The deadliest mobster

The deadliest mobster

Some of the deadliest mobsters include:

• Gregory Scarpa was such a prolific killer that his associates nicknamed him the “Grim Reaper.” Scarpa was accused of more than 50 murders.

• Anthony Casso was nicknamed “Gaspipe” after his father’s favorite murder weapon. Casso was accused of killing at least 36 people.

• Joseph Barboza was nicknamed “The Animal” after he chewed a man’s cheek off! The Animal was accused of at least 26 murders.

• “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn was suspected of masterminding the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre for “Scarface” Al Capone in 1929. McGurn’s murder weapon of choice was a Tommy Gun.

• But McGurn got off because he had a “Blonde Alibi” in the form of his girlfriend Louise Rolfe, who later became his wife.

• McGurn was murdered on the seventh anniversary of the massacre, on Valentine’s Day in 1936. Was it a revenge killing?

• Sammy “The Bull” Gravano confessed to 19 murders when he became a witness against the Gambino crime family and its boss John Gotti. In the photo below, Gravano is on the left and Gotti on the right. Gravano even murdered his own brother-in-law when he discovered he had a drug habit.

• Thomas Pitera aka “Tommy Karate” was a hitman versed in the martial arts suspected of up to 60 murders for the Bonanno crime family. “Tommy was a psychopath, an animal,” according to Jim Hunt, an assistant special agent with the New York DEA. “He’d walk into a social club and the guys would all turn to face him. No one wanted their back to Tommy Pitera.”

• Some mob historians believe Harry Strauss aka “Pittsburgh Phil” murdered up to 500 people. In the news article below Strauss is headed for Death Row on Sing Sing Island. Notice the snazzy shoes he’s wearing. Strauss preferred an ice pick but once hacked a man to death with an axe in a movie theater. The second picture is of Harry Millman, one of Strauss’s contract killings. Strauss wounded five patrons of a diner while shooting Millman to death.

• Richard Kuklinski was known as the “Iceman” not just for “icing” his victims, but for actually refrigerating their bodies in order to make it harder for the authorities to determine their times of death! Kuklinski became the primary hitman of the Genovese family, while the DeCavalcante family also employed him from time to time. Kuklinski claimed to have murdered 100 to 200 people, including teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. Apparently, Kuklinski murdered so many people he lost count or just didn’t bother to keep track in the first place. His methods of disposal included guns, grenades, crossbows, chainsaws, ice picks and nasal spray bottles full of cyanide.

• Abe Reles, nicknamed “Kid Twist,” worked as the primary hitman for “Murder Inc.” under Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky. He has been accused of up to 30 murders.

• Roy DeMeo was a sadist who invented the “the Gemini method” of killing and dismembering victims. DeMeo’s motto was “no body, no crime.” According to Assistant U.S. Attorney William Mack Jr., “The Roy DeMeo crew is the most violent crew ever prosecuted in federal court, as far as my knowledge. Mack added that DeMeo “engaged in wholesale murder.” DeMeo has been accused of up to 250 murders.
• Joey Testa and Anthony Senter were both accused of 75 to 150 killings. They were members of the DeMeo crime gang nicknamed the “Gemini Twins.”
• Giovanni Brusca was nicknamed “U verru” (“The Pig” or “The Swine”) and “U scannacristiani” (“The People-Slayer” or “The Butcher”). Brusca confessed his crimes: “I killed Giovanni Falcone,” he wrote. “But it was not the first time: I had already used the car bomb to kill Judge Rocco Chinnici and the men of his escort. I am responsible for the kidnapping and death of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, who was 13 years old when he was kidnapped and 15 when he was killed. I have committed and personally ordered over 150 crimes. Even today I cannot remember every one, one by one, the names of those I killed. Many more than a hundred, certainly less than two hundred.”
• Salvatore “The Beast” Riina
• Albert Anastasia was accused of 100 to 175 killings. His nicknames included “The One-Man Army,” the “Mad Hatter,” “Lord High Executioner” and “Don Umberto.”
• Joe “Mad Dog” Sullivan was accused of 60 to 100 killings.
• Maurizio “Ice Eyes” Avola was accused of 40 to 80 killings.
• Jimmy Coonan was accused of 25 to 40 killings. He was nicknamed “Jimmy C.”
• Irving “Big Gangi” Cohen

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