"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

On the road

Spending the day with our friends over at Nobody Move! Talking about books, movies and of course Legs Diamond who was put on the spot on this day in 1931.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Strange, today's not laundry day

Twas eighty-six years ago this morning at 3:00am when a patrolman was walking his beat in Harlem and a large touring car sped past him. Seeing that speeding past patrolmen was a no-no the officer immediately blew his whistle and the car came to a stop. The driver apologized for going fast and was let off with a warning. The end.

Just kidding. It was just the begining. As the officer approached the auto, whistle dangling from his lip like a $0.12 cigar*, one of the car doors opened and what looked like a bundle of laundry was tossed out. The cop ran up as the sedan sped off. What looked like a bundle of laundry turned out to be thirty-four year old Dominick Alvero. He had been shot four times in the head, once in the neck and once in the hip. Thats a total of six bullets for the noncounters.

*artistic license

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

End of an era

Frank "Skinny" Partuese and Frank "Blackie" Stillo have the distinction of being New York City’s last gangland victims of the Prohibition Era. “Blackie” had just parked his car when two gunmen came up from behind and started blasting away. After firing about ten shots the gunmen fled. Hit a number of times, “Skinny”, who was in the passenger seat, managed to get out of the sedan and run up a block or so before dropping dead. “Blackie” also made it out of the car but collapsed in the gutter. He was still alive when found and sent to the hospital where doctors said he would die.
The police believed that Parteuse was responsible for a killing three weeks previous and that he and Stillo were put on the spot for retribution. Whether or not Stillo played a part in the murder is unknown but he was a bit of a Yogi Berra as is evident by a quote he made while being transported to the hospital, “I don’t know why I should get it, but I had it coming to me.”