Abe Reles
Encyclopedia
Abe "Kid Twist" Reles was a New York mobster who was widely considered the most feared hit man
for Murder, Inc.
, the enforcement contractor for the National Crime Syndicate
. Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the electric chair
.
Jewish immigrants, was born in the Brownsville
section of Brooklyn
, New York on May 10, 1906. His father worked in one of the garment trades until some time during the Great Depression
. His father's last known occupation was peddling knish
es on the streets of Brownsville. His full formal Hebrew name
was "Elkanah ben Reb Shimon".
Reles attended school through the 8th grade. After leaving school, Reles began hanging out at pool rooms and candy stores in and around Brownsville. He soon teamed up with two of his childhood friends who eventually rose to power with him in the group conventionally known as Murder Inc., Martin Goldstein
and Harry Strauss
. His first arrest came in 1921 for stealing $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, and he was sent to the children's village at Dobbs Ferry, New York
for four months.
Physically, Reles was short, but he had long arms and hands with short, stubby fingers. His small physical size did not deter him from committing ruthless acts of violence. When carrying out murders, his weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he would ram through his victim's ear right into the brain. Reles became so adept at using the ice pick that many of his murder victims were thought to have died of cerebral hemorrhages.
Reles became known as a particularly cold-blooded and psychopathic
murderer. On one occasion, in broad daylight, he attacked a worker at a car wash for failing to clean a smudge from the fender of his car. Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough. On another occasion, he brought a guest to his mother-in-law's home for supper. When his mother retired after the meal, Reles and another gang member murdered the guest and then removed the body.
Reles reportedly got the nickname "Kid Twist" after an earlier New York killer, Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach
. Another theory behind the moniker is that it was the name of his favorite candy. Yet another theory is that the nickname described his method for strangling people.
Reles was a bootlegger who rarely touched alcohol.
days of the 1920s, while still teenagers, Reles and friend Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein
went to work for the Shapiro brothers
, who ran the Brooklyn
rackets. Soon, Reles and Goldstein were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught and sentenced to two years in an upstate New York
juvenile institution. The Shapiro brothers failed to help Reles, prompting Reles to plan revenge.
After his release, Reles, Goldstein, and George Defeo entered the slot machine
business, the province of the Shapiro Brothers. Through Defeo's connections with Meyer Lansky
, Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord. Lansky needed access to the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and thus agreed to the deal. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get sizeable footholds in Brownsville
, East New York, and Ocean Hill
, while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.
Reles, Goldstein and Strauss were partners in all of their criminal activities which had primarily been the slot machine business and quickly expanded to include loan shark
ing, crap games
and labor slugging in connection with union activities, especially the Restaurant Union.
The slot machine business thrived and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' hit list
. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their East New York headquarters. Hopping into a car with Defeo, they headed to East New York. However, when they reached the Shapiro's building, the three men were ambushed. Reles and Goldstein were wounded, but all three managed to escape. In the meantime, Meyer Shapiro
abducted Reles' girlfriend and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her.
killers Frank "Dasher" Abbandando
and Harry "Happy" Maione
. The two killers were glad to help; they hoped to kill the Shapiro brothers and take over some of their operations. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Murder, Inc. group finally caught up with Irving Shapiro. On that occasion, Reles dragged Irving from the hallway of his home out into the street. Reles then beat, kicked, and then shot Irving numerous times, killing him. Two months later, Reles met Meyer Shapiro
on the street and shot him dead in the face. Another three years elapsed before Reles finally got the last Shapiro brother, William. William was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. Once there, William was beaten nearly to death, stuffed into a sack, and driven out to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn and buried. Before the gang could finish burying William, a passerby spotted them and they had to flee the scene. William Shapiro's body was exhumed shortly thereafter, and after being autopsied, it was determined that he had been buried alive.
in the murder of Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen; Buchalter was eventually convicted and executed for this crime. Reles' information also implicated Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss
, Mendy Weiss
, Harry "Happy" Maione
, Frank "Dasher" Abbandando
, and even Reles' childhood friend Buggsy Goldstein. All of these men were convicted and executed. Following these convictions, Reles' next target was Albert Anastasia
, who had been co-chief of operations of Murder, Inc. Reles was to implicate Anastasia on the murder of union longshoreman Pete Panto
. However, unlike other members of Murder Inc., Anastasia was a high-ranking member of the Cosa Nostra. The trial, based solely on Reles' testimony, was set for 12 November 1941. Until then, Reles was under constant guard by six police detectives at the Half Moon Hotel
on Coney Island
. To protect the New York crime families from exposure, boss Frank Costello
reportedly raised $100,000 to bribe these guards to kill Reles. It is alleged that Charles Burns, one of the police bodyguards, was involved in the disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater in 1930.
suggests that he was in fact pushed.
Because of his mob status as a "stool pigeon" and the circumstances surrounding his death, Reles gained another moniker after his passing. Reles became known in a newspaper article, as "the canary who sang, but couldn't fly."
Reles is buried in Old Mount Carmel
Cemetery in the Glendale
section of Queens, New York.
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
for Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...
, the enforcement contractor for the National Crime Syndicate
National Crime Syndicate
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to a loosely-organized multi-ethnic organized crime syndicate. Its origins are uncertain....
. Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
.
Early years
Abraham Reles, the son of AustrianAustrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
Jewish immigrants, was born in the Brownsville
Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....
section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York on May 10, 1906. His father worked in one of the garment trades until some time during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. His father's last known occupation was peddling knish
Knish
A knish or knysh is an Eastern European, and Jewish snack food made popular in America by Jewish immigrants, eaten widely by Jewish and non-Jewish peoples alike.-History:...
es on the streets of Brownsville. His full formal Hebrew name
Hebrew name
Hebrew names are names that have a Hebrew language origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible. They are mostly used by people living in Jewish or Christian parts of the world, but some are also adapted to the Islamic world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qur'an. When...
was "Elkanah ben Reb Shimon".
Reles attended school through the 8th grade. After leaving school, Reles began hanging out at pool rooms and candy stores in and around Brownsville. He soon teamed up with two of his childhood friends who eventually rose to power with him in the group conventionally known as Murder Inc., Martin Goldstein
Martin Goldstein
Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein was a member of a gang of hitmen, operating out of Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s, known as Murder, Inc.....
and Harry Strauss
Harry Strauss
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He killed over thirty men using a variety of methods; shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial and strangling rope. Strauss never carried a weapon unless he was about to make a hit.Most...
. His first arrest came in 1921 for stealing $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, and he was sent to the children's village at Dobbs Ferry, New York
Dobbs Ferry, New York
Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 at the 2010 census.The Village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a part of, the town of Greenburgh...
for four months.
Physically, Reles was short, but he had long arms and hands with short, stubby fingers. His small physical size did not deter him from committing ruthless acts of violence. When carrying out murders, his weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he would ram through his victim's ear right into the brain. Reles became so adept at using the ice pick that many of his murder victims were thought to have died of cerebral hemorrhages.
Reles became known as a particularly cold-blooded and psychopathic
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
murderer. On one occasion, in broad daylight, he attacked a worker at a car wash for failing to clean a smudge from the fender of his car. Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough. On another occasion, he brought a guest to his mother-in-law's home for supper. When his mother retired after the meal, Reles and another gang member murdered the guest and then removed the body.
Reles reportedly got the nickname "Kid Twist" after an earlier New York killer, Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach
Max Zwerbach
Max "Kid Twist" Zweifach occasionally referred to as Zwerbach was an American gangster who, during the turn of the century, belonged to the Eastman Gang and later succeeded the New York gang leader following his arrest in 1904.-Biography:Born Maxwell Zweifach in Austria on March 14, 1884, to...
. Another theory behind the moniker is that it was the name of his favorite candy. Yet another theory is that the nickname described his method for strangling people.
Reles was a bootlegger who rarely touched alcohol.
Prohibition & Murder Inc.
During the ProhibitionProhibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
days of the 1920s, while still teenagers, Reles and friend Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein
Martin Goldstein
Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein was a member of a gang of hitmen, operating out of Brooklyn, New York in the 1930s, known as Murder, Inc.....
went to work for the Shapiro brothers
Shapiro Brothers
Meyer , Irving and William "Willie" Shapiro , collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg...
, who ran the Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
rackets. Soon, Reles and Goldstein were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught and sentenced to two years in an upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
juvenile institution. The Shapiro brothers failed to help Reles, prompting Reles to plan revenge.
After his release, Reles, Goldstein, and George Defeo entered the slot machine
Slot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
business, the province of the Shapiro Brothers. Through Defeo's connections with Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
, Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord. Lansky needed access to the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and thus agreed to the deal. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get sizeable footholds in Brownsville
Brownsville, Brooklyn
Brownsville is a residential neighborhood located in eastern Brooklyn, New York City.The total land area is one square mile, and the ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11212....
, East New York, and Ocean Hill
Ocean Hill, Brooklyn
Ocean Hill is a subsection of Bedford-Stuyvesant in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Founded in 1890, the neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 3 and Brooklyn Community Board 16. The ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11233...
, while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.
Reles, Goldstein and Strauss were partners in all of their criminal activities which had primarily been the slot machine business and quickly expanded to include loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
ing, crap games
Craps
Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...
and labor slugging in connection with union activities, especially the Restaurant Union.
The slot machine business thrived and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' hit list
Hit list
Hit list or The Hit List may refer to:*Hit List , starring Jan-Michael Vincent*Hit List , a Canadian television series*The Hit List , featuring Cuba Gooding, Jr.*The Hit List...
. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their East New York headquarters. Hopping into a car with Defeo, they headed to East New York. However, when they reached the Shapiro's building, the three men were ambushed. Reles and Goldstein were wounded, but all three managed to escape. In the meantime, Meyer Shapiro
Meyer Shapiro
Meyer Shapiro may refer to:*Meir Shapiro, dean of Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva, and founder of the Daf Yomi Talmud folio cycle*Meyer Shapiro, one of the Shapiro Brothers, New York City labor racketeer*Meyer Schapiro, art historian...
abducted Reles' girlfriend and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her.
Revenge against Shapiro Brothers
To avenge the ambush and his girlfriend's rape, Reles enlisted the help of fellow Murder, Inc.Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...
killers Frank "Dasher" Abbandando
Frank Abbandando
Frank Abbandando , nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang.-Early years:...
and Harry "Happy" Maione
Harry Maione
Harry "Happy" Maione was a New York mobster who served as a hitman for Murder, Inc. during the 1930s...
. The two killers were glad to help; they hoped to kill the Shapiro brothers and take over some of their operations. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Murder, Inc. group finally caught up with Irving Shapiro. On that occasion, Reles dragged Irving from the hallway of his home out into the street. Reles then beat, kicked, and then shot Irving numerous times, killing him. Two months later, Reles met Meyer Shapiro
Shapiro Brothers
Meyer , Irving and William "Willie" Shapiro , collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg...
on the street and shot him dead in the face. Another three years elapsed before Reles finally got the last Shapiro brother, William. William was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. Once there, William was beaten nearly to death, stuffed into a sack, and driven out to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn and buried. Before the gang could finish burying William, a passerby spotted them and they had to flee the scene. William Shapiro's body was exhumed shortly thereafter, and after being autopsied, it was determined that he had been buried alive.
Government informant
In 1940, Reles was implicated in a number of killings. Realizing that he faced execution if convicted, Reles became a government witness. Reles implicated his boss in Murder, Inc, Louis BuchalterLouis Buchalter
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. After Dutch Schultz' request of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill his enemy, U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey, the Commission decided to kill Schultz in order to prevent the hit...
in the murder of Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen; Buchalter was eventually convicted and executed for this crime. Reles' information also implicated Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss
Harry Strauss
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He killed over thirty men using a variety of methods; shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial and strangling rope. Strauss never carried a weapon unless he was about to make a hit.Most...
, Mendy Weiss
Emanuel Weiss
Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss was a New York organized crime figure who was involved in drug trafficking and worked for the criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest in 1941...
, Harry "Happy" Maione
Harry Maione
Harry "Happy" Maione was a New York mobster who served as a hitman for Murder, Inc. during the 1930s...
, Frank "Dasher" Abbandando
Frank Abbandando
Frank Abbandando , nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang.-Early years:...
, and even Reles' childhood friend Buggsy Goldstein. All of these men were convicted and executed. Following these convictions, Reles' next target was Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia
Albert Anastasia was boss of what is now called the Gambino crime family, one of New York City's Five Families, from 1951-1957. He also ran a gang of contract killers called Murder Inc. which enforced the decisions of the Commission, the ruling council of the American Mafia...
, who had been co-chief of operations of Murder, Inc. Reles was to implicate Anastasia on the murder of union longshoreman Pete Panto
Pete Panto
Peter "Pete" Panto was a longshoreman and union activist who was executed by the mob for attempting to revolt against union leadership.-Revolt:...
. However, unlike other members of Murder Inc., Anastasia was a high-ranking member of the Cosa Nostra. The trial, based solely on Reles' testimony, was set for 12 November 1941. Until then, Reles was under constant guard by six police detectives at the Half Moon Hotel
Half Moon Hotel
The Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, New York was a 225-foot-tall, 14-story hotel that opened in 1927 on the Boardwalk at West 29th Street. The hotel was designed by the architectural firm of George B. Post and Sons...
on Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
. To protect the New York crime families from exposure, boss Frank Costello
Frank Costello
Frank Costello was an Italian New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.Nicknamed the "Prime Minister of the Underworld", he became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia...
reportedly raised $100,000 to bribe these guards to kill Reles. It is alleged that Charles Burns, one of the police bodyguards, was involved in the disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater in 1930.
Death
In the early morning of November 12, 1941, Abe Reles fell to his death from a hotel window. It is not known whether he was thrown or pushed out the window, or if he was trying to escape. The angle of trajectoryTrajectory
A trajectory is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...
suggests that he was in fact pushed.
Because of his mob status as a "stool pigeon" and the circumstances surrounding his death, Reles gained another moniker after his passing. Reles became known in a newspaper article, as "the canary who sang, but couldn't fly."
Reles is buried in Old Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
Cemetery in the Glendale
Glendale, Queens
Glendale is a neighborhood in the west-central portion of the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bounded by Cooper Avenue to the north, Woodhaven Boulevard to the east, Myrtle Avenue to the south and Fresh Pond Road to the West...
section of Queens, New York.
Further reading
- Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-016357-7
- Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-7091-3966-7
- Elmaleh, Edmund. The Canary Sang but Couldn't Fly. New York: Union Square, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4027-6113-3
- Almog, OzOz AlmogOz Almog, an Israeli–Austrian artist was born on April 15, 1956, in Kfar Saba, Israel. He comes from a family of Russian/Ukrainian pioneers and Romanian/Russian immigrants...
, Kosher Nostra Jüdische Gangster in Amerika, 1890–1980 ; Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien ; 2003, Text Oz Almog, Erich Metz, ISBN 3901398333