42 Skidoo

 

September 8, 1933 saw the demise of Nicholas "Little Man" Muscato, so called because he stood at five feet tall. Muscato was a small time racketeer for Chicago's 42 gang. He reportedly had a bootlegging route under the tutelage of gangster Joseph Red Bolton, or, as was also reported, Bolton paid Muscato protection money.

In 1930, Muscato, along with fellow hoodlum Peter "the Ape" Nicastro, had murdered fellow 42 gangster Frank Petito, who hijacked a truck belonging to Bolton. After the murder, Nicastro claimed he had done the killing himself. To save face, Muscato in turn took Nicastro for a ride but he survived. Subsequently Nicastro squealed on Muscato who was arrested but beat the rap.

As a taxi driver  sat parked at a local hospital, he saw a sedan pull up and slow down. A door was opened and Muscato was tossed to the sidewalk with a bullet in the back of his head. Being a good sort of fellow, the taxi driver dragged the gangster into the hospital where he was informed that his labors had been in vain as Muscato was already dead.

Nicholas Muscato

Sugar Not So Sweet

Sam Dalaly was the nineteen year old driver for Chicago's 42 gang. His bullet riddled body was found on a roadside on this date back in 1932. Police determined that Dalaly was bumped off for his part in the hijacking of a sugar truck that was enroute from Indiana to a still.

Police stated that Dalaly was supposed to drive the sugar to a specific location but along the way, he stopped and handed a some of the sugar over to confederates. Police theorized that Dalaly was either bumped off by those who orchestrated the hijacking and found out he held out some of the sugar or was knocked off by the concern that owned the sugar truck that got hijacked.

Sam Dalaly

42 Skidoo

Eighty-seven years ago this morning, the body of Frank Battaglia, a member of Chicago's infamous 42 gang, was found face down in a frozen puddle with four bullets in his head, give or take. He had been taken to a spot that one paper referred to as "Gangland's Graveyard." a desolate stretch of road in Worth Township at 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, where a number of other Chicago gangsters supposedly met their demise. (We'll try to find a few.)

What exactly Frank did to deserve his one-way ride is unknown. Being in the 42 gang there was no depredation off limits. He did four months in 1926 on a burglary charge and in 1930 he got a year for carrying a gun. Police said that at the time of his death he was hijacking merchandise trucks and taking both the merchandise and the trucks. They felt he could have been bumped off by other members of the 42 gang, or perhaps it was a booze deal gone wrong, or perhaps he ripped off the wrong guys, or perhaps... There were no shortage of possibilities. Though Frank's gangland career was abruptly cut short, his younger brother Sam went on to have a long prosperous career in the Capone organization.

Frank Battaglia