"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933

Friday, January 20, 2012

They just don't name them like that anymore

There used to be a saloon in the Bowery known as the “Tub of Blood” and on this night ninety-eight years ago it lived up to it’s name when five men entered and blew past the bartender and two women patrons (ah to meet a gal who would hang out at the T.O.B.) and entered the rear room. A moment later the women and bartender heard one of the men yell, “You’re a squealer! You sent him to Dannemora! (a prison in upstate NY)” the yelling was followed by a series of shots and then four of the five men came running out and fled from the saloon.


The police were summoned and in the back room was the body of Thomas Murphy age thirty-six. There was also a trail of blood leading out of the saloon so police figured some one else had been injured in the shooting. A short time after the killing a man named Michael Matera walked into the Mulberry Street Police station and said that he had been shot in the leg while exiting the subway but the police decided that he was probably the wounded guy who made a separate exit and held him for the Murphy slaying.

2 comments:

John DuMond said...

If memory serves, after the gentrification of the neighborhood, the bar became a trendy, upscale nightspot. The name was changed to the "Carafe of Blood". Totally ruined the traditional ambience of the place. Stoopid yuppies.

Patrick Downey said...

Your memory serves correctly. You don't want to know what they did to "Suicide McGurk's"