Harry Strauss

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Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (born July 28, 1909 Williamsburg , Brooklyn , New York City , † June 12, 1941 in Sing Sing Prison in Ossining , New York ) was an American contract killer of Murder, Inc. and is today attributed to Kosher Nostra .

Life

In the 1930s, Strauss was arrested a total of 18 times for various offenses including theft and drug trafficking, but was never convicted.

Harry Strauss was part of Louis Buchalter's circle and followed him to Murder, Inc. when it was formed by Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano as the executive body of the National Crime Syndicate .

Strauss is said to have been involved in the murder of 500 people. He had a wide range of killing techniques. In addition to firearms , knives, ice axes and a fire ax were also used. But he also drowned victims or buried them alive if he had not strangled them beforehand.

In 1935, an arrest warrant for murder was issued against Strauss. Martin Goldstein , Louis Capone and Strauss were accused of jointly planning and carrying out the double murder of Joseph Amberg and Morris Kessler. The two victims were shot in a Brooklyn car garage. While the charges against Capone were dropped, Strauss and Goldstein had to stand trial. However, the trial was dropped after six witnesses were no longer able to identify the two accused as perpetrators.

On 12./13. In September 1936 he was involved with Louis Capone , Philip Cohen , Emanuel Weiss and James Ferraco in the murder of Joseph Rosen , the owner of a candy store in Brooklyn , who had threatened to testify against Louis Buchalter .

In 1937, Strauss and Abraham Levine participated in the murder of Walter Sage, a member of the gang around Abe Reles and Harry Maione , by helping the immediate perpetrators Irving Cohen and Jacob Drucker to carry out the crime.

When Abe Reles testified against Buchalter as Pentito , Strauss's fate was sealed. Strauss was arrested on September 5, 1939 for the murder of Irving "Puggy" Feinstein and five other people.

“ Pep has an ice ax. Happer has a meat cleaver. The way they chop, you know, a butcher's cleaver. Abby grabs [the unconscious] Rudnick by the feet and drags him over to the car. Pep and Happy grab his head. You put him in the car. One says: "It doesn't fit". Just as they press the body into it, it gives a slight moan or something. Pep immediately starts stabbing Whitey with the ice pick. Maione says, "Let me give the bastard a hit!" And he hits him on the head with the meat cleaver. "

- From the confession of Abe Reles, with which he incriminated Frank Abbandando (Abby), Harry Maione (Happy or Hap) and Harry Strauss (Pep) as the murderers of George Rudnicks (Whitey).

Even before Buchalter, who followed in 1944, Strauss was executed on June 12, 1941 in Sing Sing on the electric chair .

literature

  • Rich Cohen: Murder Inc. or not entirely kosher stores in Brooklyn . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1999, ISBN 3-10-010215-0 .
  • Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder: Murder Inc. . Farrar Straus and Young, 1952, 1992, ISBN 978-0-306-80475-5 .
  • Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder: Murder Inc. . Da Capo Press, 2003, ISBN 0-306-81288-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Freed in Amberg Slaying. In: The New York Times , November 26, 1935
  2. ↑ Image and description on corbisimages.com Image and description on corbisimages.com (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Strauss, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pittsburgh Phil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mobster from Murder Inc.
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Williamsburg (Brooklyn) in New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1941
Place of death Sing Sing (prison)