After the the national crime syndicate was formed in the early 1930s, the board of directors such as, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Joe Adonis and a few others established an enforcement arm. This would later be known as Murder, Inc. The purpose of Murder, Inc. was to maintain and enforce the discipline of the board among syndicate rank and file. When Murder, Inc. first started out, the bosses were Benjamin "Bugsy" Seigel and Meyer Lansky. They supplied the killers for all the different murder assignments, these men were from their old Bug and Meyer mob of the 1920s.
A few years later this enforcement arm was taken over by Louis Buchalter who was accompanied by Albert Anastasia, one of the worst underworld killers in the East, serving as Buchalter's Lieutenant. Most of the men recruited by Murder, Inc. mainly came from the jewish gangs of Ocean City, Brownsville, and East New York. First starting out in New York, the killings slowly moved out west and to the rest of the nation. Anyone that the syndicate board had selected would be taken care of. All the murders that took place were done with a quickly and silently. Because these murders were also done as being strangers with one another, motive made it extremely difficult for police to identify and even harder to find.
The savage organization set up it's own secret vocabulary and codes. As it would go, Murder, Inc. set up a "troop" in each town, troop being a gang of killers for that area. Since police might be listening in on any of the conversations of plotting a murder, they came up with their own codes for putting a "contract"(murder assignment) out on someone. A "bum" was the person who was plan on being murdered and a "hit" or "pop" was the actually killing of that person. These murderers were paid extremely well for their services, between one to five thousand dollars for one assignment. They were on call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. They wore the best suits and finest clothes, drove the most expensive cars, and lived in luxury apartments.
One troop over all other troops in Murder, Inc. was the most vicious out of all, the Brownsville troop. They were all experts with guns, knives, and especially ice picks. They could be easily hidden under a coat, and when used properly was almost always fatal. Among the Brownsville troop were, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon, Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, Harry "Happy" Maione, Frank "The Dasher" Abbandando, Motel "Bugsy" Goldstein, and worst of the lot, Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, also known as "Pep." Strauss absolutely loved to kill. The more gruesome it was the more he loved it. For more than a decade he was at first reportedly responsible for fifty to a hundred murders, but then a second report said he was responsible for more than five hundred, which would make him an all time record holder for a mass murder. Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, who turned informant, told of a murder committed by Strauss, and one that he often delighted in telling about. Strauss had been assigned to kill a man in Jacksonville, Fla. He found the guy and was tailing him around the city for hours, just waiting for a chance to do the piece of work. It finally came when the victim entered a movie theater. He followed the man into the theater, where once inside Strauss spotted a fire ax on a wall, he used this to kill his victim. Crushing the guy's head wide open. "It was an easy pop. I take the ax and sink it in the guy's head. It's the kind of thing that will make a lot of holler. Dames and guys will make a run out of there. I just run with them-and the getaway is a cinch. This is natural."
Being a killer for Murder, Inc. had great benifits, like if being a high ranking executive at top corporations then obtained. They received insurance plans, medical plans, and retirement plans. The organization would provide the best lawyers if a member were ever arrested, and the lawyer would have them released very shortly. Murder, Inc. went to great lengths to protect its professional killers.
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