In the 1930s, Tony Marino thought he had a foolproof plan to bring in some money.

He would take out life insurance on a homeless drunk and then feed him booze at his speak-easy

until the man died from alcohol poisoning.

He could collect the life insurance and nobody would miss the drifter who had died for the cause.

Tony was sure the plan would go off without a hitch.

I mean, how hard could it be to get an alcoholic to drink himself to death?

This is Monsters.

Music At the beginning of the 1930s, Tony Marino owned a speakeasy on 3rd Avenue in the Bronx.

It was a tiny place that catered to those who were down on their luck, and there were plenty of those people around thanks to the Depression.

Tony basically ran the place by himself, though he did employ one bartender. There were plenty of those people around thanks to the Depression.

Tony basically ran the place by himself, though he did employ one bartender, a man named Joseph Murphy, who went by Red.

Red was homeless so he could be found most nights sleeping on an old sofa in the Speakeasy.

In the early 30s, speakeasies were a dime a dozen, and Tony wasn't making a lot of money

with his, so he started thinking of a way he could make some extra money.

That's where a woman named Mabel Carson came into the picture.

Mabel came from a wealthy family but was considered the black sheep.

When her mother died and her marriage

failed in 1931, she moved to New York City to start over, but it seemed the Big Apple did not

have the opportunities she thought it did. It wasn't long before she was living on the street,

frequenting the local speakeasies. One of them was Tony Marinos. Despite Tony

being married with a one-year-old child, he started dating Mabel, though it seemed it was only to get

close to her. In 1932, he took out a $2,000 life insurance policy on her, and it wasn't long before she was dead.

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