Happy Halloween

The DGIS Institute will be closing early for festivities.  Fedex please leave packages next door. Happy Hauntings. Remember: It ain't no sin to take off your skin and rattle around in your bones.

A Bad Seed Buys it.

Back on this date in 1935 newspapers were filled with stories regarding the shooting of Dutch Schultz and his cohorts in a Newark tavern. Across town a small time hood named Al Stern, was found dead in a cheap boarding house.

Since he was found in the same city where the Schultz massacre took place, right away it was assumed that he some how played a part in the killings. Some papers erroneously stated that he was the gunman who mowed down the Dutchman and his confederates while others said that he may have been the man who acted as a spotter for the killers and was killed himself afterwards. The true story on Stern can be found in Bad Seeds in the Big Apple.

Breaking bad was a bad idea

What is a life-guard to do after beach season? Twenty-five year old Arthur Siegelman decided that bootlegging was the way to go.  Arthur was a new comer to the underworld who, after a short stay, vanished and was never heard from again.

Siegelman had no former training in crime and thought bootlegging would be a good way to support his widowed mother and six siblings. He was wrong. Needless to say the neophyte gangster did not last long where the gun and knife rule. What he did to seal his fate is unknown but he disappeared on this day in 1932 and his body was never found.

More DGIS

Looking for more gangster reading material? Check out the current issue of Informer. The quarterly magazine specialising in the history of crime and law enforcement. I write a column for the magazine and this issue's article is entitled "Flaming Finales." It is about those DGIS who perished by fire. Also included are articles on the New England Mafia, Thirties desperado Tommy Carroll and much more.

A boss is removed.

On this date in 1928 Mafia boss Salvatore D’Aquila, said by his family to be a cheese importer, was at a doctor’s office in the East Village. While his family was inside, he returned to the street to inspect the engine of his car. According to a witness, D’Aquila was looking under his hood when three men approached him. The quartet conversed for a number of minutes. The conversation escalated into an argument. Suddenly, the three men drew pistols and fired a total of nine shots into the gangster killing him.

Checking out of the Harding Hotel

Tony Marlow was a bootlegger who lived in Mid-town next door to the Harding Hotel eighty-three years ago. On this date 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.