Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis (died May 14, 1908) was an early New York gangster and member of the Eastman Gang under 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...

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Biography

Born Sam Tietch, Lewis was a wrestler, strongman, and bodyguard; supposedly wrapping iron bars around his neck and arms, at 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....

 side shows before joining the Eastman Gang. Following Monk Eastman

Monk Eastman

Edward "Monk" Eastman was a New York City Gangster who founded and led one of the most powerful street gangs in New York City at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the Eastman Gang. His other aliases included Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney, and Edward "Eddie" Delaney...

's imprisonment, he sided with Zwerbach during the struggle for leadership of the gang and, after the murder of rival Richie Fitzpatrick

Richie Fitzpatrick

Richard "Richie" Fitzpatrick was a top gunman in the Monk Eastman gang, as well as a former member of the Five Points Gang, during the late 1890s until his death in 1904...

 in 1904, eliminated the remaining members of the Fitzpatrick faction.

As a bodyguard, Lewis became Zwerbach's right hand man during the next four years and was involved in the murder of a gambler known as "The Bottler", a member of the Five Points Gang

Five Points Gang

Five Points Gang was a 19th-century and early 20th-century criminal organization, primarily of Italian-American origins, based in the Sixth Ward of Manhattan, New York City. Since the early 19th century, the area was first known for gangs of Irish immigrants...

 who operated stuss

Stuss

Stuss is a card game, a variant of faro. In this version the cards are dealt from the dealer's hand, not from a shoe. Also, the house won all the money when drawing two equal cards, as opposed to half in traditional faro...

 games on Suffolk Street, shooting him twice in the chest in full view of twenty people.

Trouble continued between the Eastmans and the Five Points Gang until May 14, 1908, when Lewis and Zwerbach got into a fight with Louis "The Lump" Pioggi

Louis Pioggi

Louis "Louie the Lump" Pioggi was a New York criminal and member of the Five Points Gang, known most prominently for the murder of Eastman Gang leader Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis...

, a member of the Five Points Gang, over his former girlfriend and dance hall girl Carroll Terry and eventually forced Pioggi to jump out the first story window of a Manhattan bar breaking his ankle.

Pioggi returned to gang leader Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly (criminal)

Paul Kelly was an Italian immigrant who founded the Five Points Gang in New York City after starting some brothels with prize monies earned in boxing...

, and the two plotted the murder of their rivals. Later that night, with several other gang members, Lewis and Zwerbach were ambushed while leaving a Coney Island bar and gunned down, with Zwerbach shot once in the head and Lewis five times in the head and chest.

Further reading

• Nick, Tosches. King of the Jews: The Greatest Mob Story Never Told. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-621118-3