1908 in organized crime

Organized crime in 1908 in the U.S.:

Events

*A gang war breaks out between Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang and "Kid Twist" Max Zwerbach's Eastman Gang.
*By the end of the year Johnny Torrio's two dozen Brooklyn brothels earn over $5,000 a week.
*Frankie Yale is allowed to join Johnny Torrio's Black Hand organization in New York.
*Hymie Weiss is first arrested for burglary. It is this incident that, while caught robbing a perfume store, he is dubbed the "Perfume Burglar" by Chicago reporters.
*Joseph Petrosino arrests Neopolitan camorrista Enrico Costabili where he is later deported to Italy.
*Sicilian mafiosi Raffaele Palizzolo, wanted for murder, escapes Sicily and arrives in New York. He later leaves the city before Joseph Petrosino can arrest him.
*Salvatore Sabella is sentenced to three years imprisonment for the murder of a local butcher, of which he was an apprentice, in 1905.
*April 25 - Frank Costello is arrested for assault and robbery but is released.
*May 14 - Eastman Gang leader Max Zwerbach and lieutenant Vach Lewis are killed in an ambush by members of the Five Points Gang after an argument between Zwerbach and Louis Pioggi over a Coney Island dance hall girl Carrol Terry.
*July 23 - Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea is sentenced to six months in prison for abandoning his wife and two young children.

Arts and literature

Births

*Anthony Joseph Biase, leader of the Omaha faction of the National Crime Syndicate
*Harry Maione, Murder, Inc. hitman
*Ernest Rupolo, Genovese crime family assassin
*Angelo Tuminaro, Lucchese crime family member and drug trafficker
*March 17 - Raymond L.S. Patriarca, New England Mafia Don
*May 24 - Sam Giancana [Salvatore Giancana] , Chicago Crime Syndicate leader
*June 30 - Samuel "Teets" Battaglia, member of the Chicago Outfit

Deaths

*May 14 - Max Zwerbach, Eastman Gang leader
*May 14 - Vach Lewis, Eastman Gang lieutenant

ee also

*1907 in organized crime,
*other events of 1908,
*1909 in organized crime
*list of 'years in organized crime'