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

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Two Vacancies

 Vincent Pisano and Oresta DeRobertis were former members of the "Forty Thieves" gang that operated out of the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. By this date in 1934 both men were living in a rooming house and each had a room on the top floor.

At 4:00am, eighty years ago this morning, two gun men gained entrance to the house. They made their way upstairs then split up. One went into Pisano's room, the other DeRoberis's. All the tenants of the house were suddenly awakened by numerous shots, twelve actually. Six of which lodged in Pisano's abdomen and three, out of the six that were fired at him, in DeRobertis' skull.

Why? Who knows, maybe the "Forty Thieves" didn't take kindly to becoming the "Thirty Eight Thieves" or maybe the landlord knew she could get more money for the top two rooms. I suspect they had the best view.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two Rooms to Let - Top floor with building views. Highly sought after section of Brooklyn. Available now. Move in discount if you clean up blood. Hurry, previous tenants left quickly.

Patrick Downey said...

Blood schmud wait'll you see the view!