Burton B. Turkus was an attorney and author, best known for prosecuting members of the Brooklyn gang known as "Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc.

Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...

".

As an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn in 1940, Turkus interrogated mobster Abe Reles

Abe Reles

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles was a New York mobster who was widely considered the most feared hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for the National Crime Syndicate. Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc...

, who had been arrested for murder. Reles became a government informant who revealed the existence of a violent gang of racketeers in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. The group was named "Murder Inc." by the press.

Reles's revelations led to numerous other prosecutions. Turkus later wrote a book about Murder Inc., and in the early 1950s became host of the TV series Mr. Arsenic.

He was portrayed in the 1960 movie

Murder, Inc. (1960 film)

Murder, Inc. is a 1960 American gangster film starring Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan, Peter Falk, and Simon Oakland. The Cinemascope movie was directed by Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg. The screenplay was based on the true story of Murder Inc., a Brooklyn gang that operated in the...

 about Murder Incorporated by Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan (comedian)

Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He is remembered best in two modern media: radio, on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist, and on television, where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show I've Got a Secret...

. Peter Falk

Peter Falk

Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...

portrayed Reles.