Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Gangsters, the Mob,
Speaker 1: the mafia, we love to hate them. When we think
Speaker 1: of mobsters, we think of films like The Godfather or
Speaker 1: people like Al Capone. Perhaps it's because Hollywood often paints
Speaker 1: the picture that no matter how ruthless they are, they
Speaker 1: have a code of honor. Or maybe we just want
Speaker 1: to hear their stories. And the rapidly growing and ever
Speaker 1: changing America of the eighteen twenties, street gangs flourished, especially
Speaker 1: in New York City. Historians are credit this rise in
Speaker 1: the early nineteenth century to two things, the Industrial Revolution
Speaker 1: and the large influx of immigrant workers. Ironically, Americans weren't
Speaker 1: very tolerant of people coming to the United States in
Speaker 1: search of a better life, and whatever ethnicity seemed to
Speaker 1: be the majority arriving. Name calling, stereotyping, and all that
Speaker 1: goes with racism and xenophobia prevailed tension and fear fracture communities.
Speaker 1: Historians and those who study in the field of human
Speaker 1: behavior agree anytime a society faces division, extremest groups appear
Speaker 1: and get people riled up about the economy, on top
Speaker 1: of those fears, and it's a powder keg one that
Speaker 1: unscrupulous corporations, politicians, and individuals take advantage of. Edward Coleman
Speaker 1: was one of those people. Tall and intimidating, he ruled
Speaker 1: the Forty Thieves gang in New York City with a
Speaker 1: combination of promise and terror. He targeted children living on
Speaker 1: the streets, regardless of race. Often neglected and underfed, He
Speaker 1: took them in, promising them food and shelter. No such
Speaker 1: manipulation would be complete without instilling that the gang was
Speaker 1: family and society were the outsiders. He made sure they
Speaker 1: knew he had stepped in to help them when society
Speaker 1: had not. The children trusted him, and he used that
Speaker 1: trust to his advantage. He used children to squeeze through
Speaker 1: windows too small for adults. Those showing loyalty were given
Speaker 1: better roles within the gang. Their favorite spot to pickpocket
Speaker 1: steel and otherwise worked their trades was the Five Points neighborhood.
Speaker 1: The community consisted of mostly immigrants who had little police protection,
Speaker 1: making it an easy choice. The gang set up headquarters
Speaker 1: in the back of the Center Street grocery, where owner
Speaker 1: Rosanna Piers worked out a deal with the gang She
Speaker 1: made good money selling anything from stolen goods to rock
Speaker 1: gut whiskey. Every job and every penny the gang brought
Speaker 1: in was evenly distributed. Those who failed to pull their weight,
Speaker 1: or anyone thought to be stiffing group were dealt with
Speaker 1: in the harshest of terms. And if you're asking how
Speaker 1: Coleman could order the beatings or murder of gang members
Speaker 1: and have the others still be loyal to him, well,
Speaker 1: that's sadly how abusers work. He might have made the
Speaker 1: kids and other gang members believed they were family, but
Speaker 1: no one was exempt from his rules, not even his wife.
Speaker 1: And she had once worked as a street vendor, pedaling
Speaker 1: hot corn. Like most immigrants selling wares on the street,
Speaker 1: she was poor and Coleman offered her a way to
Speaker 1: make more money. But when Anne didn't meet the quota
Speaker 1: had set, he beat her badly enough that she died
Speaker 1: days later from her injuries. Police arrested Coleman, and after
Speaker 1: a short trial, the judge sentenced him to death by hanging.
Speaker 1: After his execution in eighteen thirty nine, the gang continued
Speaker 1: without him, finally disbanding in the early eighteen fifties, a
Speaker 1: few started their own gangs using the same methods to
Speaker 1: gain new member, but plenty of gang members had come
Speaker 1: from real families, good families. For them. It wasn't so
Speaker 1: much a sense of belonging they were looking for. It
Speaker 1: was a thrill and the rise to power. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.
Speaker 1: Welcome to American Shadows. Louis Boculter was the youngest of
Speaker 1: seven children, or maybe it was eleven, It depends on
Speaker 1: the source. A few facts are consistent though he was
Speaker 1: small for his age, intelligent, soft guyed, and very shy.
Speaker 1: His parents had fled the violence against the Jewish community
Speaker 1: in Russia. Though they weren't well off, his father earned
Speaker 1: a respectable living as the owner of a small hardware
Speaker 1: store in New York's Lower East Side in the eight nineties.
Speaker 1: His father worked long hours to provide for the sizeable family.
Speaker 1: The schooling was important, and his parents strived to make
Speaker 1: sure the children had an education. Like all parents, they
Speaker 1: wanted them to have the best tools to grow into
Speaker 1: successful adults, after all, But schooling alone isn't parenting, and
Speaker 1: with such long hours, Louis's father wasn't home much To
Speaker 1: make up for that. His mother doated on the children
Speaker 1: and gave them pet names. She called Louis her lep Cola,
Speaker 1: loosely the Yiddish for little Louis, and like most nick names,
Speaker 1: it became shortened over time. Before long, everyone just called
Speaker 1: him Lepkey. When he turned thirteen, his father died and
Speaker 1: the family struggled financially. Some of his older siblings left
Speaker 1: New York to strike out on their own. Lepke's mother
Speaker 1: did her best to make ends meet and ensure the
Speaker 1: rest of her children still did their school work. Without
Speaker 1: his disciplined father, Lepkey took advantage of his mother's soft
Speaker 1: method of parenting and at school. He refused to return
Speaker 1: despite the rest of the family's urging, and instead found
Speaker 1: himself a job as a delivery boy for three dollars
Speaker 1: a week. He also began to spend time with a
Speaker 1: variety of known troublemakers. By the time he turned fifteen,
Speaker 1: Leppi had committed a string of petty thefts and extortions.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twelve, his mother decided that New York wasn't
Speaker 1: the place to live any longer, and accepted an offer
Speaker 1: to move in with one of Lepke's older brothers in Colorado,
Speaker 1: A Lepki refused to go, claiming he'd stay with another relative.
Speaker 1: He assured his mother he would be fine, and she
Speaker 1: made the journey. Lepki moved as well, to a rented
Speaker 1: room on the Lower East Side with his friend Jacob Shapiro.
Speaker 1: While his sisters and brothers were excelling as dentists and
Speaker 1: rabbis and in other professions, nineteen year old Lepkeep stole
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars worth of goods and landed in a
Speaker 1: different room one in the Connecticut Reformery for two years.
Speaker 1: He convinced the war and that had just gotten caught
Speaker 1: up with the wrong crowd, and that at heart he
Speaker 1: was a good person. He claimed that the death of
Speaker 1: his father had affected him greatly and had just made
Speaker 1: a mistake. The lie fooled the warden, and Lepkey stant
Speaker 1: behind bars was reduced. Once out. Petty theft escalated to
Speaker 1: armed robbery and grand larceny, all before he turned twenty five.
Speaker 1: He rotated between gangs, joining whoever could serve his needs
Speaker 1: the most while he feigned allegiances. It was all for show,
Speaker 1: but it worked and he quickly moved up the ladder.
Speaker 1: For the time he was thirty five, had been arrested
Speaker 1: eleven times for everything from assault to homicide, and every
Speaker 1: single time he managed to avoid prison. He might not
Speaker 1: have been great at avoiding the cops, but he was
Speaker 1: exceptional at reading and playing people. Lepki and longtime friend
Speaker 1: Shapiro found employment as sluggers, Essentially. Businesses at the time
Speaker 1: often hired men to break up labor strikes by whatever
Speaker 1: means possible, including extreme violence. When workers went on strike
Speaker 1: for better pay, time off benefits, or safety concerns, the
Speaker 1: sluggers went into the crowds with pipes and clubs. In turn,
Speaker 1: unions hired their own sluggers, and the fights escalated on
Speaker 1: both sides until guns became as common as bludgeons. Lepkey
Speaker 1: was small, the hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet that
Speaker 1: meant he wasn't well suited for brawls. While he lacked
Speaker 1: in physical strength, he made up in other ways, namely
Speaker 1: his ability to organize, scheme and motivate others. New York's
Speaker 1: Garment district became a hotbed of strikes and violence, and
Speaker 1: lepp Key found a way to make the most of it.
Speaker 1: He earned a hundred and fifty dollars for breaking up
Speaker 1: small sweatshops and six hundred for larger ones, with sixty
Speaker 1: dollars for shooting someone in the leg two hundred for
Speaker 1: breaking a union boss's arm or throwing them down an
Speaker 1: elevator shaft. Lepkey, Shapiro and the fellow slugger named the
Speaker 1: Holtz thought infiltrating the unions wouldn't let them even more money.
Speaker 1: Their boss, Jacob Augie Organ, disagreed. He wanted to stick
Speaker 1: to their tried and true methods. The men got along
Speaker 1: with their boss and played by his rules for a while.
Speaker 1: That changed when Aggie was offered fifty thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: end to strike by threatening to kill the union leaders. Lepki, Shapiro,
Speaker 1: and Holtz believed cultivating the union leaders would work better.
Speaker 1: Aggie cut them out of the deal and turned to
Speaker 1: another gang, the Diamond Brothers, to accomplish his goal. As
Speaker 1: you might imagine, that didn't sit well with Lepki and
Speaker 1: the others. On October fifteenth, seven, Aggie and Jack Diamond
Speaker 1: were driving on the Lower east Side when another car
Speaker 1: cut them off. Three men jumped out an opened fire
Speaker 1: on Aggie and Diamond. Aggie died on the spot, but
Speaker 1: Diamond survived. During the police interrogation, he refused to name
Speaker 1: the three men who had shot at them, knowing the
Speaker 1: clo this relation Aggie had with Lepki, Shapiro, and Holtz.
Speaker 1: They were questioned well naturally, they had an alibi. All
Speaker 1: three men claimed they were at the movies together at
Speaker 1: the time of the shooting. Lepki had taken out his
Speaker 1: former friend and boss, effectively putting himself in power, but
Speaker 1: that didn't mean there wouldn't be consequences. On November nineteenth,
Speaker 1: one of Aggie's most loyal men shot and killed Holtz
Speaker 1: in a drive by shooting. Lepki found out who had
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger and had him killed, then announced he'd
Speaker 1: be taking over as the gang's new boss. Lepki and
Speaker 1: Shapiro changed the way the business worked. Where Aggie had
Speaker 1: taken on any client with a paycheck, the new bosses
Speaker 1: were more discerning. They set their sights on the garment trade,
Speaker 1: which expanded their territory beyond the boroughs, narrowing their scope,
Speaker 1: and they established themselves into other states Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: Instead of plane brute force, Lepke added bribery. The combination
Speaker 1: altered labor racketeering, giving him solid leverage in the garment industry.
Speaker 1: By nine there were fifty enforcers, bookkeepers, and foremen, bringing
Speaker 1: in millions for Lepki and Shapiro. By the two had
Speaker 1: a monopoly on extortion in the industry. Lepti assimilated smaller gangs.
Speaker 1: Like many big city crime bosses, he subscribed to the
Speaker 1: murder in Mayhem style of controlling his ranks. He became
Speaker 1: so proficient journalists began reporting Lepke's business as Murder Incorporated.
Speaker 1: As you might guess, all of this attracted the attention
Speaker 1: of New York's most influential mob bosses. Five Italian families
Speaker 1: known as the Commission, had established themselves as the governing
Speaker 1: body for the American Mafia. The head of one of
Speaker 1: those families, marious mobster Lucky Luciano, authorized Lepkey's boss status,
Speaker 1: but at a cost. Leppi and his organization would become
Speaker 1: the mafia's enforcement squad. As a retainer for their services,
Speaker 1: Murder Incorporate had received twelve thousand dollars yearly to be
Speaker 1: on call day or night. While the Commission could have
Speaker 1: easily put in their own men, they liked Lepkey. He
Speaker 1: had a way of conning people, ruled with an iron
Speaker 1: fist and was heartlessly brutal. He also had no problem
Speaker 1: sending his men anywhere in the country for hits. To
Speaker 1: distance the families from the hired help. For reasons of
Speaker 1: plausible deniability, Luciano had lep Key report to a Brooklyn
Speaker 1: mobster by the name of Albert Anastasia. Layers between the
Speaker 1: men made it difficult for the legal system to prove
Speaker 1: anyone's involvement. If one went to prison, would be less
Speaker 1: likely to implicate the others. It had worked so far.
Speaker 1: As a layer between Lepkey and his boss, mafia hitman
Speaker 1: Abe Rellis, paired Murder Incorporated's hitmen to various jobs. Lepki
Speaker 1: ensured everyone followed the script. After a hit, they had
Speaker 1: returned to their home base in Brooklyn, the police would
Speaker 1: scramble to find a local killer, not realizing the murderer
Speaker 1: wasn't tied to the victim and was no longer in
Speaker 1: the state. The Commission's crime bosses always had a block
Speaker 1: tight alibi when a hit went down. Between nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: one and nineteen forty, Murder Incorporated was contracted for a
Speaker 1: thousand hits, only two hundred of them in New York City.
Speaker 1: Life was good for Lepki and Shapiro. Lepki got married
Speaker 1: on March twentie of nineteen thirty one to Betty Wasserman,
Speaker 1: a waitress who had caught his eye at a nightclub.
Speaker 1: She had been married before, but then widowed. Lepki adopted
Speaker 1: her young son as his own, and the three lived
Speaker 1: in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park West. To occupy
Speaker 1: her time, Betty ran a handbag many It all seems
Speaker 1: like a Hollywood script for your average neighborhood crime boss family.
Speaker 1: Things were about to get complicated, though. In the mid
Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, at the height of Lepke's power, he arranged
Speaker 1: his most significant murder yet. Dutch Schultz made his living
Speaker 1: much like most other New York gangsters, bootlegging, tax evasion,
Speaker 1: and restaurant owner extortion. He also ran an illicit lottery
Speaker 1: fixed of course, of all his crimes, it was tax
Speaker 1: evasion that got him into trouble with the courts and
Speaker 1: the toughest nails prosecutor by the name of Thomas Dewey.
Speaker 1: But by the time Schultz finally made it to trial,
Speaker 1: in four Dewey had left the d a's office. The
Speaker 1: trial ended in a hung jury. Despite the clearly damning evidence,
Speaker 1: Schultz didn't seem particularly surprised with the outcome. He painted
Speaker 1: himself as a good man who did good things for
Speaker 1: the community whom the government had unfairly targeted. He gave
Speaker 1: toys to sick children and donated to charities with anti
Speaker 1: government sediment running high. His lies and misdirection worked, but
Speaker 1: his freedom came at a cost, and Schultz didn't have
Speaker 1: the money for the payoff. Taking from the committee would
Speaker 1: be a death sentence, so he stiffed his subordinates instead,
Speaker 1: mainly his runners. It didn't take long for word to
Speaker 1: reach upper level bosses that the runners weren't getting paid.
Speaker 1: Schultz claimed it was an oversight. No one particularly bought
Speaker 1: his excuse, and it permanently damaged his relationship with the gang.
Speaker 1: To make matters worse, Mayor Enrico Le Guardia ordered Schultz's
Speaker 1: arrest if he ever stepped foot in New York City again,
Speaker 1: forcing him to move to New Jersey. Not long after that,
Speaker 1: Dewey came back to the d a's office and began
Speaker 1: working on an air tight case to convict him. All
Speaker 1: the attention didn't put Schultz on Luciano's good side, and
Speaker 1: in a tempt to show he was loyal, he converted
Speaker 1: to Roman Catholicism, and then he asked for a favor
Speaker 1: a hit on Prosecutor Dewey. Lepki didn't like the idea.
Speaker 1: It was too high a profile. He argued it would
Speaker 1: bring too much attention. Luciano agreed with Lepkei Schultz was furious,
Speaker 1: threatening that if Murder Incorporated didn't take care of Dewey,
Speaker 1: he would do it himself. In fact, he went directly
Speaker 1: to several men in the organization to stake out the
Speaker 1: Prosecutor's building. The committee met to discuss the situation. In
Speaker 1: the end, they decided to eliminate Schultz. Two Murder Incorporated
Speaker 1: hit men walked into the Palace chop House restaurant on
Speaker 1: October and opened fire on his bodyguards. They found Schultz
Speaker 1: in the bathroom and shot him as well. The bodyguards
Speaker 1: died within a couple of hours, and Schultz died from
Speaker 1: his injuries a day later. His guts had been ruptured.
Speaker 1: For the committee, the Proud Bloom appeared to be solved.
Speaker 1: Thomas Dewey however, had other plans. What had happened was this,
Speaker 1: After watching the city's growing crime rate and corruption within
Speaker 1: the government, Thomas Dewey left his comfortable job in a
Speaker 1: private law firm to return as special prosecutor at the
Speaker 1: District Attorney's office. In fairness, the job had been offered
Speaker 1: to others, but considering the Committee and the other crime
Speaker 1: bosses in the area, no one wanted the job. Dewey
Speaker 1: was smart, highly motivated, dedicated, and darn good at his job,
Speaker 1: which was bad news for New York's underworld. And still
Speaker 1: he had his work cut out for him. District Attorney
Speaker 1: William Copeland Dodge was rumored to be in the mob's pocket,
Speaker 1: and despite the rumors, Dewey's first order of business was
Speaker 1: to take down Luciano, and in nineteen thirty six he
Speaker 1: managed to do just that. He collected enough evidence to
Speaker 1: put the mob boss away for fifty years. Though Lucciano
Speaker 1: was behind bars, Murder Incorporated continued to thrive. Lappy hunted
Speaker 1: down those he thought might be working with Dewey, including
Speaker 1: a former garment industry worker who would refuse to leave town.
Speaker 1: With Schultz gone and Luciano behind bars, Dewey set his
Speaker 1: sights unlep Key and Shapiro. While he wanted them for
Speaker 1: their roles and murder incorporated, he had them arrested for
Speaker 1: outstanding antitrust charges from nineteen thirty three. The two were
Speaker 1: found guilty of racketeering on November eighth of nineteen thirty six.
Speaker 1: The judge handed them each a two year sentence and
Speaker 1: a ten thousand dollar fine. Dewey was ecstatic, though that
Speaker 1: was short lived when he learned the men's defense team
Speaker 1: had appealed and asked for bail. Though he presented his
Speaker 1: concerns to the judge, the men were free within twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. Leppi and Shapiro had two choices run or
Speaker 1: serve their sentences. In the interest of the crime families,
Speaker 1: the committee strongly suggested they serve their time to keep
Speaker 1: the d A Offices Star prosecutor from digging further. On
Speaker 1: a hunch, Dewey took a closer look at the judge
Speaker 1: who had let Lepki and Shapiro walk. He discovered the
Speaker 1: men had given the judge a twenty five thousand dollar loan.
Speaker 1: He also uncovered a long list of cases where the
Speaker 1: judge had profited more than four hundred thousand dollars on
Speaker 1: altering verdicts. The scandal lost the judge his job and
Speaker 1: landed him behind bars. For New York's underworld, Dewey was
Speaker 1: upsetting their way of life. Since they couldn't take him out,
Speaker 1: they took or threatened witnesses. Soon, with a lack of witnesses,
Speaker 1: any case had been building against Lepki and Shapiro nearly
Speaker 1: fell apart. Max Reuben had been one of Lepki's top men,
Speaker 1: well educated and good at paying attention to details. Rubens
Speaker 1: saw the Domino's falling. In the best interests of his
Speaker 1: own skin, he made a deal. He appeared before the
Speaker 1: grand jury on September seventeenth of ninety seven and told
Speaker 1: the court everything the racketeering, bribes, murders, violent takeovers, and
Speaker 1: the names of Lepti's connections from kingpins to politicians. Leptin
Speaker 1: and Shapiro were found guilty. Instead of serving their time,
Speaker 1: both men made a run for it. However, hiding from
Speaker 1: their problems didn't make them disappear. Had also been indicted
Speaker 1: for extorting bakeries and a slew of new racketeering charges
Speaker 1: that would guarantee a harsher sentence. To top it off,
Speaker 1: the FBI's Narcotics Division uncovered evidence that lept had been
Speaker 1: involved in a drug ring and bribery of US customs officials,
Speaker 1: and recovered ten million dollars worth of heroin. The Lower
Speaker 1: Players and Murder Incorporated also saw the writing on the
Speaker 1: wall and turned state's evidence. By the end of nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty seven, thirty one people, including Lepki, were indicted on
Speaker 1: drug smuggling charges. The FBI had an all out man
Speaker 1: hunt for the fugitives. They applied pressure on contacts, family,
Speaker 1: and friends, as well as locking down the men's assets.
Speaker 1: Shapiro surrendered on April fourteenth of nineteen thirty eight. Lepki
Speaker 1: did not. The story spread Before long, it seemed every
Speaker 1: law enforcement agency in the country was looking for him.
Speaker 1: They had no idea he hadn't fled the state, the country,
Speaker 1: or even the city. Lepki was hiding exactly where no
Speaker 1: one expected him to be, Dewey's backyard. Not literally, mind you,
Speaker 1: but Lepki had more contacts than anyone knew. He hid
Speaker 1: an apartments above Italian restaurants and in various mob widows
Speaker 1: back rooms. He called in every favor he could, and
Speaker 1: he was still doing business with Murder Incorporated. His boss, Anastasia,
Speaker 1: kept the whole operation moving as though nothing had changed.
Speaker 1: Alepp continued to heavily target those who turned against him.
Speaker 1: A hit on Max Reuben failed. He survived a shot
Speaker 1: to the head and continued his testimony. Another hitman mistakenly
Speaker 1: took out the wrong person, killing a witnesses look alike instead.
Speaker 1: Alepke's attempt to tie up loose ends had started to unravel.
Speaker 1: Twenty of New York's finest were devoted to tracking him down.
Speaker 1: The city offered a dollar reward, the FBI up to
Speaker 1: the reward to five hundred thousand. Everyone expected a quick
Speaker 1: capture with such a price on Lepki's head, but it
Speaker 1: didn't happen. It took an entire year before Lepke turned
Speaker 1: himself in. Dewey ensured that all testifying witnesses pad a
Speaker 1: police bodyguard, though that didn't always work out. By nine
Speaker 1: and with Lepkey still in the wind, resources were strained.
Speaker 1: Rumors flew that had fled to Poland and then to Palestine.
Speaker 1: A radio host, Walter Winchell, broadcasted messages in case Lepke
Speaker 1: was listening surrender. The radio host said, and the crime
Speaker 1: boss would have safe passage overseas. As it turned out,
Speaker 1: LEPKEI had been listening. One day, he turned himself in
Speaker 1: directly to J. Edgar Hoover in front of a Manhattan hotel,
Speaker 1: and he thought he would face lesser charges and serve
Speaker 1: a maximum of ten years. Of course, Winchell and the
Speaker 1: FBI had never offered such a deal. He was found
Speaker 1: guilty of narcotics trafficking and sentenced to fourteen years in
Speaker 1: federal prison. But New York wasn't done yet. They tried
Speaker 1: him on labor extortion. Soon Lepke was staring down thirty
Speaker 1: to life and that was just the beginning. After being
Speaker 1: transferred to Leavenworth in Kansas to begin his sentence, he
Speaker 1: was indicted for the murder of a Los Angeles mobster
Speaker 1: and casino owner. Then in late ninety one, he was
Speaker 1: again indicted from murder three to be exact, A Brellis,
Speaker 1: who had once handed him hit lists, turned state's evidence
Speaker 1: against him. Lup Key was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Speaker 1: His defense team went to the Supreme Court, but in
Speaker 1: the end they upheld the conviction. Alepkey was transferred to
Speaker 1: Sing Singh to await execution. On March four of guards
Speaker 1: led him to the electric chair a lepki, The man
Speaker 1: who had enjoyed the thrill of being king of Murder Incorporated,
Speaker 1: pleaded for his life, and, like his victims, those please
Speaker 1: fell on deaf ears. He would be the only crime
Speaker 1: boss to die by electrocution. There's more to this story.
Speaker 1: Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all
Speaker 1: about it. Aside from execution style and drive by shootings,
Speaker 1: Murder Incorporated hitmen employed another method of murder ice picks.
Speaker 1: Assassins like a Brellis and Irving Cohen would ran the
Speaker 1: ice pick through the target's ear and into their brain.
Speaker 1: No one noticed an ice pick or heard a gunshot.
Speaker 1: It was simple, effective and brutal. But regardless of the method,
Speaker 1: escaping a hit was usually futile, and for those on
Speaker 1: the inside, leaving the company alive was unheard of, but
Speaker 1: Cohen managed to do just that. In July, the mob
Speaker 1: learned that underling Walter Sage had been skimming profits from
Speaker 1: the slot machines and the Catskill Mountains. Intending to show
Speaker 1: him the error of his ways, they sent Cohen and
Speaker 1: another hitman, Jack Drucker, to pay Sage a little visit.
Speaker 1: The two hitmen arrived at the Hotel Ambassador and the
Speaker 1: Cat Skills in a stolen green packard driven by an
Speaker 1: unknown third party. Cohen was an old acquaintance, so Sage
Speaker 1: unsuspectingly slid into the passenger seat while Cohen and Drucker
Speaker 1: sat in the back. He also couldn't have suspected another hitman,
Speaker 1: pretty Levine, was following them. Halfway to their destination, Cohen
Speaker 1: grabbed Sage around the neck and Drucker repeatedly stabbed him
Speaker 1: with an ice pick. Sage managed to yank the steering wheel,
Speaker 1: sending the car out of control and into a ditch.
Speaker 1: The stabbings continued, thirty two of them before Sage stopped fighting.
Speaker 1: All of this was par for the murder incorporated course,
Speaker 1: but then something truly unexpected happened. Cohen bolted. We can
Speaker 1: all understand if he felt a bit jittery. He had
Speaker 1: just helped carry out the murder of a close friend,
Speaker 1: and he was bleeding, and during the struggle, Drucker had
Speaker 1: struck Cohen as well. Seeing as he was friends with Sage,
Speaker 1: Cohen worried that Drucker and Levine had meant to target
Speaker 1: him too. In a moment of panic, he ran from
Speaker 1: the car into the woods. Now on the run, he
Speaker 1: figured his best bet would be to put as many
Speaker 1: miles between him and Brooklyn as possible. He headed to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, where he met heavyweight prize fighter turned actor
Speaker 1: Maxie Rosenbloom. Living under the assumed name Jack Gordon, Cohen
Speaker 1: began landing acting parts in small studio productions. Of course,
Speaker 1: he always played gangsters, a role he must have found
Speaker 1: rather easy. Oddly enough, years later, Francis Ford Coppola drew
Speaker 1: inspiration from a few movies Cohen had acted in. Cohen
Speaker 1: didn't contact any of his friends or family back home
Speaker 1: in New York. Even though he was landing acting roles.
Speaker 1: No one recognized him, and no one knew where he
Speaker 1: had gone. For two years, until one afternoon, Levine and
Speaker 1: another associate decided to catch a movie The Golden Boy.
Speaker 1: Neither man could believe their eyes. While watching the climactic
Speaker 1: boxing scene, they noticed Cohen in the crowd. The two
Speaker 1: immediately reported what they had seen, but no one believed them.
Speaker 1: They insisted that the man playing the part of a
Speaker 1: bystander didn't just look like Cohen, it was him. Their
Speaker 1: bosses finally relented to watch the late showing the next day,
Speaker 1: all joking that if crime didn't pay that head out
Speaker 1: to Hollywood. After the showing, they agreed that yes, Cohen
Speaker 1: was alive and in Hollywood, and naturally he couldn't be
Speaker 1: allowed to just leave Murder Incorporated. Knowing all he knew.
Speaker 1: They dispatched one of their best to Los Angeles to
Speaker 1: take care of the problem, but word about Cohen's career
Speaker 1: change traveled fast, and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office made
Speaker 1: a phone call out West. Deputies found him in an
Speaker 1: apartment playing cards with friends just across from the Paramounts
Speaker 1: duty as lot he just landed a role in the
Speaker 1: movie The Seahawk with Errol Flynn. As they handcuffed him,
Speaker 1: Cohen told the deputies that he had played a cop once.
Speaker 1: During the trial in New York, Levine told the court
Speaker 1: that he had watched Cohen help murder sage. The testimony
Speaker 1: upset Cohen so much that he broke down sobbing, causing
Speaker 1: the judge to call for a short recess. The defense
Speaker 1: insisted that Levine wasn't exactly the most reliable witness and
Speaker 1: asked the jury if they thought his word was gospel
Speaker 1: enough to send Cohen to the electric chair. And they didn't,
Speaker 1: and so Cohen returned to Los Angeles to live out
Speaker 1: his days as Jack Gordon. Working for decades as an actor,
Speaker 1: he appeared in such classic shows as Bonanza, Gun Spoke,
Speaker 1: The Virginian, and even several episodes of Perry Mason, where
Speaker 1: I Believe It or not, he played a specific type
Speaker 1: of character, hitman and Gangsters. American Shadows is hosted by
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched
Speaker 1: by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young,
Speaker 1: with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: To learn more about the show, visit grim and mil
Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts