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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Gangsters, the Mob,

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Speaker 1: the mafia, we love to hate them. When we think

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Speaker 1: of mobsters, we think of films like The Godfather or

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Speaker 1: people like Al Capone. Perhaps it's because Hollywood often paints

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Speaker 1: the picture that no matter how ruthless they are, they

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Speaker 1: have a code of honor. Or maybe we just want

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Speaker 1: to hear their stories. And the rapidly growing and ever

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Speaker 1: changing America of the eighteen twenties, street gangs flourished, especially

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Speaker 1: in New York City. Historians are credit this rise in

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Speaker 1: the early nineteenth century to two things, the Industrial Revolution

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Speaker 1: and the large influx of immigrant workers. Ironically, Americans weren't

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Speaker 1: very tolerant of people coming to the United States in

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Speaker 1: search of a better life, and whatever ethnicity seemed to

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Speaker 1: be the majority arriving. Name calling, stereotyping, and all that

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Speaker 1: goes with racism and xenophobia prevailed tension and fear fracture communities.

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Speaker 1: Historians and those who study in the field of human

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Speaker 1: behavior agree anytime a society faces division, extremest groups appear

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Speaker 1: and get people riled up about the economy, on top

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Speaker 1: of those fears, and it's a powder keg one that

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Speaker 1: unscrupulous corporations, politicians, and individuals take advantage of. Edward Coleman

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Speaker 1: was one of those people. Tall and intimidating, he ruled

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Speaker 1: the Forty Thieves gang in New York City with a

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Speaker 1: combination of promise and terror. He targeted children living on

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Speaker 1: the streets, regardless of race. Often neglected and underfed, He

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Speaker 1: took them in, promising them food and shelter. No such

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Speaker 1: manipulation would be complete without instilling that the gang was

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Speaker 1: family and society were the outsiders. He made sure they

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Speaker 1: knew he had stepped in to help them when society

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Speaker 1: had not. The children trusted him, and he used that

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Speaker 1: trust to his advantage. He used children to squeeze through

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Speaker 1: windows too small for adults. Those showing loyalty were given

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Speaker 1: better roles within the gang. Their favorite spot to pickpocket

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Speaker 1: steel and otherwise worked their trades was the Five Points neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: The community consisted of mostly immigrants who had little police protection,

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Speaker 1: making it an easy choice. The gang set up headquarters

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Speaker 1: in the back of the Center Street grocery, where owner

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Speaker 1: Rosanna Piers worked out a deal with the gang She

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Speaker 1: made good money selling anything from stolen goods to rock

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Speaker 1: gut whiskey. Every job and every penny the gang brought

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Speaker 1: in was evenly distributed. Those who failed to pull their weight,

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Speaker 1: or anyone thought to be stiffing group were dealt with

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Speaker 1: in the harshest of terms. And if you're asking how

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Speaker 1: Coleman could order the beatings or murder of gang members

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Speaker 1: and have the others still be loyal to him, well,

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Speaker 1: that's sadly how abusers work. He might have made the

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Speaker 1: kids and other gang members believed they were family, but

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Speaker 1: no one was exempt from his rules, not even his wife.

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Speaker 1: And she had once worked as a street vendor, pedaling

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Speaker 1: hot corn. Like most immigrants selling wares on the street,

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Speaker 1: she was poor and Coleman offered her a way to

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Speaker 1: make more money. But when Anne didn't meet the quota

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Speaker 1: had set, he beat her badly enough that she died

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Speaker 1: days later from her injuries. Police arrested Coleman, and after

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Speaker 1: a short trial, the judge sentenced him to death by hanging.

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Speaker 1: After his execution in eighteen thirty nine, the gang continued

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Speaker 1: without him, finally disbanding in the early eighteen fifties, a

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Speaker 1: few started their own gangs using the same methods to

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Speaker 1: gain new member, but plenty of gang members had come

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Speaker 1: from real families, good families. For them. It wasn't so

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Speaker 1: much a sense of belonging they were looking for. It

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Speaker 1: was a thrill and the rise to power. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to American Shadows. Louis Boculter was the youngest of

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Speaker 1: seven children, or maybe it was eleven, It depends on

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Speaker 1: the source. A few facts are consistent though he was

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Speaker 1: small for his age, intelligent, soft guyed, and very shy.

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Speaker 1: His parents had fled the violence against the Jewish community

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Speaker 1: in Russia. Though they weren't well off, his father earned

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Speaker 1: a respectable living as the owner of a small hardware

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Speaker 1: store in New York's Lower East Side in the eight nineties.

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Speaker 1: His father worked long hours to provide for the sizeable family.

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Speaker 1: The schooling was important, and his parents strived to make

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Speaker 1: sure the children had an education. Like all parents, they

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Speaker 1: wanted them to have the best tools to grow into

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Speaker 1: successful adults, after all, But schooling alone isn't parenting, and

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Speaker 1: with such long hours, Louis's father wasn't home much To

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Speaker 1: make up for that. His mother doated on the children

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Speaker 1: and gave them pet names. She called Louis her lep Cola,

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Speaker 1: loosely the Yiddish for little Louis, and like most nick names,

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Speaker 1: it became shortened over time. Before long, everyone just called

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Speaker 1: him Lepkey. When he turned thirteen, his father died and

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Speaker 1: the family struggled financially. Some of his older siblings left

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Speaker 1: New York to strike out on their own. Lepke's mother

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Speaker 1: did her best to make ends meet and ensure the

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Speaker 1: rest of her children still did their school work. Without

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Speaker 1: his disciplined father, Lepkey took advantage of his mother's soft

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Speaker 1: method of parenting and at school. He refused to return

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Speaker 1: despite the rest of the family's urging, and instead found

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Speaker 1: himself a job as a delivery boy for three dollars

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Speaker 1: a week. He also began to spend time with a

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Speaker 1: variety of known troublemakers. By the time he turned fifteen,

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Speaker 1: Leppi had committed a string of petty thefts and extortions.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen twelve, his mother decided that New York wasn't

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Speaker 1: the place to live any longer, and accepted an offer

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Speaker 1: to move in with one of Lepke's older brothers in Colorado,

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Speaker 1: A Lepki refused to go, claiming he'd stay with another relative.

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Speaker 1: He assured his mother he would be fine, and she

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Speaker 1: made the journey. Lepki moved as well, to a rented

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Speaker 1: room on the Lower East Side with his friend Jacob Shapiro.

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Speaker 1: While his sisters and brothers were excelling as dentists and

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Speaker 1: rabbis and in other professions, nineteen year old Lepkeep stole

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Speaker 1: five hundred dollars worth of goods and landed in a

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Speaker 1: different room one in the Connecticut Reformery for two years.

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Speaker 1: He convinced the war and that had just gotten caught

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Speaker 1: up with the wrong crowd, and that at heart he

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Speaker 1: was a good person. He claimed that the death of

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Speaker 1: his father had affected him greatly and had just made

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Speaker 1: a mistake. The lie fooled the warden, and Lepkey stant

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Speaker 1: behind bars was reduced. Once out. Petty theft escalated to

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Speaker 1: armed robbery and grand larceny, all before he turned twenty five.

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Speaker 1: He rotated between gangs, joining whoever could serve his needs

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Speaker 1: the most while he feigned allegiances. It was all for show,

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Speaker 1: but it worked and he quickly moved up the ladder.

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Speaker 1: For the time he was thirty five, had been arrested

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Speaker 1: eleven times for everything from assault to homicide, and every

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Speaker 1: single time he managed to avoid prison. He might not

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Speaker 1: have been great at avoiding the cops, but he was

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Speaker 1: exceptional at reading and playing people. Lepki and longtime friend

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Speaker 1: Shapiro found employment as sluggers, Essentially. Businesses at the time

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Speaker 1: often hired men to break up labor strikes by whatever

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Speaker 1: means possible, including extreme violence. When workers went on strike

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Speaker 1: for better pay, time off benefits, or safety concerns, the

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Speaker 1: sluggers went into the crowds with pipes and clubs. In turn,

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Speaker 1: unions hired their own sluggers, and the fights escalated on

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Speaker 1: both sides until guns became as common as bludgeons. Lepkey

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Speaker 1: was small, the hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet that

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Speaker 1: meant he wasn't well suited for brawls. While he lacked

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Speaker 1: in physical strength, he made up in other ways, namely

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Speaker 1: his ability to organize, scheme and motivate others. New York's

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Speaker 1: Garment district became a hotbed of strikes and violence, and

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Speaker 1: lepp Key found a way to make the most of it.

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Speaker 1: He earned a hundred and fifty dollars for breaking up

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Speaker 1: small sweatshops and six hundred for larger ones, with sixty

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Speaker 1: dollars for shooting someone in the leg two hundred for

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Speaker 1: breaking a union boss's arm or throwing them down an

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Speaker 1: elevator shaft. Lepkey, Shapiro and the fellow slugger named the

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Speaker 1: Holtz thought infiltrating the unions wouldn't let them even more money.

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Speaker 1: Their boss, Jacob Augie Organ, disagreed. He wanted to stick

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Speaker 1: to their tried and true methods. The men got along

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Speaker 1: with their boss and played by his rules for a while.

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Speaker 1: That changed when Aggie was offered fifty thousand dollars to

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Speaker 1: end to strike by threatening to kill the union leaders. Lepki, Shapiro,

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Speaker 1: and Holtz believed cultivating the union leaders would work better.

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Speaker 1: Aggie cut them out of the deal and turned to

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Speaker 1: another gang, the Diamond Brothers, to accomplish his goal. As

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Speaker 1: you might imagine, that didn't sit well with Lepki and

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Speaker 1: the others. On October fifteenth, seven, Aggie and Jack Diamond

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Speaker 1: were driving on the Lower east Side when another car

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Speaker 1: cut them off. Three men jumped out an opened fire

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Speaker 1: on Aggie and Diamond. Aggie died on the spot, but

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Speaker 1: Diamond survived. During the police interrogation, he refused to name

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Speaker 1: the three men who had shot at them, knowing the

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Speaker 1: clo this relation Aggie had with Lepki, Shapiro, and Holtz.

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Speaker 1: They were questioned well naturally, they had an alibi. All

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Speaker 1: three men claimed they were at the movies together at

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Speaker 1: the time of the shooting. Lepki had taken out his

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Speaker 1: former friend and boss, effectively putting himself in power, but

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Speaker 1: that didn't mean there wouldn't be consequences. On November nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: one of Aggie's most loyal men shot and killed Holtz

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Speaker 1: in a drive by shooting. Lepki found out who had

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Speaker 1: pulled the trigger and had him killed, then announced he'd

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Speaker 1: be taking over as the gang's new boss. Lepki and

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Speaker 1: Shapiro changed the way the business worked. Where Aggie had

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Speaker 1: taken on any client with a paycheck, the new bosses

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Speaker 1: were more discerning. They set their sights on the garment trade,

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Speaker 1: which expanded their territory beyond the boroughs, narrowing their scope,

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Speaker 1: and they established themselves into other states Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

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Speaker 1: Instead of plane brute force, Lepke added bribery. The combination

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Speaker 1: altered labor racketeering, giving him solid leverage in the garment industry.

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Speaker 1: By nine there were fifty enforcers, bookkeepers, and foremen, bringing

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Speaker 1: in millions for Lepki and Shapiro. By the two had

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Speaker 1: a monopoly on extortion in the industry. Lepti assimilated smaller gangs.

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Speaker 1: Like many big city crime bosses, he subscribed to the

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Speaker 1: murder in Mayhem style of controlling his ranks. He became

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Speaker 1: so proficient journalists began reporting Lepke's business as Murder Incorporated.

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Speaker 1: As you might guess, all of this attracted the attention

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Speaker 1: of New York's most influential mob bosses. Five Italian families

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Speaker 1: known as the Commission, had established themselves as the governing

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Speaker 1: body for the American Mafia. The head of one of

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Speaker 1: those families, marious mobster Lucky Luciano, authorized Lepkey's boss status,

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Speaker 1: but at a cost. Leppi and his organization would become

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Speaker 1: the mafia's enforcement squad. As a retainer for their services,

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Speaker 1: Murder Incorporate had received twelve thousand dollars yearly to be

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Speaker 1: on call day or night. While the Commission could have

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Speaker 1: easily put in their own men, they liked Lepkey. He

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Speaker 1: had a way of conning people, ruled with an iron

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Speaker 1: fist and was heartlessly brutal. He also had no problem

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Speaker 1: sending his men anywhere in the country for hits. To

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Speaker 1: distance the families from the hired help. For reasons of

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Speaker 1: plausible deniability, Luciano had lep Key report to a Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: mobster by the name of Albert Anastasia. Layers between the

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Speaker 1: men made it difficult for the legal system to prove

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Speaker 1: anyone's involvement. If one went to prison, would be less

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Speaker 1: likely to implicate the others. It had worked so far.

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Speaker 1: As a layer between Lepkey and his boss, mafia hitman

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Speaker 1: Abe Rellis, paired Murder Incorporated's hitmen to various jobs. Lepki

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Speaker 1: ensured everyone followed the script. After a hit, they had

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Speaker 1: returned to their home base in Brooklyn, the police would

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Speaker 1: scramble to find a local killer, not realizing the murderer

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Speaker 1: wasn't tied to the victim and was no longer in

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Speaker 1: the state. The Commission's crime bosses always had a block

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Speaker 1: tight alibi when a hit went down. Between nineteen thirty

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Speaker 1: one and nineteen forty, Murder Incorporated was contracted for a

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Speaker 1: thousand hits, only two hundred of them in New York City.

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Speaker 1: Life was good for Lepki and Shapiro. Lepki got married

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Speaker 1: on March twentie of nineteen thirty one to Betty Wasserman,

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Speaker 1: a waitress who had caught his eye at a nightclub.

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Speaker 1: She had been married before, but then widowed. Lepki adopted

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Speaker 1: her young son as his own, and the three lived

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Speaker 1: in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park West. To occupy

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Speaker 1: her time, Betty ran a handbag many It all seems

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Speaker 1: like a Hollywood script for your average neighborhood crime boss family.

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Speaker 1: Things were about to get complicated, though. In the mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, at the height of Lepke's power, he arranged

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Speaker 1: his most significant murder yet. Dutch Schultz made his living

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Speaker 1: much like most other New York gangsters, bootlegging, tax evasion,

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Speaker 1: and restaurant owner extortion. He also ran an illicit lottery

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Speaker 1: fixed of course, of all his crimes, it was tax

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Speaker 1: evasion that got him into trouble with the courts and

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Speaker 1: the toughest nails prosecutor by the name of Thomas Dewey.

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Speaker 1: But by the time Schultz finally made it to trial,

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Speaker 1: in four Dewey had left the d a's office. The

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Speaker 1: trial ended in a hung jury. Despite the clearly damning evidence,

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Speaker 1: Schultz didn't seem particularly surprised with the outcome. He painted

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Speaker 1: himself as a good man who did good things for

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Speaker 1: the community whom the government had unfairly targeted. He gave

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Speaker 1: toys to sick children and donated to charities with anti

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Speaker 1: government sediment running high. His lies and misdirection worked, but

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Speaker 1: his freedom came at a cost, and Schultz didn't have

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Speaker 1: the money for the payoff. Taking from the committee would

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Speaker 1: be a death sentence, so he stiffed his subordinates instead,

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Speaker 1: mainly his runners. It didn't take long for word to

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Speaker 1: reach upper level bosses that the runners weren't getting paid.

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Speaker 1: Schultz claimed it was an oversight. No one particularly bought

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Speaker 1: his excuse, and it permanently damaged his relationship with the gang.

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Speaker 1: To make matters worse, Mayor Enrico Le Guardia ordered Schultz's

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Speaker 1: arrest if he ever stepped foot in New York City again,

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Speaker 1: forcing him to move to New Jersey. Not long after that,

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Speaker 1: Dewey came back to the d a's office and began

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Speaker 1: working on an air tight case to convict him. All

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Speaker 1: the attention didn't put Schultz on Luciano's good side, and

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Speaker 1: in a tempt to show he was loyal, he converted

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Speaker 1: to Roman Catholicism, and then he asked for a favor

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Speaker 1: a hit on Prosecutor Dewey. Lepki didn't like the idea.

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Speaker 1: It was too high a profile. He argued it would

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Speaker 1: bring too much attention. Luciano agreed with Lepkei Schultz was furious,

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Speaker 1: threatening that if Murder Incorporated didn't take care of Dewey,

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Speaker 1: he would do it himself. In fact, he went directly

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Speaker 1: to several men in the organization to stake out the

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Speaker 1: Prosecutor's building. The committee met to discuss the situation. In

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Speaker 1: the end, they decided to eliminate Schultz. Two Murder Incorporated

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Speaker 1: hit men walked into the Palace chop House restaurant on

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Speaker 1: October and opened fire on his bodyguards. They found Schultz

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Speaker 1: in the bathroom and shot him as well. The bodyguards

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00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,080
Speaker 1: died within a couple of hours, and Schultz died from

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Speaker 1: his injuries a day later. His guts had been ruptured.

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Speaker 1: For the committee, the Proud Bloom appeared to be solved.

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Speaker 1: Thomas Dewey however, had other plans. What had happened was this,

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Speaker 1: After watching the city's growing crime rate and corruption within

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Speaker 1: the government, Thomas Dewey left his comfortable job in a

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Speaker 1: private law firm to return as special prosecutor at the

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Speaker 1: District Attorney's office. In fairness, the job had been offered

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Speaker 1: to others, but considering the Committee and the other crime

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Speaker 1: bosses in the area, no one wanted the job. Dewey

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Speaker 1: was smart, highly motivated, dedicated, and darn good at his job,

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Speaker 1: which was bad news for New York's underworld. And still

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Speaker 1: he had his work cut out for him. District Attorney

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Speaker 1: William Copeland Dodge was rumored to be in the mob's pocket,

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Speaker 1: and despite the rumors, Dewey's first order of business was

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Speaker 1: to take down Luciano, and in nineteen thirty six he

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Speaker 1: managed to do just that. He collected enough evidence to

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Speaker 1: put the mob boss away for fifty years. Though Lucciano

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Speaker 1: was behind bars, Murder Incorporated continued to thrive. Lappy hunted

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Speaker 1: down those he thought might be working with Dewey, including

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Speaker 1: a former garment industry worker who would refuse to leave town.

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Speaker 1: With Schultz gone and Luciano behind bars, Dewey set his

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Speaker 1: sights unlep Key and Shapiro. While he wanted them for

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Speaker 1: their roles and murder incorporated, he had them arrested for

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Speaker 1: outstanding antitrust charges from nineteen thirty three. The two were

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Speaker 1: found guilty of racketeering on November eighth of nineteen thirty six.

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Speaker 1: The judge handed them each a two year sentence and

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Speaker 1: a ten thousand dollar fine. Dewey was ecstatic, though that

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00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,800
Speaker 1: was short lived when he learned the men's defense team

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Speaker 1: had appealed and asked for bail. Though he presented his

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Speaker 1: concerns to the judge, the men were free within twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours. Leppi and Shapiro had two choices run or

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Speaker 1: serve their sentences. In the interest of the crime families,

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Speaker 1: the committee strongly suggested they serve their time to keep

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Speaker 1: the d A Offices Star prosecutor from digging further. On

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00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,200
Speaker 1: a hunch, Dewey took a closer look at the judge

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Speaker 1: who had let Lepki and Shapiro walk. He discovered the

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00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,480
Speaker 1: men had given the judge a twenty five thousand dollar loan.

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00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:27,960
Speaker 1: He also uncovered a long list of cases where the

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Speaker 1: judge had profited more than four hundred thousand dollars on

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Speaker 1: altering verdicts. The scandal lost the judge his job and

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00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:40,080
Speaker 1: landed him behind bars. For New York's underworld, Dewey was

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00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:43,640
Speaker 1: upsetting their way of life. Since they couldn't take him out,

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00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: they took or threatened witnesses. Soon, with a lack of witnesses,

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00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,159
Speaker 1: any case had been building against Lepki and Shapiro nearly

300
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Speaker 1: fell apart. Max Reuben had been one of Lepki's top men,

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00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:01,440
Speaker 1: well educated and good at paying attention to details. Rubens

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00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:04,919
Speaker 1: saw the Domino's falling. In the best interests of his

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00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,879
Speaker 1: own skin, he made a deal. He appeared before the

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Speaker 1: grand jury on September seventeenth of ninety seven and told

305
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Speaker 1: the court everything the racketeering, bribes, murders, violent takeovers, and

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00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:24,040
Speaker 1: the names of Lepti's connections from kingpins to politicians. Leptin

307
00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:27,680
Speaker 1: and Shapiro were found guilty. Instead of serving their time,

308
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,280
Speaker 1: both men made a run for it. However, hiding from

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00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:35,320
Speaker 1: their problems didn't make them disappear. Had also been indicted

310
00:20:35,359 --> 00:20:38,600
Speaker 1: for extorting bakeries and a slew of new racketeering charges

311
00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:42,200
Speaker 1: that would guarantee a harsher sentence. To top it off,

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00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:45,959
Speaker 1: the FBI's Narcotics Division uncovered evidence that lept had been

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Speaker 1: involved in a drug ring and bribery of US customs officials,

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00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,720
Speaker 1: and recovered ten million dollars worth of heroin. The Lower

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00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,320
Speaker 1: Players and Murder Incorporated also saw the writing on the

316
00:20:56,320 --> 00:21:00,000
Speaker 1: wall and turned state's evidence. By the end of nineteen

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00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,960
Speaker 1: thirty seven, thirty one people, including Lepki, were indicted on

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Speaker 1: drug smuggling charges. The FBI had an all out man

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00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,159
Speaker 1: hunt for the fugitives. They applied pressure on contacts, family,

320
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,080
Speaker 1: and friends, as well as locking down the men's assets.

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00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:20,400
Speaker 1: Shapiro surrendered on April fourteenth of nineteen thirty eight. Lepki

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00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:24,840
Speaker 1: did not. The story spread Before long, it seemed every

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00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,000
Speaker 1: law enforcement agency in the country was looking for him.

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00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:31,520
Speaker 1: They had no idea he hadn't fled the state, the country,

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00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,479
Speaker 1: or even the city. Lepki was hiding exactly where no

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00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 1: one expected him to be, Dewey's backyard. Not literally, mind you,

327
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:45,560
Speaker 1: but Lepki had more contacts than anyone knew. He hid

328
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Speaker 1: an apartments above Italian restaurants and in various mob widows

329
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:53,199
Speaker 1: back rooms. He called in every favor he could, and

330
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,719
Speaker 1: he was still doing business with Murder Incorporated. His boss, Anastasia,

331
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 1: kept the whole operation moving as though nothing had changed.

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00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:07,160
Speaker 1: Alepp continued to heavily target those who turned against him.

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00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,359
Speaker 1: A hit on Max Reuben failed. He survived a shot

334
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:14,119
Speaker 1: to the head and continued his testimony. Another hitman mistakenly

335
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 1: took out the wrong person, killing a witnesses look alike instead.

336
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,480
Speaker 1: Alepke's attempt to tie up loose ends had started to unravel.

337
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,440
Speaker 1: Twenty of New York's finest were devoted to tracking him down.

338
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 1: The city offered a dollar reward, the FBI up to

339
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:35,880
Speaker 1: the reward to five hundred thousand. Everyone expected a quick

340
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:38,760
Speaker 1: capture with such a price on Lepki's head, but it

341
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:43,080
Speaker 1: didn't happen. It took an entire year before Lepke turned

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00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:58,879
Speaker 1: himself in. Dewey ensured that all testifying witnesses pad a

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00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 1: police bodyguard, though that didn't always work out. By nine

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00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 1: and with Lepkey still in the wind, resources were strained.

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00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,920
Speaker 1: Rumors flew that had fled to Poland and then to Palestine.

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00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 1: A radio host, Walter Winchell, broadcasted messages in case Lepke

347
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 1: was listening surrender. The radio host said, and the crime

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00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,640
Speaker 1: boss would have safe passage overseas. As it turned out,

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00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:28,639
Speaker 1: LEPKEI had been listening. One day, he turned himself in

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Speaker 1: directly to J. Edgar Hoover in front of a Manhattan hotel,

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Speaker 1: and he thought he would face lesser charges and serve

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00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,240
Speaker 1: a maximum of ten years. Of course, Winchell and the

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Speaker 1: FBI had never offered such a deal. He was found

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Speaker 1: guilty of narcotics trafficking and sentenced to fourteen years in

355
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,280
Speaker 1: federal prison. But New York wasn't done yet. They tried

356
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Speaker 1: him on labor extortion. Soon Lepke was staring down thirty

357
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:58,720
Speaker 1: to life and that was just the beginning. After being

358
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:02,200
Speaker 1: transferred to Leavenworth in Kansas to begin his sentence, he

359
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: was indicted for the murder of a Los Angeles mobster

360
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 1: and casino owner. Then in late ninety one, he was

361
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: again indicted from murder three to be exact, A Brellis,

362
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: who had once handed him hit lists, turned state's evidence

363
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 1: against him. Lup Key was found guilty and sentenced to death.

364
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: His defense team went to the Supreme Court, but in

365
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:28,639
Speaker 1: the end they upheld the conviction. Alepkey was transferred to

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Speaker 1: Sing Singh to await execution. On March four of guards

367
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: led him to the electric chair a lepki, The man

368
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: who had enjoyed the thrill of being king of Murder Incorporated,

369
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 1: pleaded for his life, and, like his victims, those please

370
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,480
Speaker 1: fell on deaf ears. He would be the only crime

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00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 1: boss to die by electrocution. There's more to this story.

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Speaker 1: Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all

373
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 1: about it. Aside from execution style and drive by shootings,

374
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:18,679
Speaker 1: Murder Incorporated hitmen employed another method of murder ice picks.

375
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,199
Speaker 1: Assassins like a Brellis and Irving Cohen would ran the

376
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: ice pick through the target's ear and into their brain.

377
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: No one noticed an ice pick or heard a gunshot.

378
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:34,919
Speaker 1: It was simple, effective and brutal. But regardless of the method,

379
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,399
Speaker 1: escaping a hit was usually futile, and for those on

380
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,879
Speaker 1: the inside, leaving the company alive was unheard of, but

381
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 1: Cohen managed to do just that. In July, the mob

382
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: learned that underling Walter Sage had been skimming profits from

383
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 1: the slot machines and the Catskill Mountains. Intending to show

384
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: him the error of his ways, they sent Cohen and

385
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:02,800
Speaker 1: another hitman, Jack Drucker, to pay Sage a little visit.

386
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: The two hitmen arrived at the Hotel Ambassador and the

387
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,239
Speaker 1: Cat Skills in a stolen green packard driven by an

388
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: unknown third party. Cohen was an old acquaintance, so Sage

389
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: unsuspectingly slid into the passenger seat while Cohen and Drucker

390
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,399
Speaker 1: sat in the back. He also couldn't have suspected another hitman,

391
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: pretty Levine, was following them. Halfway to their destination, Cohen

392
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: grabbed Sage around the neck and Drucker repeatedly stabbed him

393
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: with an ice pick. Sage managed to yank the steering wheel,

394
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:36,920
Speaker 1: sending the car out of control and into a ditch.

395
00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: The stabbings continued, thirty two of them before Sage stopped fighting.

396
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: All of this was par for the murder incorporated course,

397
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: but then something truly unexpected happened. Cohen bolted. We can

398
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: all understand if he felt a bit jittery. He had

399
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: just helped carry out the murder of a close friend,

400
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 1: and he was bleeding, and during the struggle, Drucker had

401
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 1: struck Cohen as well. Seeing as he was friends with Sage,

402
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 1: Cohen worried that Drucker and Levine had meant to target

403
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 1: him too. In a moment of panic, he ran from

404
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: the car into the woods. Now on the run, he

405
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: figured his best bet would be to put as many

406
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: miles between him and Brooklyn as possible. He headed to

407
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,720
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, where he met heavyweight prize fighter turned actor

408
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,919
Speaker 1: Maxie Rosenbloom. Living under the assumed name Jack Gordon, Cohen

409
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: began landing acting parts in small studio productions. Of course,

410
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,159
Speaker 1: he always played gangsters, a role he must have found

411
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: rather easy. Oddly enough, years later, Francis Ford Coppola drew

412
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:46,960
Speaker 1: inspiration from a few movies Cohen had acted in. Cohen

413
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 1: didn't contact any of his friends or family back home

414
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 1: in New York. Even though he was landing acting roles.

415
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: No one recognized him, and no one knew where he

416
00:27:54,960 --> 00:28:00,040
Speaker 1: had gone. For two years, until one afternoon, Levine and

417
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:04,360
Speaker 1: another associate decided to catch a movie The Golden Boy.

418
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,640
Speaker 1: Neither man could believe their eyes. While watching the climactic

419
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 1: boxing scene, they noticed Cohen in the crowd. The two

420
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 1: immediately reported what they had seen, but no one believed them.

421
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: They insisted that the man playing the part of a

422
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: bystander didn't just look like Cohen, it was him. Their

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00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,880
Speaker 1: bosses finally relented to watch the late showing the next day,

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Speaker 1: all joking that if crime didn't pay that head out

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00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: to Hollywood. After the showing, they agreed that yes, Cohen

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00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: was alive and in Hollywood, and naturally he couldn't be

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00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 1: allowed to just leave Murder Incorporated. Knowing all he knew.

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00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 1: They dispatched one of their best to Los Angeles to

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00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: take care of the problem, but word about Cohen's career

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00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 1: change traveled fast, and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office made

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00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,719
Speaker 1: a phone call out West. Deputies found him in an

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00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,960
Speaker 1: apartment playing cards with friends just across from the Paramounts

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00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 1: duty as lot he just landed a role in the

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00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:06,239
Speaker 1: movie The Seahawk with Errol Flynn. As they handcuffed him,

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00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: Cohen told the deputies that he had played a cop once.

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00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,680
Speaker 1: During the trial in New York, Levine told the court

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00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: that he had watched Cohen help murder sage. The testimony

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00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: upset Cohen so much that he broke down sobbing, causing

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00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 1: the judge to call for a short recess. The defense

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00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 1: insisted that Levine wasn't exactly the most reliable witness and

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00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: asked the jury if they thought his word was gospel

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00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:33,479
Speaker 1: enough to send Cohen to the electric chair. And they didn't,

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00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: and so Cohen returned to Los Angeles to live out

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00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: his days as Jack Gordon. Working for decades as an actor,

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00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,760
Speaker 1: he appeared in such classic shows as Bonanza, Gun Spoke,

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00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 1: The Virginian, and even several episodes of Perry Mason, where

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00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 1: I Believe It or not, he played a specific type

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00:29:52,440 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: of character, hitman and Gangsters. American Shadows is hosted by

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00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched

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00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young,

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00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,560
Speaker 1: with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

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Speaker 1: To learn more about the show, visit grim and mil

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00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the

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00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

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00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:28,680
Speaker 1: podcasts