Murder Inc: The Jewish & Italian Hit Squad that Terrorized the US

The Underworld Podcast

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 871 Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2022

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1920's, high level gangsters like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky had a plan to bring some semblance of order to the underworld. Together with a few other kingpins, they formed the Syndicate: a collection of the most powerful organized crime figures across the country that operated like a corporation with a board of directors that voted on everything related to gangsters. To make sure their judgments were respected, they needed an enforcement arm. Enter Murder Incorporated. Emerging from the Happy Maione's Ocean Hill Hooligans and Abe "Kid Twist" Reles Brownsville Troop, this collection of Jewish and Italian hit men would bring new meaning to the term "contract killer," dropping upwards of a thousand bodies across the country in a 10 year span as they carried out the Syndicate's bidding. Men like Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, otherwise known as Pep, who had a confirmed 30 hits and might have had as many as 100, became some of the most prolific killers the world of organized crime has ever seen. Based on the books "Tough Jews" by Rich Cohen and "Murder, Inc" by Burton Turkus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by M&M.
0:03.0	M&M sells big brands at low prices.
0:06.0	Their clothes and footwear are always up to 65% less,
0:10.0	and so their podcast ads.
0:12.0	So he's some elevator music to fill the time.
0:15.0	M&M, big brands, always.
0:17.0	M&M, big brands, low prices, always up to 65% less than R.L.P.
0:27.5	Click on tap now to shop at M&M.
0:30.0	October 23, 1935, a black sedan is rolling out of New York City, headed to the palace
0:37.3	chophouse or restaurant in Newark, and the men inside are on a mission handed down from the
0:41.8	kind of people you can't say no to.
0:44.4	Driving the car is a man who will only ever be known as Piggy, but with him are Charlie
0:49.3	Bug Workman and Mandy Weiss and they're hitmen like real deal done this a dozen times before
0:55.2	contract killers. Bug is said to have killed at least 20 people. See Bug and
1:00.8	Mendi are a part of what will later become known as Murder Incorporated,
1:04.6	otherwise known as the enforcement arm of the Syndicate. The Syndicate is a collection of the top
1:09.8	Jewish and Italian gang lords in America at the time.
1:13.0	And they run everything illegal in the country.
1:16.0	Guys like Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky,
1:18.9	Frank Costello, Leptke at Bill Coulter,
1:21.6	Bugsy Siegel, and Albert Anastation.
1:24.0	These are the men who made organized crime what it is today.
	...

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