![]() ![]() For instance, the “Murder Twins” of Chicago, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, a prolific hitmen team during Prohibition, were found murdered together in 1929. Plenty of others, while seriously considered for inclusion, did not make the cut, but may be regarded as dishonorable mentions. The richness of their stories, amount of researchable detail and how they fit into a greater context of their times mattered more than simply the number of victims they chalked up. The selections are limited, the methodology subjective, to be sure. So, here is our list of the Top 5 most notorious hitmen in Mob history. Who are these hitmen, virtually all of them male, taking part in the most heinous aspects of organized crime? As people, they’re almost certainly psychopathic, unable to understand or consider the emotions of others, even tempted to resort to the classic, clichéd rationale before pulling the trigger: “It’s business, not personal.” The rival drug cartels of Mexico murder thousands of gangsters and innocent people a year, like Prohibition-era Chicago and New York on steroids. Mob hits, of course, continue from seemingly unstoppable transnational syndicates, such as the Italian ’Ndrangheta of Calabria. Today, tales of hitmen are mostly found in history books, at least in America. Hits directed by the American version of the Mafia – or La Cosa Nostra – reached Wild West proportions, mainly on the streets of New York and Chicago, in the 1920s and ’30s before peaking again in the ’70s and largely fading away by the ’90s. By the early 20th century, the lowest of characters among young Italian, Jewish, Irish and other immigrants in New York’s Lower East Side sought quick upward mobility within urban crime gangs, and easily turned to murder at the behest of Mob bosses. The use of contracted hitmen by organized crime emerged in the late 19th century with the arrival of the waves of Italian immigrants, including elements of the Sicilian Mafia, an ethnic-based crime network that basically created the modern practice of ordered killings. Murder was deemed necessary for syndicate bosses to end competition and keep control of money flowing from their rackets, to avenge hits by rival gangs, or to prevent a hoodlum or civilian from cooperating with the police and courts. Reles and other Mob torpedoes eliminated an estimated 1,000 people during that decade. The group of killers was hired by New York’s “Commission” of top crime family bosses throughout the 1930s. Reles killed without compunction for the paid hit squad dubbed “Murder Inc.” by the press. “You answered your own question,” Reles said. “Oh,” Turkus said, “after that I was all right I was used to it.” “It wasn’t so bad,” Turkus replied, “but I was still a little nervous.” “And how about your second case?” Reles said. Reles asked Turkus how he felt when he tried his first case as a lawyer. “Did your conscience ever bother you?” Turkus asked. One day, Turkus wanted to know how Reles, personally responsible for at least 11 murders, could kill so easily. Turkus with minute details of years-old Mob hits. The articulate and straight-shooting Reles regaled Assistant District Attorney Burton B. Abe Reles agreed to detail scores of crime syndicate shootings, stabbings and strangulations, not only in Brooklyn, but all over the country. John Binder Collectionįaced with more than 200 unsolved gangland murders in the Brooklyn area since the early 1930s, in 1940 the District Attorney’s Office found a veteran hitman ready to make a deal to avoid execution in the electric chair at New York’s Sing Sing prison. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929 in Chicago, but he was never prosecuted, in part because he had what the press called a “Blonde Alibi” – he was in a hotel with his girlfriend, Louise Rolfe, on the day of the shooting. Jack McGurn was suspected of masterminding the St.
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