Dingbat Goes for a Ride

John "Dingbat" Oberta was a hoodlum who rose through ranks on Chicago's Southside. Along with crazy man Frank McErlane, he was part of gang leader Joe Saltis's executive board. In addition to bootlegging, Oberta dabbled in local politics as well. 

By 1930 Saltis was in exile in Wisconsin and it appears that his two cohorts, Oberta and McErlane couldn't get along. In February of that year, McErlane showed up at the hospital with a bullet wound to the leg. Most likely fired by his wife during a fight. On the evening of February 24, McErlane lay in bed recuperating; his leg up in traction. At about 9 p.m. two men entered his room and opened fire on him. 

McErlane prepared for just such an emergency. Pulling out a .45 from under his pillow, the gunman returned fire. Though hit three times, McErlane managed to scare of his would be killers. When questioned by the police as to who the invaders were McErlane is reported to have said:

"Look for them in a ditch. That's where you will find them...McErlane takes care of McErlane"

The next day, McErlane was released and taken to his parents house to recover from his wounds.

About a week later, on the evening of March 5, Dingbat Oberta called his wife at about 7 p.m. from their florist shop and told her of his evening's plans. Two and a half hours later, a cop found Oberta's Lincoln off the road in a ditch. Inside on the passenger side was Dingbat with what appeared to be a shotgun wound to the back of his head. Outside submerged in the icy water of the gully was Oberta's bodyguard and chauffer, Sammy Malaga. He had been shot a number of times before being tossed in.  

It appears that McErlane took care of things.

John Dingbat Oberta     Sammy Malaga     

Strawberry Fields For Horton

 "Orlando Jack" Horton was a Chicago hoodlum who fled the Windy City in 1924 when his bootlegging partner, John Duffy, was bumped off. He and his wife were picked up a few days later in New Orleans but no evidence could be found to link him to the crime.

With Chicago being to hot for him, Horton set up operations in Lafayette, Indiana. He was arrested for selling drugs and did about three years in Leavenworth. In mid-August 1929, Lafayette firefighters were called to burning home. After dousing the flames they came across a "monster" still and evidence of a large bootlegging enterprise. A search showed that the house belonged to a Robert Horat. Detectives soon found out that Horat was in fact, Orlando Jack Horton and he was arrested. 

Perhaps, coincidently, the following day, a number of Lafayette speakeasies were raided. After being charged with violating Federal Prohibition laws, Horton was scheduled to appear in court on March 17, 1930 and released on bail. He never made it to court.

On March 5, 1930 Horton's body, with five extra holes in it,  was found face down in a strawberry patch on the outskirts of Lafayette.

Orlando Jack Horton

Ford Not So Tough

On this date back in 1934, Oklahoma desperado and psychopath Ford Bradshaw met his end. He first appeared on police radar three years previously when his bullet riddled body was dumped from a car on the streets of Muskogee, but he refused to say who had shot him. The following year he was involved in a car jacking that resulted in the death of a woman. He was also accused of killing a gambler in 1933.

Bradshaw reportedly joined fellow Oklahoma bad man Wilbur Underhill a.k.a. the Tri-State Terror on some bank robberies. His exploits led to the Sooner-States National Guard being sent out to the Cookson Hills to bring him to justice. Bradshaw managed to elude them.

Bradshaw's downfall was a result of his own violent behavior. On March 3, he and his moll Stella "Boots" Moody patronized a roadhouse in Arkoma, Oklahoma. During their visit, Bradshaw lost a hundred bucks at gambling and then became belligerent, He wrecked a couple of slot machines and sent "Boots" out to their car to get his bullet-proof vest. She left his automatic shotgun in the car.

Back inside, Bradshaw threatened the other patrons and bartender, who happened to be a deputy sheriff and the owners brother, with a pistol and forced them to drink with him. Meanwhile, the proprietors wife and another patron snuck out and alerted the police. Officers came and surrounded the place. Once the police were their, the bartender drew his gun on Bradshaw who raised his hands. The police came in and disarmed the desperado and took his bullet proof vest. As they were escorting him out the back, he tried to make a dash for his car. A number of people tried to stop him and as they were wrestling about, the proprietor arrived with a gun and fired half a dozen shots into the thug.

"Don't do that!" Bradshaw groaned before rolling over dead.

Ford Bradshaw

Izzy dead? Yes.

Izzy Presser was a career criminal who cut his teeth on Manhattan's lower east side. He was involved in at least one gangland killing in 1915 as well as robberies, drug dealing and bootlegging.

Over the years his name appeared in the papers numerous times. One reason was for successfully escaping from prison. In 1914 he was arrested as a vagrant and sent to the workhouse, from which he escaped. He was recaptured and finished his sentence. The following year he was sent away for twelve-years on a manslaughter charge following the 1915 murder. In 1921 he escaped from a road work gang and headed to New Jersey. He was arrested a number of times and ended up doing a stint in prison. Upon his release he was sent back to New York to finish his original sentence plus nine-hundred days for the escape. He told the Superintendent of prisons that he he didn't actually escape but was kidnapped. The Super bought it, and the extra three years were scratched and he was released after the original sentence.*

In the afternoon of this date in 1932, Presser borrowed his lawyer's car and, with $1400, in his pocket said he was going to dice game. At approximately 7:10pm a man left his place of business in Newark and saw Presser behind the wheel of a sedan, apparently sleeping. A few hours later he was still there, so he tried to wake him. 

When the sleeping man was found to be dead, the police were called and they identified him immediately. It was their belief that Presser was bumped off for double crossing some bootleggers. He had been shot in the heart and the head.

Izzy Presser

*After a newspaper expose the Superintendent of Prisons was fired. 

Mean to Joe Green

After a failed attempt in 1928, Albany gangsters put thirty-two year old bootlegger Joey Green out of business for good on February 19, 1933.

It was said that Green, also an Albany bad man,  hi-jacked liquor that was traveling along the "rum trail" that lead from Canada to any number of towns in northern New York. In March of 1928, he was taken for a ride and his bullet riddled body dumped on the outskirts of the state capitol. With fourteen wounds, he managed to drag himself to a farm house and rescue.

The end came just after he was released from serving ten days on a traffic violation. Green was at a soft drink parlor in the town of Glens Falls, New York. when somebody pumped two bullets into his chest.

Joey Green

They Didn't Kill Him For Nothing

"He must have done something. They don't kill you for nothing." This was the response that Chicago gangster Ted Newberry gave to police whenever questioned about a gangland murder.

Like those he discussed before him, Newberry too went for a one-way ride; his took place on January 7, 1933.  A product of Chicago's Northside, Newberry got involved with bootlegging in the early days of Prohibition. He muscled his away into the taxi racket and was pals with fellow racketeer Eugene Red McLaughlin during the days of the taxicab wars.

As the Roaring Twenties came to an end, Newberry was allied with George Bugs Moran and his Northside gang. In fact, Newberry narrowly missed being a victim of the St. Valentine's Day massacre as he was with Moran that morning. When they saw the rival gangsters (dressed as police) enter the gangs' headquarters, they dodged into a coffee shop assuming that it was a raid.

"He must have done something."

So what did Newberry do? In the early 1930s Moran was out of the picture and Newberry was allied with Al Capone. After Capone was sent to prison however, Newberry's relationship with Frank Nitti began to fall apart, his response was to have Nitti bumped off. A raid was set up in the latter's office in December of 1932 and Nitti was shot by a cop, but survived. After a few weeks recovery, Nitti figured out who was behind the botched raid and Newberry was removed. His body was found on a lonely stretch of road in Indiana.

Ted Newberry

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