It comes with no surprise that mob hits attract a lot of attention and drama. After all, the mafia underworld has intrigued people for many decades. The lavish but criminal lifestyle of the gang of thieves has become ideal for many.
But why are we so fascinated by these individuals who are, in fact, bandits, living at the expense of those who cannot protect themselves?
The fact is that the mafia is not just any organized criminal group. Gangsters are considered heroes, not the villains they really are. The criminal lifestyle looks like something out of a Hollywood movie. Often, they are Hollywood movies, as many events from the underworld inspired blockbusters.
However, in the movies, crime is dignified, and it seems to the viewer that these bandits are heroes who died in mob hits in vain. Also, we all tend to admire and idealize powerful, wealthy, and beautiful people.
Members and associates of the mafia group commit murders as part of their job. Sometimes the mob hits are committed out of revenge or because of disagreements.
Murder and mob hits have become a profession in the mafia world. Throughout history, the skill of assassination has been constantly perfected. Planning, executing, and covering mob hits tracks are all part of a "trade" deal with an expert killer. However, most of the lives of the mafia members are ended in violent mob hits or are spent in prison.
These are the 10 most famous mob hits in the history of the mafia.
The Mob Hit Of Benjamin Siegelbaum, Aka Bugsy Siegel
Known for his Las Vegas casino and criminal empire, Benjamin Siegelbaum, or Bugsy Siegel in the criminal world, is one of the most notorious gangsters in modern history. Starting with a mediocre Brooklyn gang, young Bugsy met another wannabe mobster, Meer Lansky. They formed Murder Inc., a group specializing in contract killings. It included gangsters of Jewish origin.
As Siegel became more and more popular in the criminal world, he tried to kill old New York gangsters and even had a hand in taking out Joe "Boss" Masseria. After years of bootlegging and gunfights on the West Coast, Siegel began earning large sums and connections in Hollywood. Thanks to his hotel "Flamingo" in Las Vegas, he became a real star.
The $1.5 million project was funded by the bandit community fund. However, the construction estimate was significantly exceeded. An old friend and associate of Siegel's, Lansky, decided that Siegel was stealing funds and partially investing in a legitimate business. That's why he was brutally murdered by a mob hit in his own home.
Sam "Mooney" Giancana Mob Hit
Another well-respected gangster in the underworld was Sam "Mooney" Giancana, once the most powerful gangster in Chicago. Starting as a driver in Al Capone's inner circle, Giancana quickly worked his way up.
Mooney met a few politicians, including the Kennedy clan. Giancana was even called to testify in the case when the CIA staged an assassination attempt on Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Giancana was believed to have critical information.
Not only did Giancana's name appear in the case, but the mob was also rumored to have made a large contribution to John F. Kennedy's re-election campaign, including stuffing ballots in Chicago. The Giancana-Kennedy connection became increasingly discussed.
Many even believe that Frank Sinatra was a go-between to deflect federal suspicion. Things soon went downhill due to speculation that the mob had a hand in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
After spending the rest of his life on the CIA wanted list and among rival clans, Giancana was found dead. He was shot in the back of the head while cooking in his basement. There were many versions of this mob hit, but the perpetrator was never found.
Alfonso Gabriel Capone, Known For The Valentine's Day Massacre Mob Hit
Alfonso Gabriel Capone, nicknamed the Big Al, needs no introduction. Perhaps this is the most famous gangster in history, and he is known worldwide. Capone came from a respected and prosperous family. At the age of 14, he was expelled from school for hitting a teacher and decided to take a different path, immersing himself in the world of organized crime.
Under the influence of gangster Johnny Torrio, Capone began his journey to fame. He gained a scar that earned him the nickname Scarface. Involved in everything from bootlegging to murder, Capone was invulnerable to the police, moving freely and doing as he pleased.
The games ended when Al Capone's name was implicated in a brutal mass murder known as the Valentine's Day Massacre mob hit. Several gangsters from rival factions were killed in the massacre.
The police could not pin the crime on Capone himself, but they had other ideas. He was arrested for tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison. Later, when the gangster's health deteriorated due to illness, he was released on bail.
Al Capone's death was as intriguing as his life. He died of a heart attack in 1947, and the world of crime changed forever.
Jack "Legs" Diamond Mob Hit
Born in Philadelphia in 1897, Jack "Legs" Diamond was a prominent figure in the era of prohibition and organized crime that spread across the United States. Earning the name "legs" due to his quick escapades and questionable dance moves, Diamond also became famous for extreme violence and murder.
Finding himself extremely profitable, Diamond got into bigger and better things. He started staging truck robberies and owning high-profile establishments across the country. However, his commission to kill infamous mob boss Nathan Kaplan transcended his criminal status.
He teamed up with big guys like Lucky Luciano and Dutch Schultz, who later became a giant thorn in his side. Although Diamond was a fearsome man, he too was attacked repeatedly, earning him various nicknames. Some of them were "The Clay Pigeon" and "The Man who cannot be Killed," given that he returned unscathed each time. But luck turned against Diamond, and he was shot in a mob hit in 1931.
The Mob Hit Of Jose "The Animal" Barboza
Barbosa is known as one of the worst killers of the 1960s. It is believed to have killed more than 26 people. He got his nickname during an incident in a nightclub when, after a disagreement, he "blew" the aggressor's whole face.
Sometime later, he continued his boxing career, winning 8 of 12 fights under the pseudonym "Baron." Even though he made several attempts to return to legal life, he never succeeded.
No matter how much he tried to stay clean, he soon began to commit crimes again. In 1950, he served five years in the Massachusetts Penitentiary, repeatedly attacking guards and other prisoners. After serving three years of the appointed term, he escaped but was soon captured.
After his release, he immediately connected with a gang of mobsters and started his "own business" of robbery. At the same time, his career began to develop as a "hitman" within the Patricia Crime Family.
Over the years, the number of his victims has grown, as has his reputation as a hitman. His weapon of choice was a silenced pistol, although he also enjoyed experimenting with car bombs.
Over time, Barboza became a respected figure in the underworld. However, it was impossible not to make dangerous enemies with his reputation. After being jailed on murder charges and learning that he was carrying out an assassination attempt, he agreed to testify against mob boss Raymond Patriarca in exchange for FBI protection.
He was in the witness protection program for some time, but the enemies still managed to catch him. In 1976, near his home, he was ambushed and killed on the spot with a shotgun.
Joe "Crazy" Gallo Mob Hit
Joseph Gallo was a prominent member of the New York-based criminal group Profasi. He killed mercilessly, and it was believed that he was involved in many contract killings on the orders of boss Joe Profaci. Ironically, his nickname has nothing to do with his reputation as a "murderer."
Many "colleagues" called him crazy because he liked to quote dialogues from gangster movies and pass himself off as fictional characters. His reputation took a turn for the worse in 1957 when it was suspected (although never proven) that Joe was among those who killed influential mob boss Albert Anastasia.
A year later, Gallo assembled a team to overthrow the leader of the Profasi family, Joseph Profasi. The mob hit was unsuccessful, after which many of his friends and relatives were killed. Things went very badly for Gallo, and in 1961 he was convicted of robbery and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
During his time in prison, he attempted to kill several other inmates by politely inviting them to his cell and putting strychnine in their food. Most of them became seriously ill, but none died. After serving eight years of his sentence, he was released early.
Upon his release, Gallo was determined to take on the role of leader of the Colombo crime family. In 1971, then-leader Joe Colombo was shot three times in the head by an African-American mobster. However, Gallo will soon meet his own tragic end.
In 1972, while dining at a fish restaurant with his family and a bodyguard, he was shot five times in the chest. The main suspect in the mob hit was believed to be Carlo Gambino, who did it in retaliation for the murder of Joe Colombo's friend.
Salvatore Testa Mob Hit
Salvatore was a Philadelphia gangster who served as a hitman for the Scarfo crime ring from 1981 until he died in 1984. His father was highly influential in criminal circles, having been shot in the head in 1981, leaving Salvatore with several of his legal and illegal businesses. As a result, at the age of 25, Testa was very wealthy.
Testa had an extremely aggressive personality, personally killing 15 people during his "active" period. One of his victims was the man who plotted to kill his father, mobster, and bodyguard Rocco Marinucci. His body was found exactly one year after Father Salvatore's death. He was covered entirely in gunshot wounds and had three unexploded bombs in his mouth.
A large number of assassination attempts were made on Salvatore. However, he always managed to survive. The first assassination attempt took place on the terrace of an Italian restaurant when a Ford sedan slowed down past Testa's table, and a sawed-off shotgun appeared through the window and shot him in the stomach and left arm. However, he survived, and the killers were forced to go underground after being discovered.
Testa was found dead after being ambushed by his former friend. They killed him with a point-blank shot to the back of the head. The motive for the mob hit was the fears of the leader of the criminal group Scarfo that Testa was preparing a conspiracy against him.
The Mob Hit Of Giuseppe Greco
Giuseppe was an Italian gangster who worked as a hitman in Palermo, Italy, in the late 1970s. Unlike other hitmen, Greco has been on the run from the law throughout his career. He rarely worked alone, employing "death squads," Kalashnikov-wielding thugs who ambushed victims and then killed them.
He was found guilty of 58 murders, although the total number of victims, according to some reports, reached 80. He once killed a teenager and his father by dissolving their bodies in acid.
In 1979, Greco was a high-ranking and respected member of the Mafia Commission. He committed most of his murders between 1980 and 1983 during the Second Mafia War.
In 1982, the boss of Palermo, Rosaria Riccobono, was invited to a barbecue at the Greco estate. Upon the arrival of Rosaria and her associates, they were all killed by Greco and his death squad. No bodies were found, and, according to available information, they were fed to starving pigs.
Greco was murdered in his home in 1985 by two former members of his death squad. Ironically, the commissioner was his boss, Salvatore Riina, who believed that Greco had become too ambitious and thought too independently to stay alive. He was 33 years old.
John Scalise Mob Hit
John Scalice was one of the top hitmen for the Al Capone clan during Prohibition in the 1930s and 1940s. He lost his right eye in a knife fight in his twenties, later replaced with a glass one. After that, to consolidate his reputation, he began to receive assassination orders from the Gennas brothers.
Later, he began to collaborate with Al Capone secretly. John spent 14 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and was severely beaten by his fellow inmates.
He was perhaps most famous for taking part in the Valentine's Day massacre when seven people lined up along a wall and were brutally shot by armed men dressed as policemen. Scalise was arrested and charged with the murders. However, he was soon released because he was not proven guilty.
Al Capone later learned that Scalise and two other assassins were involved in a mob hit plot to overthrow his leadership. He invited the three of them to a banquet, beat each almost to death, and the final chord was bullets fired into the traitors' foreheads.
The Mob Hit Of Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles
This man was the most famous assassin involved in Murder Inc, a covert group of hitmen who worked for the mafia in the 1920s and 1950s. He was most active in the 1930s, which was precisely the period in which he killed members of various criminal groups in New York. His weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he skillfully used to pierce the victim's head and puncture the brain.
Reles was prone to blind rage and often killed on impulse. He once killed a parking attendant because it seemed to him that the latter parked his car for too long.
On another occasion, he invited a friend to dinner at his mother's house. After finishing the meal, he pierced his head with an ice pick and quickly disposed of the body.
As a teenager, Reles was regularly involved in criminal cases and soon became quite a popular figure in the world of organized crime. His first victim was a former friend of Meyer Shapiro's. Reles and some of his friends were ambushed by Shapiro's gang. However, no one was hurt that time.
Later, Shapiro kidnapped Reles's girlfriend and raped her in a cornfield. Reles decided to take revenge with a mob hit on him and his two brothers. After several failed attempts, Abraham managed to get revenge on one of his brothers and Shapiro himself two months later. A little later, the rapist's second brother was buried alive.
By 1940, Reles was charged with a list of crimes and would likely have been executed if convicted. To save his life, he turned in all of his former friends and members of the Murder Inc group, six of whom were executed.
Later, he was to testify against mob boss Albert Anastasia, and the night before the trial, he was in a hotel room under constant surveillance. The following morning he was found dead on the sidewalk. It is still unknown if he was pushed or tried to escape.
