by Bruno, Joe
On November 1, 1904, Kid Twist enticed Fitzpatrick into the back room of the Sheriff Street Saloon (which oddly enough, was located on Christie Street). As soon as Fitzpatrick arrived, the lights went out and so did Fitzpatrick. He was shot twice through the heart by Kid Dahl, real name Harris Stahl, thus installing Kid Twist as the No. 1 man in the Eastman Gang, all by himself.
As a result of Fitzpatrick's sudden demise, Kid Twist took over all of Eastman's operations, which included several brothels and stuss card games. In a show of bravado, Kid Twist announced to the world that “no Wop and no Mick would ever rule the Lower East Side of New York.”
As a side moneymaker, Kid Twist championed his own brand of the popular “celery soda,” which was the only brand of celery soda allowed to be sold on the entire Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Even though Kid Twist had several stuss games of his own, he coveted the one on Suffolk Street owned by the Bottler, which was under the protection of Paul Kelly's Five Pointers. First, Kid Twist approached the Bottler, and not in a very nice way, Kid Twist told him that he was now the Bottler's partner, not Paul Kelly. Before the ink was dry on Twist's verbal contract, he informed the Bottler that the Bottler was out completely, and that Kid Dahl was now Kid Twist's partner in the Suffolk Street stuss parlor.
This time the Bottler made a stand, and he refused to comply with Kid Twist's demands. As a result, Kid Twist imported Coney Islander Vach Lewis, known as Cyclone Louie, a professional circus strongman, who was famous for bending iron bars around his neck, and sometimes around other people's necks, too.
While Kid Twist was in the Delancey Street police station screaming at the desk sergeant over some trivial matter, and Kid Dahl was in a Houston Street restaurant arguing with the owner over what time of day it was, Cyclone Louie calmly walked into the Bottler's stuss parlor. As 20 customers looked on in shock, Cyclone Louie shot the Bottler twice in the chest, killing him instantly.
With Kid Twist and Kid Dahl eliminated as suspects because of their contrived alibis, a few days later Kid Dahl strode into the Suffolk Street stuss parlor and announced to all that the stuss parlor was now his and Kid Twist's possession. All this did not please Paul Kelly too much, and he waited for the right time to get back what was rightfully his.
On the night of May 14, 1908, Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie decided to travel to Coney Island, to visit the supposedly happily married Kid Twist's girlfriend, dancer Carroll Terry. The two men were sitting inside the dance hall Terry performed in, when a kid rushed inside and told them Terry wanted to see them outside.
As soon as their feet hit the pavement, Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie were blasted with bullets fired by Kelly henchman, Louie “The Lump” Pioggi and several other of Kelly's men. It took only one slug to the brain, shot by Pioggi, to finish Kid Twist, but Cyclone Louie, true to his reputation as a strong man, needed five bullets in his torso to render him deceased.
When Terry showed up seconds later, Pioggi, a jilted suitor of hers, whipped a slug into her hip. Terry fell face forward, and although she would survive, the unconscious Terry landed across the body of her lifeless boyfriend, Maxwell “Kid Twist” Zwerbach, thereby putting a dent in the premise that “true love never dies.”
The End
*****
MOBSTERS, GANGS, CROOKS, AND OTHER CREEPS VOLUME 2 - NEW YORK CITY
By Joe Bruno
*****
PUBLISHED BY:
Knickerbocker Literary Services
EDITED BY:
Marc A. Maturo and Lawrence Venurato
Copyright 2011 by Knickerbocker Literary Services
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What readers are saying about Joe Bruno’s ‘Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps - Volume 2.”
Joe Bruno does it again in Volume 2!!! – John M. Blowit
The content of Volume 2 leaves nothing to be desired for those who have read Volume 1! Joe Bruno again comes up with some very interesting characters who once graced the city of New York, from Mobsters, & Racketeers, to women murderers and other interesting figures.
Loved both volumes! – lcook0825
I have just finished the 2nd volume of Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps. I must say that I love the era that both books were written about and these books were fabulous. With a short bio of each character, it really made the era come to life as you read. Being a New Yorker myself, the places were real and very interesting. If you like the 1920's and 30's in New York, you will enjoy these books.
You heard the Stories, now read the truth – Rony Barbery
I actually got all three volumes. It is the most thorough work on the History of American Organized Crime, from its very beginnings to modern times I have found. Highly recommend it.
Wow what a great book! - Dakikle
I couldn't hardly put it down at night. The way Joe Bruno keeps it short and to the point makes it so easy to read and understand. I was very satisfied with this book and the history it portrayed.
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Anastasia, Albert – (The Lord High Executioner)
He was a violent killer, and along with Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the co-head of Murder Incorporated. The way he lived his life, Albert Anastasia must have thought he was bulletproof, which he may have been, until he made one trip too many to his barbershop.
Albert Anastasia was born Umberto Anastasio on September 26, 1902 in Calabria, located in the southern part of Italy. When he was 15, Albert and his brother Tony hopped on an Italian ship and snuck off illegally onto the docks of Brooklyn, New York. It was said that Albert was so poor, he arrived in America with no shoes. Albert lived with a relative in Brooklyn until he finally found work on the Brooklyn docks as a longshoreman, alongside his brother “Tough Tony.”
Anastasia had a violent temper, and it was manifested in 1920 when he was arrested for killing fellow longshoreman Joe Torino. Anastasia strangled and stabbed Torino to death, over whom had the right to unload ships with the most precious cargo. Anastasia was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in the Sing Sing electric chair. It was at this time that he changed his last name from Anastasio to Anastasia, he said, “not to sully his family's name.” His brother Tony, who later ruled the Brooklyn docks, kept the last name of Anastasio.
Anastasia spent 18 months waiting to be executed, when his lawyer somehow obtained a new trial. At Anastasia's second trial, several witnesses to Torino's murder changed their statements as to who the killer was, and four more witnesses disappeared from the face of the earth. With no evidence against Anastasia, the prosecutors had no choice but to drop their case, and Anastasia became a free man. Anastasia would use this tactic of “eliminating witnesses” several more times throughout the years to avoid prosecution for murder.
Upon his release from prison, Anastasia joined the gang of Joe “The Boss” Masseria, considered the top Mafioso in America. As a member of Masseria's crew, Anastasia became tight with fellow mobsters Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Frank Costello. It became clear during this period that Anastasia was more of a follower than a leader.
In 1930, Luciano formulated a plan to get rid of his boss, Masseria, and then dispose of Masseria's successor, Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano's ultimate goal was to unite all the crime families in America: Italian Mafia members, Irish gangsters like Owney Madden, and Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky, into one National Crime Commission.
When Luciano told Anastasia about his plans, Anastasia was ecstatic. He told Luciano, “Charlie, I've been waiting for this day for at least eight years. You're going to be on top, if I have to kill everyone for you. With you up there, that's the only way we can have any peace and make real money.”
With Anastasia's help, Luciano did what he set out to do. Anastasia, along with Bugsy Siegel, was one of the four gunmen, who in 1931, shot Masseria to death in a Coney Island restaurant. With Masseria out of the way and his successor Salvatore Maranzano also eliminated by Luciano, Luciano formed the remaining Mafia bosses into five separate c
rime families. As a reward for his good work, Luciano made Anastasia the underboss in the family of Vincent Mangano.
After Luciano's takeover, things ran smoothly for the National Crime Commission. The Commission made bushels of money running illegal liquor during prohibition and from old mob standards like bookmaking, gambling, hijacking, and the distribution of drugs. Of course, in order to keep the cash flowing in, sometimes people had to be killed. As a result of Anastasia's loyalty, Luciano, along with Meyer Lansky, put Anastasia and Louie “Lepke” Buchalter in charge of what the press called “Murder Incorporated,” or “Murder Inc.”
With Anastasia being the exception, Murder Inc. was comprised of mostly Jewish killers, which included Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, Allie Tannenbaum, Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss, and Gurrah Shapiro. It was estimated that under Anastasia and Buchalter's direction, anywhere from 500-1,000 murders were committed throughout the country and only a handful were ever solved. While bodies were piling up all over America, Anastasia was ostensibly working an honest job. The business card he always carried in his breast pocket said he was a "sales representative" for the Convertible Mattress Corporation in Brooklyn.
In the late 1930's, Murder Inc. dissolved when its top killers were arrested, tried, and convicted on numerous murder charges. With Reles and Tannenbaum agreeing to testify in exchange for lighter sentences, several Murder Inc. perpetrators were fried in the Sing Sing electric chair, including Buchalter, who was the only crime boss ever executed by the government.
Anastasia avoided prosecution for a while, until it was discovered that Reles was set to testify about Anastasia's and Bugsy Siegel's involvement with Murder Inc. Reles was under 24-hour police surveillance at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. Police were stationed inside and outside Reles's room to guard Reles, even when he was sleeping.
On the night of November 12, 1941, Reles was supposedly under police protection and sleeping in his room, when he inexplicably fell to his death from the 6th-story window. The official report said Reles died while “attempting to escape.” Years later, Luciano said that Frank Costello, in order to save Anastasia’s and Siegel's hide, paid the police $50,000 to look the other way while Costello's men flung Reles out the window. Other stories said that the cops did the flinging of Reles themselves. Either way, according to District Attorney William O'Dwyer, “His case (against Anastasia and Siegel) went out the window with Reles.”
In 1936, Luciano was arrested, tried, and convicted on a trumped-up charge of prostitution and given a 30-year prison sentence. Luciano claimed he had been set up by Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, and there's evidence that Luciano may have been right. The witnesses against Luciano were all pimps and prostitutes, who later said they lied on the witness stand rather than being thrown in jail by Dewey.
In 1942, with Luciano languishing in jail, Anastasia, with the help of his brother Tony, devised a scheme to spring Luciano. It was in the middle of World War II, and the plan Anastasia hatched was based on the old mob “protection racket.” With Tony controlling the docks, it was quite easy for his men to sabotage ships on the New York waterfront. And that's exactly what they did.
After several ships were torched and bombed (the most famous being the French Luxury Liner S.S. Normandie, which was being converted into a troopship when it was sunk in New York Harbor), Anastasia offered assistance to the United States government, to protect the waterfront from saboteurs (from themselves, of course). The payback from the government to Luciano was, when the war ended, Luciano was to be released from prison as payment for waterfront-protection services he supposedly rendered. In 1946, Luciano was released from prison and deported to Italy, where he ran his crime family until his death from a heart attack in 1962.
Anastasia had worked successfully as Vincent Mangano's underboss for 30 years, when in 1951, Anastasia suddenly got ambitious. Over the years, Mangano had grown resentful of Anastasia's closeness to Luciano and Frank Costello. Many times, Anastasia bypassed his boss Mangano and had, for one reason or another, gone directly to Luciano or Costello. Several times, Mangano physically attacked Anastasia, which was a foolhardy move, since Anastasia was younger and stronger, leading to Anastasia beating up his own boss in self-defense.
Things in the Mangano family were not going well for Anastasia, when Anastasia asked permission from Costello, now the big boss with Luciano in exile in Italy, to whack Mangano. On April 19, 1951, Mangano's brother Philip was riddled with bullets and dropped in a swamp in Sheepshead Bay. Later that same day, Vincent Mangano disappeared, and his body was never found. In a few days, after he was sure Mangano was definitely dead, Costello appointed Anastasia as the head of the former Mangano crime family, thereby making Anastasia part of the five-man Commission.
Costello had his own personal reasons for wanting Anastasia on the Commission. After fleeing to Italy because he was being sought on a murder charge, Vito Genovese had returned to the United States. Genovese was angry because he thought that he and not Costello should be the head of the Commission. (Before escaping to Italy, Genovese was the Commission boss. With Genovese out of the country and Luciano still in jail at the time, Luciano then appointed Costello as top man on the Commission.) Genovese was known as a brutal man, who killed first and asked questions later. With Anastasia on Costello's side, Costello felt they had someone just as tough as Genovese who could protect Costello's high ranking.
What Costello did not envision was that Anastasia was a bloodthirsty, homicidal maniac, who would kill anyone, for any reason, real or imagined. Anastasia's madness manifested itself one day when he was watching television. On the news, a 24-year-old Brooklyn salesman named Arnold Schuster was basking in the limelight as the person who was the main witness in the arrest of legendary bank robber Willie Sutton. Schuster had been riding the subway, when he spotted Sutton. Schuster followed Sutton after Sutton had left the subway, and he tracked Sutton to a nearby garage. After Sutton slipped inside the garage, Schuster called the police, and Sutton was arrested.
Seeing Schuster being treated like a hero by the press, Anastasia freaked out.
“I can't stand squealers,” Anastasia told one of his killers, Fredrick J. Tenuto. “Hit that guy!”
And Tenuto did just that, gunning down Schuster on a Brooklyn street not far from where Schuster lived.
Realizing that Tenuto was the only person who knew Anastasia had ordered Schuster's murder, Anastasia took care of Tenuto himself, filling Tenuto with lead before Tenuto could spill the beans about Anastasia's orders.
However, word was already out that Anastasia, now called “The Mad Hatter,” had gone overboard and had disobeyed one of the Commission's biggest rules: “We only kill each other.”
As far as Genovese was concerned, Anastasia had made fatal mistake No. 1. From this point on, Genovese began plotting Anastasia's demise.
Besides Costello, one of Anastasia's closest allies was Jewish mobster Meyer Lansky, who for a while, turned a deaf ear to Genovese's pleas to kill Anastasia. Lansky was big into the gambling industry on the island of Cuba. And as all good mob bosses should, Lansky was cutting in the other Commission bosses for a piece of the pie on what he was making in Cuba.
However, Anastasia wanted more. He approached Lansky about giving him a bigger slice, and when Lansky refused, Anastasia began plotting to open up his own gambling operation in Cuba.
That was a big miscalculation on Anastasia's part. As Anastasia knew well, Lansky had agreed to the killing of his childhood friend Bugsy Siegel when it was discovered Siegel had been skimming off the top at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Money was sacrosanct to Lansky, and Anastasia was threatening to take money out of Lansky's pocket.
That was fatal mistake No. 2 for Anastasia.
Anastasia's fatal mistake No. 3 materialized when Genovese found out that Anastasia, in order to induct new made members into his family, was charging proposed members $50,000 apiece for induction into the their honored society. This was a definite no-no in t
he Mafia. Men had waited years, sometimes even decades, to “get their buttons.” In addition, the rule at the time was that each proposed member had to have been involved in at least one murder to even be considered for induction. Genovese said Anastasia had devalued the entire Mafia organization by taking cash payments from men who were not qualified to be inducted into the “La Cosa Nostra,” as mob informer Joe Valachi later said insiders called their sacred group.
On October 25, 1957, Anastasia's chauffeur parked Anastasia's car in the underground garage of the Park Sheridan Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Instead of waiting inside the garage for his boss to return, the chauffeur decided to take a little stroll out of the building. Anastasia took a little stroll of his own, and he wound up sitting in chair No. 4 in the Park Sheridan Hotel barbershop. Sitting next to Anastasia in chair No. 5 was his old friend Vincent “Jimmy Jerome” Squillante. Anastasia sat with his eyes closed, appearing to have nary a care in this world.
Soon he would be right.
Suddenly, two men walked into the barbershop. One was carrying a .38-caliber pistol; the other a .32 caliber pistol. One of the men told barbershop owner Arthur Grasso, “Keep your mouth shut if you don't want your head blown off.”
Then the two men commenced firing. One bullet lodged in the back of Anastasia's head and two shots hit him in the left hand. Another bullet hit him in the back and another blasted through the right side of his hip.
Anastasia staggered to his feet, facing the barbershop mirror. Seeing the reflections of his two killers in the mirror, Anastasia mistakenly lurched towards the mirror. The killers kept firing until their guns were empty, and Anastasia fell on his back between two barber chairs, quite dead.
