by Bruno, Joe
Soon after, Masseria set up a meeting with Valenti at a restaurant on East 12th Street, ostensibly to make peace. Valenti arrived with two bodyguards, but three of Masseria's men were waiting in ambush. Seeing imminent danger, Valenti made a mad dash across the street, looking for cover. After Masseria's men wounded Valenti's bodyguards, Valenti jumped on the running board of a passing taxi. Valenti was firing back at his assailants, when he was shot dead, reportedly by a young Lucky Luciano, a hood who would later play an important part in Masseria's demise.
To keep his empire running smoothly, Masseria hired young gangsters like Luciano, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonanno, and Thomas Lucchese to do his dirty work for him. Masseria was so fond of Luciano, he eventually made him his second-in-command.
The relationship between Masseria and Luciano became strained, when Luciano started doing business with two Jewish gangsters, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, and also with Frank Costello, an Italian from the mainland of Italy. Masseria had one strict rule. He and his men could only do business with fellow Sicilians. Period. This did not go over too well Luciano, and he waited for the right time to take out Masseria, and gain control of Masseria's rackets.
In 1927, Masseria encountered a new threat to his supremacy in the name of Salvatore Maranzano, who came over from Sicily, as the underboss to Don Vito Cascio Ferro, the most powerful Mafia leader in Sicily. What happened next, was the Castellammarese War: a two-year bloody confrontation between Masseria's and Maranzano's men. During this time, Luciano, and his pals, ostensibly stood loyal to Masseria. However, reading the writing on the wall, they finally decided to throw their lot in with Maranzano.
On April 15, 1931, Luciano lured Masseria to the Nuova Villa Tammaro Restaurant, in Coney Island. After Masseria had stuffed his belly with an enormous amount of Italian food (Masseria was said to have the eating habits of a “drooling mastiff”), Masseria and Luciano sat down to play cards.
At 3:30 p.m., Luciano excused himself to go to the bathroom. While he was taking care of business, four gunmen busted through the front door: Vito Genovese, Bugsy Siegel, Albert Anastasia, and Joe Adonis. The four men fired repeatedly at Masseria, hitting him six times, before he dropped dead to the floor holding the Ace of Spades in his right hand.
Minutes later, when the police arrived, Luciano told them, since he had been busy in the bathroom, he had not seen who had killed Masseria; nor did he have the slightest idea who would do such a terrible thing.
The police doubted the sincerity of Luciano's statement, but since Masseria was held in such high contempt by the law, no one was ever arrested for Masseria's murder.
Mock Duck
No, Mock Duck is not an item on the menu of a Chinese restaurant, but rather the name of one of the most notorious Chinese gangsters ever to set foot in America.
Real name, Sai Wing Mock, Mock Duck was born in China in 1879. In the late 1890's, Mock Duck traveled to the United States. He immediately took residence in New York City's Chinatown, where he joined the Hip Sing Tong, a small group of Chinese gangsters led by Lem Tong Sing.
At the time, Chinatown was controlled by the powerful On Leong Tong, whose boss was the murderous Tom Lee. Soon, Mock Duck pushed aside Lem Tong Sing as leader of the Hip Sing Tong, and he took control of the tong himself. Mock Duck's first act as boss of the Hip Sing Tong was to demand fifty percent of the profits from Tom Lee's On Leong Tong. This did not sit well with Lee, and as a result, the Tong Wars of the early 1900's started in full force.
Mock Duck, knowing his Hip Sing Tong couldn't compete in total gang members against the On Leong Tong, joined forces with the Four Brother's Society to even up the numbers a bit. Still, the Tong Wars became a bloody mess for three decades, with many casualties on all sides.
On January, 24, 1906, as a group of On Leong Tong members exited a building at 32 Pell Street, a dozen Hip Sing Tong members jumped from an alley on Doyers Street, and the fired as many as hundred rounds of ammunition at their rivals. Two On Leong Tong members were killed, and two were badly injured. This rampage was reportedly planned by Mock Duck, who ordered murders to be done, but very rarely got his hands dirty doing the actual killings himself.
The one exception was in 1900, when Mock Duck allegedly murdered a New Jersey tailor named Ah See, in front of 23 Mott Street. Mock Duck was tried three times for See's murder, but was never convicted.
Mock Duck lived in a top floor apartment with his family at 21 Pell Street, in the heart of Chinatown. The rest of the apartments in this building also housed Hip Sing Tong members. There had been several attempts on Mock Duck's life, so he was forced to wear a “chain mail” vest, in addition to always carrying two guns and a small hatchet for protection, just in case.
On January 12, 1912, Mock Duck narrowly escaped death, when two On Leong Tong members casually entered an apartment at 21 Pell Street. They opened fire at a group of Hip Sing Tong members, as the Hip Sings played a game of fan-tan, killing Lung You, one of Mock Duck's top henchmen. Luckily for Mock Duck, he was out of the building at the time and was not a victim of the shooting, which was obviously intended for him.
Mock Duck was finally arrested by the police in 1912 for the minor crime of running a “policy game,” more commonly known as the “numbers racket.” Mock Duck was convicted and sentenced to two years in Sing Sing Prison. When Mock Duck was released in 1914, he returned to Chinatown, and he assumed a very low profile in the Hip Sing Tong.
In 1932, Mock Duck briefly resurfaced in the news, when he, in conjunction with the American and Chinese governments, arranged a truce, officially ending the Chinatown Tong Wars.
Unlike most of his fellow Chinese Tong members, who were killed in the streets of Chinatown, Mock Duck died of natural causes, at the age of 72, in his Brooklyn home in 1941.
Morrissey, John (Old Smoke)
John Morrissey started out as a feared bare-knuckle boxer, but later became a street-gang member and a leg-breaker for the Tammany Hall politicians.
Morrissey was born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1831. The famed potato famine was in its infancy, but Morrissey's parents saw the writing on the wall. They immigrated to America in 1833 and settled in Troy, New York. Not being educated, but good with his fists, Morrissey was relegated to working as a collection agent for the local Irish crime bosses. While working as a bouncer in a Troy brothel, Morrissey taught himself how to read and write. Realizing his future was limited in Troy, Morrissey made the short trek to New York City. There, Morrissey made a name for himself as a rough hooligan, fighting often in bars and on the piers, just for sport.
One day, Morrissey engaged in an impromptu fight with Tom McCann, at the indoor pistol gallery under the St. Charles Hotel. McCann was getting the best of Morrissey, when a powerful McCann punch drove Morrissey over burning coals from a hot stove, which had been overturned during the fight. Morrissey's clothes and flesh were on fire, and with smoke comes from his backside, Morrissey leaped forward, and he immediately battered McCann senseless. Hence, Morrissey was awarded the nickname “Old Smoke.”
After winning a few more battles, inside and outside the ring, Morrissey challenged world heavyweight champion Yankee Sullivan to a fight for the World's Heavyweight Title. The fight took place on October 12, 1853, at Boston Corners, on the border of Massachusetts and New York. Morrissey was battered throughout the fight, but he won by disqualification in the 37th round, when Sullivan hit Morrissey while he was down.
Buoyed by his newfound fistic fame, and now a member of the Dead Rabbits, a feared street gang, Morrissey was hired by the Democrats from Tammany Hall to protect the polling places from the Bowery Boy's gang, led by Butcher Bill Poole. Poole and his pals terrorized the polling places on election days, in favor of the Native American, or Know-Nothing political party.
On Election Day 1854, Poole announced that he and 30 of his Bowery Boys were headed to a certain local election site to destroy the ballot boxes. Tammany Hall called on Morrissey to protect their interests, and with J
ohn A. Kennedy, who later became New York City's Superintendent of Police, they assembled a gang of over 50 Dead Rabbits. Itching for a fight, they stood in wait inside the polling place for Poole and his gang's arrival.
A man of his word, Poole arrived at the polling place looking to do as much damage as possible. However, as Poole scanned the inside of the polling place, he immediately realized his group was vastly outnumbered by Morrissey and the Dead Rabbits.
Not a good thing for Poole.
Poole met Morrissey in the center of the room, and after staring menacingly at each other for a few moments, without saying a word, Poole abruptly turned and left, taking his gang with him. Tammany Hall was so overjoyed by Morrissey's heroics, they gave him a free gambling house (under the protection of the New York City police, of course).
In 1855, Morrissey challenged Poole to a bare-knuckles fight, on a pier near Christopher Street. Poole accepted, but once the two men squared off, instead of fighting with his fists, Poole tried to crush Morrissey to death by squeezing Morrissey in a mighty bear hug. When Morrissey was nearly unconscious, a group of men barged into the ring, and they stopped the murder attempt.
A few months later, Poole was shot and killed by Morrissey's close friend Lew Baker at Stanwix Hall, a bar on Broadway near Prince Street. Both Baker and Morrissey were arrested for Poole's murder, but after three mistrials (rumor had it that Tammany Hall influenced some jurors in Morrissey and Baker's favor), the charges were finally dropped.
In 1857, Morrissey retired from boxing, and he went full-throttle into the gambling business. Morrissey eventually opened 16 gambling houses throughout the state of New York, including an exceptionally profitable one in Sarasota Springs.
From 1867-71, and with the backing of Tammany Hall, Morrissey was elected United States Congressman from New York. In 1873, tired of Tammany Hall's illegal tactics, which were only surpassed by the illegal tactics Morrissey employed himself, Morrissey testified against Tammany Hall chief and thief, William “Boss” Tweed. Based on Morrissey's testimony and the overwhelming evidence of Tweed's treachery, the jury convicted Tweed on several counts of misappropriating government funds. As a result, Boss Tweed was sent to prison, where he subsequently died.
In 1875, as a reward for his service to his country, Morrissey was elected to the New York State Senate. Morrissey was still a Senator, when he died of pneumonia in 1878 at the age of 47.
In 1999, John Morrissey, A.K.A., “Old Smoke,” was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Orgen, Jacob (Little Augie)
Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen was born on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1896. He quickly ditched school and became known as a “schlammer,” for the Benjamin “Dopey” Fein mob. “Schlammers,” or “Sluggers” were basically head-breakers, who kept the union workers in line, by “schlammin'” them on the side of the head, with a club, or with a baseball bat, if they went against what their union leaders decreed. Orgen formed a little side gang call the “Little Augies,” but he was strictly a small-time player under Fein.
After Fein was arrested for improprieties concerning the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, rather than go to jail for a long period of time, Fein, not as dopey as his name, cut a deal with the cops. As a result of being a rat, Fein lost his job and his influence with the labor unions.
Enter rival gangsters Johnny Spanish and Kid Dropper, who while Orgen was cooling his heel in prison on a robbery charge, spent the next several years fighting over control of the labor unions. In 1919, Dropper eliminated Spanish with a few bullets, and Little Augie, fresh out of prison, put his eyes on Dropper's domain.
Orgen's gang of mostly Jewish criminals joined forces with the gang of Solomon Schipiro, whose men, strangely enough, consisted mostly of Italians. Orgen and Schipiro were fighting a losing battle against Dropper's forces, so they decided to cut off the head: Dropper himself.
As Dropper was being released from prison on a gun charge at the Essex Market Court on Second Avenue and Second Street, Little Augie and his gang stood anxiously in the street outside the court, mayhem on their minds. A dozen cops surrounded Dropper, with their eyes on Orgen, who was rumored to be there to kill Dropper. The police pushed Dropper into a waiting cab, when out nowhere, a nobody named Louis Kushner rushed the cab from the back and shot Dropper twice in the head. Kushner denied all involvement with Orgen (but the cops knew better), and he was sentenced to 20 years-to-life in prison for the murder of Dropper.
Orgen immediately took over Dropper's rackets, and he enlisted a dangerous crew of killers, including “Jack Legs” Diamond, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, to keep in line people who needed to be kept in line.
Pressure from the police (who were embarrassed Dropper was killed right under their noses), forced Orgen to abandon the labor rackets. Dropper segued right into the bootlegging business, supplying illegal hooch to various speakeasies around town. This did not sit too well with the bootleggers whom he had displaced in those joints.
Orgen was told, in no uncertain terms, by Arnold Rothstein and by Meyer Lansky, to get out of the bootlegging business, or bad things would happen to him real quick. Orgen ignored these warnings, so the offended bootleggers struck a deal with Louie “Lepke” Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro, offering them employment in their vast operations if they murdered Orgen.
On October 16, 1927, Orgen was walking in front of 103 Norfolk Street, with his new bodyguard Jack “Legs” Diamond, when a black touring car pulled up alongside him, guns a-blazing. Orgen was killed and Diamond severely wounded, but Diamond lived to die another day.
Orgen was buried by his estranged father, in a huge cherry-wood coffin, lined with white satin. On the top of the coffins was a silver plate that simply said: “Jacob Orgen – Aged 25 years.”
Orgen was 33 at the time of his death, but his father, a legitimate, God-fearing man, considered his son dead eight years earlier when he could not convince Orgen to get out of the rackets.
Pioggi, Louis (Louie the Lump)
Louis Pioggi, affectionately called Louie the Lump, was a diminutive and dapper Italian-American Five Points Gang member. Pioggi thrust himself into the spotlight one starry night in Coney Island, when he snuffed out the life of Kid Twist, the boss of the former Monk Eastman Jewish Lower East Side gang.
Kid Twist's gang and the Five Pointers were in a constant battle for control of the Lower East Side rackets. Under Kid Twist's reign, Twist and his gang had made great inroads into the Five Pointer's territory. The ire was so great between the two gangs, they made the Hatfields and the McCoys look like choir boys singing in church.
Born in 1889 on the Lower East Side, Pioggi was basically a footnote in the history of the American gangster. Pioggi was a small-timer, who as fate would have it, fell in love with the same dancehall girl the more illustrious Kid Twist (Maxwell Zwerbach) was seeing on the side.
It was the custom at the start of the 20th Century, for gangsters who had more than a few bucks in their pockets, to break free from the dumps and dives on the Lower East Side and “go out on the town,” to the wondrous expanses of Coney Island in Brooklyn. On May 14, 1908, Pioggi took a trip out to Coney Island to see Carroll Terry, a gorgeous Coney Island dancehall girl who was the regular squeeze of Kid Twist.
Unknown to Pioggi, Kid Twist was also in Coney Island to see Miss Terry, and he was accompanied by his bodyguard, Cyclone Louie, real name Vach Lewis. Cyclone Louie was a killer for Kid Twist, but he was better known as a Coney Island circus strongman who bent large pieces steel around his neck for a living.
Pioggi visited the dancehall Terry worked in, and he enticed her to have a few dances with him, which was her job anyway. Pioggi became hopelessly lovesick, and before he left he begged Terry to promise him, after her had shift ended, she'd come back to New York City with him. Saying anything to get rid of Pioggi, Terry said she would, but only if Pioggi left at once so she could do her job without his interference.
The real reason Terry gave Pioggi the bum's rush was because she expected to see Kid Twist shorty. And that she did, when just moments after Pioggi left, Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie made their grand entrance into the dancehall. Terry joined them at a table, and after a few drinks her lips loosened, and she told Twist about Pioggi's amorous advances.
Soon after, Pioggi returned to the dancehall, and he saw Kid Twist holding hands with Terry, with Cyclone Louie standing guard nearby. Knowing he had been had, Pioggi wandered into a dive on Surf Avenue, to drown his sorrows on the second floor of the saloon. Minutes later, Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie burst into the saloon and climbed the stairs. They confronted Pioggi.
“I just seen Carroll,” Kid Twist told Pioggi. “And she said youse is the biggest bum she knows. So she says you are an active cuss, always jumpin' around. Let's see how active youse is.” Kid Twist pointed to the open window. “Take a jump out of the window.”
Pioggi was in no mood for the 25-foot jump, but when Kid Twist made a move for the revolver in his belt, Pioggi, as requested, quickly jumped out of the window. Pioggi landed on all fours, but he later found out he had fractured his ankle. Pioggi limped to a telephone and called Paul Kelly, the boss of the Five Points gang. Pioggi told Kelly what had transpired concerning Kid Twist.
“I've got to cook him,” Pioggi told Kelly.
“Sure you got to cook him,” Kelly said. “I'll send a fleet down. When my boys get there, you get these bums on the street and open up with your cannons.”
Kelly's boys arrived an hour later, and when they did, they saw Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie having a grand old time in Terry's dancehall, laughing and talking loudly about Pioggi's daring jump. Terry had vacated the premises for a while and was nowhere to be seen. Pioggi sent a kid inside with a note, telling Kid Twist that Terry was waiting for him outside.
As soon as Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie made it to the sidewalk, Kid Twist heard a voice call him from the side.