We're So Sorry, Uncle Eddie

It was on November 5, 1928 when Philadelphia gangster Handsome Eddie Rafferty pulled into his brother's gas station. His niece ran up to and jumped into the back seat of Eddie's car. Being a good uncle, Eddie produced some grapes and handed them to her and she began to snack away.

As Eddie sat behind the wheel conversing with his brother, a car drove by and men with shotguns and pistols opened fire. His brother hit the deck while Eddie, hit by some of the shots, slouched over the steering wheel. A second car drove by and once again lead was hurled at Eddie. More bullets plowed into the gangster's body and he slumped to the floor mortally wounded. A third car drove by and fired another round which peppered the walls of the filling station.

It was said that Eddie Raffery was associated with the Eddie Reagan gang whom were supposedly responsible for the murder of a gangster named Robert Haggerty and that Eddie was killed in retaliation. Another theory was that Rafferty had double-crossed another bootlegger named William "Hop" Reilly. The latter was picked up but denied that there was any trouble between him and Rafferty.

Handsome Eddie Rafferty

Good Morning!

About three weeks after Benny Zion, election day terrorist employed by 20th ward "politician" Morris Eller was bumped off, another of Eller's minions, Leigh di Bimardo (spelling of his name varies) was put on the spot.

Like Zion, di Bimardo was said to be an accessory in the election day murder of Eller's political rival Octavius Grandady. Authorities stated that d Bimardo was wanted by a special grand jury conducted to investigate election day terrorism and it was presumed that gangsters afraid of what di Bimardo might say silenced him forever.

According to the dead man's wife, two men showed up at di Bimardo's house at seven on the morning of August 22, 1928 and they left in di Bamardo's car. Two hours later, a number of people who worked near a railroad via duct heard numerous shots. When they investigated, they found di Bimardo slumped over the steering wheel; one arm on the wheel the other hanging out the window. He had been shot numerous times in the head. The killers left their guns (but took the canoli) and made a get away.

 

Leigh di Bamardo

Down at the Crack of Dawn

On August 9, 1928 two gangsters exited a speakeasy escorted by a locally famous character named Hugh McLoon. The latter was a short, hunched back fellow who gained fame as a mascot for local sport team and parleyed that into becoming a go-between for the under and upper worlds. He also became an owner in a night club. As the trio walked into the night air,  a sedan pulled up and a machine gun went off. McLoon fell dead and his gangster companions were slightly wounded. Supposedly the gangsters were the target and McLoon was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Within a few days it determined that the man who pulled the trigger on McLoon was Philadelphia gangster Danny O'Leary whose gang was at war with the men wounded with McLoon. Retaliation was swift. After the drive-by, O'Leary and his brother retreated to Camden, New Jersey and took a room at a roadside motel. While leaving a carload a gangsters made an unsuccessful attempt on them. A few days later O'Leary showed up at a Philadelphia boarding house with a young woman he claimed was his wife (his real wife was living at home with their two kids) and rented a room. At one-thirty on the morning of August 15, a guy rang the bell to the building and the landlord answered. The guy asked for O'Leary but was told that nobody by that name lived there. He then asked if anyone moved in recently and was told about the couple who took a room that Monday. He pondered the thought for a moment and then returned to a car containing more men, told them what had transpired and they took off.

A little after five that morning, the men returned and jimmied open the front door of the building and made their way to O'Leary's third floor room and jimmied that door as well. The gunmen made their way to O'Leary's bed and one or more opened fired on the sleeping gangster, hitting him in the head, chest and shoulders. 

The gunfire woke up two tenants who lived on the first floor who came into the hallway in time to see the gunmen and O'Leary's girlfriend nonchalantly walk from the building. Since the group seemed to be in no hurry, the tenants figured the noise they heard was a back firing car and thought nothing of it.

Since O'Leary's moll left with the killers seemingly on her own accord it was determined that she had set up her boyfriend for the kill.

Danny O'Leary

Benny Bites the Dust

Benny Zion was an election day terrorist who operated in Chicago's Twentieth Ward aka the Bloody 20th. In addition to being under indictment for nine different counts including assault, kidnapping and murder, he was accused of participating in the election day murder of Octavius Granady, the opponent of Zion's boss Morris Eller.

On July 31, 1928, Eller testified to a special grand jury what he knew about the murder and violence that took place on the previous election day. That morning Zion's body was found in a alley behind a saloon. He had been shot four times and partially buried with trash. It was reported that Zion had talked to much.

Benny Zion

The Sandlot

It may have been an ambush as some papers implied or, most likely, it was meeting or truce between St. Louis' Russo gang and members of the Cuckoo gang, that turned sour. What is known is that on July 25, 1928, three members of the Russo gang: Jimmy Russo, Mike Longo and Jack Griffin. Met with a few Cuckoo gangsters, probably Tommy Hayes and a few of his minions.

The meet took place in a vacant lot, where a house used by Hayes once stood.  There were neighboring houses and witnesses in adjoining yards who witnessed the shooting. One of them, who knew Russo and Longo and said he'd seen them there numerous times, stated that while looking over the fence, he saw the gangsters tossing a ball around. All was peaceful until, "Suddenly they began to argue hotly over something.,,Longo and Russo and two others began fist fighting." The witness went on to say that Russo pulled a .45 and started shooting. After that everyone drew guns and started blasting away at each other. It was at this time that the witness stated that another man sprang from a Chrysler with a Thompson machine gun and yelled, "Give it to 'em boys! They ain't any good anyhow. Give it to them good!" Then he lit up the yard with a number of blasts.

Russo and Longo dropped dead. Griffin, with half a dozen shots in his right shoulder and chest fell but managed to crawl to a neighboring house after the Cuckoos fled the seen. A short time later, gunmen invaded the store of a Russo ally and wounded three men. It appears, that after the sandlot battle, the gunmen attempted to wipe out the whole Russo operation.

The fact that the battle was started by Russo and took place in the middle of the afternoon with witnesses nearby lends credence to fact that it was a spur of the moment fight and not a planned ambush. The guy with the Tommy gun was probably there for just such an occurrence. 

Jimmy Russo            Mike Longo                   Jack Griffin

Rub-a-dub-dub Jerry Died by the Tub

"Handsome" Jerry Ferri was an ex-Chicago gunmnan who moved out to San Francisco around 1926 because things got to hot for his in Chi-town. Supposedly he got into trouble with gang leader and had to flee the city. While in San Francisco he dabbled in bootlegging, kidnapping and as one paper stated he could walk into a North Beach cafe, demand a 50-50 split and get it. He was described as a local mafia leader.

Ferri, whose real name may have been Gennero Fieve, end came at about 2:30 in the morning on November 24, 1928 when some men accosted him at the foot of the stairwell of his apartment. The guns came and they opened fire. Ferri managed to run up the stairs to his apartment, but the gunmen chased him and fired through his front door. Making their way in they chased the gangster into his bathroom. Ferri, already wounded closed the door and the men fired through the door and one of the bullets pierced the gangster's head killing him.

Handsome Jerry Ferri with his girlfriend

We're So Sorry, Uncle Eddie

Philadelphia gangster Handsome Eddie Rafferty pulled into his brother's gas station on this date back in 1928. His niece was on hand and jumped into the back seat. Uncle Eddie had brought some grapes for her and she sat in the rear snacking away.

As Rafferty sat behind the wheel speaking with his brother a car drove by and men with shotguns and pistols opened fire. Rafferty slouched over the steering wheel. A second car containing gunmen followed up and opened fire on the already perforated gangster. Eddie fell to the floor mortally wounded. A third car drove by and also sent a burst of gunfire but missed the gangster completely instead, peppering the walls of the filling station. The niece was unhurt.

It was said that Rafferty was associated with the Eddie Reagan gang whom were supposedly responsible for the murder of a gangster named Robert Haggerty and that the latter's friends killed Rafferty in retaliation. Another theory was that Rafferty had double crossed another bootlegger named William "Hop" Reilly. Reilly was picked up but denied there was any trouble between him and Rafferty.

Handsome Eddie Rafferty

Knocked Out of the Presidential Race

Chicago - On this day in 1928 Peter Rizzuto*, a Sicilian big wig, was loading near beer onto a truck outside his place of business. His place of business was a beverage supply company that not only manufactured the stuff he was loading onto the truck, but also supplied hops, sugar etc. all the things one would need to make alcoholic beverages. One of his top customers was the Aiello gang.

In addition to his business interests, Rizzuto was being groomed by said Aiellos to take over the presidency of the Unione Siciliana. The previous month the former president Joe Lombardo, a Capone ally,  had been shot to death while walking with his bodyguards. Most likely at the behest of the Aiellos. Rizzuto had been on the phone with Lombardo a few moments before the shooting and was considered a suspect in the killing.

As Rizzuto was loading his near beer, two men, each armed with a sawed off shotgun, crept around the side of his truck and cut him down. Perhaps somebody else suspected him in the Lombardo killing as well.

Peter Rizzuto

*Rizzuto was spelled numerous ways in the press. This may not be the actual spelling.

Piggy back one-way ride

Five hours after his partner, John Piggy Weller, was buried, St. Louis gangster Louis Mandel was rubbed out by either Weller's friends or the same gang that took out his partner. It was believed that the former was the most likely reason.

A witness stated that he was doing some work when he heard a series of shots, though it was dark he stated that he saw two cars. One had one guy, the other a handful. He watched as the car containing the group turn around and then stop, he saw a gun step from the sedan and fire a number of shots into the ground.

After the cars vacated, the witness approached the road, wondering why a man would fire into the ground. Reaching the spot, the witness found the body of Mandel. He had been shot six times in the head and another ten in the body. Though he had heard the initial shots, the witness failed to see Mandel's body tossed from the car.

Mandel had been arrested about one hundred times including a handful of times for murder.

 Louis Mandel

A pig to the slaughter

John "Piggy" Weller was a member of St. Louis' Cuckoo gang. The 31 year old gangster had been arrested 76 times and did five years for a murder. Along with his partner Louis Mandel, Weller operated the Villa Iris roadhouse located a few miles east of St. Louis.

On this date in 1928, two masked man entered the Villa Iris and ordered the band, staff and customers to lie down. They grabbed a band member and waiter and demanded to know the whereabouts of Weller. They told him he wasn't there so, the killers had the doorman phone him and tell him that something important had come up and he needed to come in.

When Weller pulled up an hour later, the hit squad was waiting for him. As the gangster stepped up on the porch he was greeted with a blast from a machine in the face and abdomen.

John "Piggy" Weller

Baby Daddy

Ninety-one  years ago today a sedan pulled over on a lonely road in the Chicago suburb of Homewood and a body was pulled from the car. In addition to five bullets in the back of the head, the man had been severely beaten; his nose, jaw and right arm had all been fractured. Before leaving, the killers doused the body in alcohol and set a match to it.

There wasn't any identification on the dead man but there was picture of a baby. With photo in hand, a cop went through Chicago's Italian west side trying to find anyone who might recognized the baby.  A woman did and directed the cop to Maria Adragna. Maria accompanied the cop to the morgue and identified the dead man as her husband Charles Adragna. She told police that her husband had been a bootlegger. According to the Maria, Charles had been friends with Diamond Joe Esposito, who had been bumped off himself a short time before, as well as Samoots Amatuna, another gangster who went to his final reward. Mrs. Adragna also said that she had her husband arrested a week earlier on March 24, because he beat her and threatened to kill her. Police didn't rule out that friends of Maria may have killed her husband.

Gone Fishin'

Police had been searching the Cincinnati area for all around bad man Jack Parker. Parker, 35, operated out of the city of Hamilton, Ohio, and was known as a bank robber, gunman and killer. Police wanted him in connection with the murder of a man in a Kentucky roadhouse.

Since the murder, Parker had been hiding out in a fishing camp. On this day in 1928 some visitors picked him up at his hideout and took him for a ride, literally. The following day his body was found in a shallow pool of water at the bottom of an embankment. Police reasoned that he had been riding in the back seat of the car when the person in the front  passenger seat turned, and shot him in the face four times. He was then dragged from the car and rolled down the embankment. Cincinnati gunman Robert Zwick was subsequently credited with the killing.

The King is Un-Crowned

 

On the morning of May 12, 1928 sixty-year old Gaetano Acci-who was known to Chicago police by some other names, including; “the Wolf: ,“King of the Blackmailers” and “The Muscler"-was seen leaving his home at  1066 Polk Street and getting into a sedan with four other men. 

Later that day he and his cohorts were spotted miles away in the town of Rockford, Illinois. The following morning, eighty-nine years ago today,  a motorist traveling along a quiet stretch of road outside the town of Harvard, Illinois, discovered Acci's body and alerted authorities. Turns out that the "King of the Blackmailers" had extorted four bullets from someone's gun. Two went to his head, and two to his body.

Acci was known to prey on Italian residents of Chicago's west side. On his corpse were found six letters addressed to different people demanding money. According to police, a week prior to his death, they had set a trap for him and planned to kill him when he stopped to pick up a faux payment package, but he never showed up. Subsequently the underworld save them the trouble.

No dumping

With a bullet in the head, the dead body of Joe Galas was carelessly tossed in the street on this date back in 1928. Leave it to gangsters to ignore all those "Do Not Litter" signs all over New York. Police said that Joe was the victim of a bootleggers feud. Police said a lot of things that weren't necessarily true but we will take their word for it in Joe's case

Two dead guys and a partridge in a pear tree

Was on this morning in 1928 when some early birds came to an intersection in Chicago Heights and found...a magic hat which they placed on a snowman who miraculously came to life...just kidding, it wasn't a magic hat they found but a dead body with four bullets in the head and neck.

Now I feel bad.

Here you were thinking you were going to be treated to a nice holiday story and I talk about dead gangsters...let's try again shall we? While Chicagoans were trying to figure out who was blocking their intersection on this date back in 1928, about four hundred miles away in Mount Clemens, Michigan, a trucker was hauling produce to Detroit when something off to the side of the road caught his eye. He put on the breaks. Jumping to the road he ran up and found a magic hat. He put it on the nearest snowman who then began to dance around....ok, I lied again. He didn't find a hat it was dead gangster who had been shot and then his body lit on fire.

Diamond's are not a Noe's best friend

Eighty-Seven-years ago this morning Legs Diamond had a meeting set up with his former proteges and current rivals, Joey Noe & Dutch Schultz to exchange money for territory.  Correctly assuming that Diamond might try to pull some monkey business, Noe was wearing a bullet proof vest while Dutch and possibly a few others took positions in some nearby second story windows. As Noe approached the designated meeting spot a blue Cadillac came speeding up from behind and a guy, Louis Weinberg, opened fire on him. The assassin scored a lucky shot on Noe's body where the vest wasn't covering and the Dutchman's partner went down. Dutch, and any others, in hiding opened fire on the Cadillac, which sped away. One of the bullets from above pierced the roof of the Caddy and killed Weinberg. The car, with the dead man, was ditched on the lower east side. Noe was taken to the hospital and questioned but kept to the gangster code until dying about a month later.

Checking out of the Harding Hotel

Tony Marlow was a bootlegger who lived in mid-town next door to the Harding Hotel. 87-years ago tonight he was standing in front of the hotel smoking a cigarette at 10:30pm apparently waiting for some one.

William White, a real estate salesman, who knew Marlow from the neighborhood saw him loitering and walked over. “Hello Tony!” White said offering his hand. As the two men were shaking hands, two more guys appeared from behind a parked car, one tall and slim and the other short and stout. Before anyone knew what was what they opened fire hitting Marlow five times before he had a chance to pull out his own gun.

A beat cop heard the shooting, ran to the scene and started after the gunmen. After a short chase the killers escaped. Returning to the Harding Hotel the officer loaded Marlow into a cab and took him to the hospital where the gangster was questioned about the shooting. When asked who shot him, Marlow responded in typical gangland fashion, “I’ll take care of them myself when I get well.” But his slayers needn’t of worried because he died the next the day.