The Most Infamous Mob Hits in History
The American Mafia operated by one unbreakable rule: betrayal, weakness or ambition could get you killed. This is the definitive guide to the most notorious mob hits in organised crime history — the men who were killed, who ordered it, and why.
A
Abe Reles — “Kid Twist”
Died: November 12, 1941 | Cause: Fell from hotel window | Ordered by: Unknown
One of Murder Incorporated’s most prolific killers, Reles was responsible for at least eleven murders. When he agreed to testify against his mob associates in 1940, he became the most valuable government witness in American organised crime history. His testimony sent Louis Lepke Buchalter to the electric chair. Then, in November 1941, while under 24-hour police guard on the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, Reles went out of the window. Police called it an accident. The mob called it justice. The press called him “the canary who could sing but couldn’t fly.”
Albert Anastasia — “The Lord High Executioner”
Died: October 25, 1957 | Cause: Shot in barber’s chair | Ordered by: Vito Genovese & Carlo Gambino
Albert Anastasia was the most feared man in the American Mafia. As the head of Murder Incorporated he oversaw hundreds of contract killings, and as boss of what would become the Gambino family he ruled through absolute terror. His downfall came from his own recklessness — he was making too many enemies, too fast. On October 25, 1957, two gunmen walked into the barber shop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan while Anastasia sat with a hot towel over his face. He was shot ten times. His death was a seismic moment in mob history — proof that no one, no matter how powerful or feared, was untouchable.
Angelo Bruno — “The Docile Don”
Died: March 21, 1980 | Cause: Shotgun blast to the head | Ordered by: Antonio Caponigro
Angelo Bruno ran the Philadelphia crime family for 21 years with a measured, diplomatic hand — earning the nickname The Docile Don. He avoided violence where others embraced it. It didn’t save him. On March 21, 1980, Bruno was shot in the head with a shotgun as he sat in a car outside his home. His murder triggered one of the bloodiest succession crises in mob history, with Philadelphia tearing itself apart over the next decade. The man who ordered the hit, Antonio Caponigro, was himself tortured and murdered shortly after — he had acted without Commission approval.
Arnold Rothstein — “The Brain”
Died: November 6, 1928 | Cause: Shot at card game | Ordered by: Never officially established
Arnold Rothstein was the financial architect of the American underworld — the man who bankrolled Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and a generation of mobsters who would reshape organised crime. He fixed the 1919 World Series. He pioneered large-scale drug trafficking. He was, in many ways, the original godfather. In November 1928 he was shot at a card game at the Park Central Hotel, allegedly over a $320,000 gambling debt he refused to pay. He died two days later, telling police “I won’t talk about it to anybody.” His murder was never officially solved.
Arnold Schuster
Died: March 8, 1952 | Cause: Shot on Brooklyn street | Ordered by: Albert Anastasia
Arnold Schuster was not a mobster. He was a 24-year-old Brooklyn clothing salesman who spotted bank robber Willie Sutton on a subway train and reported him to police. When he appeared on television to discuss how he recognised Sutton, Albert Anastasia allegedly watched the broadcast and ordered him killed on the spot — simply because he couldn’t stand the sight of a man who talked to police. Schuster was shot dead on his own doorstep. The killing shocked America and caused serious problems for Anastasia within the Commission.
B
Bugsy Siegel — “The Architect of Las Vegas”
Died: June 20, 1947 | Cause: Shot through window | Ordered by: Meyer Lansky / The Syndicate
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was the most glamorous gangster America ever produced — handsome, charming, Hollywood-connected, and utterly ruthless. His vision for the Flamingo Hotel transformed a patch of Nevada desert into Las Vegas. But the Flamingo went massively over budget, rumours swirled that Siegel was skimming construction funds, and mob patience ran out. On June 20, 1947, a gunman fired nine rounds through the window of his girlfriend Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills home. Siegel was hit four times. Within minutes of his death, three men walked into the Flamingo and took over. No one was ever charged.
C
Carmine Galante — “The Cigar”
Died: July 12, 1979 | Cause: Shot at restaurant | Ordered by: The Commission
Carmine Galante once boasted that no one would ever dare kill him. He was wrong. The Bonanno family boss had grown too greedy and too arrogant — he was muscling in on heroin territory that belonged to other families and refusing to share profits. The Commission sanctioned his murder. On July 12, 1979, three masked gunmen walked into the garden of Joe and Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant in Brooklyn where Galante was eating lunch. He was shot twice in the chest and once through his left eye. The cigar was still clamped between his teeth when he died.
D
Dean O’Banion — Chicago’s North Side Boss
Died: November 10, 1924 | Cause: Shot in flower shop | Ordered by: Johnny Torrio / The Gennas
Dean O’Banion ran Chicago’s North Side with irreverence and bravado, openly mocking his Italian rivals. He ran a flower shop opposite the Holy Name Cathedral as a legitimate front — and it was there that he died. Three men entered the shop on November 10, 1924. One shook O’Banion’s hand and held it tight while the others shot him six times. His death ignited the Chicago Beer Wars that would eventually bring Al Capone to absolute power.
Dutch Schultz — “The Bronx Beer Baron”
Died: October 24, 1935 | Cause: Shot at restaurant | Ordered by: Lucky Luciano / The Commission
Dutch Schultz was shot because he wouldn’t stop threatening to kill Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey — and the Commission feared the heat such a murder would bring. On October 23, 1935, gunmen entered the Palace Chophouse in Newark. Schultz was shot in the stomach. He survived for 22 hours, drifting in and out of consciousness and speaking bizarre, delirious words that a police stenographer faithfully recorded. He died without ever making sense. Lucky Luciano, who ordered the hit, went on to face Dewey in court anyway.
F
Frank Capone — Al’s Brother
Died: April 1, 1924 | Cause: Shot by police | Location: Cicero, Illinois
Frank Capone was Al’s older brother and one of his most trusted enforcers. He was killed by plainclothes police officers during Election Day violence in Cicero, Illinois in 1924 — the Capone organisation was attempting to intimidate voters. Frank drew his weapon and was shot dead. Al Capone gave him one of the most lavish mob funerals Chicago had ever seen.
Frank Nitti — “The Enforcer”
Died: March 19, 1943 | Cause: Suicide | Location: Chicago railroad yard
Frank Nitti was Al Capone’s feared enforcer and the public face of the Chicago Outfit during Capone’s imprisonment. When a federal indictment for extortion loomed in 1943, Nitti — a severe claustrophobic who could not face a return to prison — walked to a railroad yard near his home, fired two shots that grazed his head, then fired a third behind his right ear. He was found dead among the tracks. The Outfit carried on without him.
Frankie Yale — Al Capone’s Mentor
Died: July 1, 1928 | Cause: Shot from passing car | Ordered by: Al Capone
Frankie Yale gave Al Capone his first job in organised crime in Brooklyn. Years later, Capone had him killed. Yale had been skimming from Capone’s Chicago alcohol shipments, and when Capone sent men to investigate, Yale had them killed too. On July 1, 1928, a black sedan pulled alongside Yale’s car in Brooklyn and opened fire. Yale was struck multiple times and crashed into a house. His murder — carried out with a Thompson submachine gun — was the first Tommy Gun killing in New York City history.
H
Hymie Weiss — O’Banion’s Avenger
Died: October 11, 1926 | Cause: Machine-gunned | Ordered by: Al Capone
Hymie Weiss took over the North Side gang after Dean O’Banion’s murder and became Al Capone’s most dangerous enemy. He organised two assassination attempts on Capone — including a motorcade that fired over a thousand rounds into Capone’s Hawthorne Hotel headquarters — and personally kidnapped and murdered one of Capone’s allies. Capone finally had him killed on October 11, 1926, shot down outside the Holy Name Cathedral — the same church where O’Banion’s funeral had been held two years earlier.
J
Jack “Machine Gun” McGurn
Died: February 14, 1936 | Cause: Shot in bowling alley | Ordered by: North Side gang
Jack McGurn was one of Al Capone’s most trusted killers and widely believed to be the chief architect of the St Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. Seven years later, on Valentine’s Day 1936, his enemies caught up with him in a Milwaukee Avenue bowling alley. He was shot multiple times. His killers left a mocking Valentine’s card beside his body. McGurn had fallen out of favour with the Outfit by then and was largely on his own when death found him.
Jim Colosimo — Chicago’s First Crime Boss
Died: May 11, 1920 | Cause: Shot in restaurant | Ordered by: Johnny Torrio (alleged)
Big Jim Colosimo built Chicago’s first criminal empire from the ground up, running prostitution, gambling and extortion across the city. But when Prohibition arrived in 1920, his lieutenant Johnny Torrio saw a once-in-a-generation opportunity in bootlegging that Colosimo refused to take. On May 11, 1920, Colosimo was shot dead in the vestibule of his own restaurant. Torrio was almost certainly responsible. He brought in a young Al Capone from New York to help run the new operation.
Joe Colombo
Died: May 22, 1978 | Cause: Shot at rally, lingered 7 years | Ordered by: Joey Gallo (alleged)
Joe Colombo founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League and staged massive rallies in Columbus Circle, Manhattan, drawing thousands. The FBI hated him. Other mob bosses hated the attention he was bringing to organised crime. On June 28, 1971, a gunman shot Colombo three times in the head at his own rally. He survived but never regained consciousness, spending seven years in a vegetative state before dying in 1978. The gunman was immediately shot dead by Colombo’s own bodyguards.
Joe Masseria — “Joe the Boss”
Died: April 15, 1931 | Cause: Shot playing cards | Ordered by: Lucky Luciano
Joe Masseria was the most powerful mob boss in America — until Lucky Luciano decided he wasn’t. Masseria’s old-world thinking and willingness to drag New York into a bloody war with Salvatore Maranzano made him a liability. Luciano secretly switched sides, then on April 15, 1931, took Masseria to lunch at a Coney Island restaurant. After the meal Luciano excused himself to use the bathroom. Gunmen walked in and shot Masseria four times. He was found face down on the table, still clutching an ace of spades.
John Dillinger — Public Enemy No.1
Died: July 22, 1934 | Cause: Shot by FBI | Location: Outside Biograph Theater, Chicago
John Dillinger was the most famous criminal in America — a bank robber who became a folk hero during the Depression, escaping from jail twice and humiliating J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI at every turn. His end came through betrayal. Ana Cumpănaş — the so-called Lady in Red — tipped off the FBI about where Dillinger would be on the evening of July 22, 1934. As he left the Biograph Theater in Chicago after watching a film, agents surrounded him. When Dillinger reached for his gun, he was shot three times. He died in an alley.
P
Paul Castellano — “Big Paul”
Died: December 16, 1985 | Cause: Shot outside steakhouse | Ordered by: John Gotti
Paul Castellano was the boss of the Gambino family — the most powerful crime family in America. His murder was one of the most audacious acts in mob history. John Gotti, furious at Castellano’s management style and facing serious drug charges that he feared Castellano would not support him through, organised the hit without Commission approval — a massive violation of mob protocol. On December 16, 1985, as Castellano arrived at Sparks Steak House on 46th Street in Manhattan, five gunmen shot him six times. Gotti watched from a car across the street. He became boss the next day.
Pretty Boy Floyd — “The Phantom of the Ozarks”
Died: October 22, 1934 | Cause: Shot by FBI | Location: East Liverpool, Ohio
Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was one of the most wanted men in Depression-era America — a bank robber who became a Robin Hood figure in Oklahoma, reportedly destroying mortgage documents during bank raids to free local farmers from debt. After allegedly participating in the Kansas City Massacre of 1933, which killed four lawmen, the FBI made capturing him their top priority. He was cornered in an Ohio cornfield on October 22, 1934, and shot dead. J. Edgar Hoover claimed credit. The man who actually pulled the trigger disputed that account for the rest of his life.
R
Roy DeMeo — The Gambino Family’s Most Feared Killer
Died: January 10, 1983 | Cause: Shot, found in car boot | Ordered by: Paul Castellano
Roy DeMeo ran the most prolific murder crew in American Mafia history. His team — the DeMeo crew — are believed to have killed between 75 and 200 people, disposing of bodies with a clinical efficiency that became known as the Gemini Method. By the early 1980s DeMeo had become a serious liability — he was talking too much, killing too freely, and attracting FBI attention. Paul Castellano ordered his death. On January 10, 1983, DeMeo’s body was found in the boot of his own car in a Brooklyn parking lot, shot seven times. His own crew had killed him.
S
Salvatore Maranzano — The First Boss of Bosses
Died: September 10, 1931 | Cause: Stabbed and shot in office | Ordered by: Lucky Luciano
Salvatore Maranzano won the Castellammarese War of 1930-31 and declared himself Capo di Tutti Capi — Boss of All Bosses. He reorganised the American Mafia along the lines of Julius Caesar’s Roman legions. He also began planning to kill Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello and others who he saw as threats. Luciano moved first. On September 10, 1931, four men posing as IRS agents entered Maranzano’s Park Avenue office and stabbed and shot him to death. That same day, across the country, Luciano’s allies eliminated dozens of old-guard bosses in what became known as the Night of the Sicilian Vespers.
Salvatore Testa — “The Blade”
Died: September 14, 1984 | Cause: Shot | Ordered by: Nicodemo Scarfo
Salvatore Testa was 28 years old and already one of the most feared men in the Philadelphia mob. The son of murdered boss Philip Testa, he was loyal, fearless and widely expected to lead the family one day. That was precisely the problem. Boss Nicodemo Scarfo feared him. A hit was ordered but Testa was too suspicious to be caught easily. His killers gained his trust over months, then lured him to a candy store under the pretence of sharing a sandwich. He was shot dead. The waste of such a young life — even in mob terms — shocked Philadelphia.
Sam Giancana — Chicago Outfit Boss
Died: June 19, 1975 | Cause: Shot in basement | Ordered by: Unknown
Sam Giancana ran the Chicago Outfit at the height of its power, sharing a mistress with President Kennedy and allegedly working with the CIA on plots to assassinate Fidel Castro. By 1975 he was living in Mexico, having spent years abroad to avoid a grand jury. He returned to Chicago and was shot seven times in the basement of his Oak Park home on June 19, 1975 — the night before he was due to testify before a Senate committee investigating the CIA-mob connection. The timing was not a coincidence. His murder was never solved.
Further Reading
For the complete story of the hits, the power struggles and the men behind them, these are the essential books on American organised crime.
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