened and witnessed the assassination.

Cann was indicted by a grand jury, but poor investigative work and a careless trial meant that he wasn't touched.

Blumenfeld was indicted for the killing of a taxicab driver, and was also believed to be responsible for the attempted murder of police officer James H. Trepanier.

As the area streetcar system, operated by Twin City Rapid Transit, was being dismantled in the early 1950s and replaced with diesel buses, Blumenfeld owned a 16% stake in the company. Some people believe he held considerable responsibility for what happened, but when a court case years later led some people from the company to go to prison, Blumenfeld was not convicted.

In 1959, he was convicted on charges related to prostitution activities. After his release from prison, he moved to Miami Beach, Florida with his friend Meyer Lansky. They reportedly continued to make money through illegal activities, though they changed tack, focusing instead on stock market fraud, money laundering, and questionable real-estate dealings. He died in Minneapolis in 1981

Max Zwerbach - The Original "Kid Twist"

2006-07-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach was a gangster in the around the turn of the century who belonged to the Eastman Gang. Virtually nothing is known of Zwerbach's early life and origins. He appears to have been the bad seed of an upstanding Jewish family from Brooklyn who fell into a life of crime on the Lower East Side. Zwerbach joined the Eastman Gang. Due to the fact that he possessed a unique mix of brains and brutality, Kid Twist carved out a high position in the gang, becoming Monk Eastman's right hand man.

Zwerbach first fully enters the picture three weeks after the great Rivington Street gun battle between the Eastman and Five Points Gang, which occurred on September 17, 1903. Monk Eastman had been arrested in New Jersey and when Kid Twist learned he was locked up, he gathered up fifty men and led several carriage loads of them across the river, with the intention of storming the jail to free the boss. Cooler heads prevailed and the scheme never came off.
When Eastman was locked up for robbery the next year, Kid Twist found himself at odds with an old pal named Richie Fitzpatrick over the leadership of the gang. The two met in a peace conference in a Sheriff Street saloon on the night of November 1, 1904. Fitzpatrick wound up shot to death by one of Twist's men, Harris Stahl aka Kid Dahl.

Kid Twist maintained the Eastman Gang's supremacy in the New York underworld. His chief aide was a Coney Island brute named Vach Lewis (nicknamed Cyclone Louie) a former wrestler and sideshow strongman who was famous for twisting iron bars around his arms and neck. As a reward for the hit on Fitzpatrick, Kid Dahl was made an active partner in the Suffolk Street stuss game of a Five Points gangster named The Bottler. Some time later, Kid Twist muscled in another friend of his, named The Nailer, and The Bottler finally had enough. Barricading the doors of his game, he loudly dared Zwerbach to try and kill him. One night a short while later, While Kid Twist argued in a police station with a detective, and Kid Dahl was in a restaurant loudly complaining about the food, Cyclone Louie (then unknown on the Lower East Side) entered the stuss hall and shot The Bottler to death in front of twenty players. Both Twist and Dahl loudly mourned the passing of their "friend" and festooned the stuss house with crepe.

Despite having a wife and child at his Williamsburg home, Kid Twist was known as a ladies man around town, and it was this that would prove the end of him. Zwerbach's regular girlfriend was a Canadian dancer named Carroll Terry, who also happened to be seeing Louis Pioggi aka Louie The Lump, an up-and-coming member of the Five Points Gang. In the early evening of May 14, 1908, Pioggi met with Terry in a Coney Island dance hall one last time, when she let him know that she preferred the company of Kid Twist. Burning with jealously, Louie The Lump went to a Surf Avenue saloon and began drinking. As he boozed, in walked Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie. They slid up next to their rival and began viciously taunting him with crude remarks about his failed relationship. When Louie The Lump looked as if he wanted to fight, the Eastmans drew pistols and forced Pioggi to jump out of the second story window. Louie The Lump went out the window, breaking his ankle when he hit the pavement. He staggered off as Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie stuck their heads out the window and laughed uproariously.

Shortly before 8:30 that night, is that the two Eastmans were still in the saloon drinking and chuckling over Louie the Lump's dive, when a young boy delivered them a note, saying Carroll Terry was outside and wanted to see them. The two men strolled out into the night, when Louie The Lump, holding two revolvers, charged forward and opened fire. One bullet struck Kid Twist in the head, and Cyclone Louie was hit five times before he moved a step. Both men collapsed dead in the doorway underneath a large, ornamental horseshoe. Just then, none other than Carroll Terry herself arrived on the scene. Louie shot her through the hip. As the gangster limped away, a police officer yelled for him to halt. Pioggi whirled around and fired one shot, which ripped off the officer's helmet.

After his initial humilation, according to legend (contemporary newspaper accounts make no mention of these events) Louie The Lump got on the phone to Paul Kelly, boss of the Five Points Gang, and told them what happened and asked permission to kill Kid Twist. A trolley car full of Italian gangsters soon arrived at Coney Island, ready for action. It was also said that the anonymous gangsters also did a good deal of shooting, although witnesses and police made it clear that Pioggi did all the killing himself.

Louie The Lump was arrested almost a year later and pleaded guilty, receiving eleven months in jail, sneering that, "I could to that standin' on me head!" After the death of Kid Twist, the Eastman Gang split into factions, continuing their feud with the Five Pointers. Leadership of the largest faction fell to Zwerbach's young protege, Jack Zelig.

Years later, gangster Abe Reles was said to have taken his nickname "Kid Twist" from the long-dead Zwerbach.

Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal

2006-07-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Frank Larry 'Lefty' Rosenthal, born on June 12, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois, is a renowned sports handicapper and a former Las Vegas casino executive. He secretly ran the Stardust, Fremont and Hacienda casinos when they were controlled by the mafia.

He was the first to bring a sports book into the casino, making the Stardust one of the world's leading centers for sports gambling as well as allowing women to be blackjack dealers which doubled the income of the Stardust within a year. Frank is also known as one of the leading sports bettors in the world as he has the ability to predict the outcome of sporting events through his knowledge and statistical analysis of the sports world.

Rosenthal earned the nickname "Lefty" during a Supreme Court hearing where he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 37 times, not even revealing whether or not he was left-handed.
Rosenthal married Geraldine McGee and they had two children. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce, with Rosenthal attributing the failure primarily to McGee's inability to escape her drug addictions. McGee eventually died in the early 1980s following an apparent drug overdose at a motel after leaving Rosenthal and stealing a significant portion of his savings. It was ruled that her death was accidental and that is was from a combination of cocaine, valium, and Jack Daniel's whiskey.

After surviving attempted murder following a car bomb attack and then being forced out of Las Vegas, Rosenthal retired to Laguna Niguel, California, and then to Boca Raton, Florida, where he continues to handicap sports events, marketing his picks to gamblers through his own website.
Rosenthal was put in Nevada's Black Book in 1988, making him persona non grata in the state's casinos since that time.

The 1995 Martin Scorsese film Casino, based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi, was based on Rosenthal's career in Las Vegas. Rosenthal (renamed "Sam 'Ace' Rothstein" in the fictionalized account) was played by Robert De Niro and his associate Anthony Spilotro (renamed "Nicky Santoro") was played by Joe Pesci.

The Lenox Avenue Gang

2006-07-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

The Lenox Avenue Gang was an early 20th Century New York street gang led by Gyp the Blood, one of the most violent gangs of the pre-Prohibition era.

The Lenox Avenue Gang was started sometime during the early 1900s by Gyp the Blood as an independent group of around twenty members, consisting mostly of pickpockets and burglars, under Jack Zelig's Eastman Gang. Mainly operating around 125th Street, the gang generally committed muggings and robberies although they were occasionally hired out for murder by Zelig.

Under Gyp the Blood's guidance the gang produced many of the top criminals of the early century, including Jacob "Whitey Lewis" Seidenshner, Louis "Lefty Louie" Rosenberg, and Francesco "Dago Frank" Cirofisi. Prominent New York police detective Val O'Farrell had stated Cerofisi was "one of the toughest men in the world"; police suspected Cirofisi of at least 6 homicides, however they were unable to charge him due to lack of evidence. An associate of the gang, Cirofisi's girlfriend Dutch Sadie was the prominent female member, known to carry a butcher knife in her clothing; she assisted Cirofisi in several muggings.

While successful in its early years, the gangs downfall began when they were hired to murder gambler Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal, a suspected police informant. Horowitz, along with Seidenshner, Rosenberg, and Cirofisi, drove to the Metropole Hotel on July 16, 1912 and, calling out to Rosenthal, shot him several times as he appeared onto the street, before fleeing the scene. The gangsters, seen by dozens of witnesses, were soon arrested however and, after being questioned, it was admitted that they were hired out by NYPD Lt. Charles Becker who had ordered Rosenthal's death after he had informed on Becker.

Charged with the murder of Rosenthal, Gyp the Blood, Jacob Seidenshner, Louis Rosenberg, and Francesco Cirofesi were sentenced to the electric chair and executed for the murder of Rosenthal in 1914. With the loss of their leaders, the gang disbanded entirely within several months.

The Purple Gang of Detroit

2006-07-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Purple Gang was a notorious mob of (mostly Jewish) bootleggers and hijackers in the 1920s. Under the leadership of Abe Bernstein, the gang operated out of Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, which was a major port for running cached alcohol products across during Prohibition, since it is on the border with Canada.

The history of the organization was recounted vividly in Paul R. Kavieff's The Purple Gang : Organized Crime in Detroit 1910-1945.

Perhaps the most ruthless bootleggers of their time, they may have killed over 500 members of rival bootlegging gangs during Detroit's bootleg wars. Originally, the mob came from young impoverished Detroit immigrants, who engaged in theft and armed robbery along Detroit's notorious Hastings Street. The gang supposedly received their name during a conversation between two Detroit market owners, each of whom had been victimized by the gang in its early days. One of them made a comment, "They're rotten, purple like the color of bad meat."

"The Purples were really a very loose confederation of mostly, but not exclusively, Jewish gangsters. Well, the gang started as a group of juvenile delinquents on the lower east side of Detroit, a group of about 16 or 17 children from the same neighborhood. Mostly they were involved in the usual petty crime of juveniles. . .rolling drunks and stealing from hucksters", according to Paul Kavieff .

With their murderous reputation, Al Capone supposedly borrowed Purple Gang members George Lewis and brothers Phil and Harry Keywell for the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Bootlegging netted the gang millions of dollars, but the mob was also involved in extortion, hijackings, and jewelry thefts. After the end of Prohibition, Purple Gang members were invited into the growing national crime syndicate in the 1930s, which was replacing the old mafia that had been dominated by the Mustache Petes. Purple Gang members accepted the invitation and eventually began running the crime syndicate's gambling empire.

"The Purples ruled the Detroit underworld for approximately five years from 1927 to 1932...jealousies, egos, and inter-gang quarrels would eventually cause the Purple Gang to self-destruct. In 1931 an inter-gang dispute ended in the murder of three Purples by members of their own gang. The three men had violated underworld code by operating outside the territory allotted to them by the Purple Gang leadership. Three members of the "Little Jewish Navy," a group of Purples who owned several boats and participated in rumrunning as well as hijacking, decided they would break away from the gang and become an underworld power themselves... The predecessors of Detroit's modern day Mafia family simply stepped in and filled the void once the Purple Gang self-destructed.

Joseph "Doc" Stacher

2006-07-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph "Doc" Stacher 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. However, 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.

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 in 1977.

Moe Dalitz

2006-07-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

Morris Barney "Moe" Dalitz was a bootlegger and racketeer who was one of the major figures that helped shape Las Vegas, Nevada in the 20th century.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Michigan, Dalitz worked in his family's laundry business early on, but began his career in bootlegging when Prohibition began in 1919, and capitalized on his access to the laundry trucks in the family business. He operated primarily between Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. While converting his profits into legitimate businesses, he also owned several illegal casinos in Cleveland.

His investment in Las Vegas began in the late 1940s with the Desert Inn when the original builder of the resort, Wilbur Clark, ran out of money, and Dalitz took over the construction. When it opened in 1950, Clark remained the public face and frontman of the resort, while Dalitz quietly remained in the background as the real owner. He also ran the Stardust Resort & Casino for a time after the death of Tony Cornero. Dalitz owned the Desert Inn until 1967, when he sold it to the billionaire Howard Hughes. Since he had been under constant pressure from law enforcement for many years, selling the resort was seen as an opportunity to get the authorities off his back.

Dalitz continued to be active in the Las Vegas community. When he died in 1989 many organizations received substantial donations he left in his will.

Fighting Back !

2006-07-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Of the Jewsih Gangster in organized crine, few of these men were religiously observant. They rarely attended services, although they did support congregations financially. They did not keep kosher or send their children to day schools. However, at crucial moments they protected other Jews, in America and around the world.

The 1930s were a period of rampant anti-Semitism in America, particularly in the Midwest. Father Charles Coughlin, the Radio Priest in Detroit, and William Pelley of Minneapolis, among others, openly called for Jews to be driven from positions of responsibility, if not from the country itself. Organized Brown Shirts in New York and Silver Shirts in Minneapolis outraged and terrorized American Jewry. While the older and more respectable Jewish organizations pondered a response that would not alienate non-Jewish supporters, others – including a few rabbis –asked the gangsters to break up American Nazi rallies.

Historian Robert Rockaway, writing in the journal of the American Jewish Historical Society, notes that German-American Bund rallies in the New York City area posed a dilemma for mainstream Jewish leaders. They wanted the rallies stopped, but had no legal grounds on which to do so. New York State Judge Nathan Perlman personally contacted Meyer Lansky to ask him to disrupt the Bund rallies, with the proviso that Lansky’s henchmen stop short of killing any Bundists.

Enthusiastic for the assignment, if disappointed by the restraints, Lansky accepted all of Perlman’s terms except one: he would take no money for the work. Lansky later observed, "I was a Jew and felt for those Jews in Europe who were suffering. They were my brothers." For months, Lansky’s workmen effectively broke up one Nazi rally after another. As Rockaway notes, "Nazi arms, legs and ribs were broken and skulls were cracked, but no one died."
Lansky recalled breaking up a Brown Shirt rally in the Yorkville section of Manhattan: "The stage was decorated with a swastika and a picture of Hitler. The speakers started ranting. There were only fifteen of us, but we went into action. We … threw some of them out the windows. . . . Most of the Nazis panicked and ran out. We chased them and beat them up. . . . We wanted to show them that Jews would not always sit back and accept insults."

In Minneapolis, William Dudley Pelley organized a Silver Shirt Legion to "rescue" America from an imaginary Jewish-Communist conspiracy. In Pelley’s own words, just as "Mussolini and his Black Shirts saved Italy and as Hitler and his Brown Shirts saved Germany," he would save America from Jewish communists. Minneapolis gambling czar David Berman confronted Pelley’s Silver Shirts on behalf of the Minneapolis Jewish community.

Berman learned that Silver Shirts were mounting a rally at a nearby Elks’ Lodge. When the Nazi leader called for all the "Jew bastards" in the city to be expelled, or worse, Berman and his associates burst in to the room and started cracking heads. After ten minutes, they had emptied the hall. His suit covered in blood, Berman took the microphone and announced, "This is a warning. Anybody who says anything against Jews gets the same treatment. Only next time it will be worse." After Berman broke up two more rallies, there were no more public Silver Shirt meetings in Minneapolis.

Jewish gangsters also helped establish Israel after the war. One famous example is a meeting between Bugsy Siegel and Reuven Dafne, a Haganah emissary, in 1945. Dafne was seeking funds and guns to help liberate Palestine from British rule. A mutual friend arranged for the two men to meet. "You mean to tell me Jews are fighting?" Siegel asked. "You mean fighting as in killing?" Dafne answered in the affirmative. Siegel replied, "I’m with you." For weeks, Dafne received suitcases filled with $5 and $10 bills -- $50,000 in all -- from Siegel.

David Berman

2006-07-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

David "Davie" Berman was a prominent Jewish-American mobster, one of the pioneers of gambling in Las Vegas, Nevada; he was closely associated with Bugsy Siegel at the Flamingo Hotel, and was one of the few mobsters of his era to die a natural death.

A major organized crime leader, David Berman had become a prominent bootlegger in Minneapolis, Minnesota during Prohibition.

Nazi crimes against the Jews angered Berman so much that he joined the Canadian Army to go fight them (Pearl Harbor had not yet brought the U.S. into the war). He served in northwest Europe with the 18th Armoured Car Regiment (12th Manitoba Dragoons), a reconnaissance outfit, along with Minnesota friend Nathan Gittlewich. He was well liked. Fellow troopers did not know of his criminal background.

After the war he became a partner with Bugsy Siegel in the Las Vegas syndicate casino The Flamingo.

His daughter Susan Berman wrote a memoir about him, called Easy Street, before her murder in December 2000.

A Tough Jew in Our Generation - Chris Rosenberg

2006-06-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Harvey "Christopher" Rosenberg was a notorious member of a crew run by Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo that is suspected of 125-200 murders in the mid 1970s to the early 1980s. He was said to be violently defensive about his height, and despite his Jewish heritage, felt his killing ability would eventually earn him a button in the Italian-only Gambino crime family.

Christopher Rosenberg grew up in Canarsie on a block dominated by Italian-Americans, and considered his Italian friends his brothers. He too wanted to be Italian and despised his heritage because of it. Rosenberg's criminal career began relatively early, when he began dealing in narcotics at age 13. His first arrest was in 1970 for car theft, which started out as a felony case, but was reduced to a misdemeanor. He walked away with a fine as his only punishment. He was arrested again in 1971 for possession of the drug hashish, then again in 1972 for the attempted stealing of a snowplow. Both cases were dismissed.

Rosenberg was dealing in small amounts of marijuana and hashish when he first met Roy DeMeo at a Canarsie gas station in 1966. DeMeo admired Rosenberg's fearless attitude and immediately took a liking to the teenager, loaning him money so Chris could deal in larger amounts. Roy also recruited Chris to steal cars, which would then be sold off through connections DeMeo had within Canarsie junkyards. Rosenberg was also the first crew member to interact with Roy socially at family barbecues and get-togethers at Roy's house. Between his adept car abilities as well as his fledgling drug business, Chris became successful and opened his own car shop named Car Phobia Repairs, which soon became a hotspot for stolen vehicles. Chris moved into an upscale apartment and had a large amount of disposable income, which he spent on a variety of clothes, cars and other flashy 'toys'. By now Chris had his friends stealing cars for him. Two of these friends were the infamous (in the Canarsie area) Gemini Twins, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, who would become two more integral members of Roy DeMeo's crew.

By 1974, then 23 year-old Chris Rosenberg began selling cocaine and quaaludes, again backed by Roy DeMeo. He acquired the quaaludes through a pharmacist connection, as well as the cocaine, which at the time could be prescribed for medical purposes. Through this pharmacist, Chris Rosenberg and the rest of the early DeMeo crew met 22 year-old Andrei Katz, a man who became what was most likely the crew's first murder.

Like Rosenberg, Andrei Katz was of Jewish descent, both of his parents being concentration camp survivors. Despite such a humble background, Katz was flashy and arrogant, dabbling heavily in drugs and women. Chris and Andrei began a business relationship, with Chris providing stolen spare parts for Andrei's car service shop. From this a friendship blossomed between Katz and the early DeMeo crew and the group were often found at Andrei's apartment snorting cocaine. The business relationship strengthened as well, when in the next few months Andrei purchased cocaine, car parts and tag jobs (stolen vehicles), as well as a .38 revolver from the crew. With the early DeMeo crew as his backing Andrei himself also began dealing in cocaine. Things soon became complicated when a friend of Katz was stopped while driving one of the stolen vehicles Andrei had acquired from Rosenberg. The police were led to Andrei, and they arrested him in October of 1974. The police offered him a deal if he cooperated, but he refused and was released on bail. However, Andrei was angry at Chris and blamed him for his arrest. Andrei soon found himself in a confrontation with the crew, who stopped by his shop to make sure he was going to keep his mouth shut. Words became heated and an argument broke out. The following day Chris confronted Andrei again and punched him in the mouth. A few days later Andrie was yanked out of his vehicle and badly beaten by two masked men. He was in the hospital for a few days with horrible injuries from being pistol-whipped and beaten with a blackjack. Once healed, Andrei began carrying a handgun with him and planning revenge.

The revenge came on November 13, 1974, when Chris Rosenberg opened his garage door and was struck with 3 bullets fired from an automatic rifle. Chris survived through sheer luck, one bullet hitting him in the lower jaw, another his right arm and a third that was aimed for his chest merely glancing the target. Despite the fact that he survived what should have been a very fatal shooting, Chris was reportedly furious. The bullet that tore into his jaw had disfigured his face, and reconstructive surgery did little to alleviate this anger. For the rest of his short life Rosenberg wore a beard to mask the scars that resulted from this attack.

The man who had shot Chris that morning was never seen but it was correctly assumed that the shooter had to be Andrei Katz. After this incident, and while Rosenberg was still in the hospital recovering from his gunshot wounds, the rest of the Canarsie men who made up the still-formative DeMeo crew made sure to travel together and always armed. During this time, the Gemini Twins Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter were arrested for carrying loaded handguns, but were soon released. Around this time, another core crew member emerged onto the scene, Henry Borelli. Once the Gemini Twins were released and Chris was out of the hospital following the shooting, a meeting was called with Roy DeMeo to figure out what to do about the situation. Having since murdered for his superior, Anthony Gaggi, Roy wasted no time coming up with a solution: kill Andrei Katz.

A direct hit was reportedly considered by the crew to be risky given all that had happened, so a woman friend of Henry Borelli's was used to successfully bait Katz to a location where he could be directly confronted, under the pretenses that Borelli and crew wanted only to discuss an outstanding loan with him. Arriving at the woman's apartment complex, Andrei was forcefully abducted by Chris, Henry Borelli, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter and taken to the meat department of a grocery store, where Roy DeMeo was waiting. It was this night, Friday, June 13, 1975, that the DeMeo crew is first known to have been involved with murder and dismemberment. While first-hand accounts of the incident are unavailable, the remains of Andrei Katz held clues that were used by law enforcement and reporter/author Jerry Capeci to reconstruct the events. First, Andrei was stabbed multiple times in the heart with a butcher knife, presumably by Chris Rosenberg in revenge for the shooting that had put Chris into the hospital and ruined his face. Andrei's body was then stripped of its clothes and dismembered by Roy DeMeo and Joseph Testa, both former butcher's apprentices, while Chris and Anthony Senter bagged the body parts.

The crew then left the plastic bags filled with the dismembered remains in the grocery store's dumpster, failing to realize that the garbage wasn't picked up on weekends at that particular location. Because of this oversight, the remains sat there until that Sunday, when a pedestrian walking his dog near the store discovered a human leg lying near the curb. Presumably it was initially taken out of the dumpster by a homeless man who mistook the package to be spoiled meat and then fled when he realized the truth. The police reported to the press that a grisly, brutal killing had occurred, but that was the extent of the information given. The body was identified as that of Andrei Katz two days later through the use of dental records. Almost immediately after learning of the murder, the woman friend of Henry Borelli, who acted as bait left New York for a vacation, disposing of the clothes she wore on the day she was seen with Katz. While out of town, she was informed by a friend that she was linked to Andrei Katz and his final day seen alive, and that law enforcement officials were seeking her for questioning. This led to her returning to New York in early July 1975 and immediately confessing her role in the murder, leading police to Henry Borelli and Joseph Testa, who were both arrested. The day after Testa and Borelli's arrest, police told the press that "two or three" other men were being sought for the crime. However, the woman was unable to identify Rosenberg or Anthony Senter so no charges were brought against them.

At Testa and Borelli's trial, the defense lawyers succeeded in making the woman's testimony seem inaccurate and unreliable. This, coupled with the lack of physical evidence linking either of the men to the crime scene, secured an acquittal for both crew members. No retaliation was brought towards the woman who turned them in, and she went on to testify a second time against them, for the very same crime, in the late 1980s when the FBI had finally built up a solid case against the DeMeo crew. By this time, however, Rosenberg would not be around to worry about it.

As the 1970s continued, Chris Rosenberg along with the rest of the DeMeo crew would allegedly contribute to many more killings in the next couple of years which included suspected informants and other mobsters Roy DeMeo and his followers were contracted to kill. Rosenberg would also deal more and more heavily in narcotics, particularly in cocaine and the Colombian marijuana trade. At one point during this time, an associate of Rosenberg claimed he had many contacts to whom he could sell cocaine. After Rosenberg fronted the man an amount to sell off, the man claimed his house was broken into and the drugs stolen. Chris allegedly shot the man dead on the spot.

The majority of murders committed by the crew however followed what came to be known as the "Gemini Method", named so because the main location where the victims were killed and then dismembered was the Gemini Lounge, the headquarters of the DeMeo crew through much of the late 1970s. The Gemini Method usually consisted of the victim entering the apartment in back of the Lounge, dubbed 'The Clubhouse' by crew members. At this point, a crew member (almost always Roy DeMeo according to crew member turned government witness Frederick DiNome) would approach them with a silenced pistol and shoot them in the head, then wrapping a towel around the victim's head wound like a turban in order to staunch the sudden flow of blood. Immediately after, another member of the crew would stab the victim in the heart in order to prevent any more blood from pumping out of the gunshot wound. By then the victim would usually be dead, at which point other crew members would assist with the dismemberment after a short period of time spent waiting for the victim to bleed out or for the blood to congeal in order to make the process of taking apart the corpse as clean as possible. The body parts would be put into bags, boxed and then sent off to the Fountain Avenue Dump among other places. Crew members who became witnesses all contend that during the time period that Rosenberg was alive, he was always the crew member chosen to stab the victim after they had been shot in the head. These same witnesses also claim that Rosenberg usually did the stabbings (and subsequent dismemberment) in his boxer shorts or underwear in order to avoid staining the often expensive clothes he wore.

More murders committed by Chris and members of the DeMeo crew were attributed to the drug business, notorious for its shady participants and nonstop violence resulting from deals gone bad. It was one of these drug scams, committed by the DeMeo crew themselves, as well as Rosenberg's habit of introducing himself as Italian, that ultimately sealed his fate.

The origins of the fateful drug deal actually began in the early 1970s, when one Charles Padnick, owner of a body shop in Flatlands, became one of Roy's loan customers. Padnick soon moved to Florida, only to borrow more money from Roy when his business there floundered. Charles Padnick then entered the cocaine business, like many otherwise legitimate citizens did in the 1970s and 1980s, to continue paying off Roy's loans. It was through the drug business that Charles Padnick, as well as his son Jamie, got closer to Chris Rosenberg who by the late 1970shad become very successful and wealthy through narcotics. The Padnick's sold Chris pounds of cocaine, who in turn sold it for a higher price and reaped a huge profit.

What Chris didn't know at the time was that Padnick's cocaine contact was a Cuban man named William Serrano. Serrano's connection was a man known only as "Pepon", who in turn was connected to man who was a member of a Colombian organized crime family, whose only known alias was "El Negro". Through these contacts, "El Negro" was alerted of the Padnick's wealthy Italian connection that was on the lookout for a huge shipment of cocaine. After a 1-kilo dry run to ensure things would run smoothly, a 12-kilo deal was arranged between the Padnick's contact William Serrano and Christopher Rosenberg. Charles Padnick, William Serrano and two associates of "El Negro" booked a flight to New York and promptly disappeared, murdered in a violent shootout ambush with the DeMeo crew, who ripped off the cocaine in order to gain a multiple hundred thousand dollar profit. The ambush did not go entirely smooth however, as Chris Rosenberg suffered two superficial bullet wounds, one to his head and the other on his hand. Charles Padnick's son, Jamie Padnick, then flew to New York to investigate the disappearance of his father and was killed by the crew as well, most likely ending up alongside many of the other DeMeo crew victims somewhere in the Fountain Avenue Dump in Brooklyn.
This would have been the end of the treacherous dealing, if not for a terrible mistake Rosenberg committed. Knowing he would be killing William Serrano in short time, but not knowing Serrano was only the middle man brokering the cocaine deal, Christopher Rosenberg had introduced himself to Serrano as "Chris DeMeo". Thus, El Negro knew that his associates were ambushed and killed in New York, and by an Italian named DeMeo. Naturally all of this drama led back to Roy DeMeo and subsequently the Gambino crime family and the ultimatum was passed on by the Colombian drug cartel: a violent war could be stopped if Christopher Rosenberg was murdered, and only if the murder was in a newspaper as proof. It took weeks to play out, but after ever-increasing pressure from his superiors, Roy DeMeo got the crew (minus Chris) together for an emergency meeting and explained the situation. Rosenberg never knew about the tumultuous drama going on behind his back, therefore had no reason to suspect anything from his closest friends and crew members. Thus, on May 11, 1979, Christopher Rosenberg went to the regular nightly meeting with his crew. He walked in, greeted his friends and sat down at the table with the rest of them, at which point Roy DeMeo pulled a pistol out of a brown bag sitting on the table and shot Chris in the head, wounding but not killing him. Anthony Senter then stood up and shot Chris four more times in the head. The violent criminal career of Christopher Rosenberg had ended just a few years after it truly began, and as expected in an equally violent way as many of his victims.

Rosenberg's body was then placed in his car, which was driven and left parked on a street near the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York City. Crew member Frederick DiNome then drove by the vehicle while Henry Borelli raked it with machine gun fire, to ensure the murder was a blatant enough assassination to guarantee it a spot in the local newspaper. The Colombians had their proof of revenge and the crisis was averted, at the cost of Roy DeMeo's closest and most loyal crew member.

Joseph Rosenzweig

2006-06-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig was a New York labor racketeer in the early 1900s as an ally of "Dopey" Benny Fein during the labor slugger war from 1914-1917.

Controlling labor slugging in New York's Lower East Side, Rosenzweig's organization of around one hundred acted mostly as strikebreakers, specializing in breaking up union picket lines, demonstrations and other protests.

With political protection from Tammany Hall Rosenzweig maintained complete control of strikebreaking and labor slugging well into the early 1910s.

Rosenzweig's dominance was challenged in 1913, when Philip "Pinchey" Paul began a war with Rosenzweig, lasting over several months. The war ended with Paul's death the following year, when he was killed by Rosenzweig and several gunmen, including Jacob Heiseman, Benjamin Snyder, and Hyman Berthstein. When he was later arrested for the murder Rosenzweig agreed to testify against the other gang members. Despite his testimony Rosenzweig was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, along with Snyder, to Sing Sing Prison in December 1915.

Upon Rosenzweig's release in 1925 he returned to Manhattan to find his gang had long since disappeared. After he received a warning from ex-lieutenant Waxey Gordon against attempting to reform his gang he soon left New York retiring from crime thereafter

Harry Horowtz

2006-06-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

Harry Horowitz better known as Gyp the Blood, was the leader of the notorious Lenox Avenue Gang in New York City during the early part of the 20th century. Legend has it that, on a small bet from one of his colleagues, he would grab passers-by and break their backs over his knee...no small feat by a man only 5 feet 7 who weighed only about 140 pounds.

Gyp the Blood, along with three of his gang members, became part of gang lore in 1912 when they pulled off the spectacular murder of gambler Beansie Rosenthal outside the Metropole Hotel. The four shot Rosenthal to death on the orders of Police Lt. Charles Becker, who was enraged that Rosenthal was blabbing to anyone who would listen about Becker's ties to criminals and gambling houses.

Gyp the Blood and his co-conspirators were convicted in a highly publicized trial and put to death in the electric chair in 1914. The next year, Becker also was executed for the crime, making it five lives exchanged for the elimination of a rather marginal one.

Jack Zelig

2006-06-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

"Big" Jack Zelig was a New York gangster and one of the last leaders of the Monk Eastman Gang.

Born Zelig Harry Lefkowitz in 1888, Zelig became a well known pickpocket and thief as a teenager on New York's Lower East Side as a member of Crazy Butch's pickpocket gang before joining the Eastman Gang in the late 1890s. Rising up the ranks Zelig became leader of the Eastman Gang after "Kid Twist" Max Zwerbach's death in 1908. With lieutenants Jack Sirocco and Chick Tricker the gang had over seventy-five members including gangs such as the Lenox Avenue Gang led by "Gyp the Blood" Harry Horowitz.

After being arrested in 1911 for robbing a brothel, Sirocco and Trick attempted to gain leadership of the gang refusing to bail out Zelig. Zelig was later released due to his political connections however he was informed by a member that Sirocco and Tricker were planning on murdering him upon his release. The assassin, a gunman named Julie Morrell, was lured by Zelig to a Second Avenue nightclub where Morrell was killed, possibly while intoxicated, by the gang leader on December 2. The next year however Zelig was killed by "Red" Phil Davidson, following an altercation during a card game at a local cafe, on October 5, 1912 while on a Thirteenth Street trolley.

It has been suggested that Zelig's murder was an attempt to keep Zelig from testifying against Charles Becker in the Rosenthal murder case involving the Lenox Avenue Gang. Shortly after Zelig's death New York detective Abe Shoenfeld wrote "Jack Zelig is as dead as a door nail. Men before him -like Kid Twist, Monk Eastman and others- were as pygmies to a giant. With the passing of Zelig, one of the most 'nerviest', strongest, and best men of his kind left us."

William Lipshitz

2006-06-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

William Lipshitz also known as William Levine, was a New York street gang leader under strikebreaker and labor racketeer "Jack the Dropper" during the early 20th Century.

Born in New York in 1901, little is known of Lipshitz before he joined Jack the Dropper's street gang in the 1910s. However by 1922 he had risen to become one of Dropper's top leaders.
When Dropper gang member Benjamin Levinski left to form a rival gang, Lipshitz was ordered to kill Levinski.

On December 5, 1922 Lipshitz shot Levinski as he entered a building on Broadway. Arrested shortly thereafter, Lipshitz pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Gus Greenbaum

2006-06-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Gus Greenbaum was a member of the Chicago Outfit and syndicate accountant for Las Vegas casino operations.

An associate of Meyer Lansky, Greenbaum joined his organization on New York's Lower East Side sometime during the mid to late 1910s. During Prohibition, Greenbaum began working with the Chicago Outfit managing the southwest division of the Trans-America wire service in 1928. Sent to Las Vegas shortly after WWII, Greenbaum gained control over syndicate gambling operations, with Morris Rosen and Moe Sedway, following the death of Bugsy Siegel in 1947.

Taking over as manager of the Flamingo Hotel, Greenbaum brought the struggling casino out of debt within several months, eventually controlling several other syndicate casinos and bookmaking operations in Arizona within several years. As a leading syndicate leader in Las Vegas, Greenbaum would later order the deaths of Tony Brancato and Tony Tombino after robbing a syndicate hotel. Shortly after becoming manager of the Riviera Hotel, Greenbaum's excessive gambling, womanizing, and drug habits eventually caused him to begin skimming from casino operations. However, his embezzlement was soon discovered by the Chicago syndicate, and on December 3, 1958, both he and his wife were found in their Phoenix home with their throats slashed.

Benny Fein

2006-06-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

"Dopey" Benny Fein was an early Jewish gangster who dominated New York labor racketeering in the 1910s.

Born Benjamin Fein in New York City, New York in 1889, Fein grew up in a poor neighborhood on Lower East Side becoming a petty thief and pickpocket as a child. A talented organizer Fein had formed his own gang of robbers in 1905 and during the next 5 years Fein would be sent to Elmira Reformatory several times particularly serving 3 1/2 years for armed robbery.

Soon after his release in 1910 Fein joined "Big" Jack Zelig's organization soon becoming involved in labor union and extortion of the garment district. Fein also used his gang as labor sluggers, renting his gang out to either unions or companies, dominating much of New York's East Side eventually earning $20,000 a year. In 1913 several minor labor slugger gangs formed to break the monopoly held by Fein and rival Joseph Rosenzweig in which a large shootout took place on Grand Street and Forsyth Street lasting several hours, although few were killed, beginning the New York Labor slugger war which would last almost 4 years. Arrested for assault in 1914, Fein agreed to testify against several members involved in labor slugging when his political connections refused to help Fein resulting in the indictments of 11 gangsters and 21 union officials however none would be brought to trial. That same year Fein was again arrested for the murder of court clerk Frederick Strauss, who was killed in the crossfire during a shootout near St. Mark's Place, however he was later released when witnesses could not identify Fein at the scene.

After his release in 1917 for labor slugging Fein's power had declined and by the end of the gang war, with Rosenzwieg in prison for manslaughter, Fein decided to retire becoming a successful garment businessman where he later disappeared from public records sometime after 1927 .

William Bioff

2006-06-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

William Morris ("Willie") Bioff was an American organized crime figure who operated as a labor leader in the movie production business from the 1920s through the 1940s. During this time, Bioff extorted millions of dollars from movie studios with the threat of mass union work stoppages.

Bioff was born and briefly raised in a kosher Jewish household in Chicago, but his father kicked him out on the street when he was eight years old. Bioff soon became involved in criminal ventures, beginning with petty theft, then minor protection rackets and working his way up to pimping in Chicago's Levee vice district, of which he was later convicted in 1922. Bioff later worked for Harry and Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik where, through Guzik, Bioff met Al Capone and later Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti.

In the 1930s, Nitti sent Bioff to California as an enforcer for Mafia controlled Union

leader George Browne who later became President of the Alliance of Theatrical Stag Employe and Motion Picture Operators. Eventually, Bioff, aided by John "Handsome Johnny" Rosselli, became the collector for the Syndicate-controlled unions in Hollywood, extorting millions of dollars from major motion-picture studios, and keeping several hundred-thousand for himself. However, as one source notes, "Amusingly, Bioff, a glorified Chicago thug, went Hollywood in a big way with his sudden wealth. But his fancy suits and solid gold business cards made him too high profile ... -hence the indictment.

Bioff later threatened a strike against New York movie theaters by demanding two projectionists in each theater. When owners complained they would go broke under the terms he demanded Bioff agreed to an arrangement for two projectionists in exchange for reduced pay, much of which went to Bioff. By the late 1930s a newspaper campaign began bringing attention to the Bioff-Browne extortion operation creating a huge scandal in Hollywood. He was exposed by conservative newspaper columnist Westbrook Pegler, who was trying to prove that criminal corruption was rampant in labor unions.

In 1943, Bioff was indicted for tax evasion and related crimes, as well as extortion and racketeering, along with a number of his associates. Rather than face prison, Bioff testified against his companions, including Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, Philip D'Andrea, Charlie "Cherr Nose" Gioe, Johnny Rosselli, Lou Kaufman, and Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti. Nitti committed suicide shortly after Bioff's testimony. Bioff received a reduced sentence along with Browne.
Upon his release, Bioff moved to Arizona and assumed a new identity, "William Nelson," and even reportedly developed a friendship with then Senator Barry Goldwater helping contribute to his reelection campaign fund and even going into business with the senator's son, Bobby. Bioff, however, soon began working for Riviera Casino manager Gus Greenbaum, at the Chicago Outfit-owned Las Vegas casino. Bioff was assassinated on November 4, 1955, through a bombing described as follows:

Bioff walked out of his home and slid behind the wheel of his truck. A moment later, an explosion rocked the neighborhood. Parts of Bioff and his truck were strewn all over the driveway. Police found the remains of a dynamite bomb wired to the starter. The killers were never found.

Otto "Addadabba" Berman

2006-06-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

Otto "Abbadabba" Berman is a legendary US Mafia accountant famous for his ability to cook accounting books. He is also known for coining the phrase "Nothing personal, it is just business."
Virtually no information on Berman has survived in the ensuing years since his death. He was born Otto Biederman in or around 1889 in NYC; when he was fifteen, he was arrested and tried for attempted rape but found not guilty. It is thought that his best friend was a man by the name of Brobyn. As an adult he became an accountant, well known for his ability to figure complex mathematical equations and algebraic expressions in a matter of seconds, without the use of paper or pen. A member of the New York nightlife, he met and befriended writer Damon Runyon. Runyon would go on to base his recurring character Regret on Berman, and Berman would be thus immortalized by character actor Lynne Overman when a movie was made out of Runyon's story, Little Miss Marker.

In the 1930s Berman fully enshrined himself in the criminal underworld when he became the accountant for and advisor to gangster Dutch Schultz. In 1935 Berman was having a meeting at the Palace Chophouse tavern in Newark with Schultz and gunmen Abe Landau and Lulu Rosenkrantz when assassains hired by Lucky Luciano burst into the room. Berman suffered several bullet wounds and buckshot from a twelve gauge shotgun, and was the second of the four men to die. A photo of his bullet-riddled body appeared alongside a photo of Schultz undergoing surgery in the next morning's newspaper, under the headline, "Schultz, Five Pals Shot" (itself a misnomer; the only people attacked that night were Berman, Landau, Rosenkrantz, and Marty Krompier, one of Schultz's lieutenants). That article claimed that Berman was a gunman for Schultz; an angry Damon Runyon quickly submitted an editorial to the newspaper, defending Berman.

Some fifty years after his death Berman became a literary anti-hero as the sage mentor to the main character in the PEN/Faulkner award winning novel, Billy Bathgate.

Monk Eastman

2006-06-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

Monk Eastman was the best known aliase of Edward Osterman, a New York City gangster. Other known aliases include Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney, and Edward "Eddie" Delaney.

Eastman was born in Brooklyn circa 1873, relocated to Lower Manhattan circa 1895, and became one of the "Sheriffs" of New Irving Hall. The corrupt Tammany Hall political machine regularly relied on the 1200+ member Eastman Gang to "Get Out the Vote" at election time. He engaged in a protracted turf war versus Paul Kelly of the Five Points Gang gang. Later, at age 44, he joined the 106th Infantry of the 27th Division of the U.S. Army, "O'Ryan's Roughnecks", and fought in France during World War I. He was killed by a Prohibition agent shortly after his return.

He is featured in a 1933 fictional short story by Jorge Luis Borges called "Monk Eastman: Purveyor of Iniquities". In the P.G. Wodehouse novel, "Psmith In The City", the fictional character Bat Jarvis is largely based on him, sharing his kindhearted streak with regard to animals

Abe Landau

2006-06-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

Abe Landau was the chief henchman for New York Gangster, Dutch Schultz. Landau was Schultz's most trusted employee, often given tasks that required coolness and cunning rather than gunfire and brutality. It is very likely that he never actually killed anyone during his gang years.

Landau, along with Schultz, Otto Berman and Lulu Rosenkrantz was shot to death on the night of October 23, '35 in a Newark, NJ diner called The Palace Chophouse. Since fleeing New York, Schultz had converted the back room of the Chophouse into his hideout, and held regular meetings there with his associates.

When ambulances arrived, the first man they found was Abe Landau, still sitting on the trash can, his arms dangling at his sides and blood faintly coming out of his neck. His last bits of strength were used to give the police a fake name and address before he expired of blood loss, shortly after twelve a.m. on the morning of October 24.

As a practicing Orthodox Jew, Landau was given a Hebrew burial at Mount Hebron Cemetery.

Albert Anastasia

2006-06-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Albert Anastasia also known as the "Mad Hatter" and "Lord High Executioner", was a Mafia boss chiefly remembered for running the contract-killing syndicate known as Murder, inc.

Born Umberto Anastasio in Italy, – one of nine brothers – Anastasia moved to NYC around '19. He became active in Brooklyn's waterfront operations and rose to a position of authority in the longshoreman's union. It was here that Anastasia first demonstrated his penchant for homicide at the slightest provocation, killing a fellow longshoreman in the early '20s – an offense which led to an 18-month sentence he served at the famed Sing Sing Prison . However, he was released early, being granted a new trial which would never take place, as four important witnesses turned up missing – a situation that proved permanent.

Early in his prganized crime career, Anastasia served in a gang led by Joe the Boss Masseria,Anastastia was always a devoted follower of others, primarily Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. His devotion to Luciano knew no bounds.

In '30, Luciano finalized plans to take over crime in America by destroying the two old-line Mafia factions headed by Massria and Salvatore Maranzano; he outlined his plot to Anastasia. Anastasia joined Luciano and Bugsy Seigel in the plot, and assured Luciano that he would kill everyone for Luciano to be on top. Anastasia, always hungry for power, knew that if Luciano were head of the Syndicate that he would eventually get a "piece of the action." Anastasia was personally part of the four-man death squad that mowed down Masseria in Nuova Villa Tammaro, a Coney island restaurant, on April 15, '31 during the Castellammarese war.

The outcome of the Castellammarese War and the subsequent murder of Salvatore Maranzano was that Luciano assumed control of organized crime across America. In order to avoid the power struggles and turf disputes that led to the Castellammarese War, Luciano sought to establish the Syndicate (more familiarly known as the "Commission") consisting of the bosses of major families around the country, including especially the so-called "five families" of New York. This "Commission" would serve as a deliberative body to solve disputes, carve up and distribute territories, and regulate lucrative illegal activities such as prostitution, racketeering , gambling and bootlegging.

For his loyalty, Luciano placed Anastasia in a position of power, combining his talents with those of Lepke Buchalter the nation's leading labor racketeer, as the operating heads of the Syndicates enforcement arm, Murder Inc. Murder Inc. was a group of mainly Jewish killers that operated out of the back room of the Brownsville candy store Midnight Rose's. Some estimates have it that Murder, Inc. may have taken, in a decade of operation, a toll estimated at between 400 and 700 victims. Many of these murders remain unsolved. Unlike Lepke and many other members of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was never prosecuted for any of the murders. When indictments and trials loomed, key prosecution witnesses would disappear.

Murder, Inc. maintained its power until the early 1940s. After his arrest, hit man Abe Reles. made a deal granting him immunity from prosecution for testimony that helped convict many of the group's hit men, including co-boss Lepke Buchalter, Anastasia promised a $100,000 reward for his death, and Reles mysteriously fell to his death from a guarded hotel room at Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island on November 12, '41.

After the arrest and executionof Buchalter in '44, Anastasia became the sole leader of Murder Inc. ,which shortly faded away as contract killings were arranged within individual crime families.

Harry "Happy" Maione

2006-06-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

Harry "Happy" Maione was an Italian-American hitman for Murder, Inc.(the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndiacte) during the 30's. His nickname was given to him because he never smiled and his face displayed an eternal scowl.

Maione was head of the Ocean Hill Hooligans, an Italian street gang in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn, NY . His underling in this group was Frank Abbandando. Maione and Abbandando helped Abe Reles and Martin Goldstein exact revenge on the Shapiro brothers Meyer, Irving, and William in '31 for trying to kill the two Jewish hoods and for abducting and raping Reles' girlfriend and future wife. The two Italians were hoping to get a piece of the Shapiro holdings in return.

Maione, Abbandando, Reles, and Goldstein then banded together and created Brooklyn, Inc. the forerunner to Murder, Inc. When joined by other killers, such as Harry Strauss, Mendy Weiss, Albert Tannenbaum, Seymour Magoon, Louis Capone, Charles Workman, and Vito Gurino the group started picking up contracts for the National Crime Syndicate through Syndicate "board of directors" member Joe Adonis. Brooklyn, Inc. soon became the official murder-for-hire squad of the Syndicate, and began to be dubbed "Murder, Inc." by the press. Maione acted as the Italian liaison to the Jewish killers of the faction; Reles was his counterpart on the Jewish side. They operated under the direction of the brutal Lepke Buchalter (another member of the Syndicate board) and the nefarious Albert Anastassia.

When Buchalter was being targeted by New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, starting in the mid-'30's, he waged an all-out war of extermination to eliminate potential witnesses Dewey could use. Murder, Inc. played a major role in this campaign, rubbing out anyone that "Lepke" even suspected of being an informant. Loan shark George Rudnick was one such victim; he was killed by Maione, Abbandando, and Strauss on May 11, '37.

When Abe Reles became an informant for the state in '40, he implicated Maione in the horrific slaying of Rudnick. He reported that when the three hitmen had tried to get the "dead" Rudnick into their car after supposedly killing him, he coughed, apparently still alive. Strauss began hacking away at the body of the victim with an ice pick, Maione putting the final exclamation point on the murder by sinking a meat cleaver into Rudnick's skull.

Reles' information was enough for Maione to be sentenced to death for first-degree murder. He was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing in Feb, '42.

Frank Abbandando

2006-06-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Frank "Dasher" Abbandando was a hitman for so-called Murder, inc. He is claimed to have killed 30 people in Brooklyn in the 1920s and 1930s. His nickname came from his running speed; in one case he reputedly ran around a house to shoot his victim from behind.

In his teens Abbandando began to extort money from shop owners by threatening to burn their shops if they did not pay. He spent time in a refor, school in Elmira, NY where he demonstrated skill at baseball.

In his twenties, Abbandando worked as a lieutenant for the crime boss Harry Maione in Ocean Hill . He organized gambling and loan shark operations and extortion rackets. In 1932 he took part in the gang war against the rival Shapiro gang in Brownsville to take over their territory. Their gang became Brooklyn, Inc. a forerunner of Murder Inc.

During his stint as a Murder, Inc assassin, Abbandando fulfilled numerous murder contracts for an average fee of $500. In his "free" time he molested young women. He preferred fine clothes and fancy cars.

In the early 40's, Abbandando was arrested due to testimony of his former boss-turned-informant Abe Reles and later sentenced to death for the murder of a loan shark George Rudnick in New York on May, 25, '37 He was executed in the electric chair on Feb. 19. '42.

More on Murder Inc.

2006-06-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

In Brownsville, Brooklyn, at the corner of Livonia and Saratoga Avenues, stood a small twenty-four hour candy store named Midnight Rose’s. This wasn’t any ordinary candy store. It housed some of the most lethal for-hire contract killers, consisting mainly of Jews and Italians, that this country has ever known. These men, dubiously named Murder Incorporated by the press, carried out over eight hundred contract murders while sharing egg creams and betting on Dodger games at Ebbets Field.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky established the National Crime Syndicate in the late Twenties, after the murders of then Mafia kingpins, Joe "the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. As gambling, prostitution and drug trafficking businesses grew for the mob, so did the number of wayward gangsters who skimmed profits and took matters into their own hands. Lucky and Meyer needed a way to deal with these rogues from inside of the Syndicate; therefore Murder Inc. operated as a separate entity and designed solely for hits within the organization. The location was ideal. The candy store was located under the elevated train that brought many people too and from Manhattan. There were always kids around from the local rows of attached houses, which provided security in its own way. A street lamp gave enough light for people to see where they were going, and a small window that faced each side of the street, was perfect for a lookout. Albert "the Mad Hatter" Anastasia, long time friend of Luciano, along with Garment District king pin Louis "Lepke" Buchalter were perfect choices for the leadership of Murder Inc. Since it was a separate entity, Murder Inc. supplied its members with lawyers when they needed one and bought their own police protection and politicians.

Anastasia and Buchalter were two of the most brutal men ever to walk the streets of New York. When the Syndicate approved a hit it would be sent down to Anastasia and he would make sure it was carried out with the utmost of care. Mistakes, such as killing an innocent bystander, would not be tolerated. Many of their victims ended up murdered, missing, or never to be heard from again. At one point, Anastasia had over one hundred contract killers on the payroll for as little as two hundred dollars a week. Some of the names included: Harry "Pittsburg Phil" Strauss who was the organizations traveling door-to-door salesman who sold death instead of encyclopedias. Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein, Albert "Allie Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, Harry "Happy" Maione the man with the eternal grimace and Frank "The Dasher" Abundando who could have played for the Dodgers because of his speed, hence is nickname. The most infamous of them was Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, nicknamed after a legendary killer from the Lower East Side. Abe’s weapon of choice was an ice pick that he would jam in the contracts’ ear and scrambled their brains. He was so good at what he did that many of his victims’ deaths were deemed as brain hemorrhages. Abe was the acting Jewish liaison and Harry "Happy" Maione for the Italian side of Murder Inc. These men ruled over the Brownsville, Williamsburg and the East New York sections of Brooklyn and their reach was nationwide.

Murder Inc. had strict rules. Luciano and Lansky did not want policemen, judges or district attorneys rubbed out for fear of reprisal against the Syndicate. They felt that any politicians or police personnel that were on the payroll would quickly turn against them. This was an important rule that was carried down from previous generations of Mafiosi.

In order to prevent this type of behavior from occurring, all contracts had to be brought in front of the Commission and voted on. To avoid wiretaps, members of Murder Inc. invented an entire new vocabulary. The hit became known as a "contract," the intended victim became the "bum". Only on one occasion, Arthur Flegenheimer, whose chosen nickname was Dutch Shultz, requested that District Attorney Thomas Dewey be murdered. Dewey was prosecuting many members of the mob at that time and was closing in on Shultz who was fighting extradition to New York. Luciano vehemently denied the Dutchman’s request, and Shultz stormed out of the meeting threatening to do the hit himself. Luciano had to send a message to stem this sort of behavior by members of the Syndicate. The call was made to Anastasia. Shultz was subsequently shot in the Palace Chophouse Tavern in Newark, New Jersey on October 23, 1935, before he could get to the troublesome district attorney. He lingered on for over twenty-four hours before succumbing to his wounds in the hospital. Coincidentally, Murder Inc carried out another big hit on the same day, the murder of Louis "Pretty" Amberg. When he died, the Dutchman’s empire was divided up between, Luciano, Genovese and Buchalter. Years later, Charlie "The Bug" Workman pled guilty to the murder of killing Shultz and received a life sentence because of Reles’ testimony. Workman spent twenty years in prison and was released.
During the decade spanning the Thirties, Murder Inc.’s reach stretched from New York to California and left in its wake a trail of bodies and mayhem. In 1940, Kings County District Attorney William O’Dwyer had Abe ‘Kid Twist’ Reles, the "Terror of Brownsville", picked up on a murder charge based on information supplied by an informant. In order to save himself from a date with the electric chair, Reles decided to turn against his former employers, Murder Inc. It was the first time that law enforcement officials became aware of the closely regarded secret. His testimony on May 16, 1940, supplied enough evidence to help send Louis ‘Lepke’ Buchalter to the electric chair in Sing Sing prison in 1944 for the murder of Joseph Rosen that Lepke planned in 1935. Along with Buchalter, Harry "Pittsburg Phil" Strauss, Mendy Weiss, "Happy" Maione and his childhood friend Martin "Buggsy Goldstein, met similar fates.

A trial was planned for Murder Inc. boss, Albert Anastasia, but the day before he was to testify, ‘Kid Twist’ mysteriously fell from the sixth floor window of room 623, of the Half Moon Hotel, in Coney Island. He would be forever known amongst other mob members as the "Canary that sung, but couldn’t fly."

Insight into Harry "Pep" Strauss

2006-06-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Harry Strauss was frustrated.

Strauss, better known to his chums as "Pep" or "Pittsburgh Phil," was on a contract job in Jacksonville, Florida but the bum he was supposed to take out wasn’t making it easy.
A fashion conscious man who always traveled with a clean shirt and spent an hour with his barber each morning, Pep had flown down from New York at the request of the Florida mob to take care of a wiseguy who had been causing some problems for the underworld. Phil had been told by his local contacts that it would be an easy job.

"He comes out of his house same time every day," the local hoodlum who met Pep’s plane told him. "You’re lucky, it’s an easy pop." But Phil wasn’t convinced. There was no escape route; no hot getaway car; no plan. The man left his house at the same time each day, sure, but it was 11 o’clock in the morning and his house was on a busy street.

"These guys are farmers," he said to himself after dismissing the local hood. They had no idea how an artist like Pittsburgh Phil liked to work. After all, wasn’t he the guy who had mugged Harry Sage with an icepick and dumped his body in an upstate New York lake? And wasn’t he the one who had buried Meyer Shapiro, the boss of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, while Meyer was still alive?

Yeah, Pittsburgh Phil was a real artist with a taste for blood and a talent for killing. It didn’t matter how the target was killed when Phil was involved. He was an expert with a icepick (that’s how he offed George Rudnick, a New York hood who was suspected of being a stoolpigeon), the gun (he killed Joe Kennedy, another gangster), and rope (he strangled Puggy Feinstein and then set him on fire).

"It’s okay to do murder," Pep once said. "As long as I don’t get caught."
And for a long time Pittsburgh Phil didn’t get caught. He had been arrested 29 times in 13 years and "had never been convicted of so much as smoking on a subway platform," wrote Burton Turkus, the assistant D.A. who finally sent Phil to the chair.

But this Florida bum – gangland victims were always referred to as "bums" by their killers – was making Phil’s job difficult. Phil followed the guy from his house, sat next to him while the man ate lunch and generally turned himself into the guy’s shadow, but the opportunity to do a little murder never presented itself.

It frustrated Phil, but he wasn’t ready to give up. "Even if it takes all day, I’ll tail him and find the right spot," he pledged. Finally, the mark went into a movie theater. It was crowded, but Phil was up to the challenge. He wasn’t carrying his gun on him and this wouldn’t be the right place for an icepick or rope job. Phil looked around...there, against the wall was his weapon: a fire axe. "I take the axe and sink it in the guy’s head in the dark," he thought. That would cause a huge racket and in the ensuing commotion, Phil – who was a stranger in Jacksonville – would just run out with the rest of the panic-stricken crowd. Typical Pittsburgh Phil brilliance.
But, as Pep would later tell his friends, the guy was "a seat-hopper." Just as Phil was ready to do the job, the man jumped up and moved to a better seat. For Phil, that settled it. This was a bad job and he wanted nothing to do with it. He left the theater, flew home to Brooklyn and admitted failure.

Whether that meant a reprieve for the man who had brought down the wrath of the Florida mob will never be known. Phil might have been disappointed on this trip to Florida, but he certainly got more than his fair share of kills. According to Turkus, Phil killed more than 30 men in a dozen cities. He begged for contracts and took great delight in a job well-done. Pittsburgh Phil wasn’t a serial killer, though. He was just another slayer in the stable of Murder, Inc., the enforcement arm of America’s crime Syndicate. With mobsters like Bugsy Siegel, Joey Adonis, Albert Anastasia, and Kid Twist Reles, "Pittsburgh Phil" formed the firing squad of a national underworld cartel that controlled gambling, unions, loansharking and narcotics from the end of Prohibition through the 1950s.

This is the story of Murder, Inc. from its beginning as the brain child of Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano to the death of Albert Anastasia, the "Lord High Executioner" of the Syndicate in 1950s.

At the height of its efficiency, Murder, Inc. was probably responsible for a thousand killings from coast to coast. Guns and knives were used, of course, but so were more imaginative methods like cremation, slow strangling, quicklime and live burial. Some killers liked the icepick – properly inserted into the ear, a skilled killer could scramble a bum’s brains and make it look like a cerebral hemorrhage. One gangster who had cheated his compatriots out of their take of a gambling operation was stabbed and then tied to a pinball machine and dumped into a lake. Until it was broken by a stool pigeon with first-hand knowledge of dozens of killings, Murder, Inc. operated quietly and ruthlessly, rubbing out gangsters who had run afoul of the cartel and lawmen who threatened its existence.

An Overview

2006-06-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

Murder, Incorporated was run by two of the toughest individuals to come out New York City. Ever. Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the nations leading labor racketeer andAlbert Anasrassia, a member of the National Crime Syndicate ran a group of mainly Jewish killers out of the back room of the Brownsville candy store, Midnight Rose's.

Murder, Inc. was the enforcement arm of the Syndicate. They only killed when "contracted" to do so. Contracts had to be approved unanimously by the Commission, along with some members who claimed to have no vote (Meyer Lansky wanted no connection to the actual voting, but no one ever made a move without his approval). The set up: contracts were issued from various cities throughout the nation. If a contract needed to be completed in Baltimore, they'd hire someone from Cleveland or Los Angeles, bring them in for a week to study the "bum's" routine, and then off them in various ways - car accidents, strangulation, or as simple as gunning them down on a quiet street. One thing was certain, if a contract was issued, it was definitely carried out.

No one outside the organization was ever rubbed out, their motto being "we only kill our own," which was generally true. Most of the contracts were carried out with such detail that there was no way to trace a hit. People ended up dead or missing, some of which have remain unsolved to this day. No one knows who actually killed Bugsy Siegel, but some how everyone, including the general public, knows who ordered it done and why. As for taking care of their own, the Syndicate's most famous killing was of Dutch Schultz when they were taking care of Thomas Dewet, DA that was bringing down all the crime lords in New York. Dewey was going after Schultz with reckless abandon for tax evasion and anything else he could get on the wildly tempered Dutchman. Schultz in turn, presented a contract for Dewey to the Syndicate. The contract was denied based on the fact that if they should rub Dewey out, when there was already too much press on what was going on in the underworld, they would be making a martyr out of Dewey rather than just a DA. Kill Dewey and there would be no hiding from the justice system and every judge and politician in the state would run. Schultz would not hear their arguments, he stormed out and swore he'd take Dewey out himself.

Instead, he doomed himself. Murder, Inc. was called in. Mendy Weiss and Charlie "The Bug" Workman, two of Murder, Inc.'s most notorious killers, were given the job. On October 23, 1935, the two walked into the Palace Chop House and Tavern in Newark, NJ and shot three of the Dutchman's men and shot him in the stomach while he was in the bathroom. Abbadabba Berman, Lulu Rosenkrantz and Abe Landau died on the spot while Dutch Schultz lingered for 24 hours in the hospital blubbering nonsensically. He died without ever revealing his killers.
His death wouldn't go unsolved though. Bug Workman would eventually be tried during the "Kid Twist" Reles trial and was sent to jail by A.D.A. Burton Turkis. The Bug did 23 years for the murder.

For about ten years, Murder, Inc. was reportedly responsible for anywhere between 500 to 700 murders nationwide, from Connecticut to California. Below, you will find a number of Jewish and Italian members of Murder, Inc. Some were convicted, some were executed themselves, but they were probably the toughest guys to walk around the streets of New York City, and didn't need a license to kill, just a contract.

Irving "Waxey" Gordon

2006-05-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

Waxey Gordon was a gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling.

Born Irving Wexler to immigrant parents in NY's Lower East Side around 1889, Gordon became known as a pickpocket and sneak thief as a child, becoming so successful he earned the nickname "Waxey" for supposedly being so skilled in picking pockets it was as if his victims' wallets were waxed. Joining "Dopey" Benny Fein's labor sluggers in the early 1910'sGordon helped organize Fein's operations before being noticed by Arnold Rothstein who hired him away from Fein and put him to work as a rum-runner during the first years of prohibition.

Gordon's success later led him to run all of Rothstein's bootlegging on most of East coast, specifically NY and NJ , and importing large amounts of Canadian whiskey over the U.S.–Canadian border. Gordon, now earning an estimated $2 million a year, began buying numerous breweries and distilleries as well as owning several speak easys. Gordon began to be known to live extravagantly, traveling in limosines and living regularly in prominent Manhattan hotel suites, as well as owning mansions built for him in New York and Philadelphia.

With Rothstein's death in 1928, Gordon's position began to decline. He made an alliance with future Nationa Crime Syndicate founders Lucky Luciano, Lepke, and Meyer Lansky. Gordon, however, constantly fought with Lansky over bootlegging and gambling interests and soon an unofficial gang war began between the two; several associates on each side were killed. Lansky, with Luciano, supplied New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey with information leading to Gordon's conviction on charges of tax evasion in 1933. Gordon was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

Upon Gordon's release, he found his gang long since disbanded and his former political connections no longer willing to respond. He was said to have remarked to a reporter, "Waxey Gordon is dead. Meet Irving Wexler, salesman."

Gordon, however, soon began operating illegal gambling in New Jersey, then moved to selling narcotics. In 1951, Gordon was arrested for selling heroin to an undercover police officer. The 62-year-old gangster reportedly offered the detective all his money in exchange for his release. When the detective refused, Gordon pleaded with the detective to kill him instead of arresting him for "peddling junk." Gordon was later convicted and sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment in Alcatraz, where he died of a heart attack on June 24, 1952.

The Undertaker

2006-05-07T15:34:00.001-07:00

Little is known about the true name of a ruthless hitman known throughout Brownsville and the syndicate as the Undertaker.

The Undertaker got his nickname because he always buried his victims, sometimes alive. The tools of his trade were an axe and shovel. The axe to chop off the hands, feet, and head of his victims, and the shovel to bury them in the swap lands of Canarsie. When asked by Bugsy Seigel in Las Vegas, Nevada, why he had two boots and a shovel in the trunk of his car, the Undertaker replied " You never know when you have to bury someone in the dessert."

It is said that the Undertaker killed more people for Lepke and Murder Inc. than Abe Reles and Charlie "The Bug" Workman combined. A close friend and confidant of Arnold Rothstein, the Undertaker could often be found at the race tracks.

Dutch Schultz

2006-05-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

It was a normal Wednesday evening on October 23, 1935, at the Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, when a group of four well dressed men made their way past the crowded bar to a secluded dining and private dining room in the back. After ordering drinks and dinner, the men began talking business. They continued their discussion through dinner. At 9:00pm a young and attractive woman stopped to drop off some paperwork, staying for at least one drink. By 10:00pm she had left. The bar and restaurant were empty except for the four diners, a couple swinging around the dance floor upstairs, the bartender and a few employees in the kitchen cleaning up. A man entered the bar brandishing a pistol and ordered the bartender to the floor. He complied so quickly, he never even saw the second man, armed with a shotgun, enter. The two men made their way to the dining room in the back, and opened fire. Three men were quickly down and wounded. They found the fourth, the intended "hit", in the bathroom. He never had a chance. Arthur Flegenheimer, alias Dutch Schultz, and his three associates were mortally wounded. The "Dutchman" was dying.

Dutch Schultz had a long and varied criminal history. He was probably the most well known criminal of his time, and was once declared Public Enemy #1 by the FBI. Famous for his ruthlessness, violence and temper, he worked his way up the criminal ladder in the mean streets of the Bronx from an early age. Born in 1902, Schultz began with some petty thefts and assaults, and by the age of 17, had graduated to more serious crimes. He was convicted of robbery in 1919, and sent to a juvenile penitentiary. After a failed escape attempt, he was released after serving 15 months. Despite numerous indictments and arrests, he never again served time behind bars. Following his release, he quickly resumed his former occupation, and first began using the name "Dutch Schultz", appropriated from a legendary deceased New York gang member.

By 1925, Schultz had become both criminally successful, and politically connected. He used money and violence to gain control over unions and the "Numbers Racket", or "Policy Racket", an early and illegal version of the lottery. From his stronghold in the Bronx, his empire spread rapidly into Harlem and parts of Manhattan. He soon discovered "Bootlegging", the importation of liquor, then prohibited by the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), which proved to be a lucrative addition to his already profitable enterprises. His most serious rival at this time was Vincent (Mad Dog) Coll, a former associate who matched Schultz in both temperament and talent. Their fight, bloody and long, lasted for years, claiming many lives. At one point Schultz was so incensed with Coll, he went to a police station and offered a new house to any officer who would gun him down. His generous offer went unclaimed. The war ended in 1932, when Coll was killed by three of Shultz's gunmen while using a phone booth in a Manhattan drug store.

The end of Prohibition in 1933 did not slow Schultz down. He tightened his control over his unions and numbers racket, and continued to increase his influence at Tammany Hall, the seat of power of the corrupt Democratic Machine which controlled the courts, police and just about everything else in New York City. With the help of his new found friends, raids and arrests became a thing of the past, and Schultz was free to further expand and consolidate his power. Finally, the Federal Government felt it had to step in when the local authorities refused to prosecute him. Schultz was indicted in 1933 for tax evasion, but it did not interfere with business. The New York City police refused to pursue him, and he remained at large for almost two years. When J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, named him "Public Enemy #1", Schultz surrendered, possibly mindful of the fate of the previous "Public Enemy #1", John Dillinger.

Dutch Schultz's tax evasion trial began in early 1934 in Syracuse, New York, after his lawyers, who included a former U.S. Prosecutor and a former New Jersey Governor, successfully argued that he could not receive a fair trail in New York City. Schultz's defense was simple but effective. After the federal government had brought down Al Capone and his brother with the newly created charge of tax evasion, Schultz could see the handwriting on the wall and had tried to settle his debt with the government. He even went so far as to send his lawyers to the Internal Revenue Service in Washington D.C. with $100,000 in cash as a settlement offer. The IRS refused, claiming he owed much more. However, Schultz could now claim he had tried to pay his taxes like any other law abiding citizen, but the government refused to accept the money. Amazingly, this defense (along with some alleged jury tampering) worked with seven out of the twelve jurors, and a mistrial was declared. A new trial was scheduled later that year in Malone, New York, the hometown of the presiding judge on the northern edges of Adirondack Mountains. It was here that Schultz showed the "street smarts" which had kept him free and alive for so long. He and a group of his more honest looking associates arrived weeks before the trial date, and attempted to gain influence with the potential jury pool. They bought dinner and drinks wherever they went, gave interviews with the local papers, and Schultz even attended a local baseball game as the personal guest of the mayor. By the time the trial started, Schultz had convinced many people in the town that he was really a "good guy" being persecuted by a vengeful government. The presiding judge was not amused by this pretrial generosity, and he revoked Schultz's bail. However, the damage was already done and the jury found him not guilty a week later.

Although the Dutchman had beaten the rap, the end was near. There were many other pending indictments, and his business had already suffered from his absence. Other leading New York mobsters including Lucky Lucianao and Albert Anastasia moved in on his rackets, and his legal problems continued to keep Schultz out of town. He set up shop in nearby Newark New Jersey in August, 1935, and moved into the Robert Treat Hotel. Almost every evening he and his three closest associates, Bernard (Lulu) Rosenkrantz, his second in command, Otto Berman and Abe (Misfit) Landau (AKA Abe Frank), would meet at the Palace Chop House around the corner on Park Street. There they would talk business and go over the day's receipts. They kept a regular routine, which made them easy prey on that fateful October evening.

The most amazing aspect of the shooting was not the "hit" itself, but its aftermath. With all the bullets and shells that flew, no one was immediately killed. Schultz stumbled out of the bathroom and asked the bartender to call an ambulance. Rosenkrantz, despite being shot seven times, actually asked for change of a dime to use the phone booth to call the police and report the shooting. Berman was still breathing though unconscious. The final victim and the first to die, Landau, raced after the gunmen firing his pistol, causing a shootout outside on the sidewalk. He died there after collapsing from his wounds. The police arrived to find three wounded men amid the carnage with the two conscious ones, Schultz and Rosenkrantz refusing to answer any of their questions. They were all taken to Newark Hospital on Fairmount Avenue. As Schultz was wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher a photographer blocked his way. He growled, "Say, which is more important, your picture or my life? Scram!" He then gave an intern the $725.00 in cash he was carrying on him to ensure good treatment. The intern turned it over to the hospital supervisor. When the police queried Rosenkrantz, he continued to refuse to answer any of their questions, and repeatedly demanded an ice cream soda. At 3:00am Berman was the second to die, never having regained consciousness.

Dutch Schultz, although fatally wounded in the abdomen, lasted until 8:30 that Thursday evening. The wound caused massive internal bleeding and an infection, and when lucid he continued to refuse to say who shot him or why. His relatives and friends, including his wife and mother visited him at the hospital throughout the day. As his condition worsened and his fever increased, he began to drift in and out of consciousness, often babbling strange and disconnected phrases such as, "The glove will fit what I say," and "The sidewalk was in trouble, and the bears were in trouble." The authorities kept a stenographer at Schultz's bedside to record every last rambling thought he uttered. Federal agents and police from New York and New Jersey tried in vain to analyze his last words after his death. Although some of Schultz's rantings may have referred to his shooting and criminal activities, most were believed to be about childhood memories, old rhymes and songs, etc. The stenographer's transcript was immortalized in various books and stories, and forms the basis of William Burrough's well known story, "The Last Words of Dutch Schultz." With Shultz dead only Rosencrantz was left alive. He lasted until 3:20 the following morning, defiant and silent to the end. Schultz body was removed later that day to Hawthorne, New York for burial. The only rememberence of Dutch Schultz remaining in Newark is a makeshift memorial inscribed into the cement used to fill in one of the side windows of the Palace Chop House.

As for the killers, when the get-away car pulled away from the Palace Chop House following the shootings, it left one of the killers stranded. He fled on foot in the direction of the car, turned left on Pine Street, and probably headed to nearby James Street where the car was later found abandoned by the police with one of weapons used in the shootings inside. Although the police investigated the few clues they had, they were unable to identify the killers and moved on to other cases. The press at the time seemed more concerned about why one of Schultz's men was carrying an Essex County Sheriff's Badge, then the death of four men. Local authorities were more concerned with punishing the Palace Chop House and Robert Treat Hotel for allowing criminals to congregate at their establishments. Five years after Schultz's death, in the course of another investigation, a convicted criminal identified Mendy Weiss and Charlie Workman as the shooters, with Workman as the killer of Schultz. The driver of the get-away car, known only as a kid from a Jersey City gang was never identified. Workman was tried and convicted in Newark, and sentenced to life in prison. Weiss was executed in New York for an unrelated murder before he could face trial.

Who ordered the killing of Dutch Schultz? It was probably Lucky Luciano and the other mobsters who made up the "Syndicate" that controlled organized crime in New York and elsewhere. Schultz had wanted Thomas Dewey the mob-busting New York prosecutor and his personal nemesis, killed and even threatened to do the job himself. The Syndicate, fearing bad publicity and an intense crackdown on their operations, could not allow that to happen. Unable to buy Dewey off, they were forced to order Schultz killed to prevent him from carrying out his threat. Of course, with Schultz dead, Dewey needed a new number one target, and Luciano was it. Six months after Schultz's murder, Luciano was indicted on 62 charges with a maximum of 1,950 years. He was convicted in June, 1936. As he was taken to prison to begin serving his 30 to 50 year sentence, I wonder if Luciano thought maybe Dutch had the right idea after all.

Abner "Longie" Zwillman

2006-05-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

As a youngster, Abner "Longy" Zwillman earned the gratitude of local Jewish peddlers because he and his gang, "The Happy Ramblers", defended them from assault by Irish thugs. Whenever the Irish came into the Jewish district to create trouble, a cry went up to "Ruff der Langer" (Yiddish for "Call the Tall One") and quick as a flash Zwillman and his pals would stop whatever they were doing and rush to help. As a result Longy had a reputation for helping Jews that stayed with him all his life. Over six feet two inches tall Zwillman got the name "Longy" because he was the tallest kid in his school. Together with his Italian allies, Longy ran Newark from the prohibition era until the 1950s. His influence was so great that he was referred to as the "Al Capone of New Jersey". Zwillman ran one of the biggest and most profitable bootlegging operations in the United States, importing nearly forty per cent of all the illegal alcohol consumed in the United States during prohibition. A customer wanting to but liquor came to Longy's office in Newark, deposited his money, and got a receipt entitling him to a specific amount of whisky. As Zwillman's wealth increased so did his political influence. He developed the pay off into an art, starting with the cop on the beat up to and including prosecutors and judges. The police did not just look the other way when illegal whisky was involved. They often convoyed trucks from the docks to the warehouses to prevent highjackings, and guarded the warehouses where the liquor was stored.

Despite Longy's reputation as a mobster, he always remained sensitive to his Jewish upbringing. When Heimi Kugel, a good friend of Longy's died, Zwillman would not go into the chapel where the casket lay. Heimi's son Jerry could not understand it. He felt hurt, because they knew his father loved Zwillman. After the service, he went over to Longy who was standing outside, and asked him why he did not go into the funeral parlour to pay his respects. "I can't, Jerry," long said. "I'm a Cohen".

Jerry looked confused, until someone standing nearby explained that as a Cohen, a descendant of the ancient hebrew priestly class, Longy was not allowed to be in the same room with the dead body. But Longy's luck ran out. Just as the FBI were compiling information to send Longy to prison for the rest of his life he was mysteriously found hanging from elastic cord in his home in Newark. The investigation into his death was inconclusive, but there were many bruises on Zwillman's body that remained unexplained. Underworld gossip had it that partners of Zwillman were worried that he may "sing" to the police in protection against a life sentence. Gangsters never "wait and see".

Augie "Little Augie" Orgen

2006-05-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Orgen was a Jewish gang leader and labor racketeer in New York City during the 1920s. Little Augie gained control of the labor rackets in 1923 when he had Kid Dropper ( Nathan Kaplan) murdered outside a Manhattan courthouse. Little Augie was shot to death on a Manhattan Street corner on Oct.16,1927. The gunmen were Lepke Buchalter and Jacob (Gurrah) Shaprio who then took over all of Little Augie's rackets. Little Augie's bodyguard that night was Legs Diamond who was also shot but survived to be murdered in 1931.

Nathan Caplin

2006-05-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

Known as "Kid Dropper", he was a notorious Jewish gang leader. During the teens and early 1920s, his gang and the gang headed by Little Augie Orgen were fighting for supremacy of the labor rackets in New York City. On August 28, 1923, he had just left the Essex Market Court House in lower Manhattan under heavy police guard and was sitting in a taxicab in front of the courthouse when Louis Cohen walked up to the taxi and shot him to death. Cohen, who was arrested at the scene, had been hired by Little Augie Orgen (with the help of Legs Diamond, Lepke Buchalter and Gurrah Shaprio) to murder Kid Dropper. Sent prison for the murder, was paroled in 1937 and in 1939 was shot to death on a Manhattan Street in reprisal.

Louis "Louis Cohen" Kerzner

2006-05-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

He was hired to murder Jewish gang leader Kid Dropper by Legs Diamond, Lepke Buchalter and Gurrah Shaprio on the orders of gang leader Little Augie Orgen. On August 28, 1923 he carried out his task, shooting and killing Dropper, who had been Augie Orgen’s arch rival in the union rackets of New York City, as he sat in a taxicab in front of the Essex Market Court House in lower Manhattan. Kerzner was subsequently convicted of Dropper’s murder and sentenced to twenty five in prison. When he was paroled in 1937, he was shot to death on a Manhattan Street on January 28,1939 on the orders of Lepke Buchalter.

Morris Kessler

2006-05-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

Morris Kessler was the chauffeur and bodyguard of Jewish mobster Joseph Amberg. On Sept.30,1935, Kessler and Amberg were lined up against the wall of a Brownsville, Brooklyn auto repair shop and machine-gunned to death by a rival gang. Kessler was 23 years old.

Irving Shapiro

2006-05-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

The Shaprio brothers (Meyer, Irving and Willie) ran a gang of Jewish mobsters that operated out of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. Their criminal activities centered around loansharking, slot machines, dice games, and extortion of shop keepers. The Shaprio brothers came into conflict with the other gangs in Brooklyn such as the Amberg brothers and the Reles gang. One by one the Shaprio brothers were murdered by the other gangs. Irving Shaprio was shot to death in the vestibule of the apartment building in which he lived at 691 Blake avenue, Brooklyn, on July 11, 1931. He was 27 years old.

Herman "Hyman" Amberg

2006-05-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

Along with his brothers Louis "Pretty" and Joseph Amberg, they were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn during the 1920s and 1930s. Hyman was arrested for the murder of a Brooklyn jeweler in 1926 and placed in the "Tombs" jail in Manhattan to await trial. On November 3, 1926, he and another prisoner (armed with guns) tried to escape from the jail. They got as far as the prison wall but were trapped by the guards. With all hope of escape lost they put their guns to their heads and shot themselves to death.

Joseph Amberg

2006-05-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

He along with his brothers Louis "Pretty" and Hyman Amberg were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn during the 1920s and 1930s On September 30,1935, Joseph Amberg and Morris Kessler (one of his henchmen) were lined-up against the wall of an auto repair garage in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and shot to death by three gunmen of "Murder, Inc".

Louis "Pretty Amberg" Amberg

2006-05-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

During the 1920s and 1930s he, along with his brother Joseph, were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn. On October 23,1935 (the same day Dutch Schultz was murdered) Louis Amberg's body was found in a burning car in Brooklyn. He was killed with an ax and a shotgun blast, put in a car and set on fire. The murder contract was carried out by Abe Reles and his men in "Murder Inc".

Willie Shapiro

2006-05-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

The Shaprio brothers (Meyer, Irving and Willie) ran a gang of Jewish mobsters that operated out of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn,NY. Their criminal activities centered around loansharking, slot machines, dice games, and extortion of shop keepers. The Shaprio brothers came into conflict with the other gangs in Brooklyn such as the Amberg brothers and the Reles gang. One by one the Shaprio brothers were murdered by the other gangs. Willie Shaprio was murdered by members of the Reles gang on the night of July 20,1934. Willie was taken to the marshes in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn tied-up and buried alive in a hole dug in a sandpit. A man witnessed the gang filling in the hole, and after they left unearthed the hole and discovered Shaprio but he was already dead.

Meyer Shapiro

2006-05-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Shapiro brothers (Meyer, Irving and Willie) ran a gang of Jewish mobsters that operated out of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. Their criminal activities centered around loansharking, slot machines, dice games, and extortion of shop keepers. The Shapiro brothers came into conflict with the other gangs in Brooklyn such as the Amberg brothers and the Reles gang. One by one the Shapiro brothers were murdered by the other gangs. Even though Meyer was younger then his brother Irving, he was considered the leader of the gang. On September 17, 1931, Meyer was found shot to death in the cellar of a lower eastside tenement in Manhattan. He was 23 years old

Meyer "Mickey" Cohen

2006-05-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

In Jungian psychology, the "shadow" is the part of the unconscious that contains all of those characteristics the conscious mind considers dark or bad. If the conscious mind thinks aggression is wrong, then the shadow is the part of the personality that is aggressive. Jung believed this was how we cope with having to act in ways we would prefer not to. A healthy personality has a shadow and soul in balance.

Mickey Cohen was Ben “Bugsy” Siegel's shadow. Ben was tall, handsome, suave and welcome in the elite Hollywood circles. He mixed with the glitterati, courted royalty and bedded starlets while his shadow -- Mickey -- was picking their pockets, robbing their safes and breaking their bones.

In so many ways they were opposite sides of the same coin. Both were violent men, out of place in the Hollywood environment. They liked many of the same things: good food, fine clothes, beautiful women, shined shoes. But where Benny was able to submerge his dark side and present a more acceptable persona, Mickey was what he was. He was loud, boisterous, and pedestrian. He made no apologies for his lifestyle and his lack of refinement. Together, Mickey Cohen and Benny Siegel were an effective extension of the East Coast Syndicate on the West Coast. They changed organized crime in the West from the backwater Unione Siciliano-Black Hand penny-ante operations that had existed under the old-style Mustache Petes into the multimillion dollar industry that controlled narcotics, gambling, unions, and politics.

After Benny was punished by his Syndicate partners for skimming from the Flamingo project, Mickey Cohen was left alone as the mob's West Coast muscle and easily filled Ben's shoes. He didn't have the flair of Ben Siegel, but Mickey Cohen had a style all his own. Mickey flourished on the West Coast and appeared to have more lives than a cat. He was shot at, bombed, arrested, imprisoned, threatened, and like the fighter he started out as, Mickey kept coming back for more. In the end, he outlasted all of his enemies and went out if not on top, then pretty darn close.

Because organized crime seems to be an East Coast phenomenon, Mickey Cohen never really got the recognition that he deserved. That's a shame because Mickey was a bit of a rarity. In a business where most guys end up in a prison cell or at the wrong end of a gun, Mickey Cohen managed to avoid both of those pitfalls.

One of the reasons Mickey didn't get the recognition that other men he worked with did was because Mick was a second-generation mobster. Just like no one remembers the people who arrived in America on the next boat after the {Mayflower}, Mickey showed up in Chicago long after Al Capone had seized control of the underworld and by the time Mickey came west to join Ben Siegel, Bugsy had already infiltrated the extras union and shown Jack Dragna who was boss in California.

Mickey's rise to power came after the heyday of the Jewish mobsters. Meyer Lansky was well-established in Havana and the Southeast and was looking forward to retiring. The carpet joints were flourishing in Louisiana, Frank Costello was firmly ensconced as the prime minister and there was really no New World to be plundered. The Conquistadores had come and gone and it was Mickey's job to oversee the operations that had been put into place.

He did that with the skill and practice of a journeyman gangster. Mickey may not have been an A-list racketeer, but he was efficient and ruthless at his craft. Like Sam Giancana in Chicago, he paid his dues as a hired gun, worked his way up the chain of command and saw the traps and tricks that had foiled those in front of him. By the time he was in position to run his own operation, Mickey Cohen was as adroit and cunning as the men he succeeded.

Even though the trail had been blazed before him, Mickey Cohen's rise to the top wasn't easy. He had to pay his dues, and he got his start in the rackets like a number of other wise guys: in the ring. The things that make a good pug and a good gangster are similar. An imposing presence, tough fists and a chin that can take a punch are important characteristics for a racketeer, although the imposing presence is mostly for character.

Many of the mob's toughest characters were small men who made up for their diminutive stature with guts and heart that belonged in guys twice their size. Meyer Lansky and Lepke Buchalter are two that come to mind, although this trait is not limited to Jewish gangsters. The Westies' Mickey Featherstone wasn't all that big and he was known for his rock-solid fists and the tenacity of a Jack Russell terrier.

Current Genovese family leaders Punchy Illiano and Quiet Dom Cirillo both got their starts as boxers, as did another Genovese member, Li'l Augie Pisano. Illiano earned his nickname because of his boxing background -- and those who know him insist he is anything but "punchy." For his part, Cirillo faced Jake "Raging Bull" La Motta in the ring several times, although he was less than successful.

Mickey Cohen was born hustling. A Brownsville, New York, native -- the same neighborhood that gave the world Abe Reles and many of the Murder, Inc. troop -- Cohen was whisked away from the poverty of that Brooklyn slum before he was six years old and moved with his mother and older siblings to the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, where his family operated a drug store.

Of course, this being Prohibition, the Cohen pharmacy, in the middle of a Russian Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, operated one of the countless small-time gin mills in the area. As a boy, Mickey served as a deliveryman for his brother's moonshine operation, which resulted in his first pinch at 9 years old. The charge was smoothed over by his brother's connections and nothing came of it, but the seed had already been planted in Mickey's mind.

"I got a kick out of having a big bankroll in my pocket," he said in his biography. "Even if I only made a couple hundred dollars, I'd always keep it in fives and tens so it'd look big. I had to hide it from my mother, because she'd get excited when she'd see a roll of money like that."

Successful hustling, whether it's bootlegging, selling newspapers or swag, requires moxie and the fists to back it up, and that's how the preteen Mickey discovered he liked to box. Although the sport was illegal in California and even more so because he was so young, Mickey found many different ways to get in the ring. Along with the money it gave him, he found he also liked the respect he earned.

As he grew, Mickey continued boxing and with the blissful ignorance of youth, his thoughts turned toward becoming a professional. The skill was there, as were the promoters who saw something special in the young teen. The only problem was that 15-year-old Mickey Cohen's mother didn't know he was boxing at all.

"One day, the butcher stopped my mother -- who didn't talk real good English -- and said to her, 'Mrs. Cohen, you must be proud your boy's boxing for the championship.' So she says, 'What's this boxing?' "See, she didn't know nothing about boxing or that sort of thing."
Mickey won the championship and that sealed it in his mind. With the blessing of his older brother, he told his mother he was "going to the beach" and headed east to become a prize fighter. Fate had other ideas.

Mick bounced around the Midwest for a while and landed in New York, where he met some of organized crime's toughest characters. Tommy Dioguardi, brother of the labor racketeer Johnny Dio, was a fight fanatic, as was Owney Madden, the New York killer who would end up running the mob's resort in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

"Owney was a really a guy to respect and admire -- quite a guy, a man of his word," Mickey recalled later. "His faithfulness to his own kind is the strongest thing a man can have, and if Owney felt that you were an all right person, there wasn't nothing that he wouldn't do for you."
A bad bout with featherweight world champ Tommy Paul ended Mick's boxing career when the champ knocked him so senseless he wandered out of the ring and was on his way to the dressing room before anyone could catch him.

"I began to see that I really didn't have it to be great in the ring," he said. "So then I decided I'd had enough of the fight business and everything else."

A washed-up pug with no education whose only friends are gangsters has few choices in life. That's where Mickey found himself after his fight with Tommy Paul. He fell back on the only thing he knew -- hustling. "I started rooting -- you know, sticking up joints -- with some older guys," he said. "By now I had gotten a taste of what the racket world really was -- the glamour, the way they dressed, the way they always had a pocketful of money."

He didn't realize it at the time, but the places he was robbing were mob-controlled carpet joints -- the illicit nightclubs and casinos that predated Las Vegas. "Later on I learned that we were lucky to pull it through," he recalled. "Because we didn't even give a thought to whose joints those were. We were stepping on the toes of the outfit."

Fortunately for Mickey, the mobsters whose toes were crushed realized the rough talent he had and set him straight. After a killing he preferred not to talk about -- "statute of limitations and all that," he said -- Mickey moved from Cleveland to Chicago, where he later met Al Capone.
In the Windy City, Mickey, working as muscle in a card room, learned how influential the Outfit had become. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and when a couple of thugs died in a shootout, Mick was pinched.

"I certainly ain't gonna get out right away," he thought to himself, and laid on the bench to sleep. A telephone call from his goombah, Egan's Rat member Spike Hennessey, to a police captain changed that and Mickey was out on the streets without having to post bail. The charges then seemed to disappear.

"These guys were notorious anyway, and besides they had a piece on them," Mickey explained.
It was after that that Mickey met Al Capone for the first time. "I walked into his office kind of awed, because I was a young kid anyway, walking into the office of Al Capone," he said. "He did something which was a very big thing for me -- he kind of held my head and kissed me on both cheeks."

That greeting solidified Mickey Cohen's place in the Chicago Outfit and led to bigger and better things, mostly on the gambling side of the Outfit's operations. Mickey was soon running card games and then craps tables and supervising other mobsters. He was close to Mattie Capone, Big Al's younger brother, and with Mattie's backing Mickey found he could get away with things other mobsters couldn't.

"Al intimated to me like if I found something to get into, he would back me up, you understand."
While he was working under Greasy Thumb Jake Guzik, Al's bagman, Mickey experienced the first of what would be many assassination attempts. Not surprisingly, the details of the attack were etched firmly in Mick's mind.

"I had on a camel hair coat that, boy, I was really in love with," he recalled. "It had big check in it -- not loud check -- and I think this was the second time I had worn it. So when they came by shooting, I didn't even fall because I didn't want to get my coat dirty!"

A beef with another gambler made Mickey leave town and for a while he was working back with Lou Rothkopf in Cleveland, a close friend of Meyer Lansky and Benny Siegel. There wasn't enough work for a guy like Mickey in Cleveland, so Lou and his friend Joe Gentile suggested Mickey head west to work with Ben.

For years, Bugsy Siegel's presence in Los Angeles served as a firewall between Jack Dragna and Mickey Cohen. But Ben wasn't going to be around much longer, and when he was gone, Dragna had no trouble finding the courage to feud openly with Mickey. When Ben headed to Nevada with Virginia Hill and a couple million of his mob friends' dollars, Mickey stayed in southern California to oversee the Syndicate's operations there."Vegas and I disagreed, so I had to push myself to go there," Cohen wrote. "But I had an understanding with the Cleveland people that being out this way, I would make myself available from time to time in Las Vegas for pieces of work."

The day before Siegel's 1947 execution, he met with Mickey to discuss the situation in the West. The Flamingo's opening had already been a disaster and the casino was limping along woefully, although it was beginning to turn a profit as the law of large numbers caught up with the players and the casino edge began to take hold. Still, Mickey knew that Ben suspected his time was at hand. He asked about the armaments the operation had in Los Angeles and what shooters loyal to him were on hand.

"There's no doubt that Benny felt there was some kind of come-off going to take place," Cohen said. "I guess he wanted to be prepared for it, but he wasn't prepared soon enough."

Before Ben had a chance to set up a defense, he was shot to death as he sat in a Southern California bungalow. The long-range sniper was so accurate, his shot blew one of Ben's eyes clear across the room. No one was ever arrested for the hit, although Mickey had his suspicions of who ordered it and who fired the shot. Because he wanted to stay alive even after retiring from the rackets, Mickey mentions no names in his autobiography, but he suggests that the hit was done without pay as a favor for the men who requested it.

Immediately after the hit, it was business as usual. Moe Sedway and Doc Stacher took over the Flamingo hours after Ben was killed and Mickey received his own orders from the Syndicate.
"I took over from Benny right away on instructions from the people back east," he said. "Naturally, I missed Benny, but to be honest with you, his getting knocked off was not a bad break for me. Pretty soon I was running everything out here."

As the Syndicate man on the West Coast, Mickey began meeting with the movers and shakers of Hollywood and the top politicians of Los Angeles. He did favors for Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Studios and for Frank Sinatra, who was hot for Ava Gardner, but was being beaten out by Cohen gunman Johnny Stompanato. Mickey developed lifelong friendships with men like Sammy Davis Jr., and stepped in to defend Davis when Cohn wanted Frank Costello to have the entertainer whacked for dating Kim Novak. Another relationship, which was to have ramifications much later in Mickey's life was his friendship with William Randolph Hearst, who ordered his Los Angeles Times editors to stop referring to Cohen as a "hoodlum" and to start calling him a "gambler."

But none of the Hollywood types or even the police commission in his pocket could help Mickey when Jack Dragna declared war.

Before Bugsy's bones were cold in the ground, Dragna began plotting against Mickey Cohen. It was now or never, Jack reasoned, and he pulled out all the stops to get Mickey out of the way. A combination of uncanny luck on Mickey's part and incompetence on the part of the Dragna crew made the War of the Sunset Strip look like a Hollywood comedy.

One of the first salvos was fired as Mickey was heading home to Brentwood and was ambushed. Under fire from shotguns and Tommy guns, the hit looked like one of those unbelievable scenes in a movie where the bad guys open up on the star with a platoon of heavy weapons, yet the star manages to avoid every shot. In Mick's case, it was really happening. As the glass exploded from his Cadillac, he lay on his side and managed to steer his car up Wilshire Boulevard without hitting anything.

"I'm probably at my coolest in an emergency," he said. "The minute I sensed what was happening, I fell to the floor and drove that goddamn car all the way down Wilshire with one hand. I probably couldn't do it again in a thousand times." He escaped with just a little damage from flying glass.

Twice Dragna tried to get Mickey in his home, the first time using a bangalore -- a long, tube-like explosive device used by the military to clear barbed wire and beachheads -- but the TNT failed to detonate. The next time, a dynamite bomb exploded beneath the Cohen house, but the blast was directed away from the living space by a concrete floor vault that shielded Mickey and his family.

"Actually, the neighbors got it worse than I did from the concussion," he recalled. Sharpshooting hit men were only slightly luckier. Once as Mickey and several friends were sitting in a crowded after-hours diner, a Dragna shooter opened up with a .30-06 rifle and hit Mickey in the arm, tearing away much of the flesh. Buckshot from another gunman ripped through the diner, striking a couple of innocent patrons, injuring them slightly. Unfortunately, Neddy Herbert, a longtime friend of Mickey's, was killed in the shootout.

Another shooter was even less fortunate. Mick was coming out of a joint and was walking toward his new Caddy. He bent down to examine a scratch on the fender and as he did so, felt a bullet whiz past his head and ricochet off the car. The gunman didn't stick around for another shot.

In 1950, the war attracted the attention of the Senate Select Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, better known as the Kefauver Committee. Mickey was subpoenaed to testify before the commission and was lambasted by New Hampshire Senator Charles Tobey.
"I remember the old senator kept calling me a 'hoodlum.' He really used some terms that were uncalled for, from a senator in that type of thing," Cohen said. "Is it not a fact that you live extravagantly, surrounded by violence?" the New Hampshire senator asked Mickey. "Whaddya mean 'surrounded by violence,'" Mickey replied, indignant. "People are shooting at me!"

The exchange and appearance did little for Mickey and based on the findings of the Kefauver Commission, he was indicted, tried and convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to four years in federal prison

Moe Sedway

2006-05-05T06:15:00.000-07:00

Mobster. He was an associate of Bugsy Siegel, and worked with him in Las Vegas.

Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro

2006-05-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

New York Mafia Figure. Gurrah was one of the most feared Labor Racketeers in New York City and Lepke Buchalter's partner during the 1920s and 1930s. The nickname "Gurrah" dates back to his childhood when he tried to rob pushcarts in his Jewish neighborhood and the pushcart owners would shout "Gurra da here" (get out of here) at him. Shapiro died of natural causes at age 50 in Sing-Sing prison.

Mendy Weiss

2006-05-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Emanuel ( Mendy) Weiss was a member of a murder-for-hire gang made up of low-level Jewish and Italian gangsters working out of Brooklyn N.Y. during the 1930s. This gang came to be known in the news media as Murder Inc. The gang carried out gangland murders in the New York City area under the direction of Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. Weiss died in the electric chair in Sing-Sing Prison on the night of March 4,1944. The same night that Louis Capone and their boss Louis (Lepke) Buchalter were executed. Cause of death: Executed by electric chair.

Rest in Peace

2006-05-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein

2006-05-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

Martin (Buggsy) Goldstein (real first name: Meyer) was a member of a murder-for-hire gang made up of low-level Jewish and Italian gangsters working out of Brooklyn N.Y. during the 1930s. This gang came to be known in the news media as Murder Inc. The gang carried out gangland murders in the New York City area under the direction of Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. Goldstein died in the electric chair in Sing-Sing Prison near midnight on the night of June 12,1941.

Harry " Pittsburgh Phil", "Pep" Strauss

2006-05-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Harry Strauss, more popularly known as Pittsburgh Phil, was a member of a crime syndicate known as Murder Incorporated. Phil was one of the most requested hit man within the organization, and their heaviest hitter. Some estimates to the number of contracts that Harry Strauss carried out surpass five-hundred, a more realistic total is approximately one-hundred. He was one of the members that wound up in the electric chair due in part to the testimony of Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. He died without a cent in hand, his earnings are said to have gone to legal fees and to ensure Reles's fate. This syndicate played a vital role in the workings of organized crime during the 1930's.

Pep was a dapper dresser who cared for his family. His suits usually ranged around $60, a large amount during the depression. He was often admired for his good looks and flashy attire. Ironically, a resentment always existed between Strauss and Reles. An event occurred during the early thirty's in a, deli. The counter person was preparing a sandwich for Reles upon request, and handed it to him. He promptly was unsatisfied with the amount of meat and threw the sandwich in his face. An argument and fight ensued between Strauss and Reles. Later that evening the deli was burned to the ground. Strauss's appearance led to an undeniable influence over women in Brownsville and afar. Love interest's even stemmed to Hollywood, as he enjoyed a brief interlude with the infamous Gene Harlow. He ultimately dated up with the Kiss of Death Girl.

On a professional level, Pittsburgh Phil was an efficient killer, which explained why he was always requested to carry out contracts. He lived in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and always led a life tangent to written law. His nickname is misleading and unaccounted for, being he never was documented to have visited Pittsburgh. Killing didn't bother him, and any occurrence that interfered with the fluidity of his profession sparked outrage. The contracted killing of Puggy Feinstein for example. It took place in a Brooklyn home, where he was to meet his demise at the hands on Phil and an ice pick. As the struggle ensued Puggy bit Strauss's finger. Irate over the turn of events, Strauss and a few of his coworkers decided to make Feinsteins demise more painful and lengthened. They did so by a process which incorporates a rope being looped around the victims head and feet. As the person struggles the rope gets tighter and they strangle themselves to death. Still aggravated over the wound on his finger Phil and his associates took the body to a vacant lot and set it on fire. "The boys then adjourned to Sheepshead Bay for a seafood dinner. Phil, however, was not happy...Phil was so upset at dinner that he failed to finish his lobster." It is said that Strauss never carried a weapon, so as to protect against police intervention or to arise any suspicion. One contract, the only one he was ever known to have failed, sent him to Florida. Phil decided he would follow his victim until the opportune moment arose. Upon entering a movie theater he planned to use the fire ax hanging from the wall to kill his target and then he would run out with the crowd. Unfortunately the target kept changing seats and Phil quit out of disgust. The "savagery" of other contracts were confirmed by the discovery and inspection of surfaced bodies. Rudnick's body was found to have in excess of 63 stab wounds, and a gaping wound leading to the bone, another victim was tied to a pinball machine. Due to gases in the intestines the body floated to the surface despite the weight and stab wounds. Later on Phil was quoted as saying "With this bum, you gotta be a doctor or he floats."

Eventually Harry Strauss's decade long career would come to an end at the hands of the district attorney Burton Turkus, and the stool pigeon Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. Phil as well as , Louis Lempke, Mendy Weiss, and Louis Capone faced trial and the death penalty. Their was no chance of beating the wrap given the overwhelming evidence. So Strauss conceited to plead insanity and played out the role with some courtroom antics. Much of his trial was spent chewing on his lawyers briefcase handle. He often spoke that he needing milk to help his ulcer. Despite these efforts he as well as the others were convicted and sentenced to die by way of electrocution. Strauss and his cohorts refused to allow "the rat" to get away scot free. Mysteriously, under heavy police protection, Abe Reles leapt from the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. It was ruled that Reles committed suicide, but the body was found 20 feet away from the building. If this theory held true, than Abe Reles must have been an unidentified athlete in the field of long jumping.

Charlie "The Bug" Workman

2006-05-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

One of the more prolific murderers was Charlie Workman, variously known as "The Bug," "The Powerhouse," and "Handsome Charlie." He was rumored to have dispatched 20 individuals.
Workman, like many other criminals of the early 20th century, was from Manhattan’s teeming Lower East Side.

Born in 1908, he was the second of seven children. By the time he quit school in the ninth grade at the age of 17, he had earned a reputation as a neighborhood bully and was feared for his "rough tactics." At 18 he was arrested for stealing a $12 bundle of cotton thread from a truck parked on Broadway; at 19 he was arrested for shooting a man in a dispute over $20. Although the victim of the shooting refused to identify Workman as his assailant, Workman was sent to the New York State Reformatory for violating parole in the cotton theft case. Released seven months later, Workman soon found himself on his way back to prison for additional parole violations: associating with "questionable characters" and failing to get a job. After three more months in stir, he was out and back again for the same reason. This stint in prison would be his last serious jail time for the next 12 years.

This didn’t mean that Workman had become a model citizen. He was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon in 1932. The following year he sucker punched an off duty police officer after a traffic altercation. He was even nailed with the popular "vagrancy" charge in 1939 when the police wanted to question him on the whereabouts of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jake Shapiro.
At some point during this period, Workman became a gun-for-hire on the Brooklyn killing squad that became infamously known as Murder, Inc. According to Paul Sann in his classic tale titled Kill the Dutchman, Workman was paid a stipend of $125 a week, and enjoyed the fringe benefit of being able to "sweep out the pockets" of his victims. Sann states Workman was one of the "cartels" top killers.

In July 1935, New York Gov. Harry Lehman appointed Thomas E. Dewey special prosecutor, with orders to cleanup New York. The effort began, according to Dewey, "with no staff, no office, no police, no budget appropriation, and … no sense whatever." Dewey’s spirited attack took the underworld by surprise; by October mob dons were discussing a plan to kill him.

Harlem number’s kingpin, Dutch Schultz, was one of the first hoodlums to get into Dewey’s cross hairs. When Schultz let it be known that he would kill Dewey himself if the dons didn’t go through with their plan to take him out, Lucky Luciano, afraid the hit would draw too much legal heat, decided to do away with the Dutchman instead.

When the assignment came down to eliminate Schultz, Workman, with his yeoman reputation, was selected over other gang stalwarts such as Abe Reles, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, Allie Tannenbaum, Buggsy Goldstein, or Happy Maione. It was never clear how Workman had earned his "yeoman" reputation. I have only seen one other murder attributed to him, outside of the Schultz crew slaughter, and that occurred almost four years after the Dutchman’s demise.
Workman’s partners on the hit were Murder, Inc. lieutenant Emmanuel "Mendy" Weiss, and a driver identified only by his nickname, "Piggy." On the night of the murders, Oct. 23, 1935, we only know what happened through second-hand knowledge of the killings. Workman and Weiss never revealed the events of that evening, but they had conversations with other members of Murder, Inc. who later ratted out their compatriots to the authorities.

According to Burton Turkus, the assistant prosecutor who wrote the book Murder, Inc., and prosecuted several of its members, Workman "strolled" into the Palace Chophouse in Newark, while Weiss provided cover and "Piggy" sat poised at the wheel. Workman walked the length of the bar and flipped open the door to the men’s room. Inside was a man washing his hands whom Workman thought was a Schultz bodyguard. He shot the man, who immediately dropped to the floor.

Workman then darted into the back dining room and opened up on the Schultz men – Lulu Rosencrantz, Abe Landau and Abbadabba Berman – killing all three. Not seeing Dutch on the floor, Workman realized he must have been the man washing his hands. He then went back to rifle Schultz’s pockets.

Paul Sann had a different version of the shooting. He stated that both Weiss and Workman first blasted away at the three men in the dining room. Then, after not spotting Schultz, Workman went into the men’s room and found Dutch at the urinal. Workman fired twice; one bullet hit Schultz, causing a mortal wound.

There are discrepancies in both author’s accounts of these murders. However, when the gunfire stopped, another gangland saga was created.

After Workman supposedly rifled the Dutchman’s pockets for cash, he ran back to the getaway car. Weiss, "Piggy" and the car were not in sight. This left Workman the task of making it back to the city alone, which he claimed to have accomplished by escaping through back yards and following the railroad tracks home.

Workman was livid and demanded Weiss’s life for abandoning him. In a sit-down with Lepke Buchalter, each man pled his case. Weiss’s argument for leaving was that the shooting was mob business and when it was over it was time to split. Workman’s robbing of the dying Schultz was personal business and he and "Piggy" should not have put themselves in jeopardy by having to wait for Workman to profit from the kill. Buchalter sided with his lieutenant, Weiss.

In 1940, Abe Reles began ratting out the Murder, Inc. gang, One of the first trials to get underway was Workman’s. The trial, held in Newark, started on June 2, 1941 and began with testimony from Reles and Tannenbaum. It came to an abrupt halt eight days later. On June 9, Louis Cohen testified that he had employed Workman from 1935 to 1937 as a manager and car dispatcher at his funeral home. This was Workman’s alibi for the Schultz murder planning sessions he was said to be at. After Cohen left the witness stand, he was "shadowed" by Prosecutor William O’Dwyer’s men and taken to the police department where he admitted to the false testimony.

Cohen was then driven home by a police officer who remained with him the entire night and returned him to the courthouse the following morning. As Cohen was called back to the witness stand, Workman jumped up and shouted, "Mr. Cohen! I don’t want you to…" Workman didn’t finish his sentence as courtroom attendants pounced on him.
"May I take the stand your honor," Workman yelled out. "Please let me take the stand."
"Not now," replied the judge.
Once back on the stand, Cohen revealed that he had lied the previous day.
When court reconvened after lunch, Workman’s attorney announced that his client wanted to change his plea to "no defense." Common Pleas Judge Daniel Brennan accepted the plea, dismissed the jury, and promptly sentenced Workman to life in prison.

As he was being taken away, the guards gave him a moment with his brother Abe. While Abe sobbed in his arms, Workman told him, "Whatever you do, live honestly. If you make 20 cents a day, make it do you. If you can’t make an honest living, make the government support you. Keep away from the gangs and don’t be a wise guy. Take care of Mama and Papa and watch ‘Itchy’ (a younger brother). He needs watching."

Workman was sent to Trenton State Prison. He was back in the news in 1942, when he offered his services to the United States Navy to go on a suicide mission to hit Japan and avenge Pearl Harbor. His patriotic request was denied. A model prisoner, Workman was transferred to Rahway State Prison Farm in 1952. When he was paroled in 1964, after almost 23 years in prison, his brother Abe and his wife Catherine met him at the prison. He found work, of all places, in the garment district that Lepke once ruled.

Workman never discussed his past life, except to say, "If I knew then, what I know now." He kept the details of the Schultz murders to himself, and the 16 other killings that were attributed to him.

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter

2006-05-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Buchalter was the only mob boss ever to die in the electric chair. He started out as a push cart shoplifter and ended up as one of the most powerful Jewish gangsters ever.

Lepke was nasty. The kind of guy who runs out and stomps on the head of an unconscious man. To that end, he became the master of the protection racket. He started by using his mastadonic friend Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro to rough up union delegates in the garment district of Manhattan; unions which had only just been formed ten years earlier. Lepke used the unions to threaten strikes, and demanded weekly payments from factory owners. He also raided the union bank accounts through his puppet delegates.

Kalvin Klein With a Blow Torch and a Tommy GunAfter a few years of working over the sweatshop owners in the garment district, Lepke was pulling in the cash like a gardener raking in fall leaves. Soon, he branched out into a more general protection racket. Other gangsters worked this angle all over New York. What made Lepke stand out was his intolerance of those who wouldn't pay protection money. In someone else's territory, if a mark didn't pay up, they'd get their legs broken. But with Lepke, if someone didn't pay, they were simply killed. No one got a second chance. Not only would Lepke's boys kill shopkeepers, but they'd usually set the places on fire after the owners were disposed of, and sell off the merchandise to their friends.

No one knows exactly how many people were killed or how many businesses were burned on Buchalter's orders. It's said that he sentenced thousands to their demise during prohibition. His eventual undoing was a stool pigeon who said that Buchalter was behind two out of every three arsons in Manhattan.

Buchalter's protection scheme shot him to the top of the crime world. By 1929, he attracted the attention of Salvatore Maranzano Maranzano coveted the stacks of cash Lepke was pulling in each week and wanted to move in on the operations with full force. So Buchalter went to talk to an old friend: Lucky Luciano.

First, Luciano sent Bugsy Siegel, Joe Adonia, Vito Genovese and Albert Anastasia to kill Maranzano's rival, Joe Masseria. Then he took out Maranzano. Then, he took over the world.
Board Member ExtrordinaireFor his support, Buchalter was awarded an honorary seat on the board of the National Crime Syndicate (despite Luciano's open minded policies, no Jews could actually sit on the board). He was also allowed to keep ahold of his protectorate. By the middle 30's, Lepke's rackets were pouring in cash and no one in New York dared to cross him. His reputation for comissioning hits made him a terror.

Lepke started attracting a lot of attention from the feds during the early 30's. He usually got off thanks to bribed federal judges, but in 1939, he was fingered by former Murder Inc. employee Abe Reles. Reles turned state's evidence after he was bagged for a murder he couldn't shrug off. He immediately began singing, and fingered Lepke as a major player in 4 murders.

Buchalter hid out in New Jersey in a specially made safe house filled with trap doors and false walls. The place was owned by a woman named Mrs. Walsh, and it was built in the 20's by her husband who used it to hide from Lepke Buchalter. Mrs. Walsh took care of Lepke in 1939 because she never knew that he was the man who had ordered her husband's death.
In 1940, Albert Anastasia began lobbying with Buchalter to surrender to federal authorites to answer on federal narcotics charges that were being brought against him. The plan was to fix the federal trial and avoid the charges of murder in New York.

It didn't work. He was handed over to the New York police immediately following his surrender. Abe Reles sang like a canary in court, and Lepke was sent to the electric chair. Once his appointed date of demise came, he stormed into the chamber, thumped himself down in the chair and didn't move or say a word after. He died in two minutes, covering himself in drool in the process.

Sam "Red" Levine

2006-05-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly little is known about Sam "Red" Levine considering he was one of the Mafia's more colorful characters. What is know is that Red Levine was an Orthordox Jew Mafia hitman who refused to kill on the Sabbath. Levine was a member of the notorious Mafia gang, Murder Inc. and is credited with being the trigger man in the murder of Salvatore Maranzaro.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Seigel

2006-05-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Hymen Siegel was an gangster , popularly thought to be a primary instigator of large-scale development of Las Vegas. He hated his nickname Bugsy and wouldn't allow anyone to call him that to his face.

Siegel was born in Brookyn, NY to a poor Jewish family, one of five children. As a boy he joined a street gang on Lafayette Street in Lower East Side and committed first mainly thefts until, with another boy called Moe Sedway, he devised his own protection racket. He forced pushcart merchants to pay him five dollars or he would incinerate their merchandise on the spot.

As a teenager, Siegel befriended Meyer Lansky formed a small gang with him that expanded to gambling and car theft . Reputedly Siegel also worked as the gang's hitman who Lansky would sometimes hire out to other gang bosses. In 1926 Siegel was charged for rape but Lansky cohersed the victim not to testify.

In 1930 Lansky and Siegel joined forces with Lucky Luciano. Siegel became a bootlegger and was also associated with Albert Anastasia. Siegel was used for bootlegging operations inNY, NJ, and Philly. During the so-called Castallermerse War in 1930-1931, they fought the gang of Joe Masseria and Siegel reputedly had a hand in Masseria's murder in Coney Island and later had a part in Murder, Inc. In 1932 he was arrested for gambling and bootlegging but got away with a fine. Lanskey and Siegel were briefly allied with Dutch Schultz and killed rival loan sharksLouis and Joseph Amberg in 1935.

In 1937 the East Coast mob sent Siegel California to try to develop syndicate gambling rackets in the West alongside Los Angeles mobster Jack Dragna . Siegel also recruited Jewish gang boss Mickey Cohen as his lieutenant. Siegel used syndicate money to set up the national wire service so that East Coast mob would get their cut faster.

Siegel had married his childhood sweetheart Esther Krakow, sister of a fellow hitman Whitey Krakow . He eventually moved her and their two daughters to West Coast after his bosses had sent him there, but kept them separate from his affairs. Siegel had a number of mistresses, including Ketti Gallian , actresses Wendy Barrie and Marie MacDonald and Hollywood socialite Dorothy DiFrasso . With the aid of DiFrasso and actor friend George Raft Siegel gained entry into Hollywood's inner circle. He is alleged to have used his contacts to extort movie studios. He lived in extravagant fashion, as befit to his reputation. In his income tax reports he claimed to earn a living by legal gambling in Santa Anita racetrack.

Siegel also became enamored with moll and courier Virginia Hill. They began a torrid affair. Hill worked for Siegel to establish contacts in Mexico. Hill was wealthy in her own right and had bought a mansion in Beverly Hills where Siegel frequently stayed. Siegel called her his "bait" and she became his more regular mistress. Later there were rumors that they were secretly married in Mexico. Their affair, however, didn't keep Siegel from womanizing. Virgina's reaction to his infidelities is unknown, but the long-suffering Esther had finally had enough; she went to Reno and obtained a divorce in 1946.

In November of 39, Siegel, with Whitey Krakower and two others, killed Harry Greenberg who became a police informer . Siegel was arrested and tried for the murder (by that time, he had also killed Krakower). He was acquitted but newspapers referred to him for the first time with his nickname "Bugsy": he was not pleased, especially when his gangland past was revealed. On one return trip to the East, Siegel drove by the then small town of Las Vegas. Legend has it that, at the moment he had a vision of turning this town into a large gambling spot, he had stopped there for a call of nature.

According to popular myth. Bugsy had a vision where he would build large casinos and hotels where people could go and gamble His vision was fueled by the fact Nevada had legalized gambling in 1931. Siegel returned to the East and convinced his fellow mobsters about the possibilities of building a major gambling mecca in Las Vegas. After convincing his gangmates, Siegel returned and began working on his dream, with the construction of a casino he would name The Flamingo , his pet name for Virginia Hill.

The reality is, the mafia had a presence in Las Vegas casinos going back to at least 1941. The swank Flamingo was conceived and started by Los Angeles businessman Billy Wilkerson, who handed the project over to Siegel only after running short of funds. In return, Siegel allowed Wilkerson to retain a one-third ownership.

However, Siegel knew little about construction; under his oversight, the construction costs ballooned from $1 million to $6 million. Allegedly, the Del Webb company, which was in charge of on-site construction, would drive building materials on site, before simply driving them out of the back gate and billing Siegel for their work. When Webb became worried that he would come to harm, Siegel reputedly joked: "Don't worry, Del. We only kill each other." The Mafia members who invested in Siegel's project became worried back East, and began to suspect that Siegel was stealing money from them. Because Hill had been taking frequent trips to Europe they also worried that Siegel might be putting their money away into a swiss bank account.

In 1946, several of his business and crime partners flew to Cuba for theHavana Conference meeting with Luciano, who had begun to operate Mafia operations from Italy after he was paroled from jail in the U.S. and deported to Europe. One of the main topics for discussion at the conference was whether they should order a hit on Siegel, who was kept in the dark about the meeting. Lansky, who remembered fondly how Siegel had saved his life on various occasions when they were young, took a stand against the hit, and he asked them to give Siegel a chance until the casino opened. Luciano, who believed that Siegel could still make a profit in Las Vegas and pay back what he owed the Mafia investors, decided to cancel the hit.

Siegel opened his casino on a star-studded night, though he did not have as many Hollywood stars with him as he had hoped. Soon the casino ran dry of stars and customers, and the gangsters met once again in Cuba to decide whether they would "liquidate" Siegel. But, luckily for Siegel, he had turned a profit on the month of the second meeting, and Lansky again stood up for his old friend. Luciano decided to give him one last chance.

Eventually, "Bugsy's" business venture in Las Vegas failed. Virginia stole the money he owed the mob and fled to Paris, then Sweden. Siegel was shot in his home by a hidden hitman outside as he read the newspaper.

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles

2006-05-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Abraham Reles was born in a poverty stricken area of Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, in 1907 to Jewish-Austrian immigrants. It wasn’t long before young Abe turned to a life of crime. Brownsville was the birthplace and incubator of many Jewish gangsters. Stories of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the garment district kingpin, Benjamin Seigel, the future casino emperor, Meyer Lansky and Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, put young Abe on his path to wealth, fame and ultimately his destruction. Unbeknownst to him, these men would shape and determine the direction his life would take. Abe would become one of the most infamous contract killers ever hired by Murder Incorporated.

Abraham Reles was short, but had long arms and hands like a catcher’s glove. He was given the name "Kid Twist", a nickname given to a previous vicious killer from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Another myth exists on how Abe got the name "Kid Twist". It was supposedly after his favorite type of candy. Abe’s weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he became very adept at using. He was so good at jamming it into the contracts’ ear, that many of his victims’ deaths were deemed as brain hemorrhages

In the 1920’s the Shapiro brothers, led by Meyer Shapiro, ran the rackets of Brooklyn with the Amberg brothers nipping at their heels. Prohibition, a Government experiment gone badly, gave rise to many groups of booze barons and hijackers. If you wanted a slot or vending machine, you had to get it from Shapiros. Abe and his friend Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein worked for the Shapiro brothers when they were still teenagers. Soon the two boys were committing petty crimes, busting up strikes and causing other distractions for their money-hungry employers. During one such event, Abe was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to a two-year sentence in an Upstate New York juvenile facility. The Shapiro’s never came to the legal assistance of their faithful employee. This inaction, by the Shapiro brothers, would prove fatal.

When young Abe was released from prison he looked up his old friend Buggsy. He found him in their old neighborhood in East New York. Abe and Buggsy renewed their friendship. They were soon heavily into the slot machine business with help from George Defeo, who was linked to Meyer Lansky, the mob’s accountant. Lansky was willing to help because his organization did not have exposure to the poorer sections of Brooklyn. Through this alliance with Reles, Lansky was able to gain a sizeable foothold in the Brownsville, East New York and Ocean Hill sections of Brooklyn. For Reles, it was the sort of backing he needed to stay in business and to stay alive.

Business was good. It wasn’t long before the two friends, Reles and Goldstein, made the Shapiro hit list. It was time to kill or be killed; you could almost here Abe say, "Time to go to the mattress", a mob term for starting a war. One night Abe and Buggsy received a call from a friend that the Shapiros had left their headquarters. They jumped in their vehicle, along with George Defeo, and headed for East New York. It was a set up. The three were greeted by gunfire. Abe was shot in the back, Buggsy was shot in the face and Defeo escaped unharmed. To add insult to injury, Meyer Shapiro found Abe’s girlfriend walking on the street. He forced her into the car and took her to an open field where he beat and raped her repeatedly.

It was hours after the attack that Abe’s girlfriend told him what had occurred. Abe tasted blood. He hatched an elaborate scheme with the help from an Italian gang named the Ocean Hill Hooligans. Reles and Goldstein struck up an alliance with Frank "The Dasher" Abbundando and Harry "Happy" Maione who jumped at the chance to get rid of the Shapiro brothers for a piece of the action. Each side made attempt after attempt to kill one another, but to no avail. Abe Reles’s band of killers finally caught up with Irving Shapiro a month later. Abe caught him in the hallway of 691 Blake Avenue and dragged him out onto into the street. He beat, kicked and then shot Irving Shapiro numerous times. Two months later, so intent on revenge Abe shot Meyer Shapiro in the head. Three years later the last Shapiro brother, William, was abducted off of the street and brought to one of the gang’s hideouts. They beat him to near death and then stuffed him in a sack. The Reles’s gang then drove him out to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn where they buried him. Before they could finish, a man spotted them and the killers fled the scene. The man began to unearth what the men were burying when he found the sack. When William’s body was exhumed from its shallow grave and brought to Bellvue for an autopsy, the medical examiner made a frightening discovery. William Shapiro had dirt in his lungs; he was buried alive.

Before there ever was a Sammy "The Rat" Gravano, there was Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. In 1940, under the order of then District Attorney, William O’Dwyer, Abe Reles was picked up on a murder charge. He was implicated in a series of murders. When it was certain that he would be sent to Sing Sing Prison to sit upon "Old Sparky", Reles decided to become an informant for the District Attorney’s Office. The information Reles gave on May 16, 1940, led to the arrest, indictment, conviction and electrocution of one of his former bosses, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Needless to say, Abe’s decision to become a stool pigeon did not sit well with many high-ranking mob officials. The entire Syndicate that Lepke had helped establish was now in jeopardy. However, the most damaging Reles testimony was against Murder Incorporated. One by one, District Attorney William O’Dwyer prosecuted reputed killers from the organization, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein Abe’s childhood friend, Mendy Weiss, Harry "Happy" Maione and put them to death in the Sing Sing electric chair.

William O’Dwyer, on his road to becoming Mayor of New York City, had bigger fish to fry. He planned a trial on November 12th 1941, for Albert Anastasia, the man who ran Murder Incorporated with Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, based solely on the testimony of his star witness, Abe Reles. In the early morning hours of November 12th, Abe Reles, guarded by six police detectives, mysteriously flew from the window of room 623 of the Half Moon Hotel, in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The true events that took place that morning will never be known. Was he thrown? Was he pushed? Or was he trying to escape? When "Kid Twist" fell from the window, so did the truth.

Meyer Lansky

2006-05-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Meyer Lansky, born in 1902 in Poland to Jewish parents, grew up on the Lower East Side of New York. He was a virtuous and law abiding teen until one day, as he was walking home from his apprenticeship as a toolmaker, he heard a woman screaming in a deserted building. When he went in to investigate, he stumbled upon a 14-year-old Benjamin Siegel fighting a young Charles Luciano over the free services Siegel had been receiving from one of Luciano's prostitutes (the screaming woman). Not knowing either person, Lansky decided to come to the aid of Siegel, and beat Luciano over the head with a monkey wrench. After this unusual introduction the three men would become close friends and business partners. Lansky soon decided that there was more money to be made in gambling than in tool making, and started a floating crap game together with Siegel. His games proved so successful that within two years he was approached by Luciano, who asked him to join in his plans for a national crime syndicate.

By this time Lansky's mob of enforcers had grown to considerable strength, and had come to be known as the Bug and Meyer Mob. In return for his cooperation, Luciano steered a lot of business Lansky's way. During the 20's Lansky, as many of his contemporaries, grew incredibly wealthy from the rackets he was involved in. When Luciano's syndicate became reality towards the end of the decade, Lansky was appointed a position on the board of directors. He was mostly in charge of financial matters, arranging for the millions of dollars in income to be laundred, but also headed the gambling rackets. After Luciano was sent to prison for a long term stay, Lansky arranged for his cooperation in the Allied invasion of Sicily, and got his friend an eary parole. Lansky was left in charge of the day-to-day affairs of Luciano's empire when he was deported to Italy. Around that time also, Siegel had gotten himself in trouble by squandering syndicate money on his venture in Las Vegas, and although Lansky considered Siegel "his closest friend", he agreed to Siegel's elimination after the latter refused to cooperate with syndicate orders. By the 60's Lansky's gambling rackets had extended half-way across the globe, with departments all over South America , and even as far as Hong Kong. When in 1970 the federal government was plan ning to charge Lansky with tax evasion, he fled to Israel, where he lived in Tel Aviv. Israel revoked his visa under pressure from the US, however, and Lansky was made to stand trial. Reportedly he managed to escape conviction because his power stretched to the highest level of government. Eventually he settled in Miami, Florida, where his health declined and he finally died of a heat attack in 1983. At the time of his death, his fortune was estimated to be worth over $400 million.

Arnold Rothstein

2006-05-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

Known by many names - A. R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, and The Brain - Arnold Rothstein seemed more myth than man. He was the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby, and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. He was rumored to be the mastermind of the "Black Sox" scandal, the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Arnold Rothstein was gambling, and Arnold Rothstein was money. He was Mr. Broadway and had his own booth at Lindy's restaurant in Manhattan where he held court.

In 1914 Rothstein was already on his way to becoming the go-to-guy for lay-off betting in the bookmaking business. Since its early years, America has had a love affair with horse racing - and betting on horse races. As placing wagers on the sport became more popular, especially in the country's larger cities, the art of bookmaking, also known then as pool operating, became popular too. It was not until Rothstein came along to organize the various bookmakers that it became a huge money making venture. By the mid-teens Rothstein's ever-growing bankroll allowed him to set the terms for what became known as the lay-off bet. This is the process of evening out a bookie's slate when one horse has so much money riding on it that the results can break the bookie's bank. He simply bet's the other way with someone with enough money to handle the bet and the two split the winning percentage from the bets placed.

Rothstein was soon known from coast to coast as the man who could handle any lay-off bet. Assembling a loyal group of men who worked around the clock for their master, Rothstein's ability to take care of this type of betting would last until his death. Meanwhile, as the country moved through the 1910s, Rothstein's gambling contemporaries in New York fell by the wayside. Having one of the few reputable gambling houses in the city Rothstein decided to close up shop because it had become too well known. In 1916 he opened a new casino in Hewlett, Long Island where the cost of "protection" was not nearly as high as in Manhattan. Both the building and the land the gambling house occupied were owned by a state senator who was recognized as a major political figure in the area. The casino was lavishly furnished and provided the gamblers, who arrived by invitation only, with the best in food and drink. All of the casino's employees were required to dress in appropriate eveningwear.

Rothstein took advantage of what he termed "snob appeal" for his gambling den. "People like to think they're better than other people," Rothstein once told Damon Runyon. "As long as they're willing to pay to prove it, I'm willing to let them." For three years he allowed them to "pay," to the tune of $500,000 in profits, before he closed the club in 1919 after the local authorities became greedy. Rothstein did not remain out of the casino business for long. In 1917 he was approached about bankrolling a gambling house at Saratoga, which he did until closing his Long Island operation. Rothstein then opened his own place in Saratoga, which he named the "Brook." The combination cabaret, gambling casino, nightclub and restaurant was described as one of the grandest of its kind. The Brook drew the wealthiest gamblers in the country. Katcher claims, "Rothstein wanted only the best people as customers. To him 'best' and 'wealthiest' were synonymous. He had no other gauge than money by which to judge."

After the 1922 racing season was completed a reform mayor was elected in Saratoga. The candidate ran on a platform to rid the area of bookmakers and gamblers. Shortly after the election an "emissary" of the mayor-elect contacted Rothstein to let him know the new city leader was "willing to forget some of the promises he made." "How much?" barked Rothstein. "You can take care of it for $60,000," came the reply. Rothstein shot back, "You go back and tell him to go to hell. Anyone who'd sell out a whole town wouldn't hesitate to double-cross one man." The Brook was sold and, while Rothstein stayed clear of owning anymore casinos at Saratoga, he continued to bankroll various operations until he died. One of these gambling houses was the "Chicago Club," which came into the possession of a group of investors headed by Charles "Lucky" Luciano.

The Mafia Encyclopedia defines Prohibition as "the greatest day for organized crime in America." Little did Rothstein know at the advent of the Volstead Act that he would be one of the founding fathers of organized crime in the United States. In fact, Rothstein actually believed the new law would be effective.

When Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, Rothstein had many of the component parts of organized crime in place. Leo Katcher explains: "Rothstein was one of the first rumrunners. He made the smuggling of uncut diamonds and narcotics a side enterprise. "He operated one of the largest bail bond businesses in New York. Each man for whom he provided bail had to give Rothstein his insurance business. "Rothstein had 'pieces' of many night clubs and cabarets. This was a bonus he took for financing them, at his usual rate of interest. His 'partners' found that they had to purchase or rent such equipment as silver and linens from firms that Rothstein owned. They also had to place all their insurance with Rothstein's firm. "Rothstein financed many retail outlets for bootleggers. His realty firms negotiated rentals and leases. "He bankrolled many bootleggers and provided them with trucks and drivers to transport their illegal cargo. "Rothstein's main function though was organization. He provided money and manpower and protection. He arranged corruption - for a price. And, if things went wrong, Rothstein was ready to provide bail and attorneys. He put crime on a corporate basis when the proceeds of crime became large enough to warrant it."

One of Rothstein's first ventures into rum running came after a meeting with Waxey Gordon (Irving Wexler) and Detroit bootlegger Maxie Greenberg. While in Detroit, Greenberg began smuggling in whiskey from Canada. Realizing how profitable this venture was, he wanted to expand and needed $175,000 to do so. He traveled to New York in hopes that through Gordon, he could obtain financing from Rothstein. Gordon knew Rothstein from having worked for him in the garment district as a labor enforcer.

Rothstein met the two in Central Park. Sitting on a park bench, he listened to their plan to smuggle in Canadian whiskey. The following day the three men met again, this time in Rothstein's office where he made a counterproposal. Rothstein would finance the venture, but the liquor would be purchased and brought in from Great Britain. Gordon, who was acting as a middleman, asked to be included in the deal and was cut in for a small "piece." From this "piece," Gordon would launch a successful rum running empire and become a wealthy man. After Rothstein ended his partnership with the two in 1921, he continued to help finance them. Gordon took over two large warehouses when they split, one in the city and the other on Long Island. Rothstein would later use Gordon's speedboats to smuggle in diamonds and dope.
Rothstein reached his pinnacle during the wild days of the "roaring twenties." Despite his wealth, power and influence - outside of his fictionalized participation in the 1919 World Series fixing - Rothstein will be remembered most for the future underworld leaders he helped tutor. In addition to the aforementioned Waxey Gordon other major underworld personalities that came under Rothstein's wing were Jack "Legs" Diamond, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Lepke Buchalter.

A Arnold Rothstein Chronology

1882 - Born, East 47th Street, New York City, son of Abraham and Esther Rothstein (Jan. 17).

1899 - Leaves home; takes job as traveling hat and cap salesman.

1904 - Makes first trip to Saratoga Springs aboard Cavanagh Special; strands Abe Attell.

1908 - Meets showgirl Carolyn Green at Hotel Cadillac (Sept.).

1909- Marries Carolyn Green at Saratoga Springs; pawns her jewelry (Aug. 12).- Borrows $2,000 from father-in-law to open W. 46th Street gambling house.- Wins $4,000 against Jack Conaway at John McGraw’s pool hall on Herald Square (Nov. 18).

1910 - Charles G. Gates loses $40,000 in one night at Rothstein’s (Nov.).- Buys out West 46th Street gambling house partner, Tammany ward leader Willie Shea.

1912 - Murder of gambler gambler Herman Rosenthal at the Metropole Hotel on W. 43rd Street (July 16).- NYPD Lt. Charles Becker found guilty of ordering murder of Herman Rosenthal.- Tammany leader Charles Francis Murphy increases Rothstein’s influence in politics.

1913 - Bankroll reaches $300,000; closes house on W. 46th Street.- Opens gambling house at Hewlitt, Long Island.- Begins relationship with showgirl Bobbie Winthrop.

1914 - Begins laying off bets for fellow bookmakers.- Moves into real estate, insurance.- Lt. Charles Becker's conviction overturned (Feb. 24).- Dago Frank Cirofici, Whitey Lewis (Jacob Seidenschner), Lefty Louie (Louis Rosenberg), and Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz executed for murder of Herman Rosenthal (April 13).- Becker again found guilty of ordering Rosenthal's murder (May 22).

1915 - New York State Court of Appeals affirms Becker guilty verdict. - Becker executed at Sing Sing for ordering murder of Herman Rosenthal.

1917 - Begins bankrolling Saratoga Springs gambling house owner Harry Tobin.- Robbed at Hotel St. Francis crap game (May 16).- Arch Selwyn opens Selwyn Theatre at 229 W. 42nd Street; bankrolled by A.R. (Oct. 2).- Wins $300,000 on Hourless at Laurel (Oct. 18).

1919 - Opens The Brook in Saratoga Springs.- Robbed of $11,000 in floating crap game (Jan.).- Middleman for Charles A. Stoneham’s purchase of New York Giants (Jan. 19).- Charged with assault after police raid crap game at 301 W. 57th St. (Jan. 19).- Bankrolls first edition of George White’s Scandals (June 2).- Fixes 1919 World Series between Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds.

1919-20 - Intervenes in garment industry labor disputes; places Little Augie Orgen in charge.

1920 - Henchman Nicky Arnstein (husband of Fanny Brice) in hiding for Wall Street Liberty Bond thefts (Feb-May). - Furnishes bail for Arnstein; Monk Eastman steals Fanny Brice’s car, returns it on mention of Rothstein’s name (May 16).- Subway Sam Rosoff loses $100,000 in one night at The Brook.- Bankrolls Waxey Gordon’s rum running operation.- Begins work with Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano.- Wins between $850,000 and $900,000 on Sailing B at Saratoga (Aug. 27).- Grand jury convenes in Chicago to investigate baseball gambling (Sept. 7).- Billy Maharg implicates Attell and Rothstein in Philadelphia North American article (Sept. 27).- Announces retirement from gambling (Oct. 1).- Testifies before Chicago grand jury investigating World Series fix (Oct. 26).

1921 - Black Sox confessions and waivers missing (Feb. 14).- American League President Ban Johnson alleges Arnold Rothstein told him Benny Kauff offered to help fix the 1919 World Series (Mar. 8).- Ban Johnson charges Rothstein stole confessions from the State’s Attorney’s office; Rothstein threatens to sue Johnson for $100,000 (Mar. 14).- Wins $850,000 on Sidereal at Aqueduct (July 4).- Wins $500,000 on Sporting Blood in Travers Stakes (August 20).- Loses $270,000 on single race at Aqueduct (fall).- Enters Bahamian rum running scheme with Dapper Dan Collins.- Begins association with Frank Costello.- With Gene McGee discovers "padlock" loophole in Mullen-Gage Law.

1922 - Sells The Brook to Nat Evans (alternate date:1925).- Pays income tax of $35.25 for 1921; declares gross income of $31,544.48, net of $7,257.29 (Mar. 15).- Helps finance Anne Nichols’ Abie’s Irish Rose (opens May 23 at New Victory Theatre).- Fences $300,000 in jewels stolen from Mrs. Hugo A. C. Schoelkopf.- Borrows $20,000 from Irving Berlin.

1923 - Showgirl Dot King found murdered in Rothstein-owned apartment (Mar 15).- William Randolph Hearst's New York American links Rothstein to bucket shop scandals.- Closes Long Beach gambling house.- Collyer’s Eye insinuates Rothstein might be involved with Cincinnati Reds in throwing games (Aug. 18).- Testifies before Referee in Bankruptcy re: E. M. Fuller & Co. (June 25, Oct. 8).- Jack Dempsey-Luis Firpo fight; A.R. helps Lucky Luciano pick out a new wardrobe for the event (Sept. 14).- Bankrolls swindler “Jake the Barber” Factor.

1924 - Indicted for concealing E. M. Fuller assets (April).- Nicky Arnstein enters Leavenworth (May 16)- Nott suspends sentencing for Fuller & McGee (July).- Fallon acquitted of perjury (Aug. 8).- Fallon defends Giants coach Cozy Dolan (Oct.-Nov.).- Rothstein high agent in sales for Norwalk Insurance Co.

1925 - Bankrolls Jake Factor again.- Sends Sid Stajer to Asia for drug buys in China, Formosa, and Hong Kong. - Wins $80,000 on suspicious Mickey Walker-Dave Shade fight at Madison Square Garden.- Mayor John F. “Red Mike” Hylan accuses A.R. of being a “big gambler” backing James J. Walker for mayor (Aug. 24).- Tammany chief George Olvany denies knowing Arnold Rothstein (Aug.).

1926 - Rothstein, Inc. employee Irving Sobel arrested on charge of selling heroin.- Mediates garment industry strike—allegedly influences police on behalf of the Communist faction.- Sends George Uffner to Asia for further drug purchases—these will continue until after Rothstein's death.- Gives power of attorney to both L. P. Mattingly and Rolland Nutt to represent him when an additional tax assessment for the years 1919, 1920, and 1921 was lodged against him- Gambler George Formel charges A.R. had paid Saratoga Co. D.A. Charles B. Andrus $60,000 in "protection" money.- Presence ringside at first Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney heavyweight title fight causes controversy; wins $500,000 (Sept. 23).

1927 - Carolyn Rothstein tells Rothstein she desires a divorce.- Death of Bobbie Winthrop.- Arnold Rothstein meets showgirl Inez Norton.- Arnold Rothstein urges Little Augie Orgen to lay off strongarm tactics in unions and opt for infiltration of their management—Orgen refuses.- American Federation of Labor (AFL) accuses Arnold Rothstein of “fixing the police in behalf of the Communists” in recent furriers strike (June 11). - Arnold Rothstein in virtual control of U.S. drug trade.

1928 - Bankrolls Fats Waller's Broadway review Keep Shufflin' (opens Feb. 27)- Belgian multi-millionaire Captain Alfred Loewenstein arrives in New York City (Apr. 28).- Loses $130,000 at Belmont Park (May 31).- “Loans” $19,940 to City Magistrate Albert Vitale (June 17 or 18).- Death of Capt. Alfred Loewenstein (July 4).- Loses $300,000 at poker game at Jimmy Meehan’s apartment, 161 W. 54th Street (Sept. 8-10).- Shot in Room 349 at Park Central Hotel, 200 W. 56th Street (Nov. 4).- Rothstein signs will prepared by attorney Maurice F. Cantor (Nov. 5).- Arnold Rothstein dies at 10:15 AM at Polyclinic Hospital, 335-361 W. 50th Street (Nov. 5).- Funeral at Riverside Memorial Chapel; Burial at Union Field Cemetery, Queens (Nov. 7)- Sidney Stajer and Jimmy Meehan testify before Rothstein murder case grand jury (Nov. 28).- In the Tombs Bridget Fahey and two others identify gambler George McManus as being occupant of Room 349 (Nov. 28).- District Attorney Joab Banton denies Arnold Rothstein-Alfred Loewenstein link (Dec. 3).- George McManus, Hyman “Gillie” Biller, John Doe, and Richard Roe indicted for A.R.'s murder (Dec. 4).

1929 - Mayoral candidate Fiorello LaGuardia reveals 1928 A.R. loan to Vitale (Sept.).- Judge Charles C. Nott refuses to try McManus until after election (Oct. 10).- James J. Walker defeats Fiorello LaGuardia 865,000 to 368,000; Thomas C. T. Crain elected District Attorney (Nov.). - George McManus' trial postponed because of illness of witness (Nov. 12). - McManus trial begins (Nov. 18).- Judge Nott directs acquittal of George McManus (Dec. 5).- Judge Albert Vitale robbed at Tepecano Democratic Club (Dec. 7-8).

1930-Judge Nott quashes charges against Biller (Jan. 16).- Inez Norton returns from Florida, announces she will play on Broadway in a play based on Rothstein (Feb. 1).- Grand jury issues report on NYC federal narcotics office (Feb. 19).- Judge Albert Vitale removed from office over Rothstein loan (Mar. 14).- Inez Norton opens in Room 349 at the National Theater (Apr. 21)- Judge Albert Vitale honored by the Federation of Italian-American Democratic Clubs; gunmen burst in and rob guests (June 8).- Judge Samuel Seabury appointed to investigate Magistrates Courts; begins end of Walker administration (Aug. 25).

1932 – Rothstein murder grand jury dismissed (Feb. 2).- Seabury interrogates Walker (May 25-26).- Seabury sends recommendations to Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (June 8).- Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt interrogates Walker (Aug.11-26).- Jimmy Walker resigns as mayor (Sept. 1).

1938 - Jack Rothstone files an accounting of brother Arnold's estate, no assets listed (Mar. 1)

Albert Tannenbaum

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Albert Tannenbaum, nicknamed Allie or Tick-Tock, was a Jewish hitman for Murder, Inc. the enforcement arm of the Crime Syndicate during the 1930's.

Tannenbaum was born in Pennsylvania, and moved to the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the age of three; his family later relocated to Brookyn. He quit school at the age of 17 to work as a stock boy in the garment district. After a stint as a salesman, he began work at the Loch Sheldrake Country Club, which was owned by his father. When Tannenbaum was 25, he met a guest at the club by the name of Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, a close associate of infamous Jewish gangster Lepke Buchalter. Shapiro felt that Tannenbaum had what it took to become a mob hitman, and introduced him to the underworld.

Tannenbaum progressed rapidly through the ranks of organized criminal violence. He began as an enforcer and strikebreaker being paid $50 a week; his salary was raised to $75 and then later to $100. When he became a full-fledged contract killer in Murder, Inc., he was paid $125 a week for his services.