Under the elevated subway tracks at the corner of Saratoga and Livonia Avenues in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn there was in the 1930s a tacky little candy store where two topics of conversation dominated:
- how many runs the Brooklyn Dodgers would lose by that day and
- murder.
It was said that more individual murders were planned in the candy store than at any other spot on Earth. The store, owned by a woman who kept it open 24 hours a day, was thus called Midnight Rose’s. Here the professional killers of Murder, Inc.—the Jewish and Italian gangsters who made up the enforcement arm of the national syndicate in the 1930s—congregated. Midnight Rose’s was the “war room” of the mob where, over egg creams and other savory refreshments, homicide specialists were briefed and dispatched on “hits.”
The gunners, knifers and garroters from Midnight Rose’s knocked off some 300 to 500 victims, although there were those enthusiasts who called such figures absurdly low.
