Patty Cake, Patty Cake Bakers Man

Charles Argento had been out of Leavenworth for about six months when he moved into the Hotel Picadilly on Chicago's South Side early in the summer of 1932. The reason for his incarceration was that he was part of large northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin whiskey ring. When he got out of prison he formed the Italian Master Bakers association, collecting dues from the numerous bakers in the city. 

At about noon on August 31, he called his brother in-law, who happened to be the bookkeeper for the union and told him to come to his room with another associate to discuss some bakers who weren't paying their dues.

As the two men arrived they noticed the door to the neighboring room was open, but thought nothing of it. They knocked on Argento's door and after announcing themselves Argento opened the door. As the men entered, Argento noticed a man coming up from behind them. "You better scram; it looks like you'll be killed," he yelled. Immediately after that the bullets started to fly. His two cohorts hit the deck as four bullets plowed into Argento's body.

The killer escaped through the hotel as Argento's cronies went down the fire escape. After walking around town for about an hour Argento's brother in-law went to the police to give his story.

Charles Argento

Stay Out Or Else

Along with his brother in-law Ollie Hipes, 22-year William Fleming was St. Louis bootlegger who started encroaching into new territory. According to his mother, who knew he was bootlegging, he received a call in the middle of August warning him to stay out of the southern part of the county. Mrs. Fleming went on to say that she overheard her son, Ollie and their partner William Shannon discussing the call and saying that it came from Sicilians. They ignored the warning.

Late in the morning of August 30, 1931 Hipes picked up Fleming in his roadster and then they picked up Shannon. According to Hipes, while driving, he heard an odd noise that seemed to be coming from his car tires. He pulled over to investigate. As he got out to inspect the front tires, Fleming and Shannon got out to look at the rear tires. While looking at the tires he heard a gun shot, he turned, ran and dived in a ditch. In that few moments he saw a black sedan behind his car. While face down in the ditch, he heard more gunfire. It is assumed that one gunman fired a shotgun while another opened up with a Thompson. Hipes stayed down until the sedan pulled away.

Clamoring out of the ditch he piled his partners into the car and drove them to the hospital. Fleming was already dead having been shot six times in the chest and taken thirty-five shotgun slugs to a leg. Shannon also caught his fair share of lead but survived. 

William Fleming

Hey Mickey

It was a juster after noon on August 29, 1933 and Philadelphia/South Jersey crime boss Mickey Duffy was in Atlantic City watching a sand lot baseball game near the home of his lawyer Arthur Werblun. Earlier that day the two had visited a congressman to discuss a Federal indictment hanging over Duffy's head. After the meeting they went to Werblun's home and they stopped to watch the kids play ball in a nearby lot. At one point while enjoying the game Duffy said to his lawyer, "I feel fine Arthur, and I don't think I got an enemy in world." 

Shortly after one p.m. Duffy bid farewell to his lawyer and returned to his thousand dollar a week suite at the Ambassador Hotel where he'd been staying for about three weeks. Once there, he called room service, ordering lunch for three. The waiter brought up the food and saw Duffy lying on his bed sans shirt and shoes. He didn't see the other two men whom he brought the meals up for. At 3:25 p.m. a chambermaid near Duffy's suite heard three loud reports and reported them to the house detective. The detective approached Duffy's room and noticed the door ajar. Entering, he saw Duffy lying on his right side, as if sleeping. Both his hands were tucked under his cheek. Had it not been for the three bullet holes in his head he would have assumed the beer baron was sleeping. 

Authorities believed that after lunching with his two cohorts, Duffy laid down for a nap and his lunch guests let themselves back into the suite after waiting for the gang leader to doze off and gave him the works.

 

Mickey Duffy

The Dropper Gets Dropped

In what was an elaborate set-up, New York gangster and labor racketeer Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan was shot down by a killer gunning for rival gangster Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen while leaving court on August 28, 1923. 

Earlier in the month a number of Orgen's men were wounded in a drive-by orchestrated by the Dropper. 

When questioned by the police, Orgen confederate Jacob Shapiro said that Kaplan was behind the shooting and so the gang leader was picked up. Knowing that Kaplan would have to face Shapiro in court they set it up so gang hanger on Louis Cohen would be waiting for the Dropper to exit the court house. 

The time came and Kaplan was ushered into the court to face Shapiro who recanted his testimony and refused to identify the gang leader. Kaplan was escorted out to a waiting taxi cab which was going to take him to another court to face a different charge. After the gang leader slid into the back seat of the taxi, Cohen slipped through the cordon of police. He ran up and, climbing on the rear bumper, shot through the back window mortally wounding the Dropper. 

Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan

No Way To Treat A Lady

Just before sun-up on August 27, 1937 someones unknown drove to Shore Boulevard and around 21st Drive in Astoria, Queens. From their vehicle they tossed a wooden cask down an embankment into the East River, hoping that the tide in the narrow known as Hell Gate would carry the object out to sea. Unfortunately for them, the tide had already gone out and the barrel wedged itself on a large rock.

A few hours later a man was walking along the shore and saw the barrel. What caught his eye more was the red hair, hand and foot that protruded from the top. Cops were called. Crammed inside the cask was the trussed up body of a woman. She had been stabbed multiple times with an ice-pick. The final jab was in her skull where the tip had broken off. She had also been shot once in the forehead with a .38. 

She was quickly identified as 39 year-old Esther Gordon, widow of intra-state drug dealer Max "One-Eye" Gordon. So called because he lost an eye in a gun fight in 1922. Max died in a car accident in Texas the previous July 31, after a drug buying trip to Mexico.

Initial reports had it that the drug syndicate that Gordon worked for had his wife bumped off because she knew to much and may have been trying to get some money out of them. The following year, it was stated that police believed that the murder was orchestrated by a drug dealer named Lonnie Affronti. According to the report Affronti owed One Eye Gordon a large amount of money which his widow was in the process of trying to collect. 

Esther Gordon

Pal Joey

 

Joseph Silverman was known around Brooklyn as Joey Silvers a boxer of some local renown. In addition to his involvement in the sweet science Silvers was also toting a gun for the Shapiro Brothers in during their reign as the slot machine kings of Brownsville. In the summer of 1930 the Shapiros were at war with the Abe Reles and his minions known as the Combination.

Silvers had made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Ocean Hill gangster and recent Reles confederate Harry "Happy" Maione and on August 26, 1930 Maione struck back. Slightly before midnight, Silvers was driving along when a car containing four men crowded his car to a stop. Maione bound out of the car and jumped on the running board of Silvers' machine. Yelling something to the effect of, "You were gonna put me on the spot, now I'm going to give it to you," he fired a .45 slug into the boxer's chest. Maione leapt from the running board and back into the car that was driving alongside and was whisked away.

The wounded gangster was taken to the hospital where he told authorities that "A guy named Happy." shot him before expiring the following day. Nothing came of Silvers squealing.

 

Joey Silvers

Buffalo Gats

Shortly before midnight on August 25, 1933 Buffalo, New York bootlegger Salvatore "Sam" Callea sat at the wheel of his car while his brother/partner, Vincenzo, stood by out front of their beer garden. A sedan containing around five men drove by and suddenly the area was alive with pistol and rifle fire. When the smoke cleared Sam was slouched over the steering wheel dead and his brother was prone on the sidewalk, his life ebbing away. Two bystanders were also wounded in the drive-by. Though they didn't say why, police asserted that the gunmen were imported from Cleveland, Ohio for the job. 

Sam Callea                  Vincent Callea

Number Is Up For A Numbers Guy

 

At seven-thirty in the evening of August 24, 1933 twenty-year old John Lerro was sitting on the stoop of the family house. Though young, Lerro was known as numbers guy in his South Philadelphia bailiwick. It appears to have been the family business as two of his brother in-laws and an uncle by marriage had been bumped off in the previous six months. Lerro himself had been questioned in a murder from two years previous.

As Lerro sat on his steps a sedan turned the corner and sped towards him. Sensing trouble, the young man rose to run inside but he was to late. Two pistols came out of the sedan window and opened fire. In the barrage, Lerro was hit twice in the chest and was killed.

John Lerro

The St. Paul Underworld Hits a Homer

A month and day after John Dillinger was gunned down in Chicago, his pal and accomplice Homer Van Meter met a similar end in a St. Paul, Minnesota alley. After hearing about Dillinger's death, Van Meter and his girlfriend fled Chicago for the Twin Cities where he had contacts with St. Paul underworld. However, because of the heat of the Dillinger killing and the ever growing threat of the FBI, the St. Paul underworld didn't make themselves available for the desperado. After staying at numerous tourist camps over the course of and traveling into town to meet up with contacts, it was decided that Homer had to go.

It's not known who actually set up Van Meter but he was definitely put on the spot. One version has it that underworld banker Harry Sawyer was holding nine grand for the bank robber and Van Meter showed up to collect. Realizing that Van Meter's time was running out anyways, hes contacted a crooked detective named Tom Brown who knew that bringing down someone of Van Meter's stature would help to polish his tainted reputation. At about 5:00 pm on August 23, 1934, a car dropped Van Meter off at a car dealership. The bank robber went inside and came out about ten minutes later. Detective Brown, who happened to be waiting outside with the chief of police and two other officers, two with sawed off shotguns and two, Thompson machine-guns. They yelled for Van Meter to "Stick 'em up!"

Van Meter drew a pistol and took off running. He fired a couple of shots over his shoulder as he ran. There was a woman between him and they officers so the law didn't return fire but chased him on foot. After a short run Van Meter made a fatal error. He turned into an alley that was a dead end. He turned to escape but the officers were at the end. Brown pulled his trigger and the blast blew Van Meter two feet off the ground. The bank robber leaned forward and tried to raise his gun but a blast from one of the Thompsons finished the job.

Sawyer kept his money, Brown got a feather in his cap and his share of the reward and the St. Paul underworld didn't have to worry about Homer anymore.

Homer Van Meter

Good Morning!

About three weeks after Benny Zion, election day terrorist employed by 20th ward "politician" Morris Eller was bumped off, another of Eller's minions, Leigh di Bimardo (spelling of his name varies) was put on the spot.

Like Zion, di Bimardo was said to be an accessory in the election day murder of Eller's political rival Octavius Grandady. Authorities stated that d Bimardo was wanted by a special grand jury conducted to investigate election day terrorism and it was presumed that gangsters afraid of what di Bimardo might say silenced him forever.

According to the dead man's wife, two men showed up at di Bimardo's house at seven on the morning of August 22, 1928 and they left in di Bamardo's car. Two hours later, a number of people who worked near a railroad via duct heard numerous shots. When they investigated, they found di Bimardo slumped over the steering wheel; one arm on the wheel the other hanging out the window. He had been shot numerous times in the head. The killers left their guns (but took the canoli) and made a get away.

 

Leigh di Bamardo

Mule Kick

Like his brother Sam, who was bumped off in April of 1932, Leo Mule, 55, said to have been a veteran of the Capone-Aiello war, was mixed up in illicit alcohol. Known as both a bootlegger and proprietor of a beer flat, Leo was driving his expensive sedan on August 21, 1933 with a guy in the passenger seat. Mule was driving slowly when his passenger pulled out a gun and let him have it in head. Mule slumped over the wheel as the car slid into a curb. His job complete, the killer jumped from Leo's car and hopped into another that had been following them and was whisked away.

Leo Mule

The Spotter Gets Spotted

 

Joseph Nerone was known throughout the Italian underworld as Il Cavaliere. He attained some infamy the previous year when he put Tony Genna on the spot. After his tenure with the Gennas, Nerone ventured into Chicago Heights and became a successful racketeer. 

On August 20, 1926 Nerone, now going by Tony Spano, was lured to a barber shop in Chicago. It appears that he was somewhat apprehensive because as he pulled up to the shop in his expensive sedan, he had his gun out. As he stepped from his car, three men stepped out of an alley and opened fire on him. 

Nerone managed to get off a few shots before being riddled in the head and belly and dropping dead. In the aftermath of the shooting a couple of the surviving Genna brothers, whom authorities believed were in Italy, were picked up for questioning. It was assumed that they killed him in retaliation for setting up their brother Tony. Another theory was that he may have been bumped off by a Chicago Heights outfit known as the Piazza gang. Other reports have him as a member of that gang.

Joseph Nerone AKA Il Cavaliere

Running Can Be Unhealthy

 A bootleggers feud was the reason given for the murders of New Jersey gangsters Agostino Delappia and Vincenzo Follo on the evening of August 19, 1929. The two gangsters had just exited a club and after they had been walking a bit, they noticed two men behind and, assuming correctly that they were on the spot, took off running. The men behind them hot on their heels.

The quartet actually ran past a Newark police station but no police happened to be outside. A few blocks away Delappia and Follo split up at an intersection. The gunmen stopped and opened fire on Delappi and hit him a number of times. The gangster let out a scream, grabbed a telephone pole and collapsed. 

With his partner down, the gunmen turned their pistols on Follo and fired a few shots that missed then stopped shooting. If Follo thought he got away because the gunmen stopped firing he was mistaken, the reason they stopped was because they saw a familiar gray sedan coming down the street from the opposite direction. When it was parallel to Follo, a man leaned out and opened fire killing the gangster.

Delappia was taken to the hospital but died a few hours 

Agostino Delappia     Vincenzo Follo

Double Play

It was August 18, 1931 and Joe Cigna and Anthony Justiano stood among eight other guys on a corner in New York City's Little Italy. As the men conversed, four other men approached the group and drew pistols. Cigna and Justiano seemed to realize that they were on the spot because they both took off running followed by the gunmen who unleashed a barrage of gunfire.

Justiano tried for a tenement but dropped dead in the doorway while his partner dropped dead in front of another building. Police said that the dead men were involved in both bootlegging and narcotics and that the killers may have been imported from Buffalo, NY where both men had operated in the past.

      Joe Cigna             Anthony Justiano

Nose Rubbed Out

August 17, 1936 saw the demise of Philadelphia gangsters John "Big Nose" Avena, 41, and his cohort 39-year-old Martin Feldstein. Avena, who had been gangstering for nearly twenty-years was the main target. He had been on the spot three times previous; twice in 1926 and once the following year. He was also identified by Anthony "Musky" Zanghi as one of the men who killed his brother and another guy named Vincent Cocazza back in 1927.

By 1936 Avena was one of the top numbers guys in Philadelphia. The end came at about two-twenty in the afternoon while Avena and Feldstein were loitering outside 718 Washington Avenue when a small sedan pulled up and a machine-gunner opened fire. A blast hit Avena in the left chest mangling his heart. He fell to the ground, his head hitting an automobile's running board. With a couple of bullets in the chest and arm, Feldstein crunched over and zig zagged around the corner before collapsing. He died later that night.

After the drive-by, the killers drove about six blocks and dumped the car. Witnesses said that two men exited the car, one carrying a suit case or possibly a trombone case, and split up.

                     

                                John "Big Nose" Avena                        Martin Feldstein

Herman's Dead

Early in the day of August 16, 1931, 38-year-old Herman Horowitz, described as a minor hoodlum, sat in his car on Chicago's North Side chatting with a "woman in green", who stood at his door. After conversing for about fifteen minutes, the woman walked away. After the woman left two men approached the car and drew revolvers. Horowitz ducked the best he could but the men fired six shots, which proved fatal, into his body and took off.

Police felt that the "woman in green" had spotted Horowitz for the gunmen. The dead man followed his brother Benjamin and his friend Frank Cawley to an early grave. In addition to two arrests for robbery, Horowitz was also known as a hi-jacker.

Herman Horowitz

Down at the Crack of Dawn

On August 9, 1928 two gangsters exited a speakeasy escorted by a locally famous character named Hugh McLoon. The latter was a short, hunched back fellow who gained fame as a mascot for local sport team and parleyed that into becoming a go-between for the under and upper worlds. He also became an owner in a night club. As the trio walked into the night air,  a sedan pulled up and a machine gun went off. McLoon fell dead and his gangster companions were slightly wounded. Supposedly the gangsters were the target and McLoon was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Within a few days it determined that the man who pulled the trigger on McLoon was Philadelphia gangster Danny O'Leary whose gang was at war with the men wounded with McLoon. Retaliation was swift. After the drive-by, O'Leary and his brother retreated to Camden, New Jersey and took a room at a roadside motel. While leaving a carload a gangsters made an unsuccessful attempt on them. A few days later O'Leary showed up at a Philadelphia boarding house with a young woman he claimed was his wife (his real wife was living at home with their two kids) and rented a room. At one-thirty on the morning of August 15, a guy rang the bell to the building and the landlord answered. The guy asked for O'Leary but was told that nobody by that name lived there. He then asked if anyone moved in recently and was told about the couple who took a room that Monday. He pondered the thought for a moment and then returned to a car containing more men, told them what had transpired and they took off.

A little after five that morning, the men returned and jimmied open the front door of the building and made their way to O'Leary's third floor room and jimmied that door as well. The gunmen made their way to O'Leary's bed and one or more opened fired on the sleeping gangster, hitting him in the head, chest and shoulders. 

The gunfire woke up two tenants who lived on the first floor who came into the hallway in time to see the gunmen and O'Leary's girlfriend nonchalantly walk from the building. Since the group seemed to be in no hurry, the tenants figured the noise they heard was a back firing car and thought nothing of it.

Since O'Leary's moll left with the killers seemingly on her own accord it was determined that she had set up her boyfriend for the kill.

Danny O'Leary

Last Call

Early in the morning of August 14, 1959 Chicago gangster John Miraglia sat the bar in the Orange Lantern saloon. At 42-years-old, Miraglia had been a member of the Windy City's underworld since at least 1934 when he was arrested for murder after killing a guy in a fight outside a nightclub. He managed to beat the rap and racked up another twenty-five arrests; one for each remaining year of life. He only served one sentence and that was eighteen months for interstate theft.

As Miraglia nursed his drink at the bar two masked men entered with drawn .38s. One of them came up behind gangster and ended his career by sending four bullets into his head. Three years later he'd be in the papers again when his son Jimmy, who followed in his father's criminal footsteps, was found dead in the trunk of a car with gangster associate Billy McCarthy.

John Miraglia

Oh Danny Boy

 Danny Vallo was 38 year-old Chicago gangster with a history of changing allegiances. The Chicago Tribune stated that he was at first associated with the Gennas and then joined the Capone Syndicate. By 1930 he was allied with the Moran-Zuta- Aiello combination.

Vallo was not a product of Prohibition, his record predated the Eighteenth amendment when he was a member of a bandit gang headed by Edward Wheed. More arrests came for robberies. By the end of 1921, it was stated that Vallo had succeeded Paddy the Bear Ryan as leader of the Valley Gang after the latter's murder in 1920. He was arrested for murder in 1921 while getting the vote out for doomed mobster politician Anthony D'Andrea. Eight years later he was also picked up as a suspect in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

The evening of August 13, 1930 found Vallo spending time with his young fiance. The started the evening at Vallo's sister's house where the hoodlum made three phone calls to a place in the Franklin Park district. After the third call he informed his fiance that he would have to take a ride out there and asked her to join him. After driving a bit, Vallo pulled over at a cafe in Niles Center (now Skokie) to make another call to the Franklin Park party. After the call, he returned to the car and invited his fiance in to get a sandwich. Vallo headed back to the cafe as his fiance stepped from the car. While exiting the auto, the fiance saw two men with sawed off shotguns step from some bushes. Before she had a chance to scream both fired at Vallo, who collapsed with wounds to his head and torso. He died an hour later.

Danny Vallo

Live By the Gun, Die By the Gun...A Minute Later

 

A chance encounter with a Kansas City sheriff and his deputy changed what should have been a typical on-the-spot killing into gunfight costing two of the killers their own lives.

Sheriff Thomas Bash was returning from a fund raising social engagement with his deputy Lawrence Hodges. The officers were escorting the car which contained the money raised at the party. Hodges was driving and Bash was in the passenger seat. In the rear sat Bash's wife and a neighbor girl of 15. 

It was about 1:15 in the morning on August 12, 1933. As the police car advanced towards Armour Avenue Bash and Hodges saw a series of flashes and heard gunshots. This was followed by a woman's screaming. What the two law officers heard was the murder of bootlegger and nightclub owner Ferris Anthon. In addition to his KC operations, the dead man had ties to Chicago where he was knows as Kansas City Tony. Anthon was living at the Cavalier hotel and had just returned from a night out with his young wife, mother-in-law and his wife's younger brother. While his wife and in-laws headed for the hotel, he stayed back to lock up the car. According to his wife, a man with a handkerchief over his face came from between two cars and shot Anthon down with a  machine gun.*

After the shooting, a sedan containing mobsters Sam Scola, Gus Fasone and a man later identified as Thomas Lacoco came barreling around the corner, heading straight for Bash an Hodges. Realizing a crime had take place, Bash grabbed the police car's shotgun and jumped out the passenger side door; Hodges from the driver's side with a his side arm in hand. 

Seeing their way blocked, Scola and Fasone opened fire on the officers. Bash fired a round through the windshield, reloaded and fired another round through the windshield reportedly taking off the tops of the gangsters heads. Lacoco Leapt from the car and ran as Hodges gave chase; both men firing at each other.  After the Bash's second shot the gangster car careened into the the police vehicle.

Bash wanted to check on his wife and neighbor but another hoodlum, Charles Gargotta, came running up firing at the sheriff. Loading another shell into the shotgun, Bash ran towards the attacking hoodlum. who, realizing he was about to be cut down, dropped his gun and surrendered. In the meantime, Hodges had lost sight of Lacoco, but found his abandoned gun, and returned to the scene.

Gargotta and Lacoco would subsequently be exonerated from any wrong doing. The four gunman were said to be underlings of Kansas City gang boss Johnny Lazia.

*no machine guns were found.

            

Ferris Anthon             Sam Scola              Gus Fasone

Joe Is Now The Boss

 A Mafia war came to an abrupt end on this day back in 1922 when Joe "Soon to be the Boss" Masseria managed to put rival mob boss Umberto Valenti on the spot. Since the previous spring when Valenti and some gunmen bumped off Vincent Terranova, lower Manhattan was up for grabs. 

Three days previous, Valenti gunmen had managed to corner Masseria after the latter had exited his apartment. They fired at him numerous times but missed. It is believed that afterwards Masseria contacted Valenti and set up a peace conference. However, the meeting was a ruse to lure his enemy into the open. When Valenti showed up on at the designated meeting place a number of gunmen opened fire on him. Hit in the chest, he tried to return the fire but barely had the strength to make it to a taxi where he dropped dead on it's running board.

Umberto Valenti

Goose Island Goose is Cooked

 

Thirty-five-year-old Joseph "Big Rabbit" Connell was proprietor of the Island Tavern, a "Whoopee" joint, on Chicago's Goose Island.  In the early days he was a slugger in the taxi wars. His record consisted of small time infractions. The previous spring he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the state legislature. 

As owner of the Island Tavern, Connell was paying $55 for a barrel  of beer. The price set by the "Syndicate". Not satisfied with the profits, Connell started brewing his own stuff for only seven dollars a barrel. Soon he branched out and started to sell to other North Side saloons charging only $30 a barrel. 

The competition responded just before eleven on the night of August 10, 1932. Connell stepped out of his saloon for a breath of fresh air when a small sedan pulled up. Someone from the car called to Connell and said that they wanted to speak with him. As the tavern owner approached the car, automatic shotgun(s) came out  the window and went off. Hit by sixteen slugs, Connell staggered to the side of his bar and dropped dead.

Joe may have been friendly with North Side gangsters, as his younger brother, George "Little Rabbit" Connell was said to be friends with deceased North Side gang leader Dean O'Banion. At the time of Joe's murder, Little Rabbit was serving a term in prison for stealing a truck load of whiskey from a pharmaceutical and chemical company. 

Joseph "Big Rabbit" Connell