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Murder, Inc. or Murder Incorporated, was the name given by the press for a notorious organized crime organization in the 1930s and 1940s that carried out hundreds of murders on behalf of the mob.
In subsequent accounts, it was identified by some authorities as a chapter of a so-called National Crime Syndicate in the United States. Its most notorious victim was New York mobster Dutch Schultz, but the gang killed numerous lesser-known victims on assignment for mob bosses throughout the country.
Most of the killers were Jewish and Italian gangsters from the gangs of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, East New York and Ocean Hill. In addition to operating rackets in New York City and acting as enforcers for New York mobster "Lepke" Buchalter, they accepted murder contracts from mob bosses all around the United States.
However, Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi indicated in his biography "The Valachi Papers" that Murder Inc. did not perform killings for the Italian mob, or Cosa Nostra.
Notable members of the gang included Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, Frank Abbandando, Louis Capone, Buggsy Goldstein, Seymour Magoon, Harry Maione, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, Allie Tannenbaum, and Charles "Bugs" Workman. Workman was convicted of the Dutch Schultz murder and served a prison term.
Most Murder, Inc. murders were unsolved. Very often the killers were strangers to the city where the murder was to take place, and sometimes even their victims, and therefore harder to trace. Police would concentrate on local suspects when killers were already en route to their hometowns. Targets included informants (including civilian informants) or gang members who had embezzled mob money, but gang members, particularly Reles, were known for casual murder as well.
The killers were paid a regular salary, plus an average fee of US$1000–$5000 per killing. Their families also received monetary benefits. If they were caught, the mob would supply the best lawyers.
History
Murder, Inc. was established in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, in the late 1920s by Joe Adonis, and initially led by Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Reles. Later it was controlled by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Albert Anastasia, who was a figure in the Cosa Nostra.
In 1932, Abe Wagner informed on the syndicate to the police. He fled to Saint Paul, Minnesota and adopted a disguise to evade possible pursuit. Two killers, George Young and Joseph Schafer, found and shot him but were later apprehended. Bugsy Siegel failed to get them released.
One of the more famous victims was gang boss Dutch Schultz, who had defied the syndicate. Mendy Weiss, Charles Workman, and an unidentified gunman named "Piggy" shot Schultz and his associates Otto Berman, Abe Landau, and Lulu Rosenkrantz on October 23, 1935, in a Newark bar named the Palace Chop House.
In the 1930s, Buchalter used Murder, Inc. to murder witnesses and suspected informants when he was investigated by district attorney Thomas E. Dewey. In one case four killers hacked loan shark George Rudnick to pieces for the mere suspicion of being an informant, on May 11, 1937. On October 1, 1937, they seriously wounded Buchalter's ex-associate Max Rubin.
In the 1940s, Murder, Inc. gangster Harry Rudolph was framed for murder and sentenced to Rikers Island. He decided to talk to district attorney Burton B. Turkus. Turkus ordered the arrest of Abe Reles, Martin Goldstein and Dukey Maffetore upon his information. When Reles and Maffetore learned that they had become the next targets lest they talk, they became informants. Allie Tannenbaum, arrested later, also decided to talk.
Reles was promised immunity from prosecution. He informed on many killers, including Abbandando, Maione and Strauss and described many of his own murders in court. The Syndicate promised a $100,000 reward for his death.
Reles fell to his death from a guarded hotel room at Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island on November 12, 1941, even though he was under police guard. The official verdict was accidental death, but suspicions have persisted that Reles was thrown to his death.
Lepke Buchalter, with Louis Capone and Mendy Weiss, was executed at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York on March 4, 1944.
With many of its members sent to the electric chair, Murder, Inc. vanished within a few years. Albert Anastasia, dubbed in the media "the Lord High Executioner of Murder Inc.," was himself killed in 1957, in a power struggle in what later became known as the Gambino crime family.
Turkus wrote a book about Murder, Inc. which was originally published in 1951 (ISBN 0306812886). It was made into a film in 1960, with Peter Falk winning an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Reles.
The 1951 film The Enforcer with Humphrey Bogart was a fictionalized account of Murder Incorporated.
External links
Mafia gangs | Italian-American mobsters | Jewish-American mobsters
"Murder, Inc."