Louis Capone

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Louis Capone

Louis Capone (* 1896 in Naples ; † March 4, 1944 in the Sing Sing prison , Ossining , New York ) was an American mobster and middleman among the criminal gangs of Murder, Inc.

Despite his Italian origins, Capone was apparently not a (full) member of La Cosa Nostra and is not related to Al Capone .

Life

Early years

Louis Capone was born in Naples. The family left their homeland during his childhood to immigrate to the United States of America. Once in New York City , Capone lived with his family in the Brooklyn district of Coney Island .

Capone later moved to Brownsville , where he (ostensibly) owned and operated a small pastry shop . The young petty criminals Abe Reles and Martin Goldstein stayed in the café regularly and Capone became a promoter of the up-and-coming Kosher Nostras , who would soon become known as the Brownsville Boys . But Albert Anastasia as a member of the Cosa Nostra was also one of the patisserie's customers and in this way made the acquaintance of his Italian compatriot.

Capone was a so-called loan shark , he lent money at usurious interest and was thus active in both Detroit and New York. In Detroit he was in contact with the Purple Gang . Capone was also one of Joe Adonis' business partners and friends . At the " laboratory racketeering ", so the paid thugs service in labor disputes , he worked for the local office of the "Plasterers Union". Capone was considered a skilled negotiator with the appearance of a diplomat. By violently infiltrating local trade unions, the criminals finally managed to provoke strikes, impose prices and control the market. Members of criminal groups took on high positions in a wide variety of jobs. The gang around Louis Buchalter was particularly active and successful in this area. The gangsters established a de facto cartel with which they dominated the respective market.

Criminal career

After the war in Castellammare ,  the forces around the young Lucky Luciano prevailed in La Cosa Nostra - the American Mafia variant of the Cosa Nostra . When the National Crime Syndicate was formed, the idea was developed to create a department that is responsible for carrying out murder assignments. In particular, the "Kosher Nostras" brought their forces to Louis Buchalter and the Italian side was represented by Albert Anastasia in the leadership of the new association. Capone referred the Brownsville Boys to Murder, Inc. and practically became a member of the organization through his services.

When the Brownsville Boys got into trouble with their old bosses and rivals, the Shapiro brothers, it was Capone who suggested contacting the Italian-Americans of the Ocean Hill Hooligans in the neighboring neighborhood of Ocean Hill - especially Frank Abbandando and Harry Maione - to turn. Both gangs practically merged in the course of their integration into Murder, Inc. The Shapiro brothers were murdered. As a middleman, Capone had the job of telephoning murder orders to members of Murder, Inc. He himself received these orders from Albert Anastasia and Louis Buchalter. Buchalter had direct contact with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky .

In 1935 an arrest warrant for murder was issued against Louis Capone. The fugitive turned himself in to the authorities shortly afterwards. Martin Goldstein , Harry Strauss and Capone were accused of planning and carrying out the double murders 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.

In 1936, police officers arrested Capone and twelve other people at a charity event for the needy in East New York at a dance hall in Brooklyn. Capone, who was the owner of the restaurant, and the other suspects were accused of withholding the donations and in this way cheating on the donors several times. Others were blackmailed into making donations. The prosecution also included the offense of vagrancy, as in the opinion of the public prosecutor those arrested at the benefit event were previously convicted and undesirable people.

Capone took on a central role in the division of labor in the organization. Many of the getaway vehicles from past crimes were delivered to Oscar Friedman , who was responsible for getting rid of the "hot" automobiles. The vehicles were often resold to used car dealers.

In 1939, Capone was believed to be responsible for the murder of Irving Penn. Buchalter is said to have hired Capone to plan the murder of Philip Orlovsky, a trade unionist who was aware of Buchalter's machinations and who cooperated with the authorities in the investigation against the gang leader. Jacob Midgen , who belongs to Murder, Inc. , was instructed by Capone to identify Orlovsky for the alleged shooter and Murder, Inc. member Gioacchino Parisi . On July 25, 1939, the publisher Irving Penn accidentally left the apartment building in which Orlovsky also lived. Midgen mistook Penn for Orlovsky and instructed the shooter to shoot the target. Penn died on the scene. Two years later, Midgen, Parisi and Capone were charged with the murder. While Parisi and Capone escaped conviction, Midgen, who pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial, was sentenced to five to ten years in prison.

Smiling gangsters after the conviction:
Emanuel Weiss and Louis Capone (left), surrounded by officers on their way to Sing Sing on December 3, 1941, one day after their sentencing to death

Murder of Joseph Rosen

In the murder of Joseph Rosen, which was decisive for the demise of the gang, Capone instructed the car thief Sholem Bernstein where the still-to-be-stolen escape vehicle was to be parked and was directly involved in the planning. So he drove several times with Bernstein to Rosen's work place, a candy store, and from there along the route that had been designated for the escape to ensure that there would be no complications and that the murder of Rosen would only last a few seconds - and boarding that does not attract much attention. Since the murder order was given directly by Louis Buchalter, efforts were made not to make any mistakes. On September 13, 1936, Rosen was murdered in his Brownsville, New York City, shop by James Ferraco , Emanuel Weiss, and Harry Strauss .

Sentencing and execution

Kings County District Attorney William O'Dwyer had focused his investigation on Louis Buchalter in the late 1930s. He obtained a 14-year prison sentence against Buchalter for drug trafficking. When Abe Reles could also be charged with murder, he incriminated Buchalter and other members of Murder, Inc. so heavily that in 1941 Louis Buchalter, Emanuel Weiss and Louis Capone were charged with the murder of Joseph Rosen had to answer in court. In the trial, contract killers Albert Tannenbaum and Seymour Magoon , Mafioso Max Rubin and getaway driver Sholem Bernstein testified against the three suspects. Main witness, Abe Reles, mysteriously died before his hearing by falling from the window of his hotel room while under police protection. In December 1941 a jury sentenced Capone to death together with Buchalter and Emanuel Weiss .

The defense of the three convicted tried by all means to enforce the reopening of the proceedings and to take action against the judgments. The execution , which was originally scheduled for January 2, 1942, was delayed for over two years. The case ended up preoccupying the United States Supreme Court , which upheld the death sentences. This exhausted all legal remedies.

However, this did not prevent the defendants' defense from continuing to demand the retrial. Weiss cited the existence of new, exculpatory evidence. Affidavits were now available from the siblings of the hit man Harry Maione , a fellow inmate and a prison guard that Maione had confessed to the murder of Joseph Rosen shortly before his execution and had committed the act together with Frank Abbandando and Martin Goldstein . According to Maione, neither Capone nor Weiss were involved in the murder. However, since Maione as well as Goldstein and Abbandando had already been convicted and executed for other murders, the applications were rejected, whereupon the defense accused the court of bias and again demanded a retrial. Despite the new evidence, the Court of Appeals refused to grant the application.

Ultimately, the sentence was carried out in Sing-Sing Prison on March 4, 1944, after the final pardon was denied by Governor Thomas E. Dewey , the former prosecutor whose investigation was instrumental in breaking up Murder, Inc.

estate

On the same day and place, Weiss (23:10) and Louis Buchalter (23:16) followed him on the electric chair .

Capone was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery (Brooklyn) . In contrast to the funerals of his accomplices Buchalter and Weiss, which were only held in a family circle, Capone's funeral was like a feast, numerous residents of Brooklyn, especially those of Italian origin, commemorated the Neapolitan with a huge funeral service.

Adaptations

In 1960 in the movie Murder, Inc. Capone was played by Lou Polan .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Burton B. Turkus, Feder, Sid: Murder, Inc.: the story of "the Syndicate" , 2nd Da Capo Press ed .. Edition, Da Capo Press, [Cambridge, Mass.] 2003, ISBN 0-306-81288 -6 .
  2. ↑ "Murder, Inc: the story of 'the Syndicate'" By Burton B. Turkus, Sid Feder, page 119 (Google Books)
  3. ↑ FUGITIVE GIVES UP IN 2 GANG DEATHS; Louis Capone Questioned on Garage 'Massacre' of Joseph Amberg and Chauffeur. , The New York Times , November 20, 1935
  4. ^ Freed in Amberg Slaying. , The New York Times, November 26, 1935
  5. ↑ Image and description on corbisimages.com Image and description on corbisimages.com (English)
  6. ↑ DINNER FOR 'THE POOR' RAIDED IN BROOKLYN; Proprietors, Two Racketeers and Nine Other Guests Seized in Drive Against 'Undesirables.'. , The New York Times , September 15, 1936
  7. ↑ 3 INDICTED IN PENN CASE; Louis Capone and 2 Unidentified Men Charged With Murder , The New York Times, January 4, 1941
  8. ↑ GETS 5 YEARS IN SLAYING; Migden Had Pleaded Guilty to Assault Attempt on Penn , New York Times, March 6, 1943
  9. ↑ LEPKE TRIAL OPENS; JURY-PICKING LAGS; Blue-Ribbon Talesmen Prove Reluctant to Serve in Brooklyn Murder Case , The New York Times, August 5, 1941
  10. ↑ Obituary and biography of Lepke Buchalter ( memento of the original from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/Grave (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hollywoodusa.co.uk
  11. ↑ HIGH COURT SEALS LEPKE TRIO DEATHS; Tribunal in Washington Says Brooklyn Gang Defendants Had a Fair Trial , The New York Times, June 2, 1943
  12. ↑ rehearing Is Denied to Lepke; Fate Seen 'Entirely Up to Dewey'; LEPKE LOSES PLEA TO GET REHEARING , The New York Times, February 25, 1944
  13. ↑ LEPKE IS PUT TO DEATH, DENIES GUILT TO LAST; MAKES NO REVELATION; TWO AIDES ALSO DIE , The New York Times, March 5th, 1944
  14. ↑ Louis Capone at Find A Grave
personal data
SURNAME Capone, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American gangster in New York City
DATE OF BIRTH 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 1944
Place of death Sing Sing Prison , Ossining , New York