Joe Is Now The Boss

 A Mafia war came to an abrupt end on this day back in 1922 when Joe "Soon to be the Boss" Masseria managed to put rival mob boss Umberto Valenti on the spot. Since the previous spring when Valenti and some gunmen bumped off Vincent Terranova, lower Manhattan was up for grabs. 

Three days previous, Valenti gunmen had managed to corner Masseria after the latter had exited his apartment. They fired at him numerous times but missed. It is believed that afterwards Masseria contacted Valenti and set up a peace conference. However, the meeting was a ruse to lure his enemy into the open. When Valenti showed up on at the designated meeting place a number of gunmen opened fire on him. Hit in the chest, he tried to return the fire but barely had the strength to make it to a taxi where he dropped dead on it's running board.

Umberto Valenti

Four, make that three fierce Flanagans

Ninety-three years ago today Tom Flanagan, one of the four fierce Flanagans - a quartet of gun wielding law breaking brothers- gave up the ghost after somebody pumped a bullet into his chest at Yumpsy Cunningham's saloon. His pals, being the good guys that they were, placed him in a cab and sent him to his fathers apartment. Pop Flanagan, being of sounder mind thought that a hospital would probably be a better place. He fetched a cop who saw that Tom made it to Bellevue without further ado.

Inside the hospital, Tom was questioned about the shooting but, having memorized the Official Rules of the Underworld Volumes I-IV, he refused to say anything about it and passed out of this life at the ripe old age of thirty.

Now, don't go confusing Tom with his little brother Joe who followed his brother to an early grave in November of 1929.(Remember him? He was the guy found in the hallway.)