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NY Times

“Hooray for me!”

September 27, 2021
1940, NY Times


“ROCCO’S BOOGIE WOOGIE”; Maurice Rocco And His Rockin’ Rhythm; Maurice Rocco; Decca (8523 A); Publication date: September 27, 1940

TWO IN MURDER RING
SENTENCED TO DIE

Goldstein Launches a Tirade
at Judge, but Strauss
Stares Vacantly

CALLS ACCUSERS ‘RATS’

Leaders of Gang, Liked to 83
Slayings, Hear Week of
Nov. 4 Set for Doom

The New York Times, September 27, 1940


“TONKY BLUES”; Maurice Rocco And His Rockin’ Rhythm; Maurice Rocco; Decca (8523 B); Publication date: September 27, 1940

Harry (Pittsburgh Phil) Strauss and Martin (Buggsy) Goldstein, leaders of the Brooklyn murder syndicate that has been accused of committing eighty-three underworld slayings, were sentenced yesterday by Kings County Judge John J. Fitzgerald to die in the electric chair in Sing Sing Prison during the week of Nov. 4…

…”The first thing I want to do is to thank the court for the lovely charge that is sending us to death. I can only hope that same thing for you and your family…

The New York Times, September 27, 1940


“ROCCO BLUES”; Maurice Rocco And His Rockin’ Rhythm; Maurice Rocco; Decca (8504 B); Publication date: September 27, 1940

Snarls Out His Phrases

…”That’s it. Let it go at that. If you can’t go to your death in a nice way, you might as well go in a bad way. I’m willing ti die like a man. I was found guilty on a perjured evidence. I’ll die like a man. Go ahead”….

“In the electric chair. I know all about it. In the electric chair. Hooray for me! I’ll be better off than the lot of you.”…

“Make it tomorrow. It’s all right by me. I’d be better satisfied.

The New York Times, September 27, 1940


“RHUMBOOGIE”; Maurice Rocco And His Rockin’ Rhythm; Maurice Rocco; Don Raye; Hughie Prince; Decca (8504 A); Publication date: September 27, 1940

Maledictions on Judge

…The two men were convicted on Sept. 19 by a blue-ribbon jury of strangling and attempting to cremate Irving (Puggy) Feinstein, a smalltime bookmaker, whose death was “contracted for” by Albert Anastasia, fugitive leader of the Brooklyn waterfront rackets.

The New York Times, September 27, 1940

“MURDER INCORPORATED”

September 22, 2021
1940, NY Times


“Murder in the First Degree”; St. Louis Jimmy; James Burke Oden; Burton & Oden; April 1956


The New York Times, September 20, 1940

MURDER INCORPORATED

The jury has decided that the two gangsters on trial for murder in Brooklyn were working members of Murder Incorporated. The implications of this trial are shocking. In a certain stratum of the community in which we live it was possible for a few dollars to hire assassins who would guarantee the murder of any specified individual…

The chief informant against the two gangsters who were convicted – “Kid Twist,” as Abe Reles prefers to call himself – glories in his record. Questioned on the number of victims he has “rubbed out,” he counts them on his fingers and figures up to eleven. He has difficulty in remembering the names or mob-names of so-many, but finally calls the roll triumphantly. He had no animosity against any of them, the death of each was accepted “on contract.” The only doubt excited by his graphic recital is whether such a man should be allowed to save his life on any terms.

The New York Times, September 20, 1940


“It’s Murder”; Lil Armstrong And Her Swing Orchestra; Lil Armstrong; Buck; Armstrong; 1936

“I also live in the Tombs.”

September 20, 2021
1940, NY Times, PM


“Stop Teasing Me”; Bob Pope And His Band; Bob Pope and Creole Sisters; Pope; Publication date: September 20, 1940


The New York Times, September 20, 1940

TWO IN MURDER RING
QUICKLY CONVICTED

Strauss and Goldstein to Die
in the Chair – Judge Praises
O’Dwyer Drive on Crime

The New York Times, September 20, 1940


PM, September 20, 1940, p.8

Goldstein and Strauss Found Guilty… Will Die for Murder, Inc. Butchery

…It was over. People pressed their congratulations on District Attorney O’Dwyer and young Turkus. Among them was a slihght, pale girl in black. She squeezed Turkus’s hand. “Thanks. Thanks for what you’ve done.”

She was Puggy Feinstein’s sister.
PM, September 20, 1940, p.8


“When You Got To Go You Got To Go”; Bob Pope And His Band; Bob Pope and Ensemble; Pope; Publication date: September 20, 1940

‘How to Commit a Murder” or “…flies in here at night and gets under the bed…”

September 19, 2021
1940, NY Times, PM


“A Handful of Stars”; Ina Ray Hutton and her Orch.; Stuart Foster; Lawrence; Shapiro; Publication date: September 19, 1940


The New York Times, September 19, 1940

MURDER RING TRIAL
HEARS NO DEFENSE

Goldstein’s Counsel Pleads
With Jury to Spare Client
He Terms ‘a Poor Bum’

STRAUSS STARES VACANTLY

Two Psychiatrists Testify He
Could Not Tell Date — Opinion
on Sanity Forbidden

The New York Times, September 19, 1940


“Gotta Have Your Love”; Ina Ray Hutton and her Orch.; Woode; Jackson; Loman; Publication date: September 19, 1940

NEW YORK: MURDER, Inc.
A Picture Story of An Industry.
By John Kobler.

District Attorney O’Dwyer (left foreground) listens dead-pan, while from the witness stand Abe Reles demonstrates how he and his two old friends, Srauss and Goldstein (seated center), strangled Irving (Puggy) Feinstein. Goldstein’s lawyer, paunchy Leo Healy is trying to enter an objection. The quizzical gentleman in front of him is Mr. O’Dwyer’s young assistant, Burton B. Turkus. Sketched in Court by William Sharp.
PM, September 19, 1940

Madness in Great Ones Must Not Unwatcht Go

When they jailed Harry Strauss, Brooklyn’s leading Angel of Destruction, on a murder rap, he let his beard grow long and matted, babbled idiocies, generally behaved like a loon. But three stated alienists said he was faking.

Yesterday, in Kings County, his lawyer tried to show that the alienists just don’t know their psychic onions. The alienists said he saw Abe Reles under his bed. Reles wasn’t.
PM, September 19, 1940

How to Commit a Murder — By Abe Reles

Of the story of Murder, Inc., as pictured in the preceding pages, Abe Reles told much as a witness in the current case against Strauss and Goldstein. Samples:

“I killed 11 men… Joey Silvers…and Plug Schuman… and Jack Paley. And, wait a minute, I can’t recall his name… Oh yes, a fellow by the name of Ferasco.”

“The boss said he wanted a clean job… Big Harry jumped on Puggy from behind and mugged (strangled) him like this.”

“I gave Big Harry one end if the rope and we put it under Puggy’s head while Buggsy held the other end.”

Sketched in Court by William Sharp.
PM, September 19, 1940


“The World Without You”; Will Hudson And His Orchestra; Kay Kenny; Will Hudson; Maria Kramer; Publication date: September 19, 1940

“…certainly good around the house.”

September 18, 2021
1940, NY Times


The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise”; Glen Gray And The Casa Loma Orchestra; Kenny Sargent; Ernest Seitz; Eugene Lockhart; Publication date: September 18, 1940


The New York Times, September 18, 1940

GANGSTER IN COURT
PLEADS FOR LIFE

Goldstein Interrupts Murder
Trial With Dramatic Appeal
to His Ex-Bodyguard

CRIES ‘YOU”RE BURNING ME!’

Magoon, State Witness, Turns
Away and Corroborates
Reles Story of Slaying

…”I didn’t know Abe was a killer. He was a family man and was certainly good around the house.”
The New York Times, September 18, 1940


“There Was a Little Girl”; Mitchell Ayres and his Fashions-In-Music; Mary Ann Mercer; Tommy Taylor; Bud Green; Walt Schuman; Publication date: September 18, 1940

“I put the radio on louder…”

September 17, 2021
1940, NY Times, PM


“Wild Mab of the Fish Pond”; Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra; Dale Bennett; Publication date: September 17, 1940

It Was About Time

…Printing House Square…
PM, September 17, 1940, p.9


“1. Telephone Bell – 2 Rings”; 1960

NEW YORK: A City of Telephone Users
PM, September 17, 1940, p.15 (Photos by Ray Platnick and Gene Badger)


“The Telephone Is Ringing”; Pee Wee Crayton; P. W. Crayton; October 1956

Paul Robeson Introduces Songs of Spanish War

He Will Be Commentator Tonight on WQXR (9) for Radio Debut of ‘Lost Records’
PM, September 17, 1940, p.11 (Photo by Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson)


6 Songs For Democracy”; Ernst Busch; Brecht; Elseler; Weinert; Palacio; Espinosa; Ernst; Daniel; Discos De Las Brigadas Internacionales (1A)

[Paul Robeson Hosts WQXR Program]


PM, September 17, 1940, p.9

Murder, Inc. Witness

She Tended Baby As Reles Killed
PM, September 17, 1940, p.9


The New York Times, September 17, 1940

RELES CONFESSES 5 MORE KILLINGS

Increases Number to Eleven as He Appears at the Trial of Strauss and Goldstein

TURNS ON 2 OLD FRIENDS

Tells of Getting Orders From ‘Boss,’ Waterfront Leader, to ‘Take’ Feinstein
The New York Times, September 17, 1940


“Night and Day”; Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra; Cole Porter; Publication date: September 17, 1940

Bizarre Weegee Reference of the Day

November 11, 2011
NY Times
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From the NY Times
Crime Scene Investigation: 360 Degrees
By MichaelWilson
11/18/2011

…The New York City Police Department began using a new camera, the Panoscan, in 2009, revolutionizing crime-scene photography in the city. Part Weegee, part video game, the camera creates 360-degree images that allow investigators, from the comfort of their desks, to point and click over evidence from a scene that they might have missed in the hectic hours after the crime…

Bizarre Weegee Reference of the Day…

November 3, 2011
NY Times
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NY Times article (this link to the article, may or may not work) about someone suing a Bronx wedding photographer, to interestingly, re-create a wedding, published 11/02/2011:

Mr. Remis is suing H & H Photographers, a 65-year-old studio known fondly among thousands of former and current Bronx residents because it chronicled their weddings, bar mitzvahs and communions.

One of the two founders, Curt Fried, escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna in September 1939 as a 15-year-old and was drafted into the United States Army, where he learned to shoot pictures assisting cameramen along the legendary Burma Road supply line to China during World War II. Mr. Fried recalled that in the late 1940s, Arthur Fellig, the celebrated street photographer known as Weegee, twice sought work at the studio when he needed money, but was turned down because he did not own a suit.

That might be true in the late 1920s or 1930s, (even the 1950s is not impossible) but not the 1940s. In July 1945, after Naked City was published, Weegee was flush; at the pinnacle of his fame and fortune. In November 1946, Weegee’s People was published… And he was in California for a few years in the late 1940s… So, in the late 1940s, Weegee was in California, and not only owned a suit, but did not need money…

Ermine Wrapped Mansion! Still For Sale!

June 27, 2011
NY Times, real estate
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Great and interesting little article/blog post from the NYTimes a few weeks ago (May 27, 2011) about 18 East 68th St… surprisingly/shockingly absent was the most interesting story, the biggest deal, the end of the dealing (bad gambling pun) to occur at 18 East 68th St: “Ermine Wrapped Patron Caught in Gambling Den”!!!

A brief excerpt:

“Storied Sloane Mansion on the Auction Block”
Word of a scandal began to fly through New York society circles in 1898 when Henry T. Sloane, a wealthy carpet manufacturer who was furnishing the new mansions, hotels and clubs of the city, deeded a mansion on the Upper East Side to his wife…
It was soon confirmed that Mr. Sloane’s wife, Jessie, had taken up with another man, and she married him a mere five hours after divorcing Mr. Sloane. So Mr. Sloane set out to build himself a new mansion at 18 East 68th Street, off Fifth Avenue…
After word of the Sloanes’ separation had spread — The New York Times reported in December 1898 that “because of their prominence in society, the gossip started and surmises were rife on every side” — Mr. Sloane commissioned the architect C. P. H. Gilbert to design a six-story, 18,267-square-foot Beaux-Arts house. With 17-foot-high ceilings in some rooms, an elephantine marble staircase and seven granite fireplaces, the building was completed around 1905…
Mr. Sloane moved in with his two young daughters, preventing his former wife from writing to them or even speaking to them on the street until the children were 21, or she could prove she “had led a moral life,” whichever came first, according to an account in The New York Tribune…
The investors bought out the tenants who remained in the building in 2007, and Mr. Sloane’s house, seeming a little ghostly with all the empty rooms, has been vacant ever since.”

NYTimes Author: Sarah Kersaw
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/big-deal-storied-sloane-mansion-on-the-auction-block/

A Weegee Museum wouldn’t be the worst idea..


PM Daily, Dec. 23, 1940


CG, 18 East 68th St., N.Y., N.Y., 01/2010


Ggogle Street View of Ermine Wrapped Mansion… 01/2010