In 1940 and 1941, New Yorkers and Americans as a whole were shocked, fascinated, and vastly entertained

by a series of high-profile mob-related murder trials coming out of Brooklyn.

The Burroughs Courthouse was packed with spectators, alternately gasping and laughing at the

outrageous defendants and witnesses, with names like Kid Twist, Pittsburgh Phil, Happy, and The Dasher, and

their bizarre stories of mayhem and murder that immediately got reprinted in newspapers that

flew off the shelves all around the U.S. and across the world. In a time when entertainment

was overwhelmingly defined by wholesome radio shows like Little Orphan Annie and Chase Golden Age Hollywood

movies like The Wizard of Oz and It's a Wonderful Life. The trials of these gangsters were

the exact opposite of that. Sorted, seedy, a glimpse into the underworld of New York and

seemingly unstoppable spread. The trial earned the gangsters a pithy collective nickname, too.

Murder Incorporated, given to them by Brooklyn reporter Harry Feeney. Others would call these guys by a

different, more down-to-earth name, the Brownsville boys, not quite as titillating. They'd originated in

the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville,

where the gang's leader, Abe Kid Twist Relis, had cut his teeth doing all kinds of errands

as a bat boy, pretty clever and funny name of the time for a gangster's assistant or protege.

For about the age of 14 or 15, Relas wanted nothing more than to be a mobster. He delighted in petty theft,

stick-em-ups, and helping his fellow mobsters get one over on legitimate business owners. Some people

just develop a taste for mayhem early on and nothing else ever satisfies him. Soon, Rellis and his

gang, about 20 or so full-time members, including Harry Pittsburgh Phil Strauss,

Harry Happy Mayone, Martin Bugsy Goldstein, and Frank the Dasher, Abandondo, moved into the slot machine

racket. And while it was lucrative, they didn't find all the riches they'd hoped for

when all was said and done. But there was more money somewhere else. And more importantly,

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