"MURDER INC."

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 150, 21 December 1940, Page 6

"MURDER INC."

U.S. ORGANISATION

FANTASTIC TALE OF CRIME

NATIONAL NETWORK

Sharing the jiews headlines with the war in recent weeks has been one of the most fantastic stories of crime ever unfolded to the American public, wrote the New York correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald" recently. It is a tale that might have been penned in collaboration by Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, so complicated and clever is the detective work involved, so sinister the characters, so unbelievable the.extent, violence, and diabolism of the' action.

Before the bar of justice have come some-of the leading figures of a criminal network overshadowing even- the great racketeering organisations that flourished in the prohibition era of a generation ago; and ' already at least four of a coterie of assassins possibly without rival since the days of the Coridottieri have been sent cursing and raving to the. electric chair.

"Murder, Inc.," is journalese for this ring, whose operations have proved that crjme, like business, has outgrown, its days of "rugged individualism" and , moved on to the greater glories of monopoly. Confessions by leaders of "Murder, Inc.," revealed a. highly-or-ganised business operating rackets in every large city and industrial area of America; an organisation that trained its personnel, had its own code of conduct, and killed on contract. "ZONING" RACKETS. It is a grotesque caricature of American big business, and: its ramifications are almost as manifold. Today it is almost impossible for a gangster, big or little, to conduct an independent racket.- Whether he runs a lottery which nets millions or a peanut machine that brings in fifty dollars a week, he can work his scheme ■ only with the permission of "Murder, Inc.," or the "Combination," as it calls itself. The leaders grant territories for the operation of the rackets. The nation is divided into zones, each with a leader and staff. These leaders direct all schemes and fix the percentages to be paid to the "Combination." They also direct the killings of those who fall foul of their rules. '

. The killings— arid they are numbered by the score—are merely, by-pro-ducts, of the rackets. The sphere of the "Combination's" influence • includes gambling, prostitution, traffic in narcotics, lotteries, and usury. By sheer force it' also dominates trade" union locals and has a financial stake in various night clubs and cabarets. It operates certain legitimate business enterprises and "muscles in" on others, where -it exacts tribute from honest business men by threats or use of violenca -Through its control of slot machines it collects pennies even from the school children of the nation. And not least; through its connection with corrupt political groups,. it plays an' important, and sinister, role in urban government. • .. The ice-pick clue. Recently" public attention -was centred, pn the trials of four members of ..'Murder,. Inc.," who had been caught' in the net of evidence gathered °by District Attorney William O'Dwyer, of the Borough of Brooklyn, in the City of New York, and two of his assist- [ ants, • Solomon Klein and Burton Turkus, Last winter District Attorney O'Dwyer.. set out .to-stop a wave of racketeering in, his borough. . There had been a • number of; unexplained murders, with petty, radketeei-s the victims. Their bodies were dumped from speeding automobiles into main streets. There .were no clues. And in; the ; underworld none would ' talk. •The entire detective force of the borough and its scientific laboratories were placed at the disposal of the' District Attorney's office. A speck of rust in a stab wound led to the discovery of an ice pick tossed into a trash barrel. The ice pick gave up the trace of a fingerprint, and into the j clutches of the law fell-a murderer.

Enough evidence, to involve the higher-ups was drawn by the District Attorney and his assistants from this man,- one Abe Reles, known in the underworld' as "Kid. Twist.'" ' This slight, kinky-haired, brown-eyed gangster, flat : nosed and with low, wrinkled forehead, began, his criminal career in 1920 at the age of 13, as a runner i of bootleg whisky. He had been arrested 43 times on every charge ranging from juvenile delinquency and disorderly conduct to murder, the latter no fewer than five times, but he went | free on all except five minor charges. TOLD OF "COMBINATION." From "Kid Twist" came the story of I the "Combination," or. "Murder, Inc." Much of the information he gave led ito the arrest and conviction on a murder charge of Harry ("Happy") Maione I and Frank ("The Dasher") Abbandando. They were accused of killing a fellow-gangster' named George Rudnick, in 1937/ because he hadi turned informer to the police. The | prosecutor presented evidence that Rudnick had been strangled with a rope, stabbed sixty-three times with an ice pick, and had his skull bashed in with a meat chopper. "Happy" and "The Dasher" were sentenced to dia in the electric chair some little 'time ago.

:.-. Technically, that trial was concerned with only one killing, but it was merely the opening gun -gainst "Murder, Inc." Reles, known in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn as a cruel, sadistic slugger, told ..the, District Attorney that he himself had committed eighteen murders. Six of them he calmly detailed oh the witness stand. He described the "Combination" as an organisation like "a chain of banks" or "like a tree With all its branches branched, out." He, emphasised that, it- extended from, coast to' coast, and that there were many thousands of people involved. ■•..

The salaries' of 'Murder, Inc.," em- ■ ployees vary from 100' to 250 dollars ■a week, he added, and "all the boys make a good living."- But some of the lesser lights—Reles was a foreman— told a. different, story. "Pretty" Lavine and. "Duke" Maffetore, two of the "troopers," .as they are. called in the organisation, said they were often broke,; arid'were': compelled to borrow from the syndicate.at fantastic interest rates;'that they committed murder for as little as five; dollars, or even "for coffee-and cake!"-- They had no choice, for- once a man becomes a member of the gang tie cannot quit. To try, or to; vjolate the rules, means death. Reles admits that nine' times out of ten',"'wKeh" a "gangster wants to quit he is 'killed. i KILLING ON CONTRACT. The "Combination" is a "business" outfit, Reles insists, whose main object is not .murder'but the. making of money: • Murder, is .incidental. Since. "Murder, Inc.," obtains its. money by "illegal means,, it must purge, its rivals and code' violators by illegal means. Most of. these statements were made when Reles testified against Harry Strauss and Martin Goldstein, two other leaders of the organisation, who

were charged with killing Irving Feinstein, a small-time bookmaker, in September, 1939. They strangled him, set his body on fife, and tossed it into a vacant lot. This killing was done "on' contract" from one Albert Anastasia, fugitive leader of a waterfront racket, because Feinstein had "crossed" a minor political worker who \ had been friendly.. to . the organisation. Reles said he had helped kill Feinstein, Goldstein and Strauss were sentenced to die in the electric chair on November 4. They \vere! led away to Sing Sing prison to await death, shouting curses upon the Court.

When they had gone, the Court commended the jury and informed them that, in addition to the crime of which they had convicted the defendants, the District Attorney had proof N that Strauss had committed 28 murders "under contract" since 1930. ;

Meanwhile the .; investigations of Mr. O'Dwyer and his assistants are continuing.