Murder Incorporated – Fighting For Their Lives

Organized Crime and Punishment

Title: Murder Incorporated – Fighting For Their Lives

Original Publication Date: 7/26/2023

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Description: In this episodes, Mustache Chris and Steve delve into the notorious trials of Murder Incorporated. Uncover the shocking details of organized crime's most sinister enterprise, responsible for a wave of assassinations and violence during the mid-20th century. Join us as we explore the gripping courtroom dramas that unfolded as authorities sought to dismantle this lethal syndicate. From the high-profile trials of key members like Albert Anastasia and Louis Buchalter to the testimonies of witnesses and survivors, we unravel the web of corruption and brutality that defined Murder Incorporated. Tune in as we analyze the legal strategies, evidence, and the ultimate outcomes of these landmark cases that exposed the dark underbelly of organized crime in America. Brace yourself for a riveting journey into the trials that sought justice for the victims and challenged the formidable power of Murder Incorporated. #TrueCrimeStories #OrganizedCrime #MurderInc #Mobsters #CriminalUnderworld #Assassins #CrimeSyndicate #Hitmen #InfamousKillings #GanglandHistory #CrimeFamily #MafiaChronicles #ContractKillers #Crime

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Begin Transcript:

[00:00:00] Welcome to Organized Crime and Punishment, the best spot in town to hang out and talk about history and crime. With your hosts, Steve and Mustache, Chris.

Welcome back to the program, and thank you for joining Mustache, Chris and I as we weave our way through the fascinating story of Murder Incorporated. In this episode, we will explore the crazy trials that led to many members of Murder, Inc. Being sentenced to death and actually executed the strange death of Abe Ellis.

And finally, we try and figure out what was Murder Inc. Exactly. Each of these episodes in this series on Murder Inc. [00:01:00] Can be enjoyed and listened to individually, but altogether they tell, uh, and Weave a really fascinating story of Murder Incorporated the Mafia's killing Machine. Now, Chris, what ultimately begins the beginning of the End of Murder, Inc.

Yeah, it's pretty, I don't wanna say it's like typical, but it's usually like with these, uh, what of these mafia guys, it's usually like, Something small that ends up taking them out, really. And then in the part, in the case of Murder, Inc. It was actually, there was a criminal name, Harry, uh, Rudolph, who was actually, uh, he was up on charges for, um, this murder of, uh, 19 year old gangster Alex, uh, Alpert.

And, uh, I did a little research into this guy and apparently Alex had, I don't know, he had dissed Harry Strauss and a couple other Murder Inc. Guys. And. They ended up sh shooting him in, in 1933. And when his back was turned, [00:02:00] and I guess they had been investigating this, uh, murder for quite some time, uh, Harry, um, you know, fortunately for society didn't have a problem talking.

So he immediately started talking about, you know, like, I didn't do this. Uh, and he starts talking to the William o Dwyer, who is, uh, he's quite famous actually. He was the mayor of New York, uh, I believe. He ran twice, and I think he ended up becoming mayor of New York, uh, once and he eventually ended up becoming the ambassador to Mexico.

You know, he's a pretty big part of this story. Yeah. Al Dwyer was born in, uh, Mayo County in Ireland, uh, uh, and, uh, his academic life kind of led them to, he was studying to be, uh, studying the priesthood, which was, you know, fairly common for, uh, Irish, uh, young Irishmen at the time. Um, And he actually learned under the Jesuits and yeah, he learned Spanish while he, uh, was, uh, work, uh, learning under the Jesuits.

And uh, uh, [00:03:00] obviously I was wired and ended up becoming a priest. I think he said something like, I enjoyed riding my bike more than studying or something of this sort and, and the research than the books that I was reading on the subject. Um, Yeah. So he set sail to, uh, the United States. And, uh, yeah, he initially worked as like a hard laborer and then became a police officer at one point.

And, uh, uh, I, I actually was reading a story. He, he had some, um, altercation. It was like with some really kind of scummy guy that was, I believe he was like beating his wife and he was like, misuse, uh, abusing his kids or something like that. And this altercation, uh, led to, um, The man getting shot, and I believe he died.

And Aunt Dwyer ended up having like this lifelong aversion to guns and kind of like scarred him for the rest of his life. And it was pretty obvious from that. Like he wasn't cut off to be like a police officer on the street level. He just. Certain that people have the temperament for it, and other people, they, when they see that type of stuff, [00:04:00] they just, they can't do it.

Right. Um, yeah. And then while he was, uh, um, a police officer, he was actually studying at law school the entire time. And in 1923, opened up his own, uh, practice. Um, Would end up becoming quite successful. And uh, he ended up winning an election to become the, uh, the Brooklyn District Attorney, which would, uh, end up leading him, uh, kind of spearheading the, uh, murder Inc.

Investigation. So, uh, yeah, so it was a little side tour on o's Dwier. I think it's pretty important you get the little background on him just cause uh, he's a big part of the story. Right. Um, So, yeah, to get back to the main, uh, storyline, uh, you know, o Dwyer with the, uh, the testimony of Rudolph actually was actually, uh, able to secure first, uh, degree murder, uh, charges against, uh, Abe Ellis.

Martin Goldstein. And, uh, another gentleman we had mentioned before, but he ends up becoming really important. Anthony, uh, math [00:05:00] Tory. So like, yeah, back to my original point and, and what was probably just like a random hit of. Like a nobody really a 19 year old kid, like not important, like none of this really needed to happen.

This is really kind of what leads to downfall of murdering. It's pretty fascinating actually, the prosecution of secret organizations like this said, it isn't easy, especially when everybody, if you open up your mouth that you're gonna, there's a likelihood that you'll get killed. But what is the break that the prosecutors got?

That was able to help them crack this case? Well, Matt Tory was actually, he, he was the first guy he decided to talk and he straight up said like, I, you know, I wasn't involved in, uh, Alex hit, but, uh, Alex murder, but, you know, I was a driver in six gangling selling. So I, I can give you information on that, you know, if you guys leave me on alone.

Um, Then Mathe tore, convinced, uh, Abraham Levine, who was another guy, uh, not to bombard you guys with [00:06:00] names, but you, you, it's in this type of story. It, it's kind of hard to avoid. Uh, he also decided to, uh, talk and this kind of shows you just how important Omerta is. To the mafia. Um, because once it gets broken, like as soon as like one guy starts talking, this is people say like, well, why is the mafia so ruthless against people that maybe might be talking or what have you?

This is exactly the reason why, because all it took was really one guy to start talking and then it becomes another guy and then we'll see later becomes a guy that's much more important. Starts talking, this is why it's so roof. That's why it's so like important that it's capped because. Once that emeritus is broken, that, uh, trust that no one's going to talk.

The whole system just comes crumbling down like really fast. And we, we'll get into it in the eighties and the nineties, like the, with the, the real kind of downfall of, uh, the mafia. Um, that's basically what happened. [00:07:00] Everyone started talking and once that trust is broken, it's. It's not really a secret society anymore.

Um, yeah, so to kind of get back to the main story though, uh, once, uh, Matteto and Levine turned, uh, a couple other people turned and, but the big guy that ends up turning is, is a s uh, who've obviously talked about on all the, uh, previous episodes. Abe Ellis was the guy that kind of knew everything about.

Everything. And he says like he, he knew that everyone was gonna start talking. Like, you'll find out by the end of the episode. I'm not the biggest fan of, uh, ais, but, uh, he claims that he, like he knew everyone else was gonna start talking, but based off. The information I read, like, I don't know how a would know that.

Um, and he decided to turn when a, a gentleman by, uh, Burton Turkish, who actually wrote a book called Murder, murder Incorporated. He was kind of an assistant to Dwyer, where a lot of like the actual courtroom [00:08:00] activities and stuff like that, uh, Turkish would end up doing, uh, Yeah. Once Burden had done like his interrogation of Abe Abe, that's when Abe decided, you know what, I'm gonna start talking.

And, uh, yeah, burden's a, he's a fairly, uh, big character in the story, like I said, and much of what we know about, uh, murder Inc. Was, comes from his book really. Steve here we are a member of the Parthenon Podcast Network, featuring great shows like Richard Lims, this American President, and other great shows.

Go to parthenon podcast.com to learn more and hear is a quick word from our earths. Uh, thought. A couple of things stuck out with me with this is for one for Omerta. Everybody talks about how Joe Vici was the first one to break Mo Omerta, and we talked about him a few episodes ago in the late 1960s, but it seemed like it was always this [00:09:00] code of silence could be broken pretty quickly.

I think that the thing with Joe Vici is Joe Vici. Either knew a lot of the deep story or he made up a lot of the deep story, but he grabbed attention and was a, a, a rat, if you will, but somebody who's, who came out at such a much higher level than a lot of these other guys, like this guy ales and all of these Murder Inc.

It was very inside baseball and it was important for the, their trials, but it didn't. Capture the, the nation's imagination, especially maybe because of the time period it's taking place in in the late 1930s, early 1940s. There's some other stuff going on. Yeah. I think part of it too is like when we'll get into it later, like a bres, he talks about what Murder Inc did, but he doesn't necessarily talk about [00:10:00] how.

Organized crime actually ran in New York. Right. He talks about like getting, like he talks about the hits that he did and the, the hits that he was ordered to do and the hitman that he found where like Joe, he talks about like, this is how the ceremony were ran. There's these families, there's bosses in each one of these families.

It runs like a military organization. I, to me, that's the difference between the two. But in a lot of ways you could say, you know, A was probably, I. I, you know, obviously not as famous, but in terms of the bit beans that he spill and the people that he end up sending to the lecture chair, in a lot of ways it was more damaging to the Mafia than Joel Volti in some ways.

The first members of, uh, murder Inc, to actually put on trial were, uh, Harry, my own and Frank Abano, and go back and listen to our previous episodes. You can, uh, uh, Learn about just, uh, you know, what a delightful, uh, two guys these people were. And initially Harry [00:11:00] Strauss was actually part of this case, but, uh, you know, Harry Strauss decides and, you know, like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn code two.

I'm gonna testify against, uh, my fellow murder, murder Inc. Members, as we, uh, will find later on that, uh, maybe that, that was a bridge. The, uh, the state decided that was a bridge too far. You know, using Harry my own, like they were using a, uh, Yeah, in 19, uh, 40, the trial started, uh, for the 19, uh, 37 ice pick murder of Georgie Whitey, uh, Rodnick.

And, uh, like I said, on the previous episodes, we discussed that murder actually. Um, On May 15th, a Reiss, uh, testified that Rudnick was marked for death when it was believed that he was a stool pigeon based on information that Harry Strauss, uh, was saying. And Rel uh, Reiss testified that, uh, happy myON, uh, Frank Amano and Harry Strauss were inside.

Uh, The, [00:12:00] uh, car garage, uh, with Ron Nick. Well, he himself and, uh, I think, believe it was one other guy he said, were outside waiting for, and I, you know, keeping watch, making sure nobody like came in by accidents and, uh, After the, uh, the murder was done, or at least what they believed was done. Um, when they brought the body up to, uh, dispose of it in the, uh, car, uh, Abe ended up having to actually finish the, uh, job and he's on No, he was on stand describing this and, um, uh, sorry.

Uh, and his, uh, evidence was collaborated by like, uh, other people had turned, uh, state witness to, uh, a Levine is, uh, he collaborated the, uh, story. Math tore, uh, testified that, uh, he was the one that stole the vehicle that they used to dispose of the body. So between the three of 'em, the par, uh, happy Mayon and Frank Abano were, you know, dead to rights.

Um, uh, yeah, and, uh, like [00:13:00] Happy's only defense was. He said he was at his grandmother's wake. And then the research that I did, he actually was at his grandmother's wake earlier that day. So this is why, kind of why he thought it would work. But when they called the funeral director and obviously asked like, was, uh, happy my own, like at the funeral home during so-and-so time, where did, uh, that Abe said that the murder took place and they're like, no, he wasn't there.

Um, And he actually had like a bunch of witnesses that were saying like, oh, no, no, no. I saw him there. I saw him there. He was there. He was there. But one of the witnesses, I guess couldn't like go, you know, I can't take your money. So he basically said like, admitted that he commit, you know, he lied and, uh, That was basically his own defense.

And, um, there's just a lot of crazy stories that in this trial, like at one point with, uh, Frank Abaddon, they brought up his, uh, like previous, uh, uh, rape conviction charge. And Franco, he like denies it. He's like, well, I didn't do [00:14:00] anything. And they're like, well, what do you mean? Like, we have this conviction right here, like in court you were convicted of.

And he's like, well, you know, that didn't count. I married the girl and the girl. Was in the trial, his wife. Was watching the trial as this was going on. Like, you know what I mean? Like, these people are like a totally different type of reality than us. Like can you imagine listening to that in court? It's just so crazy.

Uh, yeah. And, uh, I think, sorry, May 23rd, 1940, my own and Abna were convicted of, uh, first degree, uh, Murder, which in New York at the time was, uh, basically the death sentence in the, uh, the electric chair. Uh, the court of appeals, they, they overturned the conviction, but they ended up going back to trial. And this, there's another crazy story at the retrial or, uh, happy, my own, just so furious with a relish, apparently picked up a glass of water like a.

And just chucked it right out his face. And, [00:15:00] uh, I mean, to be quite honest with you, I would probably do the same thing. Uh, cause I don't know, I just, I would've probably come to the inclusion, like, there's no way I'm getting off. I'm going to the chair regardless. I might as well get a little bit of revenge.

And, uh, yeah. And, uh, the second trial, the went through the appeals process and upheld and they ended up, um, they ended up, uh, Being, uh, killed and on uh, February 19th, uh, 1942. And uh, I dunno if you guys aren't familiar with how these old electric chairs, uh, look, you can look 'em up on the internet. There's lots of pictures.

They used to call 'em old Sparky. Um, it's very, uh, unnerving actually. The, just looking at the chair, I just can only, I can only imagine like, I dunno, what's your opinion? You imagine being like, happy? My own and frank. Listening to a morales tell this story, and you're sitting there thinking to yourself like, I've seen this man probably kill at least 30 people, and this is the guy that's gonna be sending me to the chair.

I mean, that's the [00:16:00] problem that we're going to be talking about so many times in this entire podcast is some people cooperate with the government and they get off despite doing all these crimes, and it's the dilemma of the prosecutor, can you really. What would ais say if the prosecutor said, yeah, well we are still gonna send you to the chair even though you went and talked and gave us this, all this evidence for the case that put away the other people.

I mean, they have to make those choices. And I mean, I just, uh, as a moral question, I don't know what to make of that. Do you know what the deal was that they gave to Abe? Was he gonna get off or was he just not gonna get the death penalty? Well, I think he was just gonna get off like it. I, they guaranteed like basically 24 hour police protection.

Like at this time there was no witness protection [00:17:00] program per se, but the, we're basically kind of doing the equivalent for Abe, and I believe he was just gonna get off of everything because. I mean, his testimony basically destroyed Murder Inc. And potentially we will get into in a little bit, could have took out the entire mafia.

Um, really if he, well, I don't wanna spoil that yet for you guys. We'll get to that in a bit. So these first, we get the, uh, the first two main characters of Murder Inc. They've been convicted and uh, executed. Now let's move on to the trials of Harry Strauss and. Martin Goldstein, because those are two of our next big players.

Steve, here again with a quick word from our sponsors. Yeah, like I had mentioned earlier, Harry Strauss was initially gonna, you know, play his own umbrellas, uh, role and I, the prosecutors and [00:18:00] stuff like that, they just kind of looked at, uh, the state basically looked at Harry Strauss and the type of person he was and like the amount of murders that he had committed.

And they're like, no, we're, we're not doing this. Plus we already have Abe and there's no reason for us to cut a deal here with you. Um, It's gonna make us look bad. Really. Um, that's how bad of a reputation or stress had, like, you know, it's always comparing you to a or and they're like, you know, nah, it's, it's a bit too far.

We're not doing that. It's almost kind of like gas pipe castle. And, uh, Samuel Bull Gravano we touched on, that's in the Five Families and five Episodes. Episodes. Um, So, yeah, Harry STRs and Martin Goldstein were put on trial on September 4th, 1939 for the murder of, uh, Irving Feinstein, which we, uh, which was one of the murders that we covered in the, uh, previous episode.

Uh, the trial started in, uh, uh, on September, uh, sorry, in September, 1940 with [00:19:00] the. Straus, almost immediately he starts working this insanity angle. So he like, he stops shaving and he stops bathing. He grows this like crazy beard and, uh, I mean, it's really, it doesn't, it's not fooling anyone, but I gotta give him a little bit of credit for kind of putting forth the effort.

I mean, he is fighting for his life, but it's, uh, it, it doesn't really work. Um, yeah, he's also like muttering to himself. And we'll get into a little bit more of like, uh, Martin Goldstein has, uh, It turns out to be such a coward. Uh, yeah. But once again, like Abe Ellis was the, the star witness in the trial.

He, he testified that, uh, Irving Feinstein was marked by death, by, uh, Albert Anastasia. Uh, I believe it was the previous episode. I, uh, I just, a slight correction maybe I, I, this, when I was doing the research for, in this episode in particular, it says Albert Anastasia, but the previous one I read it said Leke.

Um, Was the one who, uh, ordered the hit. But I mean, Albert and Lei were the two [00:20:00] heads of Murder Inc. So it could have been both of 'em really. Uh, it's just kind of slight, slightly conflicting, uh, information anybody knows. Exactly. Uh, just let me know. Um, but I'm just gonna, for this episode, I'm just gonna go and say with Abe les's testimony and say like, it was, uh, Albert Anastasia that actually wanted, uh, Irving dead.

Um, And apparently the reason for the hit was, I don't know, he crossed like Vincent Mangano, which I mean, who knows man? Like maybe he like gave him the wrong look or something like that, or told him to bugger off and it's just like, no. Like this guy has to die now. You know? This is how petty some of these guys are.

Who knows what he did? Um, Hey Morales, he would testify that, uh, himself, Martin Goldstein and Harry Strauss, uh, murdered, uh, Irving in his house. Um, even Morales's mother-in-law also testified in court, uh, telling, uh, like telling the court that, you know, they had asked for an ice pick earlier and some rope, uh, and [00:21:00] later in the night that she heard like music trying to cover up, like the sound of like people fighting downstairs.

Um, She also said that she like, clearly heard like Harry STRs complaining about his finger being bitten. You know, it's just like the mother-in-law. I just like, ugh, this trial is so crazy. Um, even like Goldstein's, uh, like driver bodyguard, like Clara, uh, Abe's story also said that like shortly after they like burned the body and some.

I know. Crazy attempt to, you know, stop identification. I guess the logic being like, well, if we look like burn it, I guess, like they won't be able to get the fingerprints. I don't know. Like these guys aren't like the smartest people in the world either. Um, even though sometimes they come across like that.

Um, yeah, and it's at this point that like Goldstein. Uh, he doesn't face, uh, the potential of, uh, dying with much grace. Uh, he ends like screaming at court, like to his bodyguard, like, you're burning me? Like, how could you do [00:22:00] this? And he starts acting like hysterical, like high pitched squealing, and, uh, I dunno.

There's like a, I was reading about, there's like an actual thing for this, like when there's some people, I guess when they're on death row, like there's some people that are able to just act stoically and then there's like people who like, they just completely lose it. Like they lose their mind like the moment that it's gonna start happening and, uh, There's a, there's a word for it.

It's like a medical terminology for it, or like a psychiatric terminology for it. So I've forgotten it. But, uh, yeah, this is Goldstein starts, uh, suffering, uh, from this during the trial. Like even the guards are telling him, like at one point, you know, like. Yeah, smart enough. You know, like you're like, you know, basically for lack of a word, like act like a man, you know, you did all this stuff.

Now you know you're gonna pay the price. And, you know, Goldstein apparently like, um, responded to the, the, the guards. Uh, you know, I'm fighting for my life. Like, don't you have a heart? Like people are just like so [00:23:00] delusional about, um, What they actually are. It's, I don't know. I couldn't imagine with a straight face saying that and being somebody like Martin Goldstein and saying that to somebody, but like, like for a minute here, like, you know, are like, am I being real with myself?

Um, yeah, like the Goldstein's lawyer didn't even bother like putting up a defense. Cause I mean, What was he gonna say? Honestly, like all the evidence was so overwhelming. I, I think he just ended up just pleading for Mercy, maybe to get him off the death penalty. Uh, Harry Strauss lawyer kept up, like the game that he was was insane, and even apparently at one point let him actually go on the stand to prove how insane he was.

And when he was on the stand, he was only on the stand for a couple of minutes. Like he refused to take the oath and was like muddying incoherently to himself. And then like when he went back to, uh, His table. He was like chewing on the leather on his briefcase. Like, you know, just really crazy stuff. Hey and uh, Yeah, [00:24:00] like I pointed out, obviously evidence was just so overwhelming against these two.

Uh, yeah, they were sentenced to death and, um, Singh Singh Prison and at the moment, from, from what I read, Strauss actually kind of, he faced the death penalty, penalty pretty, uh, stoically were as, uh, as I pointed out earlier, Goldstein, uh, did not, uh, At all. And, uh, yeah, they were, uh, sent to the chair on June 12th, 1941.

You can kind of see it that there probably really only is two ways you can take the being put to death is that either you're gonna lose it or you're gonna be resigned to it. I don't see what else other possibility there is to it. You know, it, I don't know. It's hard for me to say, right? Like, I'm not in that situation, so I don't know how I would react.

Right? But I mean, I think I would have enough understanding of myself or being able to kind of look at my life objectively. Like, yeah, I did a lot of really horrible things and, uh, I [00:25:00] probably, uh, deserve what I'm getting. But I obviously, Goldstein didn't, uh, I just think it's funny to a degree, cuz like Goldstein was always the, his nickname was Bugsy and we talked about.

One of the previous episodes, he was like kind of known as like a tough guy, you know? And then when the moment comes to act like a real tough guy, he, he can't do it. Um, yeah, that gets into all sorts of different psychologies. We're gonna leave it at that for today. I just wanna mention though, the best thing you can do to help us in this podcast is if you enjoy what you're hearing.

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