October 1, 1933 marked the demise of one Joseph "Spot" Leahy. Spot was said to be one of the last of New York's infamous Gopher gang and the toughest man in Hell's Kitchen. Though he gathered a bit of press in his day, he never grew into a gangster of stature. Spot got his drinking money from bully work, such has strong arming for gangster Larry Fay. In addition to his other interest, Fay owned a fleet of taxi cabs. Leahy and others would keep rival taxi drivers from popular stops, allowing only Fay's drivers to pick up the fairs. He also had ties to a bootleg gang lead by Alfred "Dutch" Handel that operated on Mahattan's west side.
Leahy boasted at one time that gangsters Legs Diamond and Vannie Higgins were afraid to operate in the Hell's Kitchen district on Manhattan's west side because they didn't want to deal with him. In addition to a handful of underworld killings, in 1931 he arrested for beating his wife to death but managed to beat the rap.
The knife was Spot's weapon of choice and it was by the knife that he was dispatched. Before sunrise, Spot was entering a hallway that would take him to a speakeasy. Someone came up from behind and slashed his throat a number of times.
Joseph "Spot" Leahy
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