Trisha Shetty (Editor)

1908 in organized crime

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Organized crime in 1908 in the U.S.:

Contents

Events

  • A gang war breaks out between Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang and "Kid Twist" Max Zwerbach's Eastman Gang.
  • By the end of the year Johnny Torrio's two dozen Brooklyn brothels earn over $5,000 a week.
  • Frankie Yale is allowed to join Johnny Torrio's Black Hand organization in New York.
  • Hymie Weiss is first arrested for burglary. It is this incident that, while caught robbing a perfume store, he is dubbed the "Perfume Burglar" by Chicago reporters.
  • Joseph Petrosino arrests Neapolitan camorrista Enrico Costabili where he is later deported to Italy.
  • Sicilian mafiosi Raffaele Palizzolo, wanted for murder, escapes Sicily and arrives in New York. He later leaves the city before Joseph Petrosino can arrest him.
  • Salvatore Sabella is sentenced to three years imprisonment for the murder of a local butcher, of which he was an apprentice, in 1905.
  • April 25 - Frank Costello is arrested for assault and robbery but is released.
  • May 14 - Eastman Gang leader Max Zwerbach and lieutenant Vach Lewis are killed in an ambush by members of the Five Points Gang after an argument between Zwerbach and Louis Pioggi over a Coney Island dance hall girl Carrol Terry.
  • July 23 - Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea is sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning his wife and two young children.

    • Births

  • Anthony Joseph Biase, leader of the Omaha faction of the National Crime Syndicate
  • Harry Maione "Happy", Murder, Inc. hitman
  • Ernest Rupolo, Genovese crime family assassin
  • Angelo Tuminaro, Lucchese crime family member and drug trafficker
  • March 17 - Raymond L.S. Patriarca, New England Mafia Don
  • May 24 - Sam Giancana [Salvatore Giancana], Chicago Crime Syndicate leader
  • June 30 - Samuel "Teets" Battaglia, member of the Chicago Outfit

    • Deaths

  • May 14 - Max Zwerbach, Eastman Gang leader
  • May 14 - Vach Lewis, Eastman Gang lieutenant

    • References

    1908 in organized crime Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA