Harry Maione
Encyclopedia
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
for 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...
(the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate
National Crime Syndicate
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a loosely-organized multi-ethnic organized crime syndicate. Its origins are uncertain....
) during the 1930s. Maione was called "Happy" because his face displayed an eternal scowl.
Early years
As a young man, Maione led the Ocean Hill Hooligans, an Italian street gang in the Ocean Hill, BrooklynOcean Hill, Brooklyn
Ocean Hill is a subsection of Bedford-Stuyvesant in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Founded in 1890, the neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 3 and Brooklyn Community Board 16. The ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11233...
section of New York. His protegee in this gang was Frank "Dasher" Abbandando
Frank Abbandando
Frank Abbandando , nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang.-Early years:...
They both were sexual predators. Maione had a son, Albert Maione. who eventually became an associate with the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...
.
In 1931, Maione and Abbandando helped Abe "Kid Twist" 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...
and Martin Goldstein
Martin Goldstein
Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein was a member of a gang of hitmen, operating out of Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s, known as Murder, Inc.....
eliminate their gangster rivals, the Shapiro Brothers
Shapiro Brothers
Meyer , Irving and William "Willie" Shapiro , collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg...
(Meyer, Irving, and William). Previously that year, the Shapiros had unsuccessfully tried to murder Reles and Goldstein. The Shapiros then abducted Reles' girlfriend and raped her. Reles and Goldstein wanted revenge and the two Italians wanted to take over the Shapiro operations. On July 11, 1931, Irving Shapiro was gunned down near his apartment. On September 17, 1931, Meyer was found shot to death in the basement of a tenement building on Manhattan's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
.
Murder, Inc.
Maione, Abbandando, Reles, and Goldstein then banded together. They were soon joined by Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" StraussHarry Strauss
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He killed over thirty men using a variety of methods; shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial and strangling rope. Strauss never carried a weapon unless he was about to make a hit.Most...
, Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss
Emanuel Weiss
Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss was a New York organized crime figure who was involved in drug trafficking and worked for the criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest in 1941...
, Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum
Albert Tannenbaum
Albert Tannenbaum , nicknamed Allie or Tick-Tock, was a Jewish-American hitman for Murder, Inc., the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate, during the 1930s....
, Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon
Seymour Magoon
Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon was an American hitman in New York's Murder Inc gang, one of many members who were implicated by the testimony of former member and government informant Abe "Kid Twist" Reles....
, Louis Capone
Louis Capone
Louis Capone was a New York organized crime figure who became a supervisor for the notorious Murder Inc. Louis Capone was not related to the boss of the Chicago Outfit, Al Capone.-Murder, Inc.:...
, Charles "The Bug" Workman, Cooper "Danger" McCue, Tyler "Boy" Winchester, and Vito "Socko" Gurino.
The gang started picking up murder contracts from the National Crime Syndicate
National Crime Syndicate
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a loosely-organized multi-ethnic organized crime syndicate. Its origins are uncertain....
with the help of Syndicate Board Member Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis , also known as "Joey A", "Joe Adone", "Joe Arosa", "James Arosa", and "Joe DiMeo", was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families.-Early years:Adonis was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano,...
. The gang soon became the official murder-for-hire squad of the Syndicate, and was dubbed "Murder, Inc." by the press. Maione acted as the Italian liaison to the Jewish members of Murder Inc.; Reles was his counterpart on the Jewish side. Murder Inc was directed by the brutal Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
Louis Buchalter
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. After Dutch Schultz' request of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill his enemy, U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey, the Commission decided to kill Schultz in order to prevent the hit...
(another member of the Syndicate board) and the nefarious Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia
Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia was boss of what is now called the Gambino crime family, one of New York City's Five Families, from 1951-1957. He also ran a gang of contract killers called Murder Inc. which enforced the decisions of the Commission, the ruling council of the American Mafia...
. Maione reportedly killed at least 12 men himself while working for Murder, Inc.
Eliminating potential witnesses
In the mid-1930s, New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey targeted Buchalter for prosecution. In response, Buchalter started eliminating all potential witnesses. 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...
, rubbed out anyone that Buchalter even suspected of being an informant. Loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
George Rudnick was one such victim; he was killed by Maione, Abbandando, and Strauss on May 11, 1937.
In 1940, Reles became an informant for the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He then implicated Maione in the horrific slaying of Rudnick. According to Reles, the men supposedly killed Rudnick and started stuffing him back in their car. Suddenly, the "corpse" started coughing. To finish him off, Strauss stabbed Rudnick with an ice pick and Maione buried a meat cleaver in his skull.
In May 1940, Maione was convicted of first degree murder, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. After a second trial, Maione was convicted again. On February 19, 1942, Harry Maione was executed in the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
at Sing Sing
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison operated by the New York State Department of Correctional Services in the town of Ossining, New York...
Prison in Ossining, New York
Ossining (town), New York
Ossining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
.
See also
- List of individuals executed in New York
- Capital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United StatesCapital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
External links
- Harry "Happy" Maione at Find A GraveFind A GraveFind a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...