Joe Bruno's Mobsters - Six Volume Set

by Bruno, Joe

  Even though Driscoll was represented by famed trial attorney William Howe, as a result of Garrity's deathbed statement, on October 1, 1887, the jury took only 29 minutes to find Driscoll guilty of first degree murder. Seven days later, Judge Fredrick Smyth sentenced Driscoll to death.

  On January 22, 1888, Driscoll was hanged in the Tombs Prison. At the gallows, after the black mask had been pulled over Driscoll's face, his last words reportedly were, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”

  Danny Lyons was considered the most vicious gangster of the 1880's. Lyons's downfall was an argument over a young lady, too. It seemed Lyons snatched Pretty Kitty McGown from her paramour Joseph Quinn. Quinn vowed revenge, and on July 4, 1887, the two men squared off with guns, at Paradise Square in the Five Points area. Lyons was better with a gun than his pal Driscoll had been, and he shot Quinn right through the heart, killing him on the spot.

  Lyons took it on the lam for a few months, but he was finally captured. Lyons was hung at the Tombs Prison on August 21, 1888, just seven months after Driscoll had met the same fate in the same place.

  After the deaths of Lyons and Driscoll, the Whyos fell into disarray. In the late 1890's, Monk Eastman defeated what was left of the Whyos. For the next 20 years, Eastman battled with Paul Kelly, leader of the Five Points Gang, for control of all the rackets in Lower Manhattan.

  Wood, Fernando, and the Police Riots of 1857

  In 1857, it was chaotic times in New York City, as the city's two adversarial police forces battled over the right to arrest people, and to accept graft from anyone willing and able to pay.

  In 1853, under Democratic Mayor Harper, the first uniformed police force in New York City was created. Their uniform consisted of a blue coat with brass buttons, a blue cap, and gray pants. Led by Police Chief George G. Matsell, the police were generally more crooked than the crooks, taking bribes not to arrest people and sometimes taking bribes to arrest people. The citizens of New York City complained that their police force, called the Municipal Police, was “the worse in the world.”

  By the age of 37, Fernando Wood was a millionaire in the real estate business. On January 1, 1855, after buying votes through his wealth, Wood was elected Mayor of New York City. Wood immediately inserted himself as head of the police graft-gravy-train; charging new police captains $200 a year for a promotion to their $1,000-a-year job. Of course, to make up for the shortfall, the police captains charged each patrolman under their command $40 a year. The policemen, in turn, shook down honest citizens and protected dishonest citizens for pay, so everyone on the public law enforcement dole was quite happy to keep things just the way they were.

  However, the New York State Legislature would have none of that.

  In 1857, the legislature passed an act creating a new Metropolitan Police Force, with Fredrick Tallmadge named as Superintendent of the Force. The legislature also ordered Wood to immediately disband his 1,100 member Municipal Police Force. Wood refused; saying the creation of the new police force was unconstitutional. Thus, the court battle began over which police force would be the one to patrol New York City.

  The Supreme Court soon voted that the creation of the new police force was indeed constitutional. Yet Wood, with the backing of Police Chief Matsell, steadfastly refused to cooperate. Eight hundred men, all aligned with the Democratic Party, stayed with Wood and Matsell. However, three hundred men, under respected Police Captain George W. Walling, defected and comprised the new Metropolitan Police Force, which was backed by the Republican Party.

  On June 16, 1857, the issue came to a head. The street commissioner Joseph Taylor had died, and Wood, for the sum of $50,000, appointed Charles Devlin as the new street commissioner. On the same day, Republican Governor John A. King appointed Daniel Conover to the same position. As Conover entered City Hall to assume his new post, Wood had his Municipal Police throw Conover out of the building. Conover immediately went to a Republican judge, who swore out two warrants for Wood's arrest: one for assault and one for inciting to riot.

  Captain Walling strode to City Hall to arrest Wood on the assault charge, but he was met by a contingent of five hundred Municipals. Captain Walling was allowed to enter the building and Wood's office. However, when Captain Walling told Wood he was under arrest for assault, Wood refused to recognize the legality of the arrest warrant.

  Captain Walling grabbed Wood's arm to lead him out of the building, but he was immediately swarmed by 20 Municipals and thrown out of City Hall himself. Captain Walling repeatedly tried to go back up the steps of City Hall, but he was beaten back every time.

  Suddenly, a contingent of one hundred Metropolitan Police, wearing their new uniforms of frock coats, and plug hats, arrived to serve the second arrest warrant on Wood. Instead of wearing the gold badges of the Municipals, the Mets wore copper badges, which gave birth to the term “coppers,” and then “cops.”

  The motley Metropolitan Police were described by essayist G.T. Strong as, “a miscellaneous assortment of suckers, soaplocks, Irishmen and Plug-Uglies (an Irish Street Gang).”

  Thus, began a horrendous half-hour battle between the two New York City Police Departments. The Mets were vastly outnumbered by the Municipals, and when the fight was over, some Mets were lucky enough to be able to flee unharmed. However, 53 Mets were injured, 12 hurt seriously, and one was crippled for life.

  While the fighting was intensifying, Captain Walling rushed over the office of Sheriff J.J.V. Westervelt, and he implored the sheriff to arrest Mayor Wood. After consulting with a state attorney, Captain Walling, Sheriff Westervelt, and the state attorney marched to City Hall, and they pushed their way into Wood's office.

  When the three men informed Wood he was indeed under arrest, he shouted at them, “I will never let you arrest me!”

  At the same time, a beaten contingent of Mets spotted the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard boarding a boat for Boston. The Mets convinced the National Guard that they were needed to police a state matter.

  Recognizing the severity of the situation, Major General Charles Sandford marched his men to City Hall. As his troops stood guard, Sandford strode up the steps of City Hall and into Wood's office, where he announced to Wood that he was under arrest. Wood looked out the window and spotted the National Guard. Realizing his men were no match for the military troops, Wood finally submitted to the arrest.

  Yet, this was only the beginning of a long strife. For the rest of the summer, the two police departments constantly conflicted. When a Met cop arrested a crook, a Municipal would step in and set the man free. And vice versa. On numerous occasions, contingents of policemen would raid the other department's station house and free all the prisoners.

  In the meantime, the criminals of New York City were having a field day.

  While the two police forces battled each other all hours of the day and night, honest citizens were being robbed while walking the streets. Murders were committed with impunity, and still, all the two police departments were interested in was fighting each other.

  This total indifference by the two New York City police departments led to a two-day riot on July 4 and July 5, of 1857, when the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits street gangs squared off with fists, knives, stones, and pistols. As many as a thousand gang members were involved. Hundreds were injured, and several gang members were killed. The riots also led to the indiscriminate looting of stores, in the Five Points and Bowery areas and as far north as 14th Street.

  Finally, in the fall of 1857, the Court of Appeals upheld the Supreme Court's ruling, that the Metropolitan Police were the only legitimate police department in town. The Municipals were disbanded, and although Mayor Wood had been arrested, he was released on bond and never tried.

  The Mets, who were injured in the June 16 fight, sued Mayor Wood for personal damages. They were awarded $250 apiece by the courts, but Mayor Wood refused to pay a dime. Finally, the city of New York was forced to pay the damages from the city treasury, including the injured Mets’ legal costs.


  Wood was defeated in the 1858 Mayoral race by Daniel F. Tiemann. Yet, in 1860, the rotten Wood was somehow re-elected mayor of New York City, until 1862.

  After the Civil War started, Wood floated a trial balloon, whereby New York City would secede from the state of New York, which was run by Republicans, and therefore, become a free city. Wood's proposal was shot down, and New York Tribune's editor Horace Greeley, wrote in an editorial, “Fernando Wood evidently wants to be a traitor. It is lack of courage only that makes him content with being a blackguard.”

  In 1867, Wood found his true calling in the United States House of Representatives, where he served, not too admirably, until his death on February 14, 1881.

  A year later, statesman and author John Bigelow, who knew Wood well, said that Wood was, “The most corrupt man who ever sat in the mayor's chair of New York City.”

  Yale (Uale), Frankie

  Frankie Yale, real name Uale, was the number No. 1 mobster in Brooklyn for most of the Roaring 20's.

  Yale was born in the Calabrian town of Longobucco, Italy, in 1893. In 1901, he emigrated to the United States, and soon Yale became immersed in a life of crime. Although his stomping grounds were in Brooklyn, Yale met fellow Brooklynite Johnny Torrio, and he became partners with Torrio in the Five Points Gang in Lower Manhattan, under the tutelage of mob boss Paul Kelly.

  Torrio and Yale were involved in several illegal endeavors, but their biggest moneymaker was a version of the Black Hand extortion shakedown, in which they threatened to kill Italian immigrants unless the immigrants paid protection money. Most paid, but some didn't. It was reported that Yale had killed a dozen times before he reached the age of 21.

  Yale and Torrio decided to split with the Five Points Gang, and they relocated to Brooklyn, where their base of operations was the Harvard Inn, a bar and brothel near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

  In 1919, Torrio moved to Chicago, to work for his uncle-through-marriage, mob boss Big Jim Colosimo. Yale filled Torrio's absence by hiring a friend of Torrio's, the 19-year-old Al Capone, as his main bouncer at the Harvard Inn. Soon afterwards, Torrio summoned Capone to work for him in Chicago, with the eventual intention of killing Colosimo and taking over his rackets.

  In 1920, Torrio decided the time was ripe for Colosimo's death, so he asked his friend Frankie Yale if he could make the trip to Chicago to do the dirty deed. Torrio set Colosimo up by telling Colosimo to go to his cafe to receive an illegal shipment of booze. When Colosimo got to the cafe, instead of liquor, Colosimo was greeted by several rounds of hot lead supplied by the reliable Yale.

  Torrio's Chicago empire was being threatened by Irish mob boss Dion O'Banion, who ran a flower shop on North State Street. Torrio decided O'Banion had to go too, and figuring his local shooters couldn't get close enough to O'Banion to kill him, he called on Yale again. The reason Torrio picked Yale for the hit was because O'Banion had never met Yale and wouldn't recognize him.

  In November 1924, Yale entered O'Banion's flower shop, and he greeted O'Banion with a firm handshake. O'Banion tried to pull his hand free, but before he could extricate himself from Yale's death grip, two of Torrio's men, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, busted into the shop and shot O'Banion to death. O'Banion had, up to that point, the biggest funeral in the history of Chicago; costing over $30,000, including a $10,000 coffin.

  In 1925, Torrio was ambushed and shot several times in front of his apartment building. After he recovered from his wounds, Torrio decided to retire from the rackets, and he handed over his entire illegal empire to the 26-year old Capone.

  Capone worked a deal with Yale, to import his illegal booze from Chicago to New York City, under Yale's protection. Soon, Capone's trucks were being hijacked before they got to New York City. Capone, suspecting Yale was the culprit, sent one his best men, James DeAmato, to survey the truck-hijacking situation in New York City. Soon, DeAmato sent word back to Capone that Yale was indeed hijacking Capone's trucks, and then selling the liquor back to Capone. Six days later, DeAmato was gunned down on a Brooklyn Street.

  With Capone safely in Miami, Florida, he sent six of his best shooters to New York City by car. Yale was summoned from his home on a ruse, and while he was driving down 44th Street in Brooklyn, Yale was met with a deadly deluge of bullets fired from the new weapon of choice: a Thompson submachine gun.

  Yale had always admired the grandeur of O'Banion's funeral, so he did O'Banion one better.

  Yale's funeral procession attracted ten thousand mourners and his funeral cost $50,000, including a $15,000 nickel and silver coffin.

  Take that, Dion O'Banion.

  Zelig, Big Jack (Zelig Harry Lefkowitz)

  Big Jack Zelig was born Zelig Harry Lefkowitz in New York City in 1888. Zelig started his criminal career at the age of nine. By the time Zelig had reached 13, and working for the Crazy Butch Gang on the Lower East Side, he became known as one of the best pickpockets in New York City. By the time he was 15, Zelig was a member of the feared Monk Eastman Gang. As an Eastman, Zelig was respected on the Lower East Side as a feared street fighter, who was especially adept at using a knife. Because of his roughhouse escapades, Zelig was dubbed by the police, “The Most Feared Man in New York City.”

  While Eastman was in jail for assault and robbery, the Eastman gang was headed by Max “Kid Twist” Zwerbach, who appointed Zelig his No. 1 lieutenant. When Zwerbach was killed in 1908 by a member of the rival Five Points Gang, Zelig took control of Zwerbach's gang.

  Zelig's gang robbed casinos, banks and brothels, but their specialty was thuggery for hire. The Zelig gang even had a printed menu of the gang's services.

  To have them slash the cheek of someone, it cost anywhere from $1 to $10, according to your ability to pay. A shot in the leg or arm cost $5 to $25. Tossing a live bomb to take down an establishment also cost $5 to $25. And to render someone dead, they charged anywhere from $10 to $100.

  Zelig's capable men included such notables as Harry “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz, “Lefty” Louie Rosenberg, and “Dago Frank” Cirofisi.

  Zelig's two chief nemeses, who were fighting with him behind the scenes for control of the former Eastman Gang, were gang members Chick Tricker and Jack Sirocco. Tricker and Sirocco tricked Zelig into going on a back robbery with them. After Tricker and Sirocco were in possession of the bank's cash, they left Zelig behind to take the rap. Zelig was arrested and none too happy with his pals.

  To add insult to injury, Tricker and Sirocco refused to bail out Zelig; figuring with Zelig behind bars, they could assume control of his gang. However, Zelig had friends in high places in Tammany Hall, and soon he was set free. Thus commenced a war between Zelig, and Tricker and Sirocco.

  On December 6, 1911, Zelig threw a shindig for his gang at Stuyvesant Hall. Tricker and Sirocco were not invited, but they sent their associate Jules Morello to the party, with the expressed intention of killing Zelig.

  However, Morello had a few too many drinks at the bar, and he started yelling “Where's that Yid? I'm gonna kill that Yid.”

  Meaning Zelig.

  Zelig heard the commotion, and before Morello could do him any damage, Zelig shot Morello four times, leaving him dead.

  On October 15, 1912, Zelig was drinking at Segal's Cafe, at 76 Second Avenue, when he got a phone call from his girlfriend saying she needed company for the night. Delighted at his good fortune, Zelig hopped on the Second Avenue Street Car in front of Siegel’s. When the street car reached 13th Street, a junkie thug named Red Davidson snuck up behind Zelig and shot him once behind the ear, killing him.

  “The Most Feared Man in New York City” was now dead at the age of 24.

  Davidson’s motive was never ascertained, but it was reported Davidson killed Zelig because, a few days earlier, Zelig had beaten Davidson to a pulp over a monetary dispute.

  Zwerbach, Maxwell (Kid Twist)

  “Kid Twist,” real name Maxwell Zwerbach, was a ruthless killer who rose up the ranks of the Monk Eastman mob, only to die because he decided
to cheat on his wife.

  Zwerbach was born in Austria in 1884. His Jewish father, Adolf, and half-Italian mother, Hanna, emigrated to New York City in 1886 to escape the anti-Semitic riots. The family took an apartment on Delancey Street, where Adolph opened a tailor shop. Adolph hoped his son would follow in his footsteps and alter clothes for a living. However, Zwerbach, who was now called Kid Twist on the mean streets of the Lower East Side, had other ideas.

  Kid Twist started out as a petty thief. Soon, he hooked up with the famous Monk Eastman gang, made up of Jews who were constantly at war with Paul Kelly's (Paulo Vaccarelli) Italian Five Pointers over the Lower East Side rackets. Kid Twist killed his way up the ranks, until Eastman installed him as his top lieutenant, along with Richie Fitzpatrick, a Jewish killer who took on an Irish last name.

  In early 1903, Eastman had the misfortune of getting himself locked up in a Freehold, New Jersey jail, after he beat up a potential witness against a friend of his on the courthouse steps. When Kid Twist heard of his bosses' predicament, he rounded up 50 of his best thugs, with the intention of driving to New Jersey to bust Eastman out of jail.

  However, before their cars could leave their Christie Street headquarters, a battalion of policemen, led by Inspector McCluskey, descended upon them and beat them with nightsticks back into their club.

  Kid Twist decided to change tactics, and he contacted Eastman's cronies in Tammany Hall. The crooked pols used their Jersey connections and Eastman was sprung the following day.

  Eastman was not so lucky in 1904, when he was arrested near Times Square for assault and robbery. This time Tammany Hall refused to come to his rescue. Eastman was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in the slammer.

  Kid Twist thought he was now the rightful heir to Eastman's throne, but Fitzpatrick had the same idea. Both men argued over who was the new boss. Finally, Kid Twist told Fitzpatrick, he had a plan on how the rackets could be split down the middle with both men having separate but equal powers. Fitzpatrick thought Twist's idea sounded just swell, and he agreed to a meeting to work out the details.