 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) |
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (6 February 1897 – 4 March 1944) was an American mobster who operated during the 1930s. He is the only major mob boss to receive the death penalty in the United States.
Contents |
Early career
Buchalter took the nickname "Lepke" at an early age. The name was an abridgement of the diminutive "Lepkeleh" ("Little Louis" in Yiddish) that his mother had called him as a boy. After his father died, his mother's health began to fail. The doctors recommended she move to Arizona to improve her health; Lepke was left as his sister's responsibility. The day his mother boarded the bus to leave the city was the last time his sister ever saw him. He began, at an early age, to control the streets of New York City. When arrested as a child for breaking and entering, he was wearing stolen shoes, both for the same foot and an unmatched pair. He was sent to the Catholic Protectory and labeled incorrigible. There he joined his friends Legs Diamond, Frank Abbandando, Harry Maione, Petey Savio and Jimmy The Shiv, Destefano, all young boys with dreams of wealth to escape the proverty they were living in. Lepke would, within three years, have an income of over $10,000 a month. By 1919, at 22, he had served two prison terms in Sing Sing. He and Destefano were sentenced together for grand larceny and sent back to Sing Sing. It was during this confinement Jimmy acquired the skill of a barber which resulted, on his return to Sing Sing, to his being assigned as the death house barber for five years giving 46 men and one woman their final haircut.
Upon Buchalter's release, he teamed with his childhood friend, Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro;through force and fear they began gaining control of the garment industry unions on the Lower East Side. He used the unions to threaten strikes and demand weekly payments from factory owners while dipping into union bank accounts[citation needed]. His control of the unions evolved into a protection racket, extending into such areas as bakery trucking. The unions were profitable for him, and he kept a hold on them even after becoming an important figure in organized crime.
Establishment
In the early 1930s, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Lepke, and John "Johnny The Fox" Torrio, (former Chicago boss and mentor of Al Capone), formed a loose alliance. To deal with any problems, Luciano's associates Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky formed Murder, Inc. Originally a band of Brooklyn killers, they were effective and eventually used to fulfill most murder contracts. Control soon passed to Lepke and Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia, as Siegel and Lansky had nationwide concerns. Murder Inc., the name given by the media in the 1940s, was credited with contract killings throughout the country, including Dutch Schultz.
Legacy
Some of the hitmen at Lepke's disposal included Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon, Abbandando, Maione, Albert "Tick-Tock" Tannenbaum, and Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss. Dutch Schultz was slain on 23 October 1935; his murder was to prevent him from acting on his threat made before the commission directly to Luciano, that if Luciano did not order the killing of the District Attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, he was going to handle it himself. This was a major killing for the group, as was the murder of Louis "Pretty" Amberg the same day.
Downfall
Buchalter's downfall began in the mid-1930s, when he went underground to elude the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which wanted him on a narcotics charge, and New York City special prosecutor Dewey, who wanted him tried for syndicate activities. He was tricked by a childhood friend (Walter Winchell?) into surrendering to the federal government in exchange for not being turned over to Dewey[citation needed]. Buchalter was sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas for 14 years for narcotics trafficking. The sentence was extended to 30 years on account of Buchalter's union racketeering.
Even more serious legal problems and consequences followed in 1940. The state of New York indicted him for a murder committed four years earlier, on 13 September 1936. On Sunday morning, Murder Inc. killers acting on Buchalter's orders[citation needed], had gunned down Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen. Rosen was a former garment industry trucker whom Buchalter had forced out of business[citation needed]. He had aroused Buchalter's ire by failing to heed Lepke's warnings to keep quiet and leave town. Rosen allegedly began threatening to expose Lepke and his crime operations to special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey[citation needed].
Buchalter's order for the Rosen hit had been overheard by Reles, who turned state's evidence in 1940 and fingered Buchalter for four murders. Returned from Leavenworth to Brooklyn to stand trial for the Rosen slaying, Buchalter's position was worsened by the testimony of Tannenbaum. Four hours after they were handed the case, the jury arrived at a verdict at 2 am on 30 November, 1941, finding Buchalter guilty of first degree murder, the penalty for which was death by electrocution. Also convicted and sentenced to death for the same crime were two of Buchalter's lieutenants who had participated in the planning and commission of the Rosen murder, Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, and Louis Capone (no relation to Al Capone).
Conviction
Buchalter's conviction took place in December 1941, and the New York Court of Appeals, on review of his case, upheld his conviction and death sentence in October 1942. At the time, Buchalter was serving his racketeering sentence at Leavenworth Federal Prison, and New York state authorities demanded he be turned over to them for execution. Buchalter resisted, managing to remain in Kansas and out of New York's hands until extradited in January 1944. Buchalter and his lieutenants, Weiss and Capone, were electrocuted within minutes of each other at New York's Sing Sing prison on 4 March 1944.
In popular culture
The 1975 film Lepke, starring Tony Curtis, was based on his life. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he would also be portrayed by David J. Stewart in the 1960 film Murder Inc., Gene Roth and Joseph Ruskin in The Untouchables as well as John Vivyan and Shepherd Sanders in The Lawless Years television series. Other portrayals include the 1981 film Gangster Wars by Ron Max.
Louis Buchalter is also mentioned in The Sopranos Season 1 Episode 8, "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti." Dr. Sam Reis recounts how his mother's uncle was Lepke's driver.
Further reading
- Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-7091-3966-7
- Kavieff, Paul R. The Life and Times of Lepke Buchalter: America's Most Ruthless Labor Racketeer, Barricade Books, 2006. ISBN 1-56980-291-2
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Buchalter |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
