Chanel No. .45 or possibly .38

After a short New Year’s respite the gangsters of New York got back to the business of killing each other. By all accounts Frank Macaluso was an upstanding member of society, he was President of the Columbia Republican Club and owned his own perfume business, but according to the police, he was also a bootlegger,(police felt that his perfume shop doubled as a alcohol drop) and it was the latter profession that probably cost him his life.
On this date back in 1932 Pietro Vello, the janitor at the Columbia Republican Club, was preparing to lock up the club for the night when Macaluso stepped outside into the cold without bothering to put on his overcoat. Since he exited sans coat he was probably going to briefly meet with someone. But a double cross lay in wait. A few moments later the perfume entrepreneur staggered into the pool hall next door, dropped himself into a chair, and whispered to the owner, “Get me a cab. I’m shot.” Detectives quickly arrived on the scene, commandeered a taxi and rushed Macaluso to the hospital where he died a few minutes later of a bullet wound in the back. Who shot him and why remains a mystery.