Morris Rudensky

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Morris "Red" Rudensky (August 16, 1898-April 21, 1988) was a prominent cat burglar and safe-cracker during the twentieth century.

Born Macy Motle Friedman in Manhattan's Lower East Side, Rudensky was sent to the Elmira State Reformatory as a teenager and later escaped. He would later become known as an escape artist successfully escaping from the Pontiac State Reformatory where he was serving ten years to life for the robbery of the Argo State Bank. Still a teenager Rudensky organized the theft of $2.1 million in whiskey from a federal warehouse in Kansas City, Missouri using over fifty men. Rudensky continued to operate a well-organized theft ring in the Midwest robbing various payroll deliveries, distilleries, banks, and trains, and did freelance work for Egan's Rats and Al Capone.

At the age of twenty-one Rudensky was again in prison where he was known as "King of the Cons" for frequently getting into fights and made several escape attempts successfully escaping briefly, after packing himself in a box being taken out of the prison print shop, but was soon caught.

During a prison riot on August 1, 1929 Rudensky saved the life of inmate Charles Wright the future president of the Brown & Bigelow advertising firm. After befriending White, Rudensky was convinced to stop criminal activities and after being transferred to Atlanta, where he was the cellmate of Al Capone, Rudensky began to work on the prison newspaper later becoming editor. During WWII he wrote a popular article calling for the prisoners to support the United States and organized the prisoners to help in the war effort. He was later awarded a commendation by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for his efforts.

In 1955 Rudensky was released from prison on parole working as a copy editor from Brown & Bigelow and later became chief consultant for the 3M Corporation Security Systems. In 1970, Rudensky published his autobiography "The Gonif...Red Rudensky" and, during the 1970s and 80s, he lectured for a time visiting schools in the St. Paul and Minneapolis metro areas, including in the renowned Minnesota educator, Dr. Ida Kugler's fifth grade class at Hancock-Hamline Magnet School, trying to detour students from the life of crime he had followed. In 1975, he made a public appearance as Paul Eakins toured the country with a v-16 cadillac once owned by Al Capone [1]. Red lived in semi-retirement in stately Shalom Home in Roseville, Minnesota, a St. Paul, Minnesota suburb, until his death on April 21, 1988 (although other souces claim early-1986).

[edit] Further reading

Kobler, John. Ardent Spirits PB: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993. ISBN 0-306-80512-X
Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-30681-285-1

[edit] References

English, T.J. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-059002-5
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3