Vach Lewis
Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis († May 14, 1908 ) was an American criminal and high-ranking member of the Eastman Gang in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City . Today it is included in the so-called " Kosher Nostra ".
Life
He earned his nickname Cyclone Louie while working as a wrestler , muscle man and the like. For example, he bent iron bars around his neck or arms on Coney Island . He became a member of the Eastman Gang under Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach . After Monk Eastman went to prison, there were power struggles within the gang. Lewis took the side of Zwerbach and after his competitor Richie Fitzpatrick was murdered in 1904 , he became Max Zwerbach's bodyguard .
In this role he became practically the right hand of his boss and was involved in the conflict with the Five Points Gang . Among other things, he was involved in the murder of a player and fivepointers known as "The Bottler" who was shot in the street on Suffolk Street surrounded by twenty eyewitnesses.
The dispute between the two gangs continued and on May 14, 1908, Lewis and his boss Zwerbach got into a fight in a bar in Manhattan with the five-pointer Louis "The Lump" Pioggi , who ultimately flew through the windshield, or more or less voluntarily jumped through it to escape, breaking his ankle.
Nevertheless, Pioggi managed to return to the headquarters of the Fivepointers , together with the boss Paul Kelly , some gang members left that same night to confront the Eastmans . They found what they were looking for in a bar on Coney Island . When Zwerbach and Lewis left the bar, both were shot, apparently by Pioggi.
consequences
After the deaths of the two, the Eastman Gang split up , the majority of them gathered under the command of Jack Zelig and the clashes with the Fivepointers continued. Louis Pioggi was arrested for the shooting at Zwerbach and Lewis and had to spend a year in the maximum security Elmira Correctional Facility because he had successfully pleaded for some kind of self-defense . In 1912 Pioggi probably instigated his friend Charley Torti to murder Jack Zelig.
literature
- Herbert Asbury: The Gangs of New York . New York 1928, Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-1-56025-275-7
- Tosches Nick: King of the Jews: The Greatest Mob Story Never Told , New York 2005, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 978-0-06-621118-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The Eastmans" ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 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.mobsters.8m.com (English)
- ↑ "Five Points Gang" ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.mobsters.8m.com (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lewis, Vach |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cyclone Louie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American mafioso |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 19th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 14, 1908 |
| Place of death | Coney Island , New York City |