1908 in organized crime
Organized crime in 1908 in the U.S.:
Events
- A gang war breaks out between Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang and "Kid Twist" Max Zwerbach's Eastman Gang.
- By the end of the year Johnny Torrio's two dozen Brooklyn brothels earn over $5,000 a week.
- Frankie Yale is allowed to join Johnny Torrio's Black Hand organization in New York.
- Hymie Weiss is first arrested for burglary. It is this incident that, while caught robbing a perfume store, he is dubbed the "Perfume Burglar" by Chicago reporters.
- Joseph Petrosino arrests Neapolitan camorrista Enrico Costabili where he is later deported to Italy.
- Sicilian mafiosi Raffaele Palizzolo, wanted for murder, escapes Sicily and arrives in New York. He later leaves the city before Joseph Petrosino can arrest him.
- Salvatore Sabella is sentenced to three years imprisonment for the murder of a local butcher, of which he was an apprentice, in 1905.
- April 25 - Frank Costello is arrested for assault and robbery but is released.
- May 14 - Eastman Gang leader Max Zwerbach and lieutenant Vach Lewis are killed in an ambush by members of the Five Points Gang after an argument between Zwerbach and Louis Pioggi over a Coney Island dance hall girl Carrol Terry.
- July 23 - Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea is sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning his wife and two young children.
Births
- Anthony Joseph Biase, leader of the Omaha faction of the National Crime Syndicate
- Harry Maione "Happy", Murder, Inc. hitman
- Ernest Rupolo, Genovese crime family assassin
- Angelo Tuminaro, Lucchese crime family member and drug trafficker
- March 17 - Raymond L.S. Patriarca, New England Mafia Don
- May 24 - Sam Giancana [Salvatore Giancana], Chicago Crime Syndicate leader
- June 30 - Samuel "Teets" Battaglia, member of the Chicago Outfit
Deaths
- May 14 - Max Zwerbach, Eastman Gang leader
- May 14 - Vach Lewis, Eastman Gang lieutenant