They Never Forget

In December 1930, Philadelphia and South Jersey gangster Tony Masino was released from Eastern Penitentiary after serving a sentence for carrying concealed weapons. Upon leaving he asked for a police escort. "If somebody doesn't take me home, I'll never make it alive," he told them. Why rivals wanted him dead was never ascertained.

Masino was a former boxer who became a member of Philly/South Jersey gangster Danny Day's gang. Among other things, they specialized in shaking down legitimate businesses. Masino garnered a bit of media attention, along with his boss, in 1929 when both survived a machine-gun attempt on their lives. Two other gangsters and a young woman were killed.

Masino was keeping clear of Philadelphia in the months following his release, and one report had him involved in some gambling houses in Camden, New Jersey. One can only avoid one's enemies for so long however. It was nearing six-thirty in the evening of July 29, 1931 when two farmers came upon his body on the outskirts of Hammonton, New Jersey. His body was still warm, though perforated with about sixteen shots. Some reports say he was machine-gunned others shotgunned. Regardless the guns used, the desired effect was obtained.

Tony Masino