Angelo Lapi was an ex-con, who served sentences for both felonious assault and gun possession. Now out of jail, forty-five year old Lapi took a job as night man at his brother in-laws lower Manhattan funeral parlor. Why did the funeral parlor need a night man? Because people were just dying to get in.
Could it be that this job was just something to show the parole board? Could be, because in addition to his duties at the parlor, Lapi made wine and home brew, which he in turn sold to a local speakeasy and he was also a money collector for the local policy racketeer.
The funeral home was connected to a tenement where Lapi lived with his wife, Maria, who also happened to be the janitress
of the building. On the evening of the October 2, Maria was with her
husband in the funeral parlor until midnight and then she went up to
bed. The following morning as she started her daily chores she walked
through the undertaking parlor and found her husband’s body on a couch
in the back room. Lapi had been tied and gagged with a handkerchief then stabbed eleven times in the back.
Murdered in a funeral home, the only thing that would have made it better was waiting until Halloween night.
"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." - Chicago Gangster Ted Newberry. Rubbed out January 7, 1933
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