The Fat Lady Sings for the Fat Man

 

Thomas "Fatty" Walsh was a New York gangster who was in the upper echelon of drug czar and criminal king pin Arnold Rothstein. As such, he was a close associate of fellow Big Apple gangsters Jack "Legs" Diamond and Charles "Lucky" Luciano. 

Walsh was one of those who visited Rothstein in the hospital after the latter was shot. He was picked up and questioned after Rothstein died but was not considered a suspect. Afterwards, Walsh moved to Miami, Florida where he was part owner of a casino ran out of the Miami-Biltmore hotel. On the evening of March 6, 1929, while he was watching the evening's play, one of his partners, Eddie Wilson, approached him and shot him twice in the stomach then turned the gun on another partner, "Chick" Clark and managed to wound him. Walsh stood up and pitched forward dead. The reason for the shooting was that Walsh and Clark were trying to squeeze Wilson out of some his share. It didn't help that Walsh also made of Wilson's speech impediment earlier that evening.

Thomas Fatty Walsh

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

Battos And Balls

On September 11, 1929 a group of kids were playing in the street when the ball they were using bounced into the open window of a sedan. One of the kids went to fetch it. Climbing on the running board, he opened the door and let out a scream. Instead of the expected ball, he was staring into the eyes of a dead man.

The dead man, who was shot once in the heart and once through the right eye, was James Batto, one of the killers of Eugene Moran whose body, or what was left of it, was found in a burnt Packard the previous month in Newark, New Jersey.

According to his brother, Batto had recently had a fight with Monkey Schubert, his partner in a peanut vending machine company in New Jersey and another one of Moran's murderers. Schubert was picked up by police and questioned but released.

Batto had a record dating back over thirty years and served two sentences when he was a teenager but, even though he had been arrested on seven occasions since 1910, he was discharged every time. At the time of Batto’s death Eugene Moran’s body had not yet been identified so the police were unaware of his participation and had no leads to go.

James Batto

Sighs for Cy

Frank "Cy" Cawley was a Chicago hoodlum who made his way by hiring out for killings or robbing other underworld sorts of their ill-gotten booty. Police stated that he was implicated in three shootings, two bombings and at least thirty hold-ups. He was also a member of the "Four Horseman" gang. A gang that had been thinned out over the course of the year by gangster bullets.

On September 5, 1929 the bullet riddled bodies of Cawley and William McElligott (There seemed to be some confusion over the true identity of McElligott. He was also identified as Edward Westcott. Other papers said he was the brother of Thomas McElligott, a Cawley confederate who was killed the previous May.) were found in Jacob Riis park. Sawed off shotguns and pistols seemed to be the tools used by their killers. The $6000 robbery of a dice game was given as the reason for the murders, however another theory given was that one of the gang members had killed a man in a saloon earlier in the year. Though the man wasn't a gangster he had a friend who was, and that friend took it upon himself to eliminate the whole gang.

A note worthy aspect to the crime was that both Cawley and McElligott each had a nickel placed in their hands after death. Chicago gangland lore dictates that this was a custom of Capone killer Machine-gun Jack McGurn. The story goes that if he considered his victims as cheap hoods he would press a nickel into their palms.

         Cy Cawley       William McElligott

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

Is it Better to Burn Out then Fade Away?

 Gene Moran was a Jack of all crimes. He took part in a high profile jewel heist in the early Twenties that sent him to the slammer. He worked for Arnold Rothstein and he was part of the hit team that failed to knock of Legs Diamond's brother Eddie in Colorado in November of 1928.

Early in the evening of August 9, 1929, a couple of sedans pulled up to Moran's New Jersey bungalow. His moll Anna, heard him tell the men that they need to hurry because they were already late for the job. He entered one of the sedans and the crew took off. 

A few hours later, the night watch man of a Newark dump saw two sedans pull in. Two men got out of a Packard and doused it with gasoline then put it to the match. They all left in the remaining car. A few hours later one of the men returned to Moran's bungalow and told his moll that Gene was dead and that she should beat it.

By the time the fire was doused, Moran, who had been shot to death, was burnt beyond recognition. It wouldn't be until early 1930 that he was identified through his dental work. Since he was one of those involved in the failed attempt on Eddie Diamond, Legs Diamond is credited with the murder. It's also possible that he was killed at he bequest of Dutch Schultz. The Bronx beer baron had paid for the assassination crew to travel to Colorado to kill Eddie. Moran and another Schultz man were captured and took a powder, leading Schultz to be out the thousands he spend for Moran's bail.

Eugene Moran