November 12, 1941: The Canary Who Could Sing But Couldn't Fly

November 12, 1941: Abe Reles, a former Murder Inc. hitman turned federal government witness, whose testimony had sent some mobsters to the electric chair, is whacked. He was 35 years old.

He was pushed out the window of Room 623, on the 6th floor of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, Brooklyn. It was a few hours before he was supposed to testify against Albert Anastasia, the boss of the crime family that would later bear the name Gambino, but not yet American organized crime's "boss of all bosses." It was suggested that he jumped, because he couldn't take the pressure, but who was kidding who?

The newspapers called Reles "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly." It was later revealed that the policeman who was supposed to be guarding his room, Detective Charles Burns, was a person of interest in the disappearance of Judge Joseph Crater in 1930, which has also never officially been solved.

The rubout of Reles, known in his time as "Kid Twist," was referenced on a 2002 episode of The West Wing, in which White House Press Secretary Toby Ziegler (played by Richard Schiff) hinted to his father, Julius (Jerry Adler) that he suspected his involvement in Reles' death.

The Half Moon Hotel, named for the ship that Henry Hudson was sailing when he discovered the river that would bear his name, was at 2827 Mermaid Avenue. During World War II, the hotel was operated by the U.S. Navy, and became known as the "U. S. Naval Special Hospital Sea Gate, NY", a convalescent hospital. In the 1950s, it became a senior citizens' home called the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center. They moved to another building, and it was demolished in 1995. Today the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center is on the site.

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November 12, 1941 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 25, 1957: Albert Anastasia Is Killed

October 25, 1957: Albert Anastasia, the founder of what became New York's Gambino crime family, is killed. Murdered. Hit. Rubbed out. Whacked. Taken care of. Whichever expression you want to use.

It may have been revenge for the failed attempt to kill Frank Costello earlier in the year, although it did scare Costello into doing something mobsters rarely did: He retired from "the life." He lived until 1973.

Anastasia was one of the most powerful mob bosses ever, known as Il Capo di Tutti Capi -- The Boss of All Bosses. But, on this day, he entered the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel, at 870 7th Avenue at 56th Street in New York. Organized crime legend Arnold Rothstein had been killed there in 1928. In the hotel's ballroom, Jackie Gleason staged and filmed The Honeymooners. In 1984, the hotel reverted to its original name, the Park Central Hotel.

Anastasia's bodyguard parked the car in an underground garage and then, most conveniently, perhaps with a little financial incentive from one of Anastasia's enemies, decided to take a little stroll.

As Anastasia relaxed in the barber chair, 2 men, with scarves covering their faces, rushed in, shoved the barber out of the way, and fired at Anastasia. After the 1st volley of bullets, Anastasia allegedly attempted to lunge at his killers. However, the stunned Anastasia had actually attacked the gunmen's reflections in the wall mirror of the barber shop. The gunmen resumed firing, and Anastasia fell to the floor, dead. He was 55 years old.

His murder remains officially unsolved, although it's easy to imagine that the NYPD wasn't exactly exerting itself to find the killers. It is widely believed that the contract was given to Joe Profaci, the boss of another of New York's "Five Families," who passed it on to "Crazy Joe" Gallo from Brooklyn, who then performed the hit with one of his brothers. Gallo, himself later the victim of an infamously unsolved rubout (in 1972, on his 43rd birthday, no less), was the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Joey."

Joe Profaci died of cancer in 1962, and Joseph Colombo took over, and the family bears his name today. The other "families" are known as the Gambino, the Genovese, the Bonnano and the Lucchese.

The American Mafia has been governed by "The Commission" since in 1931, when it was established by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the originator of the family on which Genovese later put his name. The Castellamarese War, the biggest civil war in the history of American organized crime, had just ended, and Luciano figured this was the best way to keep the peace -- a criminal "League of Nations" that turned out to settle interfamily disputes better than the original League did between countries.

The members have always consisted of the boss of New York's Five Families, and the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Like the United Nations has come to do, they have assigned its other seats based on apparent merit, and the bosses of families in Philadelphia and Detroit have often been members. In 1957, Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara, the boss of Buffalo crime, was a member.

On November 14, America's organized crime bigwigs met at Barbara's home in Apalachin, New York, near Oswego and Binghamton, to discuss what to do with Anastasia's empire. The meeting was called by Vito Genovese, who now imagined himself as the big boss of it all.

The locals got suspicious when fancy cars with out-of-State license plates arrived in the small town, so they called the police, who raided the meeting, arresting 60 underworld figures.

It was a blow from which the American Mafia has never fully recovered, despite the work of such later bosses as Sam Giancana of Chicago, Nicky Scarfo of Philadelphia and John Gotti of New York's Gambino family.

Budd Schulberg, screenwriter of the 1954 film On the Waterfront, took a big chance in basing the character of Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb, on Anastasia. But, today, Anastasia is best known for the way he died.

In a 1975 episode of M*A*S*H, "Soldier of the Month," Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda - real name Alphonse D'Abruzzo) sees a sleeping soldier, and says, "Ah, Albert Anastasia's doorman." In a 1976 episode, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," temporarily blinded, a blindfolded Hawkeye feels around an empty chair by the door and jokingly says, "Ah, Albert Anastasia's bodyguard." Each of these is an anachronistic error, as the Korean War ended in 1953, 4 years before the Anastasia murder.

In a 2002 episode of The West Wing, "Holy Night," the question of when Anastasia was killed comes up, and White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) asks his visiting father, former Murder, Incorporated officer Julius (a.k.a. Julie, Jerry Adler), when it happened. Julie says, "October, 1957." He later tells Toby that he should know things like that, as part of his heritage, and Toby tells him that he does know, that he knows all about Julie's Mob activities back then. Julie's attempt to admonish is ironic, since he gave the year and the month, but not the day.

In an episode of The Sopranos, Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) says that he wishes the Mob were like they were in the Fifties, "when it was peaceful." Tony (James Gandolfini) says he remembers seeing the picture of Anastasia in a pool of blood on the barbershop floor. Tony was born in 1959, 2 years after it happened, but he could have seen the photo at any time. I guess even nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

This is probably the photo that Tony saw.

Anastasia's murder came a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants played their last games before moving to California. That was considered a major change in the life of New York City. But this other kind of "hit" carried with it another major change: For all the harm they caused over the last 50 years, the Mafia protected the neighborhoods they controlled from crime committed by others, in some cases better than the police could. Who was a thug who thought himself a rising tough guy going to be more afraid of? The Police Commissioner? The District Attorney? Or "The Boss of All Bosses"?

So "The Law of Unintended Consequences" kicked in: Without Anastasia, and with the Mob further weakened by Costello's retreat and the Apalachin arrests, that protection weakened. And the mobsters of other ethnicities -- mainly Irish and Jewish -- that the Italians worked with or even controlled found themselves with less support, as the Italians, by necessity, had to be more focused on taking care of their own.

(The Jewish Mob was done for, anyway, and for the best of reasons. In 1999, New York Daily News columnist Sidney Zion wanted to find out what happened, and asked one of the last survivors, long since out of "the life." The ex-gangster pointed out that, unlike the Italians and the Irish, the Jews sent their kids to college. He used a baseball analogy: "We lost our farm system.")

What is now thought of as the crime wave that overtook New York and other cities might have happened anyway, due to the proliferation of drugs, and the way drugs prey on society. But with the loosening of the Mafia's control of the drug trade, things got out of control. It would take the Crime Bill of 1994 before America's cities began to become safe again.

I'm not saying Anastasia was a good person. I am saying that it might have been better to let him live until he came to a natural death.

*

October 25, 1957 was a Friday. So while it was during the NFL season, there were no NFL games. Baseball had wrapped up its season 15 days earlier, when the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York. The NHL season was just underway, but no games were scheduled for this day.

The NBA season was also just underway, but only 1 game was played. At the Onondaga County War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, New York -- now known as the Upstate Medical University Arena -- the Syracuse Nationals beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 103-85. Johnny "Red" Kerr of the Nats and Neil Johnston of the Warriors each scored 22 points, to lead all players.

After the 1961-62 season, the Warriors moved to San Francisco, becoming the San Francisco Warriors, and changing their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971 when they moved across the Bay to Oakland. Although they returned to the San Francisco side in 2019, they have kept the Golden State name. Just 1 year after their move, Philadelphia got a replacement team, the Nats, who became the Philadelphia 76ers.

Also, actress Nancy Cartwright was born. She provided the voice of Bart Simpson on The Simpsons.

April 15, 1931: The End of the Castellammarese War

Joe Masseria

April 15, 1931: The Castellammarese War, a battle for control of American organized crime, comes to an end.

It began on October 10, 1928, between the forces of Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, for whose hometown in Sicily, Castellammare del Golfo, the conflict was named.

Masseria, the biggest crime boss of the time, was invited to Nuova Villa Tammaro, a restaurant in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, by one of his lieutenants, Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Luciano excused himself to use the bathroom.

In came 4 men: Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joseph "Joe Adonis" Doto and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. They left the building alive. So did Luciano. Masseria did not. He was 45 years old. Siegel drove the getaway car.

There was one more act to play: Maranzano's side won, but he paid the price. He got nervous over Luciano's rise, and was determined to kill him. But Luciano was tipped off, and had Maranzano killed on September 10, 1931. Maranzano's organization was taken over by Joseph Bonanno, and became known as the Bonnano family.

Luciano took over Masseria's "family." When he was deported in 1942, Genovese succeeded him, and the family still bears the Genovese name. Adonis became one of Genovese's most trusted lieutenants. Siegel moved out to Los Angeles, then "invented Las Vegas," before his actions led to his being removed from the scene in 1947.

It was shortly after the Castellammarese War ended that Luciano founded the Commission, the closest thing that American organized crime has to a governing body. It was founded with the purpose of mediating disputes peacefully, to avoid such turf wars in the future. After all, unlike in real life, within the Mob, war is not good for business. The Commission allowed crime in New York City to be run by what became known as the Five Families: Bonnano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. (That's in alphabetical order. It seemed the most respectful way to list them.)

Anastasia rose to become Il capo di tutti capi – the Boss of All Bosses, a distinction that Luciano wanted to use the Commission to avoid coming into being, but, by this point, he was alive, but out of the picture. Anastasia founded what became known as the Gambino family. For the most part, there was peace in American organized crime, until Anastasia went for a haircut in 1957, and never came back.

These "families" were severely weakened by federal prosecution in the 1980s and '90s, and none is run today by a namesake.

In the 1972 film The Godfather, there were numerous uses of the term "Five Families," and they were named Corleone, Tattaglia, Barzini, Cuneo and Stracci, although how much any of them corresponds to any of the real ones is debatable. Vito Corleone has been compared to both Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino in terms of manner and style. The 1969 novel on which the film is based, by Mario Puzo, makes reference to "The Olive Oil War" of the early 1930s, in which Corleone rose to become the boss of all bosses, a title he loses later in the book. In an agreement made with... certain men... Puzo, who also wrote the screenplay, and director Francis Ford Coppola agreed to not use the words "Mafia" or "Mob" in the film, although they were used in the sequels.

The Banner Smoked Fish Company now occupies the site of the Masseria hit, at 2715 West 15th Street.

*

April 15, 1931 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't yet been founded. The Stanley Cup had been won the night before, by the Montreal Canadiens over the Chicago Black Hawks. But all 16 teams in what would later be called Major League Baseball were in action:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Yankee Stadium. Despite blowing a lead for starting pitcher Hank Johnson, Roy Sherid was named the winning pitcher. Lou Gehrig hit a 3-run home run, and Babe Ruth won it in the bottom of the 9th with, uncharacteristically for him, a sacrifice fly.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-7 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Phils scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, knocking Hal Schumacher out of the box. Bill Terry and Mel Ott each went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs for the Giants, but it was far from enough. Hall-of-Famer Chuck Klein was 1 of 3 Phils to hit home runs.

* The Brooklyn Robins lost to the Boston Braves, 9-3 at Braves Field in Boston. This would be the last season for Brooklyn with Wilbert Robinson managing. For 1932, they dropped the name they took in his honor, and went back to the name they'd last used in 1913: The Brooklyn Dodgers.

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at League Park in Cleveland. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Johnny Watwood led off the top of the 10th inning with a walk, and was doubled home by Bennie Tate to win it for the Pale Hose.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. (It was renamed Crosley Field in 1934.) Burleigh Grimes, the last pitcher legally allowed to throw a spitball, used it to pitch a 7-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Rogers Hornsby hit a home run for the Cubs.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

March 4, 1944: The Execution of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter

March 4, 1944: For the 1st time -- and, so far, the last -- an American Mob boss is executed.

Louis Buchalter was born on February 6, 1897, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His mother called him "Lepkeleh," Yiddish for "Little Louis," and this became "Lepke." He was frequently listed as "Louis Lepke" or "Lepke Buchalter" in publications.

A son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Buchalter had 3 brothers, who became a rabbi, a dentist and a pharmacist. He also had a sister. But he did not go into a respectable line of work. His father died when he was 12 years old. After finishing elementary school, he dropped out, and got a job selling theatrical goods. He fell in with criminals, and was arrested for the 1st time at age 18, for burglary and assault.

From 1917 to 1919, and again from 1920 to 1922, he served a total of 3 years for burglary at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, the New York State Prison in Ossining, Westchester County, 30 miles up the Hudson River from Midtown Manhattan -- the source of the expression "being sent up the river."

Upon his 1922 release, he met up with childhood friend Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro. With backing from established Jewish gangsters Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky, and rising Italian mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Buchalter was the brains and Shapiro the muscle of a group that took over the garment industry in New York. They formed "Murder, Incorporated," and became one of the most dangerous gangs in America.

In 1935, Dutch Schultz was rubbed out. Buchalter is believed to have been involved. This allowed him to become New York's top Jewish gangster. Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Dewey, who had previously focused on Schultz, shifted his focus to Buchalter. In 1936, Dewey managed to convict Buchalter and Shapiro on anti-trust law violations. But, while out on bail, they disappeared.

More charges were added in absentia, including drug charges. Tired of life on the run, Shapiro surrendered in April 1938. Buchalter had been in New York City the entire time, but he began to fear that, with Dewey bringing the heat on them, other gangsters would come after him. On August 24, 1939 -- the day of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact -- after telephone negotiations, he surrendered directly to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

In 1941, while he was serving time on the anti-trust and drug charges, Buchalter was implicated in 4 murders by Abe Reles, a Murder, Inc. hitman known as "Kid Twist." He also ended up implicating 2 of Buchalter's lieutenants: Louis Capone, Al's brother; and Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss. Next, Reles was going to implicate the co-chief of operations for Murder, Inc., Albert Anastasia.

On November 12, not exactly well-guarded at what would now be called a "safe house," the Half Moon Hotel in Brooklyn's Coney Island, Reles fell out of a 6th floor window and died. He became known as "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly." Anastasia rose to become New York's Capo di Tutti Cappi: Boss of All Bosses. Until, that is, his own rubout in 1957.

Whoever had Reles killed -- Buchalter, Anastasia, or somebody else, or even if it really was an escape attempt gone bad -- it did Buchalter, Louis Capone and Mendy Weiss no good. They were convicted of first-degree murder on November 30. Two days later, they were sentenced to death. They appealed their convictions and death sentences all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but were denied.

Buchalter was still serving his federal racketeering sentence at Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas, when the State of New York demanded that the federal government turn him over to them for execution. They did. On March 4, 1944, he was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing, nicknamed "Old Sparky." This was followed immediately by the execution of Weiss, and then by the execution of Capone. (His brother, Al, had been released from federal prison in 1939, after 8 years, due to declining health, and lived on until 1947.)

By this point, Lucky Luciano had been deported to his native Italy. Jacob Shapiro was still in Sing Sing when he died of a heart attack in 1947. Meyer Lansky lived on until 1983.

Louis Buchalter was played by David J. Stewart in the 1960 film Murder, Inc.; by 3 different actors on the TV series The Untouchables; Tony Curtis in the 1975 film Lepke; and Ron Max in the 1981 film Gangster Wars.

The State of New York performed its last execution in 1963. (Neighboring New Jersey also had its most recent execution that year.) The death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 1972, but reinstated nationally in 1976. New York State still prohibited it until 1995, when Governor George Pataki -- the 1st Republican elected to the office since 1970 -- signed a bill allowing for execution by lethal injection. It was never carried out before the State Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the law Pataki signed violated the State Constitution.

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March 4, 1944 was a Saturday. Soul singer Bobby Womack was born on this day.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 10-9 at the Boston Garden. Yes, that's hockey, not baseball or football. For the Bruins: Bill Cowley had 4 goals and 2 assists, Fern Gauthier had 3 goals, Pat Egan had 2 goals and 3 assists, and Bep Guidolin had 3 assists.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Detroit Red wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And in English soccer, in the war-forced Football League Combination South, Arsenal lost to Reading FC, 3-2 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.