Joseph Toplinsky

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Joseph "Yosky" Toplinsky (born 1879) was a New York City racketeer who, as head of an independent gang on New York's East Side, was involved in extortion and poisoning horses with the Yiddish Black Hand during the early 1900s. He was eventually sent to Sing Sing Prison for cruelty to animals in 1902.

He would later be arrested by police when he was identified by a witness as having participated in the hijacking of a truck while driving through Sullivan County on May 23, 1935. Although escaping with $8,000 worth of pharmaceutical drugs as well as kidnapping the driver and his assistant, he would be captured within a month after being taken into custody on July 17.

[edit] References

• "Veteran Racketeer Seized As Hijacker; 'Yosky Nigger', Chief of Horse Poisoners in 1902, Is Accused Now of $8,000 Truck Raid". The New York Times (July 18, 1935).