188: Abe "Kid Twist" Reles & Murder, Inc. w/ Michael Cannell - A True Crime History Podcast

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2021

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Murder, Inc. was arguably the most ruthless and successful hit squad in American history, killing hundreds of people throughout the 1930s. It was led by a brutal Brooklyn gangster named Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, who under orders from mob bosses like Lucky Luciano, Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia, dispatched his hitmen across the country to kill anyone who threatened the interests of "The Commission", a national federation of Italian-American and Jewish mobsters. Eventually Reles would turn government witness, but before he could testify against the upper echelons of his organization, he would die from a fall from a hotel room. Which leads to an enduring historical mystery: Was it suicide? An accident? Or murder?

My guest, Michael Cannell, author of "A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder, Inc.", shares details about the deadly organization and the colorful Kid Twist, and offers some theories about what really happened to him in Suite 623 of the Half Moon Hotel on November 12, 1941.

More information can be found here: http://www.michaelcannell.com/

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Transcript

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0:52.6	On this episode of the Most Notorious Podcast, the most ruthless group of killers in American
1:00.6	history, Abe, Kid Twist, Relis, and Murder Inc. One theory is that he was called Kid Twist
1:11.0	because his favorite murder weapon was an ice pick, and he would twist the ice pick
1:19.0	into people's temples.
1:47.4	Welcome everyone to another episode of the Most Notorious Podcast, I'm Eric Rivenes.
1:52.1	You are here again? Excellent. So, on to the show it is with great pleasure that I introduced
1:58.6	my guest, Michael Cunnell. He was a New York Times editor for seven years and has written
2:04.7	for the New Yorker, the New York Times magazine, Sports Illustrated, and many other magazines.
2:11.8	He is also the author of four books, including Incendiary, the psychiatrist, the mad bomber
2:18.1	and the invention of criminal profiling. In the book he is here to talk about today, he
2:23.6	is called a Brotherhood Betrayed, the man behind the rise and fall of Murder Inc. Thanks
2:31.5	for coming on. Great to have you. Eric, this is great. Thank you so much.
2:36.7	Yes. Well, what an epic story you have put together. Tackling a subject like Murder Inc.
2:43.4	could not have been an easy task. How long did it take you to write this book?
	...

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