They're certainly deserving of a profile, collectively and in some cases singly. I have to question the K of 2, though. These guys were, in the end, as much serial killers as dashing gangsters. Real sociopaths and monsters.
I question as well the I of 4; after too many years of digging around in old newspapers and government reports on these guys, I'd guess Murder, Inc., as such, was about half Jewish and just under half Italian.
Still, I applaud your take on this, and you got me thinking about what such a shondeleh minyan might look like:
1. Buggsy Goldstein 2. Abe Reles 3. Phil Strauss 4. Bug Workman 5. Allie Tannenbaum 6. Gangy Cohen (worth a profile of his own for the crazy story – he ran away from the gang to Hollywood where they located him after he began appearing as an extra in movies. He’s supposedly in It’s a Wonderful Life as one of the hardboiled guys laughing when the ringing of the bell gives birth to new angels.) 7. Mendy Weiss 8. & 9. Lepke Buchalter & Gurrah Shapiro (If you count Anastasia & Adonis, you have to count these two) 10. And we can let the icepick fill out the minyan.
They're certainly deserving of a profile, collectively and in some cases singly. I have to question the K of 2, though. These guys were, in the end, as much serial killers as dashing gangsters. Real sociopaths and monsters.
ReplyDeleteI question as well the I of 4; after too many years of digging around in old newspapers and government reports on these guys, I'd guess Murder, Inc., as such, was about half Jewish and just under half Italian.
Still, I applaud your take on this, and you got me thinking about what such a shondeleh minyan might look like:
1. Buggsy Goldstein
2. Abe Reles
3. Phil Strauss
4. Bug Workman
5. Allie Tannenbaum
6. Gangy Cohen (worth a profile of his own for the crazy story – he ran away from the gang to Hollywood where they located him after he began appearing as an extra in movies. He’s supposedly in It’s a Wonderful Life as one of the hardboiled guys laughing when the ringing of the bell gives birth to new angels.)
7. Mendy Weiss
8. & 9. Lepke Buchalter & Gurrah Shapiro (If you count Anastasia & Adonis, you have to count these two)
10. And we can let the icepick fill out the minyan.
Yes, K1 it is...
ReplyDelete