Joe Bruno on the MobLouis “Lepke” Buchalter – The Only Mob Boss Ever to Be Executed By the GovernmentHe was bad to the bone from the time he was born. He swindled, he strong-armed and he killedmen with relish. In the end, for his many crimes, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter became toast in Sing Sing'selectric chair.Louis Buchalter was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on February 12, 1897. His parent wereRussian Jews and his father owned a hardware store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Buchalter led an uneventful life as a child. He often walked across the Williamsburg Bride with his father toaccompany him to work. His mother affectionately called him “Lepkeleh,” which is Yiddish for “LittleLouis.” His childhood friends shortened that to Lepke, a name which stuck with him for the rest of hislife.Lepke's life took a turn for the worst when he was 13. His father died unexpectedly, and hismother was so overwrought by her husband's death, her health began to seriously deteriorate. Doctorstold her she needed a change of climate to regain her health, so Lepke's mother left for Arizona,leaving Lepke in the charge of his older sister. Lepke, deeply resentful for being abandoned, wasimpossible for his sister to control. Soon he left school and started hanging out on the streets of theLower East Side, looking for trouble and mostly finding it. He hooked up with older gangsters, whotaught him how to rob and steal, and how to jack old ladies for their valuables. In 1915, Lepke wascaught robbing a store and sent to live with an uncle in Bridgeport, Connecticut. There he continuedhis thieving ways and was finally sent to a child reformatory in Cheshire.A few months later, Lepke, now barely 16, was back roaming the streets of the Lower EastSide. He took to stealing pushcarts, and one day, he tried to rob a pushcart that was already beingrobbed by another street tough named Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro. The two became fast friends and starteda relationship that would last the rest of their natural lives. Lepke and Shapiro teamed up and were themenace of the downtown pushcart owners. They tried to climb the latter to bigger scores, but in 1918,Lepke was caught robbing a downtown loft, and as a result, he was sent to Sing Sing Prison on a fiveyear sentence.Lepke's time in prison was the equivalent of a college education for criminals. When he wasreleased in 1923, at the age of 25, he was now a hardened thug, with the knowledge to make it big in alife of crime. He teamed up again with his old pal Shapiro and they decided they could make a mintselling “protection” to bakeries all throughout New York City. Other crooks called them “The GorillaBoys,” and Lepke and Shapiro convinced such big-time outfits like Gottfried's, Levy's, Fink's andCalifornia Pies, that they could prevent “crazy immigrants” from burning down their bakeries. Of course the crazy immigrants were “The Gorilla Boys” themselves, and those who did not pay protection indeed did get their bakeries burned down.The next step up for “The Gorilla Boys” was as schlammers, or leg breakers for the unions.Under their boss Little Augie Orgen, Lepke and Shapiro made a fine living keeping garment districtunion members in line. Orgen was annoyed by the competition from Dopey Benny Fein, who wasmuscling in on Orgen's union territories. So Orgen sent Lepke and Shapiro to straighten out Fein with bullets. The duo cornered Fein in a Bowery bar, but they were only able to wound him, while Shapirotook a bullet in the back. Orgen himself took care of Fein soon after, consolidating his hold on theunions. But then Lepke and Shapiro got the bright idea of taking care of their boss in the same manner that Orgen did to Fein. And that they did, filling Orgen with lead on a Lower East Side street, whileOrgen's bodyguard Jack “Legs” Diamond stood nearby, not doing much of a job protecting his boss.
Orgen's murder propelled “The Gorilla Boys” into the big time. They became instant stars inthe underworld, palling out with such mob greats as Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Frank Costello,Albert Anastasia, Dutch Schultz, Tommy Lucchese and Lucky Luciano. Their specialty was working both ends of the union deals; blackmailing owners into paying protection, and charging union member high fees, while skimming a nice cut for themselves off the top of an ever-growing pot of union cash.Industries such as the poultry business, garment center, restaurants and the cleaning and dieing businesses, paid Lepke and Shapiro, who had upwards of 250 thugs now working for them, anestimated $10 million a year just to stay in business. In order to show the government some legitimateincome to justify their luxurious lifestyles, Lepke and Shapiro, no longer called the “Gorilla Boys” butinstead the “Gold Dust Twins,” acquired legitimate businesses like Raleigh Manufacturing, the Pioneer Coat Factory and Greenberg and Shapiro.Lepke, along with Luciano, Schultz, Lansky, Siegel, Costello, Anastasia and Lucchese formeda national crime syndicate, which controlled every illegal activity in the northeast, and as far away asthe mid west. Of course, to have such an operation to continue to prosper and grow, some timesdissidents, inside and outside the group, need to be “straightened out,” or in other words -- killed. Thesyndicate put Lepke in charge of the murder department, with kill-crazy Anastasia as his underboss.They expertly ran what was called by the press, “Murder Incorporated.” Lepke employed gunsels likeAbe “Kid Twist” Reles, Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss, Happy Maione and Dasher Abbandando,amongst others, to travel wherever they were needed, to straighten out whatever person needed to bestraightened out.Trouble arrived for Lepke in the name of Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who hadalready jailed Luciano on a trumped-up prostitution charge. Dewey went after Lepke for his bakeryextortion rackets, but Dewey came down harder with the hammer, when he got the Federal NarcoticBureau to build a case involving Lepke in a massive drug smuggling operation. Figuring he was facing big time in the slammer, Lepke went on the lam. He was concealed in several Brooklyn hideouts byAnastasia, while his rackets were tended to by other member of the syndicate.Lepke's actions had an adverse affect on the rest of his pals. J. Edgar Hoover, obviouslyignoring that Hitler and Mussolini were wrecking havoc throughout the world, said Lepke was “themost dangerous man on earth.” As a result, a $50,000 reward was offered for Lepke's head. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia added to the heat, when he ordered his police commissioner Lewis J.Valentine to start a “war on hoodlums.” Things got so bad, a message was sent to Luciano, who wascooling his heels in the can, for some sage advice as how to handle the Lepke matter. Luciano decidedthat for the common good, Lepke, after nearly four years on the run, had to turn himself in and face themusic.The trick was how to convince a man, who was facing 30-years-to-life in prison, to givehimself up and take his medicine like a man. Luciano, ever the wily fox, constructed a plan, wherebyMoe “Dimples” Wolensky, a man Lepke trusted, convinced Lepke that a deal had been made withHoover, that he would be tried only on the narcotics charge and get five years in jail, at most. And if Lepke surrendered directly to Hoover, Dewey would then be out of the picture completely. Lepke hadhis doubts, and when he asked Anastasia for advice, Anastasia, obviously not in on the deal, toldLepke, “This deal sounds screwy. As long as they can't get you, they can't hurt you.”On August 5, 1940, gossip columnist and radio host Walter Winchell got a phone call at hisnightly stomping grounds, the Stork Club, at 3 East Fifty-Third Street. A gruff voice on the other endsaid, “Don't ask who I am, but Lepke wants to come in. Contact Hoover and tell him Lepke wants a
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Joe Bruno on the Mob - Louis “Lepke” Buchalter – The Only Mob Boss Ever to Be Executed By the Government
He was bad to the bone from the time he was born. He swindled, he strong-armed and he killed men with relish. In the end, for his many crimes, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter became toast in Sing Sing's electric chair.
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