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| Nine of the most important men in Murder Inc. |
When the national crime syndicate was being set up in the early 1930s, they realized that “muscle” would always be necessary for the maintenance of order. Since the mob never had any of society’s misgivings about the justification of the death penalty, they decided it would be very businesslike to set up a special troop of killers that all the crime groups around the country could call on for rubouts.
The most attractive feature about such a troop was that the killer could come in from out of town, knock off a victim he wouldn’t even know, and disappear, leaving the authorities without even a suspect or motive. Police investigations are based on looking for motivation and when a stranger kills a stranger, they seldom can get a handle on the matter. They might suspect the local crime figures of instigating the rubout but they can’t prove a thing.
Many forerunners to the syndicate murder troop existed in American criminal history, including killer gangs in the 19th century who committed murders for pay, with prices generally ranging from a low of $2 to a king’s ransom of as much as $100. However, the syndicate bosses set up something new, Murder, Incorporated, a very elite group of killers, based in Brooklyn. Unlike the bloodletters who preceded them, they were not available for hire by outsiders, but were reserved strictly for mob business.
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The purpose of the new crime syndicate, composed of an ethnic conglomerate of Young Turk mafiosi, Jewish, to a lesser extent Irish, and Polish and Wasp gangs—that blossomed in Prohibition—was to cut up the rackets in orderly fashion. These included gambling, loan-sharking, labor racketeering, narcotics and prostitution.
Syndicate founders sagely figured there would be some opposition to their plans, hence the need for an enforcement arm to back up the national board’s decisions. (It was probably little different than in the corporate world where every powerhouse executive has his hatchetmen.)
Under the rules, Murder, Inc., killed only for pressing business reasons and was never to be brought into action against political figures, prosecutors or reporters. Lansky and Moe Dalitz, then the most potent criminal power in Cleveland, were most adamant on these rules.
The other big shots concurred, feeling that rubouts of such “civilians” would stir the public too much and produce “heat” that would be bad for the syndicate. Bloodletting of good guys, they agreed, would complicate their ability to bribe politicians and the police, a vital ingredient in any crime syndicate operation.
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| Louis Capone and Emanuel 'Mendy' Weiss, two killers-for-hire, share a carefree laugh. |
A whole new vocabulary was introduced by the members of Murder, Inc. The killers accepted “contracts” to “hit” “bums.” Many psychologists have pointed out the significance of the term bum. It was a rationalization that allowed the killers to regard their victims as being of a lower species and deserving to die. It was little different than Nazi death camp executioners speaking of the victims as “scum” and “subhumans.”
Albert Anastasia is often described as the Lord High Executioner, or operating commander of the troop, but he took orders from Louis Lepke, the country’s number one labor racketeer and a member of the syndicate’s ruling circle. At times, Joey Adonis also issued orders.
However, none of the estimated 400 to 500 murders believed to have been committed by Murder, Inc., ever went ahead without the concurrence, or at least the absence of any negative vote, of other crime bigs, notably Lansky, Luciano and Frank Costello. Bugsy Siegel probably best summarized the top gangsters’ attitudes toward Murder, Inc., when he informed construction executive Del Webb, rather philosophically, that he had nothing to fear from the mob because “we only kill each other.”
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Directly below Anastasia, Lepke and Adonis were a number of lieutenants, including Louis Capone (no relation to the Chicago Capones), Mendy Weiss and Abe “Kid Twist” Reles. Instructions for specific murder assignments were generally passed from on high to just one underling who in turn passed the word on so that it could not be proved in any criminal prosecution that the men at the top were involved.
Some of the more celebrated killers of the mob included Pittsburgh Phil Strauss, the man who easily held the top score in kills; Vito “Chicken Head” Gurino, who honed his shooting skill by blasting off the heads of chickens; Happy Maione, the wearer of a perpetual scowl; Buggsy Goldstein; Blue Jaw Magoon; and Frank “the Dasher” Abbandando.
The Dasher could lay claim to having obtained the quaintest nickname of the troop. It was the result of one of his earliest hits, one that he almost bungled. Assigned to take out a big, lumbering longshoreman, he aimed his gun at point-blank range, only to have the weapon misfire.
Thoroughly embarrassed, Abbandando dashed off with his angry would-be victim thundering after him. Abbandando raced around the block so fast he actually came up behind his target again, and this time succeeded in pumping three bullets into the man. Thereafter Abbandando was known to his cohorts as the Dasher.
Overall, the Dasher was said to have been involved in about 50 murders. Pittsburgh Phil was named in 58 murder investigations and authorities agreed his total of kills was probably about twice that number.
The boys, headquartered at a 24-hour candy store in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn called Midnight Rose’s, awaited assignments and swapped intelligence of effective murder techniques. When an assignment came in, the designated killer hit the road to wherever the victim lived. He didn’t come back until the job was done.
The principal that “we only kill each other” was never better illustrated than in the rubout of crime lord Dutch Schultz, himself a founding ruler of the crime syndicate. In 1935, Schultz had become the prime target of special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, and he demanded that Murder, Inc., hit Dewey. This was in direct violation of the founding rules of the organization, and Schultz was voted down. Only Albert Anastasia thought the idea had merit, but he backed off under the withering opposition of his superiors, Luciano, Lansky, Costello and Adonis.
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| Harry Millman, a former big shot mobster in Detroit, lies dead on the ground after a visit from Murder Inc. |
Schultz stormed out of the meeting, insisting he was not bound by such a decision and that he would handle the job himself. Immediately, a new vote was taken, and the principle of law and order prevailed. Schultz got the death penalty. The job was carried out shortly thereafter in a Newark chop house. Two of the three Murder, Inc., gunmen involved were Charlie “the Bug” Workman and Mendy Weiss.
In 1940 Murder, Inc., unraveled when a number of lesser mob members were picked up on suspicion of various murders. Also picked up was Abe Reles, not a smalltimer. Reles got the idea that someone might talk and doom him, so he decided to talk first. He became known as “the canary of Murder, Inc.,” and eventually gave details on some 200 killings in which he personally participated or had intimate knowledge of.
Several top killers went to the electric chair, including Pittsburgh Phil, Louis Capone, Mendy Weiss, Buggsy Goldstein, Happy Maione and Dasher Abbandando. Also executed was Louis Lepke, the first and only top chief of the syndicate ever to suffer that fate.
In November 1941, Reles was still doing his canary act, and it was believed his testimony would eventually doom Albert Anastasia, Bugsy Siegel and quite possibly others. However, before he could testify in what were described as “perfect cases,” Reles “went out the window” of a Coney Island hotel where he was supposed to be under ironclad police protection.
Whether Reles’s death was suicide, accident or murder has never been established, but later Luciano, Lansky and Doc Stacher told friends and interviewers that through the good political offices of Frank Costello (and a sum believed to be $100,000, a king’s ransom in that period) it was arranged to see to it that “the canary who could sing couldn’t fly.”
Of course, all this meant was the end of Murder, Inc. Other troops of killers were started up, one known to be centered in New Jersey. Murder, Inc., remained in business.
