Kennedy Shot!

 

July 7, 1933 saw the demise of Toledo bootlegger and nightclub entrepreneur Jack Kennedy.  Though only in his early twenties, Kennedy was said to be fearless; so when a gang of Detroit gangsters headed by Thomas "Yonnie" Licavoli came to town in an attempt to monopolize Toledo's underworld; Kennedy refused to kneel.

The first attempt came on December 1, 1932 when Kennedy and his girlfriend, Louise Bell, were riding in Jack's coupe in downtown Toledo. When they stopped for a light, an auto, with Michigan plates, containing four men, armed with possibly two machineguns, pulled up alongside them and opened fire. Kennedy got through unscathed but his girlfriend was struck in the head by a bullet and later died at the hospital. According to witnesses, after the shooting, the gunmen headed towards Detroit.

The following summer the boys from Detroit finished the job when they traced Kennedy to his home in the shore community of Point Place just outside of Toledo. (since annexed by the city). Kennedy and his new girlfriend, Audrey Ralls, left his cottage and walked to the store for some groceries. Upon their return, the realized the milk they had purchased was sour, so headed back to the store. While strolling back home, a man grabbed Ralls from behind and pushed her out of the way while another man fired at least six bullets into Kennedy, killing him.

Witnesses were able to identify the killers and armed with this, as well as evidence from a few other gangland murders, cases were made against Licavoli and his gang and all were sentenced to life in prison.

Jack Kennedy

Shaking Hands Can Be Unhealthy

By 1925 the six Genna brothers, or "The Terrible Gennas" as they were known ran the illicit activities in Chicago's Little Italy. practically the whole neighborhood was on the Genna's payroll cooking alcohol. The Genna empire began to fall in spring of that year when, depending on who tells the story, either Al Capone or the North Side gang struck out at them.

The first to go was brother Angelo that spring, followed by brother Mike, both of whom were the muscle of the family. On July 8, 1925,  brother Anthony aka Tony the Gent, received a phone call from a former associate named Joseph Nerone, alias Anthony Spano, known in the underworld as Il Cavaliere because of his polished demeanor. Feeling that the Genna's didn't pay him his worth, Nerone had moved on to Chicago Heights, and a more lucrative bootlegging career.

Nerone asked to meet Genna at the corner of Grand Avenue and Curtis Street.  Genna arrived first and waited. A sedan pulled up and Nerone alighted. Genna went up to greet him. As the men shook hands, two men walked up and fired a number of shots into Genna's back before running off. Nerone too, fled the seen.

We know that Nerone set up Genna because Tony the Gent didn't die right away. Later at the hospital, he was overheard telling his brother Sam that the Cavaliere was behind the murder. 

With the death of Tony, the Genna family was all but through in the Chicago underworld.

Tony the Gent Genna

I Spy

Ralph D'Amato was a gangster associated with Frankie Yale and Al Capone. It was with the latter that he was arrested just after Christmas of 1925 for the murder of White Hand gang members Richard "Pegleg" Lonergan, Neil "Needles" Ferry and Aaron Harms in the Adonis Social Club.

By the mid-twenties the relationship between Yale and Capone had started to sour. When Capone's alcohol trucks, supposedly being protected by Yale, began to get hijacked, Capone started getting suspicious. He called on Ralph D'Amato to spy for him. Sure enough, D'Amato was able to report that Yale was indeed the one behind the hijackings.

Unfortunately for D'Amato, Yale found out that he had a spy in his midst. The gang leader rectified the situation on July 7, 1927. Shortly before midnight, D'Amato was speaking to two men on a corner. They parted ways, but the men followed him and opened fire. D'Amato was hit in the neck, stomach and side. The gunmen ran back to the corner and jumped into a sedan and escaped.

D'Amato was about forty-years old and lived with his dad and sister. He had six arrests under his belt and did a year in prison for possessing narcotics.

Ralph D'Amato

Sorry Charlie

Charles Entratta was a former associate of Jack "Legs" Diamond with dealings go back to the 1920s. He was with Diamond in the Hotsy-Totsy club when the guns went off  in the summer of 1929 leaving gangland fellows, William Cassidy and Simon Walker dead.

Like Diamond, Entratta disappeared while the homicide detectives searched in vain for them. Eventually arrested in Chicago, Entratta was sent back to New York City to face a murder trial. He beat the rap, which allowed Diamond to come out of hiding and to be himself, exonerated.  Since none of the boys helped Entratta during his troubles, his relationship with Diamond soured.

Fast forward to the summer of 1931. In addition to a box factory and dress manufacturing plant, Entratta is part owner of Winkenfeld Bottling Company in Brooklyn. Using his underworld connections, it is assumed that Entratta was bottling beer and sales skyrocketed. Though lucrative, his enterprise was most unwelcome by the local beer barons and on July 6, of that year he was put out of business; permanently.

Moments after arriving at the bottling office in his chauffeured sedan, Entratta was gunned down by three men while talking to his partner. His partner was physically unharmed...economically? Sales probably plummeted.

Charles Entratta

Fireworks a Day Early

For gangsters William Cannon, George Collins and Mike Stitzel, 4th of July fireworks went off a day early in Detroit. Both Cannon and Collins were Motor City desperadoes who had moved to Chicago, probably for their own safety.

Cannon was shacking up with a woman named Julia Kuffell, who was the widow of a North Side gangster named Henry "Hoops-a-Daisy" Connors. He borrowed her car at the end of June and said he and Collins had to go to Detroit on business. She took this to mean, picking up booze.

July 3, 1930, found Cannon, Collins and Stitzel shooting pool. The trio left the pool hall and walked to Cannons sedan, which was parked in front of the Lasalle Hotel's entrance on Adelaide Street. As the men walked to the car they noticed two men following them. One poorly dressed, the other in a blue suit and panama hat.

"Who are those guys?" Stitzel asked Cannon.
"I don't know. I've never saw them before," Cannon replied.

At the car, which was parked between a cab and another auto, Stitzel climbed into the back seat. Collins the passenger seat and Cannon behind the wheel. Initial reports stated that, as the latter worked to get the car out of it's tight parking spot, the man wearing the panama hat walked out of the Lasalle and up to the car.

"They dropped Collins first and then Cannon," Stitzel would tell the police, "I knew what was coming so I slumped in the back seat, all doubled up. But they got me anyhow."

Police inspect the death car

The following day however, it was reported the the gunman actually jumped on the running board and swore at Cannon in Italian and shot him before turning the gun on Collins. Both versions ended up with Stitzel getting it last.

Following the shooting, the gunman placed the gun in his pocket and entered the Lasalle Hotel through the Adelaide Street entrance and exited out on Woodward Avenue.

Cannon and Collins were both 28 and each had fifteen arrests under their belts. They each had badges provided by Stitzel and it was believed that they were murdered for shaking down speakeasy owners. Though it was initially reported that gangster Fred "Killer" Burke was possibly the gunman, Stitzel, who said he knew Burke, stated it wasn't him.

William Cannon                George Collins

Five bullets for Two Gun

In the fading minutes of Valentine's Day 1932, Philadelphia gangster Joseph Magitz a.k.a. Two Gun Murray, stepped from his third story apartment and headed for the stairs. The door to the rear apartment opened and two guns went off. One bullet blew Magitz nose off and two more went into his belly. As the desperado dropped to the floor, the two gunmen ran up and fired two more shots into his head. Their job complete, they and their woman companion, stepped over Magitz and ran down the stair and got away. 

The landlord, who lived on the second floor, heard the shots followed by the trio running out of the building. He told police that he had rented the rear apartment to the woman about three days prior. A search of the room turned up only some half eaten sandwiches and a large number of cigarette butts. 

A machine gun toting coward killed Mr. Howard

At a little after 2 am on this day back in 1931, Kansas City, Missouri experienced its first gangland hit involving a Tommy gun. The victim was 38 year-old bootlegger Jimmy Howard who, we are told, refused to fall in line with other KC rum runners in a forming a syndicate. Apparently Howard brought in premium stuff from Canada so was able to both charge more and please customers.

According to police, Howard, an ex-boxer, was originally from St. Louis, where he was a member of Egan's Rats.  For his alcohol business, he used the office of the A.B.C. cab company to take phone calls. In 1927 he arrested for the murder of cabaret singer Bobby Barrone. Barrone was a practical joke who liked to pull a pistol out of his pocket and tell people to "Stick 'em up!" One night he played his joke on Howard, who wasn't in on the gag, and Howard pulled out his own gun and fired. He was exonerated. He had been picked up and questioned periodically for other crimes.

Defying the other KC gangsters put Howard on the spot and he knew it. It was reported that in the last few weeks of his life he was very nervous. Hours before he was finally rubbed out, somebody took to shots at him as he was leaving his girl friends apartment.

Around 2:20 that morning, Howard stood in the front office of A.B.C taxi company speaking with one of the owners when two men walked up. The men stopped in front of the large picture window and, opening his coat, pulled up a Thompson machine-gun which was strapped to his arm and blasted through the picture window. The guy with him pulled out a pistol but didn't need to use it. Howard was perforated by fourteen bullets and expired a few hours later.

A sedan pulled up and the two gunmen jumped in and sped off. Since a tommy gun was used, it was assumed that the killer was a torpedo brought in from Chicago.

Can you hear me now?

88-years ago this evening, New York City rid itself of Vince "the Mick" Coll, or "Irish" as his contemporaries also called him (It was the press that dubbed him Mad Dog.) after he and an associate entered a drug store on Manhattan's W. 23rd Street.

The victim of a double cross, Irish entered a phone booth to make a prearranged call, supposedly, to underworld powerhouse Owney Madden while his pal took a seat at the counter. While the Mad Dog and Owney were conversing, a car containing a hit squad pulled up front. Gunmen hopped out and covered the store's front door. Coll's pal was allowed to leave as a machine-gun toting hoodlum made his way back to the phone booths. Finding the booth containing Coll the gunman lined himself up and blasted the Mick into gangster history.

Red's Dead Baby, Red's Dead

Ninety-years ago today Charles "Red" Donnelly's name was added to the list of former White Hand gang leaders. Red's record dated back to the teens when he was arrested with Wild Bill Lovett for homicide back in 1919. Over the course of the decade, as the gang leaders fell, Red's stock rose in the gang. Sometime around mid 1928, we are told, Red took over the reigns of the White Hands water front rackets.

Like those before him, his days were numbered and he got what, assuredly, he knew as coming at some point. As he watched his men load a ship word came to Red that somebody wanted to see him in the "shack", the shack being the shanty that doubled as an office. He walked into the shack. Inside some words were exchanged, possibly in a loud manner. Next two shots were heard. One went into Red's left temple the other his ear.

Though nobody saw anything leadership was passed to one Mathew "Matty" Martin, who, like Red,...well, that's another post.

Red Donnelly

Early Birds Get The Doyle

Well before sunrise on this date back in 1932  the life and times of one John Doyle came to an abrupt end. Known as both Jocko Doyle and Jackie Doyle, he was a career criminal with fourteen arrests and three convictions on his record. The convictions were for burglary and assault, with intent to kill, but it was for moving into the drug trade that police believe he was put on the spot.

At the time of his death Doyle was out on bail following an arrest in Philadelphia for a hold up. It was also in the City of Brotherly Love, nine years previous, that Doyle and a partner named “Big Frank” Watkins were sought for a gangland murder. Police traced them to a house on the west side and a shoot out ensued. Watkins was killed and Doyle was arrested but later cleared of the killing. Philly police also said that Doyle was active in South Jersey as a beer runner.

The end came at 3:00 am the morning when two gunmen entered the restaurant where Doyle was eating and shot him seven times. Other then saying that they thought Doyle was stealing drug customers from established dealers the police didn’t elaborate on their theory as to why he was killed or who killed him.

Jocko Doyle

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

End of a Flower Power

Chicago. November 10, 1924 -

Dean O'Banion, head of the North Side gang stands in the rear of his floral shop clipping chrysanthemums. He has received many orders from gangland associates for the funeral of Mike Merlo, the head of the Unione Siciliana, the man whom had been keeping him alive for a number of months. Both John Torrio and the Genna Brothers wanted him dead, but Merlo was able to keep them in line.

Earlier that year, O'Banion found out that a brewery he was part owner of was going to be raided. He saw this as an opportunity to make money and possibly get rid of a rival. He went to John Torrio and told him that he wanted out of the rackets and offered to sell his share in the brewery to the Italian gang leader. Torrio accepted the offer and paid the money. After the deal was made and the money delivered. The raid took place, resulting in the brewery being closed and Torrio facing jail time as a second offender.

Not wanting to start a war, it was decided that O'Banion wouldn't be killed. A few months later Angelo Genna ran up a large debt at a gambling parlor jointly owned by O'Banion and Torrio/Capone. The latter two decided to forget the debt out of professional courtesy. Afterwards O'Banion got on the phone and demanded payment.

Mike Merlo, whom Italian revered preached peace, but on November 8, he died. It was then decided that O'Banion would go with him. Since all of gangland used O'Banion's shop for their funeral arrangements he wouldn't be suspicious of unknown Italian men coming into his shop.

Around noon, three men stepped into the shop. Gangland lore dictates that the man in the middle is New York mob boss Frankie Yale. The guys on either side Genna gunmen Albert Anselmi and John Scalise. Hearing the arrival O'Banion walked out from the rear room. With shears in one hand O'Banion extended his free hand to the middle man. "Hello boys. You from Mike Merlo?"
"Yes." the man replied grasping his hand and holding it. As the middle man held tightly to O'Banion's hand the two side men each drew a gun and fired into the Irish gangster five or six times. O'Banion fell back onto the floor and another bullet was sent into his brain.

The killers fled the shop as the porter ran from the rear and found his boss in a bloody heap with his hands twitching.

 Dean O'Banion

                         

Taxi Driver

Chicago- Just before 8:30 pm on this evening back in 1930, cab driver James Ruane pulled up to an apartment building where he was supposed to pick up a fare named "Mr. Presto". He entered the vestibule but there were no names listed. He knocked on the ground floor apartment but nobody answered. Walking back to this cab, he shone his spotlight on the building and saw four or five guys peaking out the window. Annoyed, he went back up and kicked the door.  This time Mr. Presto stepped out.

Ruane headed back to his cab a few steps a head of Presto and opened the rear door of his cab. Something across the street caught Ruane's eye, a man in a second story apartment across the street was lifting the window. Then he placed something big on the sill. That something began to spit fire and bullets sprayed the area. Mr. Presto let out a groan, his body jerking as a number of bullets slammed into it.

In an attempt to save himself, Mr. Presto staggered around the apartment he just vacated and found momentary relief in an alley. However, a second machine gun nest, came alive and another volley slammed into Presto's body and he collapsed.

Their job complete, the group of assassins fled their nests. Ruane ran up to his fare, whose life was slipping away. An off duty cop who lived nearby ran over and they placed Presto in the cab for an unnecessary ride to the hospital. He was dead.

Mr. Presto was in fact, rival gang leader to Al Capone, Joe Aiello. For years Aiello, who had allied himself with Capone's other arch enemy Bugs Moran, had tried to kill Capone. Aiello had fled Chicago a number of times but always returned in his hopes to displace Capone as Chicago's top gangster.

One Bourbon, One Scotch and Three Bullets

In the early morning of this date back in 1932, St. Louis gangster Milford Jones stood drinking at the bar of Detroit's exclusive Stork Club. Jones speaking with the clubs entertainment, a singing duet known as Tracey and Duncan, when somebody, or somebodies, came up from behind and fired three bullets into his back and head. Tracey, Duncan and forty or so patrons and staff members vacated the club. Jones, sprawled on the floor, his feet entangled in the brass rail, lay by his lonesome for about seven hours before the club's owner decided he should call the police.

Jones was a former member of St. Louis' Cuckoo gang but split with them when his pal Tommy Hayes splintered from the group. From St. Louis he went to Kansas City where he had dealings with a casino, Effects found on his person told police that he had been traveling between Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago and Kansas City.

Milford Jones

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

Omaha Stakes are High

Gene Livingston was the booze baron of Omaha, Nebraska. He got his start by bringing in booze from St. Joseph, Missouri when Prohibition started but by the end of the 1920s he was operating stills in the commercial of district of Omaha.

After law enforcement got around to closing his stills, Livingston started a policy operation in a number of pool halls, paying better odds than his competitors. This could possibly be the reason he was rubbed out on May 1, 1930.

Livingston knew was put on the spot. A few months previously, on February 13, he was driving when a car pulled up along side him and peppered his car with a shotgun. He managed to pull over and get out and run.

Then end came in the Omaha apartment of Margaret Mack, which doubled as a speakeasy.. Livingston and his bodyguard,  Bob Glasgow, had stopped in earlier for a drink and returned at about 4 A.M. "I'm pretty drunk and I'd like to stay here all night." Livingston told Mack. A few minutes later he stepped into the kitchen and there were a number of shots.

Glasgow ran into the kitchen and he was hit a number of times as well. His boss had been hit five times in the belly, possibly by a shotgun blast.

What exactly happened in the kitchen wasn't determined. It was thought that Livingston was shot from a window. But another version has it that the shots came from inside the apartment. No one involved bothered to straightened out the story.

Though wounded, Glasgow took his boss to the hospital where Livingston died a half hour later.

Gene Livingston

Knock your Block off

Harry Block was an associate of Owney Madden's who owned a piece of both the Cotton Club and the Silver Slipper nightclubs. In addition to these activities Block was also a bootlegger and police felt that this may have been the reason he was put on the spot on this date in 1930.

Judging by his movements Block didn't know he was a marked man. He picked his wife up at 7th Ave and 47th Street and they had dinner in the restaurant at the Paramount hotel. This was followed by a late show at the Capitol Theater. Afterwards they went to Dave's Blue Room for more food and finally caught a taxi for the ride home to the Sherman Square Apartments at 173 West 73rd Street.

It was 3 am when the Blocks arrived at the apartment and the doorman unlocked the front door and escorted them onto the elevator. Mrs. Block stepped in and to the side behind the doorman who was at the controls. Mr. Block stepped in and turned around to face the door. Just as the doors were shutting two men appeared out of nowhere each brandishing two pistols. One of the gunmen yelled an insult at Block who, seeing the pistols, let out a scream and instinctively threw up his arm to protect his face. The gunmen let loose with a barrage of twenty three shots, some of which hit the gangster in the neck and forearm. The hit men ran out of the foyer and escaped in a tan sedan. The doorman wanted to call an ambulance but Mrs. Block said no since it would attract the police so instead Harry was loaded into a cab and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Harry Block

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

You can run, but you...

Joseph Colaura, 50, was a bootlegger who made his bankroll in Somerset, Massachusetts. While there he had a falling out with two other bootleggers and the situation was never resolved satisfactorily. In 1928 Colaura and his family, consisting of his wife and eight kids, moved about an hour north to a town outside Boston called Waltham.

Everything was fine until the two bootleggers that Colaura had his problems with came to town in the spring of 1930. Assuming correctly that his old nemesis'  wanted to kill him, Colaura didn't leave his house for two weeks. Eighty-nine years ago this evening however, one of Colaura's sons failed to show up at home. Concerned for his well being, Colaura left to go look for him. His wife would remember later that after her husband stepped outside, she heard a car horn honk three times.

At around midnight, Colaura's son returned home but said that he never saw his father. Fearing for her husband, Mrs. Colaura went looking for her husband but didn't find him at any of his usual haunts. The following morning Colaura was found in an alley next to a church with a bullet in his forehead and two in his back. Evidence pointed out that he had been killed some place else and dumped in the alley.

You shouldn't horse around

Originally from St. Louis, gambler Milton White Henry - Milsey to his pals- made his way to Washington D.C. circa 1926 and opened a gambling joint. On this date in 1932 he was pulling up to his home when he was cut off by a milk truck. As he patiently waited for the truck to move, a man with a sawed off shot gun got out of a nearby car and crept up to Henry's auto. He fired twice into Henry then, climbing onto the running board of the victim's car, fired three more times making sure Henry was officially out of business.

It was speculated that Henry was rubbed out by Jersey gunmen hired to bump him off by local bookmakers. It seems that Henry had fixed a number of horse races and made a killing. Then, finding out the truth, the bookies decided to make a killing of their own.

Milton White Henry