 |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
Murder, Inc. was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other closely connected organized crime groups in New York City and elsewhere. The group was composed of Jewish-American and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class neighborhoods in Manhattan and from the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, East New York, and Ocean Hill. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia. Murder, Inc. was believed to be responsible for between 400 and 1,000 contract killings, until the group was exposed in 1941 by former group member Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. Murder, Inc. committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during 1929 through 1941. In the trials that followed, many members were convicted and executed, and Abe Reles himself died after suspiciously falling from a window. Thomas E. Dewey first came to prominence as a prosecutor of Murder, Inc. and other organized crime cases.
Frank Abbandando, nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York City contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang. His preferred killing method was to stab his victims through the heart with an ice pick. After a trial and conviction for murdering a Brooklyn loan shark, he was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing on February 19, 1942.
Louis Capone was a New York organized crime figure who became a supervisor for Murder, Inc. Louis Capone was not related to Al Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Capone was convicted of murder in 1941, and sentenced to death. He was electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison on March 4, 1944.
Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was an American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc., during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor racketeers in New York City during that era.
Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles was a New York Jewish mobster who was a hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for Meyer Lansky's National Crime Syndicate.
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to the multi-ethnic, loosely connected American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian-American Mafia and Jewish mob; to a lesser extent, it also involved other criminal organizations such as the Irish Mob and African-American organized crime groups. Hundreds of murders were committed by Murder, Inc. on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and 1940s.
Harry "Happy" Maione was a New York mobster who served as a hitman for Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. Maione was called "Happy" because his face displayed an eternal scowl.
Albert Tannenbaum, nicknamed Allie or Tick-Tock, was a Jewish-American hitman for Murder, Inc., the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate, during the 1930s.
Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss was an American organized crime figure. He was an associate of the notorious Louis Buchalter and part of Buchalter's criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest for murder in 1941, for which he was convicted and, in 1944, executed. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics claimed that Weiss and his partner in crime Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Although he was indicted on multiple drug charges, Weiss was never sentenced for any of these crimes.
Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg was an associate and childhood friend of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and an employee of both Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky.
Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein was a member of a gang of hitmen, operating out of Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s, known as Murder, Inc.
Meyer (1908–1931), Irving (1904–1931) and William Shapiro (1911–1934), collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg. Well established in the local garment industry, long dominated by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter since the 1927 death of Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen, the two began to move against them in the summer of 1931. As the two sides battled for the garment industry in Brooklyn, Irving and Meyer Shapiro were killed by Joseph and Louis Amberg; Irving was gunned down near his apartment on July 11, and Meyer was found shot to death in the basement of a tenement building on Manhattan's Lower East Side on September 17, 1931. Three years later, on orders from Buchalter, Willie Shapiro was finally killed by Murder, Inc. members Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein and Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, supposedly being buried alive in a sandpit in the marshland of Canarsie by Reles, the Amberg brothers, and Frank Abbandando and Harry Maione on the night of July 20, 1934.
Irving "Puggy" Feinstein was a Jewish-American mobster involved in illegal gambling and labor racketeering with Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Puggy had made the mistake of attempting to move into turf which was not his own. He was later murdered by several members of Murder, Inc. including Abe Reles, Martin Goldstein, and Harry Strauss.
Benjamin "Benny the Boss" Tannenbaum was a New York mobster involved in narcotics and the fur rackets as well as a mob accountant for labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. A friend of Bronx real estate agent Max Heitner, whom he had met at a New York summer resort, he was shot twice in the chest and killed while babysitting Heitner's four-month-old baby. Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon, a member of Murder, Inc., was later brought into custody for Tannenbaum's murder. It has been speculated, as he had knowledge of Charles "The Bug" Workman's role in the 1935 gangland slaying of Dutch Schultz, that Tannenbaum may have been targeted as a potential informant during District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey's prosecution against Louis Buchalter.
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He reportedly killed over one hundred men using a variety of methods, including shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial, and strangulation. Strauss never carried a weapon in case the local police picked him up on suspicion. He would scout his murder spot for any tool that would do the job.