Wild Bill Tamed

In the wee hours of this day back in 1923, Brooklyn waterfront gangster Wild Bill Lovett was sent to his final reward whilst sleeping off a drunk in a river front shanty.

As head of Brooklyn's infamous White Hand gang, Wild Bill had numerous notches on his gun which resulted in numerous enemies that wanted him dead for any number of reasons. For a time it looked as though Bill may have dodged a gangland execution. The previous summer he had married Anna Lonergan, sister of his right hand man, Richard Peg Leg Lonergan. They moved from Brooklyn out to the New Jersey suburbs in an attempt to make a normal life for themselves. After a few months away Bill headed back to Brooklyn and went on a bender, hitting a number of his old haunts. 

Word spread that Wild Bill was back in town and somebody or somebodies with an ax to grind trailed him to the stevedore shack where Bill passed out. Once Bill was deep in la-la land his enemies entered and bludgeoned and shot him to death. His killers were never identified.

Wild Bill Lovett

Al Spencer Bows Out

Less than a month after he and his gang robbed the Katy Limited, a mail train (and the last train robbery in the history of his home state of Oklahoma), bandit Al Spencer was gunned down on the Osage Indian Reserve.

Spencer got his start in crime by rustling cattle and stealing horses, he soon gained notoriety as a "motorized bandit" who began picking off banks. Always retreating to the Osage hills. After the train robbery, a bounty of $10,000 dead or alive was placed on his head. A posse of U.S. marshals along with a postal inspector worked in tandem to bring him in, or down.

On the evening of September 15, 1923, the Federal men traced him near the Osage and Washington County lines, about three miles south of the Kansas border. There on a road, at about ten p.m., he was ordered to halt, he fired a shot at his pursuers who then opened up with a rifles. Spencer dropped with three bullets in his chest. It was reported that he had ten thousand dollars worth of bonds on his body when searched. 

Al Spencer

Opening Salvo

By 1923, Chicago gang lord John Torrio had the city carved up nice and neat so all the gangs could serve their fiefdoms with beer and alcohol and nobody would war with anyone. All would get rich. Then South Side gang leader Spike O'Donnell came home from prison. 

Basically left out of the fray, the O'Donnells', or Spike really, decided that they had to make their own way so started encroaching on bars in and around their bailiwick and forcing their beer on them. September 7,  O'Donnell gang making "sales calls" on unwilling tavern keepers. The beer that the recalcitrant barkeeps were then purchasing was coming from either John Torrio or his allies, the Saltis-McErlane gang. 

One bar in particular that day had turned the gang down once. This time when they said "No" O'Donnell gangsters attacked the owner and his bartender busting both of their heads. After that, they visited about five other establishments before heading back to a saloon in the safety of their own neighbor hood.

As they sat back drinking beer, eating sandwiches and patting themselves on the back for a hard days work, the door swung open and rival gunmen entered. Not ready for a battle the O'Donnell's headed out the back door. Contemporary newspapers state that O'Donnell gunman Jerry O'Connor was brought down with a rifle shot to the heart. His gang mates then piled him into a car and took him to doctor where he was announced dead. Capone biographies tell a different story. The later accounts stated that O'Connor was trapped inside the bar and made to walk out the front door where gangster Frank McErlane was waiting with a sawed off shotgun and proceeded to blow his head off. Thus began what became known as the Chicago Beer Wars

Jerry O'Connor

The Dropper Gets Dropped

In what was an elaborate set-up, New York gangster and labor racketeer Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan was shot down by a killer gunning for rival gangster Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen while leaving court on August 28, 1923. 

Earlier in the month a number of Orgen's men were wounded in a drive-by orchestrated by the Dropper. 

When questioned by the police, Orgen confederate Jacob Shapiro said that Kaplan was behind the shooting and so the gang leader was picked up. Knowing that Kaplan would have to face Shapiro in court they set it up so gang hanger on Louis Cohen would be waiting for the Dropper to exit the court house. 

The time came and Kaplan was ushered into the court to face Shapiro who recanted his testimony and refused to identify the gang leader. Kaplan was escorted out to a waiting taxi cab which was going to take him to another court to face a different charge. After the gang leader slid into the back seat of the taxi, Cohen slipped through the cordon of police. He ran up and, climbing on the rear bumper, shot through the back window mortally wounding the Dropper. 

Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan

Kane Mutiny

St. Louis gangster Andrew Kane was a bad man. By the age of 26, he had been arrested forty-one times with numerous convictions, including one for murder in 1915. Though sentenced to ten years he was out in two.  He was said to be chummy with St. Louis's premiere gang, Egan's Rats having been arrested with a few of them the previous week as a suspect. 

He had been running a bar with a pal but the partnership dissolved in early July. At about eight-fifteen on the evening of August 5, 1923, Kane was seen fighting with two men in a residential section of town. Witnesses stated that during the fight, two shots rang out and Kane staggered away from the two men and dropped. He had been hit in the left side and under the right armpit. By time police arrived he was dead.

Andrew Kane

Negative Side Effects of Coffee

New York City gangster Louis Geno AKA Louis Francisco was a life long criminal with a record dating back to 1911, who did time at both Elmira and Sing Sing. On July 24, 1923 he was in sitting inside a Lower East Side restaurant sipping coffee and reading a newspaper. 

As Geno studied his paper a sedan pulled up out front. A "powerfully built" man emerged flanked by two other guys, each holding a handgun. The two gunmen stood outside the restaurant as their confederate entered the establishment. Geno was still absorbed in his periodical as the man stopped at each table inspecting the occupants. When he got to Geno's table he drew a nickle plated pistol. Looking up, Geno jumped from his chair and started to speak, but was cut off with a shot to the mouth. "That's for talking to much," the gunman said.

Wounded, Geno dodged behind a busboy but the gunman shot the employee in the leg and he dropped, exposing Geno again. Another shot went into the gangster's neck. With no where else to hide, Geno leapt at the gunman who backed off and fired off another five shots. All missed Geno but three other patrons were wounded. 

The gunman exited the restaurant and was escorted back into the sedan by his two confederates. At the hospital Geno refused to tell detectives who shot him before dying. Police said he a gang of bootleggers from Washington D.C. got him for giving information to police.

Roadhouse Blues

November 19, 1923 saw the demise of St. Louis gangster William "Whitey" Doering in "Halfway", Illinois, (an area located halfway between Marion and Herrin, Illinois) in what is infamously known as "Bloody Williamson" County.

Doering, said to be a member of Egan's Rats, pulled up to Charlie Birger's roadhouse with a carload of confederates and, according to Birger, walked up the porch and called Birger out. The latter stepped out and Doering shot him. From inside the roadhouse a number of shots were returned and Doering collapsed with seven bullets in his body. His pals sped off, and he died later that day in the hospital.

Birger said that Doering tried to rob him and it was the guys in the car that shot him (bad aiming as Birger asserted they were trying to get him) but then again Birger was one of the biggest gangsters in the region and would want to pass blame elsewhere. Other theories were that Doering was a friend of the bartender that Birger had killed earlier that week and was seeking revenge. A bootlegging deal gone awry was another reason given.

Whitey Doering

Wild Bill is Tamed

Brooklyn, New York -

In the early hours of this day back in 1923, Brooklyn waterfront tough Wild Bill Lovett former leader of the White Hand gang, was murdered while sleeping off a drunk in a riverfront shanty. Having killed both Irish and Italian gangsters, there was no shortage of people who wanted him dead. For a time it looked as though Lovett may have dodged a gangland execution. That summer he had married Anna Lonergan, sister of his right hand man, Richard Pegleg Lonergan, and they moved from Brooklyn out to the New Jersey suburbs in an attempt to make a normal life for themselves. Lovett longed for the old ways however and returned to his old haunts and went on a bender. Word spread that the former gangster was back in the neighborhood and somebody(ies) with an ax to grind, trailed him to the stevedore shack he decided to spend the night in and after he had passed out they entered that shanty and bludgeoned and shot him to death. His killers were never found.

Wild Bill Lovett

One by land, One by sea

Carmine "Blackie" Stillo was a suspected drug dealer who, on this date in 1923, was lured into a yard at 235 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan and shot numerous times in the back.

Meanwhile,

Across town at Pier 56 on the Hudson river, a couple of dock workers heard the hum of a boat motor and after a bit, a 32-foot boat came out from under the pier. The craft was in neutral and there was a dead guy lying in the bow. The corpse proved to be one Juan Ignacio, bootlegger. Police found a list of customers and over six hundred bucks on him. He had been shot three times in the chest.

This wasn't in the brochure

Ninety-three years ago today a busload of tourist got to witness a gangland killing first hand while perusing Little Italy. The victim was Joseph Marone, who was walking down the street when a car containing four men pulled up behind him and fired a shot. Marone dropped to the sidewalk with a bullet in his thigh. Before any more shots could be fired the tour bus pulled up between the car and Marone and the shooters sped off.

The tourist thought they were watching the filming of a movie and didn't realize that Marone was actually hurt but a pedestrian who knew better went and fetched a cop. At first Marone's leg wound appeared superficial and he was taken to Bellevue hospital where he was arrested. But at midnight the police received word from the hospital that he had died.

During his interrogation Marone kept his mouth shut and said nothing about his affairs or the men who shot him but police believed he was part of a burglary gang and double crossed the other members with the divvying up of spoils. The police also said that Marone knew he was a marked man and only left his house in the daytime. The killers, they speculated had been staking out his house and that's how they got him.