A Not So Pretty Death For Louis

 

About a month after his brother Joseph was gunned down in a Brownsville garage, racketeer Louis "Pretty" Amberg met a grisly fate on October 23, 1935. Louis operated on Manhattan's lower eastside and was living in a mid town hotel under an assumed name.

It appears that the Syndicate was waiting to see how Pretty reacted to his brother's murder before deciding on a course of action. When Pretty let it be known that he would be seeking revenge on those who orchestrated his brother's murder, it was deemed that Pretty should join Joseph in the great beyond.

A Lepke mobster named Mendy Weiss lured Pretty to a friend's bar just over the Manhattan bridge in Brooklyn. The proprietor invited the men into his office for a drink. Instead of a libation, two of Mendy's gorillas were waiting for Pretty and immediately started hacking him with cleavers.

Once Pretty was done for, his body was placed in an automobile. A burlap sack was placed over his head and he and the car were doused in gasoline and put to the match.

Louis "Pretty" Amberg

Frankie Goes To Manhattan

After they got rid of Joey Amberg, the Syndicate went after the henchmen that assisted Amberg in his killing of Hy Kasner. They caught up with Frankie Teitlebaum first. The specifics are lost to history but it appears that he was lured somewhere and  sombody (or somebodies) sank an ax into his head a number of times.  There is also a report that a bullet was sent into his forehead for good measure.

After killing him, the murderers stripped his body down to underwear and t-shirt and crammed him into a travel trunk. The makeshift coffin was then carried out to a sedan and driven across the Brooklyn Bridge where it was dumped on the nearest Manhattan corner. 

Frankie Teitlebaum

What Is The Law? No Spill Blood

During the summer of 1935, semi-powerful Brooklyn racketeer Joseph Amberg (Joey A to his fellow gangsters) took it upon his self to to rid gangland of one Hy Kasner, a hoodlum who had crossed him in some manner. Together with two of his henchmen, Jack Elliot and Frankie Teitlebaum, Amberg snatched Kasner from the streets, killed him, stuffed him in a sack and dropped him in a sewer. Business as usual in Brownsville back in the 1930s.

It was Amberg's hope that the sack containing Kasner would wash out to sea and his disappearance would be but a mystery. Unfortunately for the gangster, it popped up near shore and what was left of Kasner was fished out. Soon the names of Kasner's killers traveled the underworld grapevine. This proved problematic for Amberg because Kasner was an associate of both Albert Anastasia and Louis Capone, the director and assistant director of Murder Inc. 

A Syndicate hearing was called to decide what to do about the Amberg affair. Anastasia and Capone argued that Amberg and his murdering cohorts should themselves be removed for taking Syndicate law into their own hands. Amberg had friends in high places though, namely Joe Adonis and Bugsy Siegel who argued that Amberg should get a pass.

In the end, Adonis and Siegel were overruled and a contract was put out on Amberg. Chosen for the job was Murder Inc. hitman Harry "Happy" Maione, Mafia guy Phil Mangano, and another guy known as "Red" Pulvino. The location chosen for the hit was the Brownsville garage where Amberg parked his car.

On September 30, 1935 Amberg's chauffeur Morris Kessler pulled into the garage with his boss. As the two men stepped out of the car the hit squad approached the men and told them to face the wall. Assuming that they were the victims of a robbery, the men complied. Amberg however, turned and noticed Maione and said, "It's-" before he could get more out the men were cut down by shotgun blasts. Once they were on the ground, one of the men ran up and fired a bullet into each man's head. Murder Inc. justice had been served.

Joe Amberg

Brothers Reunited

A couple months after knocking off his brother Irving in the family foyer, the Combination finally caught up with Meyer Shapiro. Following his brother's demise, Meyer moved into Manhattan for safety. He ventured back into Brooklyn to see a guy called Juey about some weapons. Unfortunately for Meyer, Juey  was loyal to Abe Reles and the Combination, who had informed him that if he saw came across Shapiro he was to shoot on sight.

In the early hours of September 17, 1931, Meyer and Juey were strolling along a Brooklyn street talking business when the latter nonchalantly fell a few steps behind. Producing a pistol, he fired shot into the back of Meyer's head. The job done, Juey  left and returned in truck. He loaded Meyer's body into it and transported it to lower Manhattan where he dumped it in a cellar. 

Meyer Shapiro

Look out! There goes the Spider Man

John "Spider" Murtha, called "The toughest man in Brooklyn" by detectives, was gunned down by killers from Murder Inc. on this date in 1935. Born circa 1898 Murtha dubbed himself "Spider" while a featherweight boxer in his youth but it was his exploits outside of the ring that made the plug-ugly an infamous Brooklyn character. It was said that Murtha enjoyed being pointed out in taverns as a "Cop beater" and that he never carried a gun choosing instead to rely on a razor or any weapon he could improvise out of broken beer bottle or mug.

The boys from Murder Inc. caught up with Spider at 10:30 a.m. when he and his girlfriend, Marie Nestfield, were returning from an all night outing, they had just exited a hotel when the two gunmen quietly walked up behind them. As one of them pushed Marie aside the other one exclaimed, "Now we got you Spider!" and the two men fired a total of five shots into Murtha hitting him twice in the head and three times in the chest. "Spider" stumbled for a moment then collapsed dead next to an elevated subway pillar.

For more info on Spider and Murder Inc. check out Gangster City.

What is the law? No spill blood.

In the summer of 1935 Joey Amberg, a semi-big racketeering feller in Brooklyn, decided that a hoodlum named Hy Kasner had to be killed, so together with two henchmen named Jack Elliot and Frankie Teitlebaum they set out to get Kasner. The latter was snatched, killed, stuffed in a sack and dropped into a sewer. Business as usual in Brownsville back in the 1930's.

Amberg was hoping that the sack would be washed out to sea and Hy's disappearance would be but a mystery, but unfortunately for Amberg it popped up near shore and what was left of Hy was fished out. Soon the names of Kasner’s killers traveled the underworld grapevine. Problematic for Amberg was that Kasner was an associate of both Albert Anastasia and Louis Capone the director and assistant director of Murder Inc and, to paraphrase Bumpy Johnson from the film Cotton Club, "If you have Murder Inc. on your ass, you truly have somebody on your ass."*

A Syndicate hearing was called. Anastasia and Capone argued that Amberg and his murdering cohorts should themselves be put on the spot for taking syndicate law into their own hands by killing Kasner without mob approval while Joe Adonis and Bugsy Siegel argued for Amberg’s clemency.

Adonis and Siegel were overruled and a contract was put out on Joey A. Chosen for the job was “Happy” Maione, Phil Mangano,(brother of Vincent Mangano the patriarch of the Mangano crime family) and another man known as “Red” Pulvino. The location chosen for the hit was the Brownsville garage, which was partially owned by “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss, where Joey Amberg parked his car.

On this day in 1935 Amberg’s sedan, chauffeured by Morris Kessler, pulled into the garage and as the men were stepping out, the killers, two dressed in khaki overalls and the third dressed in blue overalls, ran up with guns drawn and forced them to line up against the wall. As Amberg turned to face the wall he saw Maione’s face and began to say, “It’s - -” but before he could get anything else out he and Kessler were cut down by a blast from a shotgun. Once Amberg and Kessler were on the ground one of the killers ran up and shot each man in the head with a pistol. Justice, Murder Inc. style, had been served

*Johnson was actually referring to Owney Madden in the film. But you already knew that.