Murder Inc Documentary

Link of the day - Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards











Murder, Inc., Murder Incorporated or Brownsville Boys was the name given by the press for an organized crime group in the 1920s to 1940s that carried out hundreds of murders on behalf of the mob. The name Murder Incorporated was a journalistic invention. The credit for the title is usually given to Harry Feeney, a 1930s reporter for the old New York World-Telegram.[citation needed] The members of this syndicate usually referred to it as the Commission.

Notable members of Murder Inc. included Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, Frank "Dasher" Abbandando, Louis Capone, Michael "Blackie" Connolly, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein, Harry "Happy" Maione, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, Allie Tannenbaum, Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon, Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, Santo "Sonny Boy" Ricchiettore, Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia, Alan "Fatman" Mcconville, Jodie "Big Bump" Mcconville, James Squillante and Charles "Charlie the Bug" Workman.

Most Murder, Inc., murders were unsolved. Very often the killers, and sometimes even their victims, were strangers to the city where the murder took place, making them difficult to trace. Police would concentrate on local suspects when the 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

Murder, Inc., was established after the formation of the commission of the National Crime Syndicate, to which it ultimately answered. Largely headed by former mob enforcers Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky, it also had members from Buchalter's labor-slugging gang (in partnership with Tommy "Three-Fingered Brown" Lucchese) as well as from another group of enforcers from Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, of the late 1920s led by Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Abe "Kid Twist" Reles. Buchalter, in particular, and Joe Adonis occasionally, gave the outfit its orders from the board of directors of the syndicate. Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia was the troupe's operating head, or "Lord High Executioner", assisted by Lepke's longtime associate Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro.

It is alleged that Charles Burns, a police bodyguard of Reles was involved in the disappearance of Judge Crater in 1930.

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.

In the 1930s, Buchalter used Murder, Inc. to murder witnesses and suspected informants when he was investigated by crusading prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. In one case, on May 11, 1937, four killers hacked loan shark George Rudnick to pieces, on the mere suspicion that he was an informant. On October 1, 1937, they shot and seriously wounded Buchalter's ex-associate Max Rubin. Rubin had disobeyed Buchalter's orders to leave town and "disappear" in order to avoid being summoned as a witness against Buchalter.

Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires

Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss

Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime