Toledo Twosome

 

In the wee hours of December 30, 1932 26-year old Roland "Speedy" Lampert and his twenty-five year old pal Clayton Kress sat playing cards in the former's house. Lampert's wife, Minnie, also took part in the game. At 1:45 a.m. Lampert bid farewell to his wife and he and Kress left to go to their job at an alcohol cutting plant. Mrs. Lampert cleaned up and went to bed. Later in the day, police arrived at the Lampert house. Would Mrs. Lampert be able to accompany them on a twenty mile jaunt to a morgue in Monroe, Michigan to look at a couple of corpses?

Earlier that morning two teenage brothers were on their way to do some ice skating when they came up on car bearing Toledo license plates. Looking inside they saw two guys, each had his hands bound behind them and a rope around the neck. A bullet had been fired into the heads of both men as well.

Mrs. Lampert showed up at the morgue and confirmed what the police had suspected. The duo was her husband and Kress. The murders were chalked up to Toledo gangsters who killed them and then drove the car into Michigan.

Roland  Lampert             Clayton Kress

When Gangland Gets There First

November 29, 1933 saw the demise of gangland killer and one time South Dakota sheriff, Verne Miller. A veteran of WWI, Miller became the sheriff of Huron, South Dakota but fled office with about $2800. He was captured and sent to prison where he was released after serving 18 months.

Upon his release he became involved in bootlegging and then drifted into bank robbery in the late 1920s and early 1930s. On June 17, 1933, in a botched attempt to free his friend Frank "Jelly" Nash from the FBI, Miller and two cohorts, supposedly Pretty Boy Floyds and Adam Richetti, ended up killing Nash and five of the law men with him in what is known as the Kansas City Massacre.

After the KC Massacre the FBI was determined to bring Miller in. The hottest man in the USA, Miller found himself unwelcome in the Midwest underworld. He headed east where he was friendly with New York syndicate boss Louis Lepke Buchalter. A Lepke associate named Al Silvers helped Miller with a car and some optometry equipment to use as a front as an eyeglass salesman.

Knowing the Lepke was friendly with Miller, the FBI paid the gang lord a visit and let him know that things could get hot for him if he aided Miller. On November 1, Miller escaped a shootout with the FBI but dumped his bullet riddled car. Inside the auto the FBI found the optometry equipment and were able to trace it back to Al Silvers, who went into hiding.

Lepke had a dilemma; if the FBI caught either Silvers or Miller what might they spill in an attempt at leniency? Silvers was the first to go on November 20. Lepke's boys caught up with Miller in Detroit nine days later. Liker Silvers, Miller was garroted by those he knew and probably trusted. He was then bludgeoned to death with a hammer. His naked body, like that of Silvers, was found tossed on stretch of road covered with a blanket.

Verne Miller

Cuckoos Get Two Birds

Lester Barth and Dewey Goebel were former Cuckoo gang members who sided with Tommy Hayes when the latter split with the St. Louis gang. It is believed that the duo were responsible for the deaths of some of their former gang mates.

Like most men of their ilk, Barth and Goebel met a violent death. On November 22, 1930 both men had just exited a grocery store they visited nearly every day at the same time (a fact no doubt known to the Cuckoo gunmen in the Hudson sedan that was following them) and, after loading the groceries into Goebel's Ford couple, the duo pulled away.

As they drove along, the Hudson, containing four or five men, pulled up along side of them and three of the men, each armed with a Thompson machine-gun, opened fire.

Bullets ripped into the coupe and crashed through the rear window. The groceries exploded as bullet after bulled poured into the car. Hoping to lose their pursuers, Goeble turned onto a side street, but the gun men made the turn as well, continuing to fire their weapons. After a couple of blocks Goebel jumped the curb and came to a stop as the Hudson continued.

Witnesses approached the coupe and pulled the duo, both of whom had bullet wounds to the head, from the car. Both died later at the hospital. A search of their homes turned up a Thompson machine-gun, two pistols and ammunition in the coal bin of Barth's house.

L. Lester Barth     R. Dewey Goebel

The death car

The Price of Friendship

Around noon on November 20, 1933 the naked body of New Jersey racketeer Albert Silvers was found on a lonely stretch of road outside of Somers, Connecticut partially covered with a blanket. He had been stabbed twice in the heart with an ice pick and garroted with a sash cord and neck tie. When found, his tongue protruded from his mouth and blood still oozed from the stab wounds. 

Though an east coast racketeer, Silvers, who was a lieutenant of New York racket chief Lepke Buchalter, was murdered for his loyal friendship to a mid-westerner; South Dakota ex-sheriff Verne Miller. Miller was the hottest criminal in America during the second half of 1933 due to his orchestrating the Kansas City Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of five law enforcement officers, including an FBI agent.

Silvers helped Miller elude capture with the help of his brother who was an optometrist. The Silvers supplied Miller with a salesman's case full of optometry equipment so he could travel the country posing as a salesman. Silvers also set Miller up with an automobile.

On November 1, 1933 Miller escaped a shootout with FBI and police and they later found his shot up car with the optometry equipment. The FBI was able to trace the equipment to Silvers, who lammed it. Since Silvers was a close associate of Lepke, the syndicate leader had a decision to make. If the FBI got hold of Silvers, what might he say to get out of trouble? Men, no doubt associates of Silvers, were sent out to him, Possibly in Hartford where he was known to stay, or at a hotel in Massachusetts; no one knows for sure. Wherever they met him, they left him on that lonely road in Somers, Connecticut.

Al Silvers

Pain In The Leg

Jimmy Cox had already lost an arm to gangster bullets. On November 8, he almost lost a leg as well. The gangster had just left a funeral home where he paid his final respects to fellow hoodlum James Darmondy who himself had survived a machine-gun attack that took the lives of two of his comrades back in 1928.

Darmondy was rubbed out on November 5, after a run in with a cop. Cox visited the funeral parlor and left at...well, I'll just let him tell the story: "I left the undertakers about midnight...and started to drive east. I had just started when a large car with three fellows in it came up the street, and one of them started firing with a machine-gun."

Three of the bullets ripped into Cox's leg but he managed to get to a hospital with the help of a friend. Though he survived this attempt, he had a date with destiny a few years later.

James Wingy Cox

Go Fish

Twenty-four-year old Chicago hoodlum Richard Fishman was suspected in three murders, including that of another small timer named Herman Horwitz.

Around the beginning of November 1931 Fishman entered a cigar store and made his way to the gambling parlor located in the rear. Once inside, he stated to all there, "From now on, I'm the boss around here." To drive the point home he pulled out his pistol and fired three shots into the floor.

A week later on November 7, Fishman was in the parlor shooting dice with another guy when a "tall, heavy set man." walked in and did some shooting of his own. When the smoke cleared, a gambler was wounded but Fishman was dead. He was no longer boss around there.

Richard Fishman

Shot Heard Around The Underworld

November 6, 1933 saw the demise of Boston gangster John "Keeno" Keenan. The 29-year old gun-toter was the owner of the exclusive Club Chalet. He was on hand that night when fellow gangster Thomas Callahan showed up with a friend. Callahan was drunk when he arrived and began to insult women and make a general nuisance of himself. Being a classy joint, the bouncers evicted Callahan in a non-to-polite manner. 

Some time passed and Callahan returned to the club, climbed the stairs to the entrance and was stopped at the iron gate that kept people like him out. He exchanged some words with the bouncer who, again, escorted him from the premises. Callahan refused to leave.

An employee of the club approached Keenan who was entertaining at the table and told him about Callahan and asked him if he couldn't do something about it. Keenan excused himself from the table and as he approached the gate, Callahan pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Mortally wounded, Keenan dropped to the floor. On the ground he drew his own gun and returned fire. During the shooting, the clubs patrons broke a window and headed down the fire escape.

Keenan's pals picked him up and took him to the hospital where he died the next day.

John Keeno Keenan

We're So Sorry, Uncle Eddie

It was on November 5, 1928 when Philadelphia gangster Handsome Eddie Rafferty pulled into his brother's gas station. His niece ran up to and jumped into the back seat of Eddie's car. Being a good uncle, Eddie produced some grapes and handed them to her and she began to snack away.

As Eddie sat behind the wheel conversing with his brother, a car drove by and men with shotguns and pistols opened fire. His brother hit the deck while Eddie, hit by some of the shots, slouched over the steering wheel. A second car drove by and once again lead was hurled at Eddie. More bullets plowed into the gangster's body and he slumped to the floor mortally wounded. A third car drove by and fired another round which peppered the walls of the filling station.

It was said that Eddie Raffery was associated with the Eddie Reagan gang whom were supposedly responsible for the murder of a gangster named Robert Haggerty and that Eddie was killed in retaliation. Another theory was that Rafferty had double-crossed another bootlegger named William "Hop" Reilly. The latter was picked up but denied that there was any trouble between him and Rafferty.

Handsome Eddie Rafferty

Grape Ape

On November 3, 1930 Newark, New Jersey gangster Dominick "The Ape" Paselli, said to have ties to Newark mob boss Richard "the Boot" Boiardo, walked into Newark General Hospital with a slight scalp wound. He claimed that he had an accident but in reality, his head had been creased by a bullet; he was on the spot.

The staff patched him up and told him he could go. "No, if it's all right with you, I think I'll stay here a couple of days." He told them. He was given room thirty-three where he received two male visitors, around three o'clock that afternoon. After a short visit, they left.

A few minutes after six that evening, two men entered the hospital and, accounts vary, some say it was the same two men from earlier, others two different men, who made their way upstairs and asked where they could find room thirty-three.

What happened when the men found room thirty-three is also up for debate. One version has one of the guys guarding the door while the other fired, one has them both firing. What isn't up for debate is the result. Ape Paselli caught two bullets in the head and was dead.

Since some accounts stated that the killers were the visitors from earlier it was suggested that he was bumped off by his own gang. There was also a theory that he was killed by rivals for attempting to muscle in on the "grape racket". A necessary ingredient for wine makers.  

Dominick the Ape Paselli

Wild Bill Tamed

In the wee hours of this day back in 1923, Brooklyn waterfront gangster Wild Bill Lovett was sent to his final reward whilst sleeping off a drunk in a river front shanty.

As head of Brooklyn's infamous White Hand gang, Wild Bill had numerous notches on his gun which resulted in numerous enemies that wanted him dead for any number of reasons. For a time it looked as though Bill may have dodged a gangland execution. The previous summer he had married Anna Lonergan, sister of his right hand man, Richard Peg Leg Lonergan. They moved from Brooklyn out to the New Jersey suburbs in an attempt to make a normal life for themselves. After a few months away Bill headed back to Brooklyn and went on a bender, hitting a number of his old haunts. 

Word spread that Wild Bill was back in town and somebody or somebodies with an ax to grind trailed him to the stevedore shack where Bill passed out. Once Bill was deep in la-la land his enemies entered and bludgeoned and shot him to death. His killers were never identified.

Wild Bill Lovett

Some People Can't Take No For An Answer

Kansas City gangster Saul Weissman, known as Solly, was bumped off on October 28, 1930 after a run in with Charles Haughton, head of a racing wire service in K.C. Weissman, known also as "Cutcher Head Off" and "Slicey Solly" was a bootlegger and all around general racketeer. His nicknames also more than denotes that he was a violent sort.

Originally from St. Louis, Weissman also had dealings in New York and Chicago. He first approached Haughton a few years earlier. He wanted the wire service provider to give him racing results before sending them out to bookies so he could place bets. Haughton declined.

Later Weissman approached Haughton again, Solly was getting into book making and wanted Haughton's services. Haughton declined. He didn't want to do business with him. This was followed by another request and refusal. "Well, you're going for a ride one of these days." Solly told sneered. This was followed by one more request by Weissman. Again he was refused. Weissman later left town, returning months later to face a charge for bootlegging.

Weissman returned to town to face a bootlegging charge, which he beat on October 28, after leaving the courtroom he headed for Haughton's wired service. 

Haughton, who didn't even know that Weissman was back in town, entered his race wire service. Climbing the stairs he reached the outer room. Weissman was sitting in a chair and, when he saw Haughton, he started to curse him and stood up. Haughton's mind started to race, He drew a .45 and when he heard Weissman saying something about "shoot" while reaching for his pocket, he fired his gun. A bullet tore into Weissman's throat  and he dropped to the floor while Haughton fled.

After hiding out for a bit, Haughton turned himself in but was found to have acted in self defense. Weissman went to the hospital where he died the next day. A search proved that Weissman was unarmed when shot. When discussing the shooting with the police, he told them that he told Haughton, "You don't have the guts to shoot - But he had."

Solly Weissman

Ziggy Bites The Stardust

The wee hours of October 27, 1929 saw the demise of Detroit gangster John "Ziggy" Selbin. The Detroit News described him as a petty gangster and hanger-on of the Purple Gang with a list of arrests, mostly for robbery. He was also a confederate of Irving Shapiro. Purple Gang historian Paul Kavieff fills informs us that Selbin robbed many nightclubs and blind pigs that belonged to gangsters in the area of Hamtramck. Since these gangsters bought their booze from the Purples, it was their responsibility to get rid of Selbin. Another thought is that as a pal of the late Irving Shapiro, Selbin was living on borrowed time anyways.

On Saturday night, October 26, Selbin told his parents, (the 22-year old youth still lived at home) that he was going to a Halloween party. At about half past midnight he was standing in a doorway speaking with a man who pulled out a .38 and fired five shots at the young gangster. Three of them found their mark and Selbin crumpled to the ground. The hoodlum expired while being loaded into a patrol wagon to be transported to the hospital.

John "Ziggy" Selbin

A Not So Pretty Death For Louis

 

About a month after his brother Joseph was gunned down in a Brownsville garage, racketeer Louis "Pretty" Amberg met a grisly fate on October 23, 1935. Louis operated on Manhattan's lower eastside and was living in a mid town hotel under an assumed name.

It appears that the Syndicate was waiting to see how Pretty reacted to his brother's murder before deciding on a course of action. When Pretty let it be known that he would be seeking revenge on those who orchestrated his brother's murder, it was deemed that Pretty should join Joseph in the great beyond.

A Lepke mobster named Mendy Weiss lured Pretty to a friend's bar just over the Manhattan bridge in Brooklyn. The proprietor invited the men into his office for a drink. Instead of a libation, two of Mendy's gorillas were waiting for Pretty and immediately started hacking him with cleavers.

Once Pretty was done for, his body was placed in an automobile. A burlap sack was placed over his head and he and the car were doused in gasoline and put to the match.

Louis "Pretty" Amberg

It's In The Bag

On October 21, 1932 one time Legs Diamond associate Dominick "Wicky" Bifano was found trussed up in a burlap sack in the back seat of a car. Prior to being bagged he was shot through the head. Bifano was with Legs' brother Eddie in Denver, Colorado back in 1928 when Dutch Schultz gunmen Joe Piteo and Gene Moran failed to bump off the younger Diamond brother. Both Eddie and Bifano barely escaped execution.

What Bifano was up to following Legs' death is unknown but he was well dressed and the recent recipient of a manicure.  It was assumed that foes of Legs Diamond finally caught up with him.

 

Dominick "Wicky" Bifano

Don't Bank On It

 

It was supposed to be an easy job; run into the Kraft Bank located in Menomonie, Wisconsin, make everyone lie on the floor, grab the money and run. Driving the getaway car was Frank Webber, going inside were veteran bank robbers Charles Harmon, Francis Keating and Tommy Holden. The date of execution- October 20, 1931.

As planned, Webber parked the car and his three confederates alighted and entered the bank. The drew their guns and demanded money. Above the main floor was a guard who had been ordered not to do any shooting in the event of a robbery. After grabbing less than $10,000 in cash, one of the robbers demanded more money. The bank president, Sam Kraft, declared there was no more. Unsatisfied with the answer, one of the bandits fired into him.

Meantime the guard set off the alarm and headed to the roof of the bank with a rifle. Hearing this, Webber pulled the car up to the bank and stepped out with a Thompson machine-gun and began spraying the streets to ward off any would be heroes. The bandits grabbed a cashier, James Kraft, one of the bank president's sons, and another woman to use as human shields.

Running to the car the woman fell and they left her there, the cashier was pushed into the car. The desired effect of having a human shield didn't work. The guard and various towns people opened fire on the car as it drove away.

About six miles out of town, the posse found the dead bodies of Frankie Webber and James Kraft. Webber had been hit in the head by a vigilante's bullet. It was believed that the bandits had killed Kraft in retaliation. The following day, the body of Charles Harmon was found, he too, it was assumed, hit by bullets while fleeing.

Frankie Webber        Charles Harmon

 

Northwest Passage

Matt Kolb was described as the Czar of crime on Chicago's northwest side and the northwest portion of Cook County. He grew to prominence in 1927 when his former business associate, Charles Graydon, became sheriff. As the sheriff's man, he was able to collect tribute and dole out favors. After Jack Zuta was shot to pieces in 1930, amongst his records were notations regarding payments made to Kolb.

One Capone biographer states that Kolb's enterprise was basically a subsidiary of Capone's organization. Another states that he was an independent whom Capone told to get out and stay out or else. Judging by the description of his murder it appears that he didn't fear his killers.

On October 18, 1931, the day after Capone was sentenced to prison, two men entered Kolb's resort, the Club Morton, located in Morton Grove. They brushed by the doorman stating that they "wanted to see Matt." Kolb was stationed near the dance floor by a door. They approached him and one of the guys said, "Hello Matt." and extended his hand. Kolb shook hands with him. The man said something which made Kolb chuckle and lean in closer. As this happened the other guy pulled out a pistol and shot Kolb a number of times in the head.

Kolb fell to the floor and the men started to leave. After a few steps the gunman said, "I'd better make sure." and went back and pumped another shot into Kolb. The two men walked out. Witnesses told police that the room was too dark and that they couldn't identify the men.

Matt Kolb

Orgen Transplant

October 15, 1927 saw the demise of New York City gang leader Jacob Little Augie Orgen who, following the 1923 murder of his rival - Nathan Kid Dropper Kaplan, was the most powerful labor racketeer in the city. 

By 1927 Orgen was branching out into new fields. He had befriended Jack Legs Diamond who was one of Arnold Rothstein's top guys. Legs made a handful of trips to Europe as part of Rothstein's narcotic ring. Diamond was letting Orgen in on some drug deals and, in return, Little Augie was letting Diamond into the labor rackets. This didn't sit well with Orgen's chief lieutenants Lepke Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro who were losing money on the jobs that went to Diamond.

Lepke and Shapiro decided that their boss had to go. Orgen had an appointment to meet Diamond on the lower eastside. Diamond showed up and met Orgen and the men began to walk. A sedan followed them. After a bit, a number of gunmen got out of the car and ran up behind the two gangsters. Orgen was shot in the head. Legs turned and was shot in the stomach. This was to neutralize him. They wanted him dead he would have been killed outright like Orgen.

The gunmen jumped back in the car and sped away. Diamond picked himself up off the sidewalk and staggered to a nearby hospital. 

Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen

Show Time In Branson

October 14, 1930 saw justice brought down on mid-west desperado Jake Fleagle. Along with his brother Ralph and two other confederates, Fleagle robbed a bank in Lamar, Colorado in 1928. It didn't go well. The bank president opened fire on the gang, and before they made their getaway, the president and his son, also a bank employee, were dead. One of the Fleagle gang had been shot in the face. The bandits did manage to get away with thousands of dollars in cash and securities. For safety, they also brought a hostage.

After the robbery, the gang fled to Fleagle's ranch in Kansas. A doctor was summoned for the wounded bandit. After he treated the wounded man, the doctor and the hostage were taken into a secluded area and executed by Fleagle. During the murders, Fleagle got some of the doctor's blood on a finger and left a smudge on the physician's car window, which they abandoned. The print was sent to to the FBI and it was identified as Fleagle's.

Over the course of two years Ralph Fleagle and the two confederates were captured but Jake was able to remain at large. Finally the law was able to track Jake to Missouri. They learned that he was going to meet an acquaintance in Branson, and set a trap. When Fleagle boarded the train to leave town they were waiting for him and approached him as he took a seat. As they shouted for him to raise his hands, Fleagle went for his gun and was shot through the stomach. The bandit was removed from the train in cuffs and leg irons and taken to a hospital where he died the following day.

Jake Fleagle

Argonaut

Chicago hoodlum Edward Lattyak was described as bandit and possibly a member of the gang headed by Henry "Midget" Fernekes. On October 12, 1925 his bullet riddled body was found on State road outside of Chicago near the town of Argo. He had been taken for a ride and tossed from a car. Police failed to connect him to any of the bootlegging gangs so chalked his murder up to revenge of his fellow gunmen. Revenge for what wasn't speculated. Lattyak had served time in both the house of corrections and Pontiac reformatory. He had been arrested several times for robbery but managed to beat the rap.

Ed Lattyak

Drainage Trouble

James Quigley was a southside saloon keeper who was said to be a one-time member of Spike O'Donnell's gang. He had recently splintered off and formed his own gang. This move put the 45-year old former railroad man at odds with both O'Donnell as well as the Saltis-McErlane gang. It was believed that Quigley had killed McErlane's chauffer George Fitzgerald.

On October 12, 1931 Quigley was found floating in a drainage canal about thirty miles south of Chicago in the city of Lockport with a bullet in his head. The murder was credited to McErlane.

James Quigley

Frankie Goes To Manhattan

After they got rid of Joey Amberg, the Syndicate went after the henchmen that assisted Amberg in his killing of Hy Kasner. They caught up with Frankie Teitlebaum first. The specifics are lost to history but it appears that he was lured somewhere and  sombody (or somebodies) sank an ax into his head a number of times.  There is also a report that a bullet was sent into his forehead for good measure.

After killing him, the murderers stripped his body down to underwear and t-shirt and crammed him into a travel trunk. The makeshift coffin was then carried out to a sedan and driven across the Brooklyn Bridge where it was dumped on the nearest Manhattan corner. 

Frankie Teitlebaum

Should've Hopped On The Bus, Gus

October 9, 1933 saw the demise of Chicago hoodlum, Gus Winkeler. Originally from St. Louis, Winkeler spent the better part of the 1920s robbing banks around the country. By the late Twenties he and his confederates were killers for hire in the employ of Al Capone. Known as Capone's "American Boys" Winkeler and his cohorts took part in the 1928 murder of New York kingpin Frankie Yale as well as the 1929's infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in which seven Northside gangsters were mowed down with machineguns and shotguns.

Over the years Winkeler rose in the Capone gangs' ranks and by 1933 was running a lucrative nightclub and other ventures on the Northside. He was good friends with another hoodlum named Ted Newberry who tried to take out Frank Nitti and ended up going on a ride himself. The syndicate was bit wearing of Winkeler after that but didn't make a move. 

Because of his former bank robbing exploits, the FBI, which was gearing up for its war on crime, started questioning Winkeler on a regular basis. With Capone behind bars, Nitti and his cohorts decided that Winkeler was a liability. As he was leaving a beer distribution plant, two men with shotguns cut him down.

Gus Winkeler

In The Still Of The Night

On the morning of October 2, 1930, Sam Therina, a bootlegger in the employ of the Cuckoo gang, climbed out of a sedan in front of a St. Louis hospital and collapsed. He had been hit in both hips by blasts from a Thompson machine-gun.

Inside the hospital he told authorities that the bodies of Cuckoo gang members Peter McTigue and William Boody could be found at a still that the gang had set up approximately twenty-eight miles south and across the Mississippi river in Illinois. The rival Shelton gang had previously stated that that was their territory and anyone operating there would face the consequences.

Therina along with a few other guys;  Cuckoo member James Darmondy and Joe Moceri were cooking the mash that would be turned into whiskey. The night before McTigue and Boody showed up. Inside a slapped together shack, McTigue, Boody and Therina slept on cots. Moceri slept out side and Darmondy worked the still. 

At just about sun up rival gangsters crept up to the shack. Sticking the muzzle of a Thompson through a crack, the gunman opened fire. Therina was hit in the hip and, not knowing what was happening, got up from his cot and was hit again. Falling to the floor, he realized what was happening and stayed down. 

When the gunmen stepped away, Therina crawled over to McTigue's cot and felt him. Drawing back a bloody hand, he decided he was dead then crawled over to Boody's cot. 

"You hurt, Bill?"

Boody leaned up with a bloody face.

"Yeah. You better get out of here. I'm finished." The gangster said before falling back on his cot and letting out a gasp.

Therina, crawled to the door but stopped when he heard the machine-gun firing again. These shots were aimed at Moceri who was hit, but managed to escape into the woods. Darmondy also managed to get away.

Once the killers drove away, Therina crawled to Boody's sedan and managed to drive himself back to St. Louis.

Peter McTigue                     William Boody