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KILLING IS BIG BUSINESS!
THE WHOLE TERRIFYING TRUE
STORY OF THE NATIONAL
CRIME SYNDICATE
BYBURTON B. TURKUS & SID FEDER
SEE
THE STARTLING
TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX \
MOTION PICTURE
COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED
BANTAM BOOK
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011
http://www.archive.org/details/murderincstoryofOOturk
BUSINESSMEN-
KILLERS
"These vicious characters are real. They
live side by side with you and me. The
Brooklynmobsters,liketravelingsalesmen,
are active from coast to coast, visiting
every section of the country in performing
their tasks of enforcing murder edicts
of the Syndicate's board of directors.
"MURDER, INC. is well documented,
with much of the material coming from
the lips of high ranking killers who
'sang' for Burton B. Turkus, one of the
authors, while Turkus was an assistant
district attorney in New York, known to
"
the underworld as 'Mr. Arsenic.'
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
"Grisly reading, more exciting than a
shelf of mysteries!"
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
MURDER
IN
Vt
STORY OF
"THE
SYNDICATE"
BY BURTON B. TURKUS AND SID FEDER
1
Bantam Books New York
THIS LOW-PRICED BANTAM BOOK
printed in completely new type, especially designed for
easy reading, contains the complete text of the original,
hard-cover edition. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.
MURDER, INC.
A BantamFaBrroaork,/StpruabulsisahneddCbuydaahryr,anIgnce.ment with
Printing History
Farrar, Straus edition published November 1951
2nd printing November 1951
3rd printing December 1951
4th printing March 1952
Bantam edition published June 1960
All rights reserved.
Copyright 1951 by Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder. No
part of this book may be reproduced in any form except in
the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada.
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc. Its
trade-mark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books"
and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the
United States Patent Office and in other countries. Marca
Registrada. Printed in the United States of America.
Bantam Books, Inc., 271 Madison Ave., New York 16, N. Y.
To Harry Feeney,
a great reporter
—
8
Contents
Introduction xi
1. Don't blame it all on Brooklyn— I
Murder, Inc.:—National Syndicate one thousand killings,
coast-to-c—oast Pittsburgh Phil, traveling salesma—n in
homicide the Mazza Mob goes to Minneapolis the
blueprint is the same today.
2. A full mooner starts a chain reaction — 1
A new assistant D.A., and 200 murders the political
acumen of William O'Dwyer—Willie Sutton, the FBI's
—
most wanted man, recruits some talent Dukey and
—
Pretty sing the opening chorus gangster turns police-
man: it could only happen in Hollywood.
3. Song of murder on a holy day — 42
The head hoodlum—had fat fingers the man who
woul—dn't squeal does the Syndicate gets its fi—rst expo-
sure ten-year mystery: why did Reles talk? rackets
are big business; murder, incidental.
4. National crime: a cartel 62
Mafia, Black Hand and Unione; please do not co—nfuse
Joe the Boss dines and dies i—n Coney Island Lucky
Luciano and the purge of Mafia Frank Costcllo, Prime
—
Minister a sharp little man gives birth to the Syndicate.
vii
—————
viii Contents
5. Out of a rape, a—murder mob 91
T—he boss brothers hono—r of fair damsel starts mob war
Kid T—wist takes over a bag job and the last of the
broth—ers the State Street game: big business on a dice
table shylocking: 3,000%, or schlammin with a lead
pipe,
6. The almost-assassination of Thomas E. Dewey 109
—
Dutch Schultz beats a rap proud father and son "case"
—
a prosecutor gangdom and—politics hook-up in New
York'—s most shocking killing Dewey is 36 h—ours from
death shooting match in the chophouse ULTRA
VIRES: a point of law beats the kangaroo court
7. A war of exterminatio—n backfires 130
—Charlie the Bug gets his the Syndicate sets up sabotage
Defense and Lamming Fund; e—verybody chips in
imported triggermen hunt songbirds "cross—Joey Adonis
and you cross the national combination" fortress for
bric-a-brac, and witnesses.
8. Ladies' night in Murder, Inc. — 165
Odd shapes and sizes in the L—adies' Auxiliary the
strange behavior o—f Mrs. Tootsie revenge en masse
body in the swamp Miss Murder, Inc.: Miss Hotfoot
the "late" boy friends of the Kiss of Death GirL
9. Score one and two for the law 187
—
Signal 3—2; all cars proceed with caution a no—te from a
"friend" the Whitey Rudnick tri—al begins 63 stab
wounds, —and a meat-ax "for luck" a pe—rjurer with a
manicure a mortician breaks an alibi Happy and
Dasher takethetrainup theriver.
10. Horace Greeley never meant this 229
—
Buggsy Siega—l plots murder in a—hospital crime comes
to California movie stars—pay off enter Virginia Hill
California L—aw falls down Kid Twist, d—efense counsel,
wins a case war for the Wire Service Lucky sneaks
back from exile, and Buggsy—draws the death sentence
cross-country narcotics tie-up who is Buggsy's real heir?
