“Look into those eyes…”

“Somebody Nobody Loves”; Benny Goodman and his Orch.; Peggy Lee; S. Miller; Okeh (6562); Publication date: November 13, 1941

Lepke and His Pals Feared Reles’s Testimony…

And here’s the grinning Lepke himself – Louis Buchalter, born 44 years ago in the city’s slums. He’s under a federal narcotic sentence that would keep him in jail 14 years… Lepke is blamed for 14 murders or more; Reles was to have testified against him. The particular murder for which Lepke is on trial is that of Joseph Rosen, candy-store owner. Rosen had been a trucking boss in the garment center. O’Dwyer says Lepke ordered the job much as you would order the cook to kill a chicken for dinner.

… Until Death Mysteriously Removed One

And this is where it ended, outside the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, where Reles has been awaiting his chance to testify against Lepke. We don’t really know what happened. Some reports say Reles was trying to escape – with only a couple of sheets to let him down down the sixth floor widow (circle) to a roof overlooking the ocean. Reporters were told that a window on the floor below was partly open, and that the sill and his shoes bore marks indicating he tried to get in. Some authorities said he had been ill, that he might have committed suicide.

PM, November 13, 1941 (Unidentified photographers)