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Harry
MAIONE
A.K.A.: "Happy"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: New York mobster who served as a hitman
for Murder, Inc.
Number of victims: 1 - 12 +
Date of murder:
May 11,
1937
Date of birth: 1908
Victim profile: George Rudnick(police
informant)
Method of murder: Stabbing
witha meat cleaver
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Status:
Executed by
electrocution at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York,
on February 19,
1942
Harry "Happy" Maione
(1908 – February 19, 1942) was a New York mobster who served as a hitman
for Murder, Inc. (the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate)
during the 1930s. Maione was called "Happy" because his face displayed
an eternal scowl.
Early years
As a young man, Maione led the Ocean Hill Hooligans,
an Italian street gang in the Ocean Hill, Brooklyn section of New York.
His protegee in this gang was Frank "Dasher" Abbandando. Maione had a
son, Albert Maione. who eventually became an associate with the Gambino
crime family.
In 1931, Maione and Abbandando helped Abe "Kid Twist"
Reles and Martin Goldstein eliminate their gangster rivals, the Shapiro
Brothers (Meyer, Irving, and William). Previously that year, the
Shapiros had unsuccessfully tried to murder Reles and Goldstein. The
Shapiros then abducted Reles' girlfriend and raped her. Reles and
Goldstein wanted revenge and the two Italians wanted to take over the
Shapiro operations. On July 11, 1931, Irving Shapiro was gunned down
near his apartment. On September 17, 1931, Meyer was found shot to death
in the basement of a tenement building on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Murder, Inc.
Maione, Abbandando, Reles, and Goldstein then banded
together. They were soon joined by Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss,
Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, Seymour "Blue Jaw"
Magoon, Louis Capone, Charles "The Bug" Workman, Cooper McCue, and Vito
"Socko" Gurino.
The gang started picking up murder contracts from the
National Crime Syndicate with the help of Syndicate Board Member Joe
Adonis. The gang soon became the official murder-for-hire squad of the
Syndicate, and was dubbed "Murder, Inc." by the press. Maione acted as
the Italian liaison to the Jewish members of Murder Inc.; Reles was his
counterpart on the Jewish side. Murder Inc was directed by the brutal
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (another member of the Syndicate board) and the
nefarious Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia. Maione reportedly killed at
least 12 men himself while working for Murder, Inc.
Eliminating potential
witnesses
In the mid-1930s, New York District Attorney Thomas
E. Dewey targeted Buchalter for prosecution. In response, Buchalter
started eliminating all potential witnesses. Murder, Inc., rubbed out
anyone that Buchalter even suspected of being an informant. Loan shark
George Rudnick was one such victim; he was killed by Maione, Abbandando,
and Strauss on May 11, 1937.
In 1940, Reles became an informant for the State of
New York. He then implicated Maione in the horrific slaying of Rudnick.
According to Reles, the men supposedly killed Rudnick and started
stuffing him back in their car. Suddenly, the "corpse" started coughing.
To finish him off, Strauss stabbed Rudnick with an ice pick and Maione
buried a meat cleaver in his skull.
In May 1940, Maione was convicted of first degree
murder, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. After a second trial,
Maione was convicted again. On February 19, 1942, Harry Maione was
executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.
Wikipedia.org
Harry "Happy"
Maione (1908 – February
19, 1942) was an Italian-American hitman for Murder, Inc. (the
enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate) during the 1930s. His
nickname was given to him because he never smiled and his face displayed
an eternal scowl.
Maione was head of the Ocean Hill
Hooligans, an Italian street gang in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn,
New York. His underling in this group was Frank Abbandando. Maione and
Abbandando helped Abe Reles and Martin Goldstein exact revenge on the
Shapiro brothers (Meyer, Irving, and William) in 1931 for trying to kill
the two Jewish hoods and for abducting and raping Reles' girlfriend and
future wife. The two Italians were hoping to get a piece of the Shapiro
holdings in return.
Maione, Abbandando, Reles, and
Goldstein then banded together and created Brooklyn, Inc., the
forerunner to Murder, Inc. When joined by other killers, such as Harry
Strauss, Emanuel Weiss, Albert Tannenbaum, Seymour Magoon, Louis Capone,
Charles Workman, and Vito Gurino,
the group started picking up contracts for the National Crime Syndicate
through Syndicate "board of directors" member Joe Adonis.
Brooklyn, Inc. soon became the
official murder-for-hire squad of the Syndicate, and began to be dubbed
"Murder, Inc." by the press. Maione acted as the Italian liaison to the
Jewish killers of the faction; Reles was his counterpart on the Jewish
side. They operated under the direction of the brutal Louis Buchalter
(another member of the Syndicate board) and the nefarious Albert
Anastasia.
When Buchalter was being targeted by
New York District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey starting in the mid-1930s, he
waged an all-out war of extermination to eliminate potential witnesses
Dewey could use. Murder, Inc. played a major role in this campaign,
rubbing out anyone that "Lepke" even suspected of being an informant.
Loan shark George Rudnick was one such victim; he was killed by Maione,
Abbandando, and Strauss on 11 May 1937.
When Abe Reles became an informant
for the state in 1940, he implicated Maione in the horrific slaying of
Rudnick. He reported that when the three hitmen had tried to get the
"dead" Rudnick into their car after supposedly killing him, he coughed,
apparently still alive. Strauss began hacking away at the body of the
victim with an ice pick, Maione putting the final exclamation point on
the murder by sinking a meat cleaver into Rudnick's skull.
Reles' information was enough for Maione to be sentenced
to death for first-degree murder. He was executed in the electric chair
at Sing Sing in February 19, 1942.
