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The more you know: Mob Adjacent brings you stories about the people whose names are synonymous with organized crime. LOUIS ‘LEPKE” BUCHALTER (1897-1944) was born in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to a family Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Aside from his general involvement with organized crime, Buchalter’s true fame from his running of an organization of hired killers, which came to be known as ‘Murder Inc.’ The name honors the business-like approach Buchalter’s “staff” took to killing. Murder Inc. profited through killing troublesome gangsters within the mob and whacking eye witnesses to the mob’s crimes. It made Buchalter one of the most powerful gangsters in the United States. Buchalter's Murder, Inc. partner, mobster Albert Anastasia, acted as the conduit, relaying contract hit requests to Buchalter, who then assigned the job to gang members for “processing.” Buchalter didn’t start out peddling murder. He was arrested for the first time 1915 (burglary and assault), eventually earning 18 months in prison for similar crimes in 1917. Upon his release from prison in 1922, Buchalter moved heavily into organized crime with his partner, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro. Establishing themselves through their extortion and protection businesses, Buchalter and Shapiro terrorized New York’s garment workers, took control of the city’s textile unions, and milked bribery payments from employers and the union members. Buchalter rise reflected the changes taking place within the criminal hierarchy of the 1920s. As a Jew working within the Italian Mafia structure, he was a close business associate of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and Mayer Lansky. By the 1930s it had become common for the prejudices between different ethnic and religious groups to be set aside for mutual financial gain. By 1935, law enforcement estimated that Buchalter and Shapiro had as many as 250 men working for them and grossing more than $1 million per year ($17,000,000 in today’s dollar). They controlled rackets in the trucking, baking, and garment industries throughout New York, and Buchalter owned a posh nightclub in Manhattan.  Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, head of Murder, Inc. It all started to fall apart in 1936. Buchalter and Shapiro were convicted of violating federal anti-trust laws in the rabbit-skin fur industry in New York. While out on bail, both men disappeared. On November 13, both men were sentenced while absent to two years in federal prison. The two appealed the verdict, but in June 1937, both convictions were upheld.
Buchalter was eventually betrayed by Abe Reles, a mobster who had become an informant. In December 1941 the boss of Murder Inc. was sentenced to death. Conspiracy theories surround the decision to execute Buchalter. When first arrested, the Chicago Tribune claimed Buchalter avoided the death sentence because he made a deal to keep silent about links between the Roosevelt administration and Murder Inc. Sidney Hillman, a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, was also president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Buchalter’s earlier involvement with garment workers’ unions led some to theorize that he could have held incriminating information on Hillman. Information which would have inevitably proved damaging to the whole Roosevelt administration. It wouldn’t be the last time FDR found himself in the middle of criminal activity. Buchalter was put to the electric chair on March 4, 1944. |
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