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{{Short description|American mobster and informant}}
'''Abe "Kid Twist" Reles''' (] – ], ]) was an ] mobster who was probably the most feared hitman in the stable of ], the enforcement arm of the ].
{{Infobox person
|name=Abraham Reles
|image=Abe-reles.jpg
|caption = Reles c. 1935
|birth_name=Abraham Reles
|birth_date={{birth date|1906|5|10}}
|birth_place=], New York, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|1941|11|12|1906|5|10}}
|death_place=Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
|resting place= ]
| death_cause = ]
|other_names=Kid Twist
|occupation=], ]
| spouse = Rosie Kirsch
| partner =
| parents = Samuel and Rose Reles
| children = 2
| relatives = {{plainlist|
* Max Reles (brother)
* Bessie Reles (sister)
* Esther Reles (sister)
}}
}}


'''Abraham''' "'''Kid Twist'''" '''Reles''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|ɛ|l|ᵻ|s}}; May 10, 1906 – November 12, 1941) was a New York ] who was a ] for ], the enforcement contractor for the Mafia's ].
Abraham Reles, the son of ] ], was born in the ] section of ], in New York City. Growing up in poverty, it wasn't long before he embraced a life of crime. Stories of successful Jewish gangsters inspired him on his path toward wealth, fame, and ultimately destruction.


Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the ]. Reles's death from ] while in police custody might have been a hit placed by the ], as he was set to testify against ] ] and future boss ].
Physically, Reles was short, but had long arms that ended in hands with short, stubby fingers. His small size, however, did not at all detract from his ruthless violence. When carrying out hits, his weapon of choice was an ice pick (which he would jam through his victim's ear right into the brain). Reles became so adept at using the ice pick that many of his murder victims were thought to have died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Reles reportedly got the nickname "Kid Twist" after an earlier vicious killer in ]'s ]; another theory behind the moniker was that it was the name of his favorite candy.


==Early years==
During the ] days of the ], Reles and friend ] went to work for the Shapiro brothers, who ran the ] rackets, while they were still teenagers. Soon, the duo were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught, tried, and sentenced to two years in an upstate ] juvenile institution. The failure of the Shapiro brothers to come to the aid of their employee would prove fatal later on.
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2017}}
Abraham Reles, the son of ] immigrants from ],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Abe Reles {{!}} American gangster|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abe-Reles|access-date=2020-11-25|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> was born in the ] section of ], New York, on May 10, 1906. His father, Sam, worked in one of the garment trades until sometime during the ]. His father's last known occupation was peddling ]es on the streets of Brownsville. His full formal ] was Elkanah ben Shimon.


Reles attended school through the eighth grade. After leaving school, he began hanging out at pool rooms and candy stores in and around Brownsville. He soon teamed up with two of his childhood friends, ] and ], who eventually rose to power with him in the group conventionally known as ] His first arrest came in 1921 for stealing $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, and he was sent to the ] at ], for four months.
After his release, Reles resumed his friendship with Goldstein, and together with George Defeo they entered the slot-machine business, the province of the Shapiro racket. Through Defeo's connection with ], Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord; Lansky did not have access to the poorer neighborhoods of ] and thus agreed to the deal. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get a sizeable foothold into the ], ], and ] neighborhoods, while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.


Reles's small physical size did not deter him from committing ruthless acts of violence. When carrying out murders, his weapon of choice was an ], which he would ram through his victim's ear into the brain. On one occasion, in broad daylight, he attacked a worker at a car wash for failing to clean a smudge from the fender of his car.<ref name="Cummings and Volkman 1992, p.36">Cummings and Volkman 1992, p. 36</ref> Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough.<ref name="Cummings and Volkman 1992, p.36"/> One night, according to journalist Rich Cohen, he and Harry Strauss with the help of Buggsy and Dukey murdered "Puggy" Feinstein in Kid Twist's house. Before the murder, they dismissed his wife and Buggsy's wife, giving them fifty dollars each. His mother-in-law was still sleeping in the back of the house, which he believed would be no problem, but before the victim arrived, he had to wake her up to ask where there was a rope and where the ice pick was.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Rich |title=Tough Jews |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1998 |isbn=9781439142509}}</ref>
The slot-machine business thrived, and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' hit list. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their ] headquarters. Hopping into their car with Defeo, they headed to ], but it all turned out to be a ruse. Once they reached the building, they were greeted by gunfire. Reles and Goldstein were hurt; Defeo escaped unscathed. To add insult to injury, Meyer Shapiro abducted Reles' girlfriend (who was walking down the street) and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her repeatedly.


==Prohibition and Murder, Inc.==
"Kid Twist" was hot for revenge. He concocted a scheme to down the Shapiro brothers with the help of fellow ] killers ] and ], who also wanted to "off" the brothers in order to get a piece of their action. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Reles band of hoods finally caught up with Irving Shapiro. Reles dragged him from the hallway of his home out into the street, where he beat, kicked, and then shot him numerous times. Two months later, Reles met Meyer Shapiro and was so intent on exacting revenge that he shot his foe right in the head. Another three years elapsed before the last Shapiro brother, William, was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. He was nearly beaten to death, then stuffed in a sack and driven out to the ] section of ], where he was buried. Before the gang could finish their work, however, a man spotted them and they fled the scene. The man began to dig up what the hoods were burying and found the sack. William's body was exhumed and taken for an autopsy. There, the coroner made a bone-chilling discovery: William Shapiro had sand in his lungs. The Reles gang had buried him alive.
During the ] days of the 1920s, while still teenagers, Reles and Goldstein went to work for the ], who ran the ] rackets. Soon Reles and Goldstein were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught and sentenced to two years in an ] juvenile institution. The Shapiro brothers failed to help Reles, prompting Reles to plan revenge.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}


After his release, Reles, Goldstein, and George Defeo entered the ] business, the province of the Shapiro brothers. Through Defeo's connections, Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord ], who wanted access to the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and thus agreed. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get sizable footholds in ], ], and ], while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}
In ], Reles was arrested on the orders of Kings County District Attorney ] and implicated in a number of killings. Realizing that he would be executed in the ] at ], Reles decided to become an informant. The information Reles disclosed to the D.A. on 16 May of that year about the murder of ] candy store owner Joseph Rosen was enough to send his boss, ], to his fate in the ] death house. Slowly but surely, Murder, Inc. began to unravel as O'Dwyer, using Reles' testimony, prosecuted ], ], ], ], and even Reles' childhood friend ], and sent them all to sit upon "Old Sparky" in ]. Naturally, the Syndicate higher-ups were not at all pleased with Reles' decision to become an informant.


Reles, Goldstein, and Strauss were partners in all of their criminal activities, which had primarily been the slot machine business and quickly expanded to include ]ing, ], and ] in connection with union activities, especially the restaurant union.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}
Following these convictions, O'Dwyer planned a trial for ], who had been co-chief of operations of ] along with ], in order to help his campaign to become mayor of ]. The trial, based solely on the testimony of the D.A.'s star witness, Abe Reles, was set for ], ]. However, in the wee hours of that morning, Reles, guarded by six police detectives, mysteriously plummeted to his death from the window of Room 623 of the Half Moon Hotel on ]. It is not known whether the defenestrated Reles was thrown or pushed out the window, or if he was merely trying to escape. It is believed that ] paid the detectives guarding Reles to ensure that he would never testify.


The slot machine business thrived and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' ]. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their East New York headquarters. Hopping into a car with Defeo, they headed to East New York. However, when they reached the Shapiros' building, the three men were ambushed. Reles and Goldstein were wounded, but all three managed to escape. In the meantime, ] abducted Reles' girlfriend and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Turkus |first1=Burton B. |title=Murder, Inc: the story of "the Syndicate" |last2=Feder |first2=Sid |date=2003 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81288-0 |edition=2nd Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=111–112}}</ref>
Reles was buried in Old ] Cemetery in the ] section of ]. Because of his mob status as a "stool pigeon" and the circumstances surrounding his death, he gained another moniker after his passing. In addition to "Kid Twist," Reles became known as "the canary who sang, but couldn't fly."


==Revenge against Shapiro Brothers==
]
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2017}}
]
To avenge the ambush and his girlfriend's rape, Reles enlisted the help of fellow ] killers ] and ]. The two killers were glad to help: they hoped to kill the Shapiro brothers and take over some of their operations. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Murder, Inc. group finally caught up with Irving Shapiro.
]

]
On that occasion, Reles dragged Irving from the hallway of his home out into the street. Reles beat, kicked, and then shot Irving numerous times, killing him. Two months later, Reles met ] on the street and killed him by shooting him in the face. Another three years elapsed before Reles finally got the last Shapiro brother, ]. William was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. Once there, he was beaten nearly to death, stuffed into a sack, and driven out to the ] section of Brooklyn and buried. Before the gang could finish burying William, a passerby spotted them and they had to flee the scene. William Shapiro's body was exhumed shortly thereafter, and after being autopsied it was determined that he had been buried alive.
]

]
==Government informant==
]
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2017}}
]
In 1940, Reles was implicated in a number of killings. Realizing that he faced execution if convicted, Reles became a government witness. Reles implicated his boss ] in the murder of Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen; Buchalter was eventually convicted and executed for this crime. Reles's information also implicated ], ], Harry Maione, Harry Strauss, Frank Abbandando, ], and even his own childhood friend "Buggsy" Goldstein. All except Nitzberg were eventually convicted and executed. Reles' next target was ], who had been co-chief of operations of Murder, Inc.

Reles was to implicate Anastasia in the murder of union ] ]. However, unlike other members of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was a high-ranking member of the ]. The trial, based solely on Reles' testimony, was set for November 12, 1941. Until then, Reles was under constant guard by police detectives at the ] in ].

==Death==
In the early morning of November 12, 1941, with police guarding the door, Reles fell to his death from a window in room 623 at the ].<ref name=NYT1>{{cite news |title=Abe Reles Killed Trying to Escape|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/11/13/87689165.pdf|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 13, 1941|page=29|accessdate=September 29, 2015}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Michael Cooper|title=Neighborhood report: Southern Brooklyn; Ill-Fated Stool Pigeon's Roost Finally Following Him Down|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/28/nyregion/neighborhood-report-southern-brooklyn-ill-fated-stool-pigeon-s-roost-finally.html |newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 May 1995 |accessdate=July 9, 2015}}</ref><ref>, nyu.edu; accessed July 9, 2017.</ref>

It appeared he may have been trying to lower himself to the fifth floor window underneath using two bedsheets tied together and then to a four-foot length of wire that had been attached to a valve in his room. However, the wire knot to the valve came undone, and he fell to a second floor outdoor landing,<ref name=NYT1/> and newspapers dubbed him "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly".<ref name=burns/>

The following day, five police officers who had been guarding him were demoted.<ref>{{cite news|title=Guards Demoted in Reles Escape; Five to Get Department Trials on Laxity Charge—Mayor Orders Inquiry|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/11/14/99259230.html?pageNumber=1|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 14, 1941|page=1|accessdate=September 29, 2015}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

There was widespread speculation that he had been thrown or pushed out of the window and the room had been arranged to look like he was trying to escape. Reles had shown no inclination to escape from protective custody and indeed had demonstrated a fear of even being out of earshot of the police.<ref name=NYT1/>

] reportedly raised $100,000 to bribe these guards to kill Reles. In 2005 evidence was reported that NYPD Detective Charles Burns, one of Reles's police bodyguards, was involved in the disappearance and probable murder of NYC anti-corruption judge ] in 1930.<ref name=burns>{{cite news|title=An Excess of Burnses Keep a Case Open|author=Gary Shapiro|date=September 16, 2005|newspaper=The New York Sun|url=http://www.nysun.com/arts/excess-of-burnses-keep-a-case-open/20104|access-date=February 27, 2013|archive-date=October 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019034759/https://www.nysun.com/arts/excess-of-burnses-keep-a-case-open/20104/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Rashbaum>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/nyregion/20crater.html?_r=1 | title=Judge Crater Abruptly Appears, at Least in Public Consciousness | work='New York Times | date=August 20, 2005 | accessdate=June 6, 2012 | author=Rashbaum, William}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Gendar|first=Alison|url=http://articles.nydailynews.com/2005-08-19/news/18321667_1_judge-joseph-crater-showgirl-mistress-tammany-hall|title=JUDGE CRATER FOUND? Dead gal's secret letter may solve 1930 mystery|work=New York Daily News|date=August 19, 2005|accessdate=June 6, 2012}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

However, in 1951 a grand jury concluded Reles died accidentally during an attempted escape.<ref>{{cite news|title=Inquiry Discredits O'Dwyer For Calling Reles Important |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/12/22/121446103.pdf|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 22, 1951|page=1}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

Reles is buried in Old Mount Carmel Cemetery in ].

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*]

==Notes==
{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2009}}
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Rockaway, Robert A. (2000). ''But he was good to his mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters''. Gefen Publishing House. {{ISBN|965-229-249-4}}
* Cummings, John, and Ernest Volkman (1992). ''Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang''. Avon Books. {{ISBN|0-380-71487-6}}

==Further reading==
* Davis, John H. ''Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family''. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. {{ISBN|0-06-016357-7}}
* Messick, Hank. ''Lansky''. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. {{ISBN|0-7091-3966-7}}
* Elmaleh, Edmund. ''The Canary Sang but Couldn't Fly''. New York: Union Square, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1-4027-6113-3}}
* ], '''' Jüdische Gangster in Amerika, 1890–1980; Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien; 2003, Text Oz Almog, Erich Metz, {{ISBN|3-901398-33-3}}
* Turkus, Burton. (2003). ''Murder, Inc. The Story of the Syndicate''. New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed -->

==External links==
*
* {{cite news
|author=
|title='Kid Twist' Took the Fall, But He Left His Bag Behind
|date=1995-07-09
|work=]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/09/nyregion/l-kid-twist-took-the-fall-but-he-left-his-bag-behind-786595.html
|accessdate=2008-08-10
}}
{{Murder, Incorporated}}{{Authority control}}

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Latest revision as of 12:59, 11 December 2024

American mobster and informant
Abraham Reles
Reles c. 1935
BornAbraham Reles
(1906-05-10)May 10, 1906
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 12, 1941(1941-11-12) (aged 35)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Cause of deathDefenestration
Resting placeMount Carmel Cemetery
Other namesKid Twist
Occupation(s)Mobster, Hitman
SpouseRosie Kirsch
Children2
Parent(s)Samuel and Rose Reles
Relatives
  • Max Reles (brother)
  • Bessie Reles (sister)
  • Esther Reles (sister)

Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles (/ˈrɛlɪs/; May 10, 1906 – November 12, 1941) was a New York Jewish mobster who was a hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for the Mafia's National Crime Syndicate.

Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the electric chair. Reles's death from falling through a window while in police custody might have been a hit placed by the American Mafia, as he was set to testify against Gambino crime family underboss and future boss Albert Anastasia.

Early years

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Abe Reles" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Abraham Reles, the son of Jewish immigrants from Galicia, was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, on May 10, 1906. His father, Sam, worked in one of the garment trades until sometime during the Great Depression. His father's last known occupation was peddling knishes on the streets of Brownsville. His full formal Hebrew name was Elkanah ben Shimon.

Reles attended school through the eighth grade. After leaving school, he began hanging out at pool rooms and candy stores in and around Brownsville. He soon teamed up with two of his childhood friends, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, who eventually rose to power with him in the group conventionally known as Murder, Inc. His first arrest came in 1921 for stealing $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, and he was sent to the Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York, for four months.

Reles's small physical size did not deter him from committing ruthless acts of violence. When carrying out murders, his weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he would ram through his victim's ear into the brain. On one occasion, in broad daylight, he attacked a worker at a car wash for failing to clean a smudge from the fender of his car. Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough. One night, according to journalist Rich Cohen, he and Harry Strauss with the help of Buggsy and Dukey murdered "Puggy" Feinstein in Kid Twist's house. Before the murder, they dismissed his wife and Buggsy's wife, giving them fifty dollars each. His mother-in-law was still sleeping in the back of the house, which he believed would be no problem, but before the victim arrived, he had to wake her up to ask where there was a rope and where the ice pick was.

Prohibition and Murder, Inc.

During the Prohibition days of the 1920s, while still teenagers, Reles and Goldstein went to work for the Shapiro brothers, who ran the Brooklyn rackets. Soon Reles and Goldstein were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught and sentenced to two years in an upstate New York juvenile institution. The Shapiro brothers failed to help Reles, prompting Reles to plan revenge.

After his release, Reles, Goldstein, and George Defeo entered the slot machine business, the province of the Shapiro brothers. Through Defeo's connections, Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord Meyer Lansky, who wanted access to the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and thus agreed. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get sizable footholds in Brownsville, East New York, and Ocean Hill, while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.

Reles, Goldstein, and Strauss were partners in all of their criminal activities, which had primarily been the slot machine business and quickly expanded to include loan sharking, crap games, and labor slugging in connection with union activities, especially the restaurant union.

The slot machine business thrived and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' hit list. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their East New York headquarters. Hopping into a car with Defeo, they headed to East New York. However, when they reached the Shapiros' building, the three men were ambushed. Reles and Goldstein were wounded, but all three managed to escape. In the meantime, Meyer Shapiro abducted Reles' girlfriend and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her.

Revenge against Shapiro Brothers

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

To avenge the ambush and his girlfriend's rape, Reles enlisted the help of fellow Murder, Inc. killers Frank "Dasher" Abbandando and Harry "Happy" Maione. The two killers were glad to help: they hoped to kill the Shapiro brothers and take over some of their operations. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Murder, Inc. group finally caught up with Irving Shapiro.

On that occasion, Reles dragged Irving from the hallway of his home out into the street. Reles beat, kicked, and then shot Irving numerous times, killing him. Two months later, Reles met Meyer Shapiro on the street and killed him by shooting him in the face. Another three years elapsed before Reles finally got the last Shapiro brother, William. William was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. Once there, he was beaten nearly to death, stuffed into a sack, and driven out to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn and buried. Before the gang could finish burying William, a passerby spotted them and they had to flee the scene. William Shapiro's body was exhumed shortly thereafter, and after being autopsied it was determined that he had been buried alive.

Government informant

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In 1940, Reles was implicated in a number of killings. Realizing that he faced execution if convicted, Reles became a government witness. Reles implicated his boss Lepke Buchalter in the murder of Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen; Buchalter was eventually convicted and executed for this crime. Reles's information also implicated Louis Capone, Mendy Weiss, Harry Maione, Harry Strauss, Frank Abbandando, Irving ("Knadles" and "the Plug") Nitzberg, and even his own childhood friend "Buggsy" Goldstein. All except Nitzberg were eventually convicted and executed. Reles' next target was Albert Anastasia, who had been co-chief of operations of Murder, Inc.

Reles was to implicate Anastasia in the murder of union longshoreman Pete Panto. However, unlike other members of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was a high-ranking member of the Cosa Nostra. The trial, based solely on Reles' testimony, was set for November 12, 1941. Until then, Reles was under constant guard by police detectives at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island.

Death

In the early morning of November 12, 1941, with police guarding the door, Reles fell to his death from a window in room 623 at the Half Moon Hotel.

It appeared he may have been trying to lower himself to the fifth floor window underneath using two bedsheets tied together and then to a four-foot length of wire that had been attached to a valve in his room. However, the wire knot to the valve came undone, and he fell to a second floor outdoor landing, and newspapers dubbed him "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly".

The following day, five police officers who had been guarding him were demoted.

There was widespread speculation that he had been thrown or pushed out of the window and the room had been arranged to look like he was trying to escape. Reles had shown no inclination to escape from protective custody and indeed had demonstrated a fear of even being out of earshot of the police.

Frank Costello reportedly raised $100,000 to bribe these guards to kill Reles. In 2005 evidence was reported that NYPD Detective Charles Burns, one of Reles's police bodyguards, was involved in the disappearance and probable murder of NYC anti-corruption judge Joseph Force Crater in 1930.

However, in 1951 a grand jury concluded Reles died accidentally during an attempted escape.

Reles is buried in Old Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, Queens.

See also

Notes

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  1. "Abe Reles | American gangster". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-11-25.
  2. ^ Cummings and Volkman 1992, p. 36
  3. Cohen, Rich (1998). Tough Jews. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781439142509.
  4. Turkus, Burton B.; Feder, Sid (2003). Murder, Inc: the story of "the Syndicate" (2nd Da Capo Press ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0-306-81288-0.
  5. ^ "Abe Reles Killed Trying to Escape" (PDF). The New York Times. November 13, 1941. p. 29. Retrieved September 29, 2015.(subscription required)
  6. Michael Cooper (28 May 1995). "Neighborhood report: Southern Brooklyn; Ill-Fated Stool Pigeon's Roost Finally Following Him Down". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
  7. Profile, nyu.edu; accessed July 9, 2017.
  8. ^ Gary Shapiro (September 16, 2005). "An Excess of Burnses Keep a Case Open". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on October 19, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  9. "Guards Demoted in Reles Escape; Five to Get Department Trials on Laxity Charge—Mayor Orders Inquiry". The New York Times. November 14, 1941. p. 1. Retrieved September 29, 2015.(subscription required)
  10. Rashbaum, William (August 20, 2005). "Judge Crater Abruptly Appears, at Least in Public Consciousness". 'New York Times. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  11. Gendar, Alison (August 19, 2005). "JUDGE CRATER FOUND? Dead gal's secret letter may solve 1930 mystery". New York Daily News. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  12. "Inquiry Discredits O'Dwyer For Calling Reles Important" (PDF). The New York Times. December 22, 1951. p. 1.(subscription required)

References

  • Rockaway, Robert A. (2000). But he was good to his mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters. Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-249-4
  • Cummings, John, and Ernest Volkman (1992). Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang. Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-71487-6

Further reading

  • Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-016357-7
  • Messick, Hank. Lansky. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1973. ISBN 0-7091-3966-7
  • Elmaleh, Edmund. The Canary Sang but Couldn't Fly. New York: Union Square, 2009. ISBN 978-1-4027-6113-3
  • Almog, Oz, Kosher Nostra Jüdische Gangster in Amerika, 1890–1980; Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien; 2003, Text Oz Almog, Erich Metz, ISBN 3-901398-33-3
  • Turkus, Burton. (2003). Murder, Inc. The Story of the Syndicate. New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press.

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