Photographer Unknown

Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 20 May 2010, Sale 2215, Lot 269

Over 30 photographs comprise this lot related to New York City crime in the 1930s, including mugshots and line-up photographs of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein, Dutch Schultz, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, George Rudick, Harry Maione, and Frank "The Dasher" Abbondando, all members of the prolific city-wide gang known as ‘Murder, Inc.’ These notoriously brutal individuals killed hundreds of individuals during the 1940s.

Two of the most notorious individuals are featured prominently in this lot: Abe Reles and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter. Abe Reles would turn from psychopathic murderer to government informant, sending several of his accomplices to the electric chair. On the morning of November 12, 1941, while under police supervision, Reles fell to his death from a sixth floor hotel window. Despite widespread speculation Reles’ death was a mafia hit, a grand jury ruled his death a failed escape attempt.

When mobster and Murder, Inc. founder Louis “Lepke” Buchalter took over the garment industry unions, he forced the stoppage of all the trucks which carted clothing in and out of New York city. Most obliged, but trucker Joseph Rosen pushed back. The trucking business was all Rosen had, and when it was taken away, he was left out of work. Fearing that Rosen may cooperate with Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey’s mob investigations, Buchalter told Rosen to leave New York. Rosen would leave, but later took out a loan and opened a candy store in Brownsville, Brooklyn to support himself. Suspicious that Rosen was cooperating with investigators, Buchalter ordered his murder. Rosen is pictured in one of the photographs in this lot, dead on his store's floor. Rosen's murder would ultimately lead to the downfall of Murder, Inc. and send Buchalter to the electric chair.

Some of the most grusome photographs in this lot are post-mortem photographs of Irving “Puggy” Feinstein. Feinstein was a Jewish-American mobster involved in illegal gambling and labor racketeering. When Feinstein made the mistake of attempting to move into turf which was not his own, several Murder, Inc. members were sent to take him out. Visiting Feinstein at his Brooklyn home, hitman Harry Strauss began stabbing him to death with an icepick. Feinstein bit off parts of Strauss’ finger in defense, leading the hitmen to make Feinstein's demise more painful and lengthened. A rope was looped around Feinstein's neck and feet, so that as he struggled, he would slowly strangle himself. Still aggravated, Strauss and his associates took Feinstein's body to a vacant lot and set it on fire, pictured here on October 5, 1938. Strauss was sentenced to death for the murder and executed on June 12, 1941.