Emanuel Weiss

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss (June 11, 1906 - March 4, 1944) was a highly prolific professional hitman who worked for the criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930's and up to the time of his arrest in 1940.

Starting as an enforcer for the labor rackets run by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Weiss rose to become one of the organization's most dependable hired assassins, taking part in a number of high-profile contract killings for the National Crime Syndicate. One of his best-known murders occurred on October 23, 1935. That night, he and another hired killer, Charlie "the Bug" Workman, walked into the Palace Chophouse in Newark, New Jersey, and fatally shot mob boss Dutch Schultz and three of Schultz's associates. Immediately after the shootings, Weiss, fearing the imminent arrival of police, fled the scene and jumped into the waiting getaway car. He ordered their getaway driver, Seymour "Piggy" Schechter, to drive off without Workman, who was still finishing off Schultz in the restaurant's restroom. As a result of his being left behind, Workman was forced to travel back to New York alone, on foot.

The next day, Workman filed a complaint to the "board" of Murder, Inc. that he had been abandoned by Weiss and Piggy at the murder scene, an offense punishable by death. Weiss defended himself by arguing that Workman had returned to the men's room not for the purpose of making sure the job had been completed (as Workman claimed), but simply for the purpose of stealing Schultz's money and other belongings. Therefore, argued Weiss, the job was already done and Workman had chosen to remain at the scene strictly for selfish personal reasons, thereby jeopardizing their escape and increasing their risk of capture. The board decided it had to make an example of somebody, and that Piggy was more expendable than Weiss. Despite his protestations that he was only following Weiss's orders, the hapless Piggy was tortured and killed by the mob, while Weiss escaped punishment. See Ron Ross, Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Inc.: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-Fated Prizefighter, pp. 164-70 (New York: St. Martin's, 2003)

Smiling convicted killers Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss (right) and Louis Capone, surrounded by detectives, ride the New York Central railroad "up the river" to the Sing Sing prison death house on December 3, 1941, the day after receiving their sentences.

Another of Weiss's most notorious "hits" occurred September 13, 1936 when he, along with James Ferraco and Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, murdered Brownsville, Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen. Lepke Buchalter had ordered the murder in order to prevent Rosen, whom Buchalter had earlier forced out of the garment trucking business, from making good on a threat to expose Buchalter and his rackets to prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey. This crime would eventually prove to be the undoing of Buchalter, Weiss, and Louis Capone, a Buchalter lieutenant who helped to set up and carry out the murder.

The Rosen murder would go unsolved for nearly four years. Since the police knew of no connections between Rosen and the mob, and, moreover, knew of no enemies Rosen may have had, police had no leads at first. Police finally learned of the mob link to the slaying in 1940, when Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, a fellow Murder, Inc. enforcer, turned informant for Brooklyn district attorney William O'Dwyer. Reles implicated Weiss and colleagues in this murder and helped police clear up numerous other unsolved murders as mob "hits". Fleeing to Kansas City, Weiss posed as a mining company executive but was eventually arrested and returned to New York, where he was formally charged with Rosen's murder.

In late 1941, Buchalter, Weiss and Capone stood trial by jury, in the Brooklyn courtroom of Judge Franklin Taylor, for the first-degree murder of Joseph Rosen. The information provided by Reles and other mob turncoats, such as Allie "Tick-Tock" Tannenbaum and Max Rubin, resulted in a guilty verdict and sentence of death for each of the three defendants. On Saturday night, March 4, 1944, Weiss, Capone and Buchalter died in the electric chair at Sing Sing for the Rosen murder. Weiss's last words before his execution were: "I'm here on a framed-up case, and Governor Dewey knows it. Give my love to my family, and everything".