A Brotherhood Betrayed

August 1, 2020

Led by Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, a Jewish gangster from Brooklyn, Murder, Inc. was likely responsible for dozens of executions in 1930s and 1940s New York, New Jersey, and beyond. Cannell (Incendiary) expertly interweaves stories of Reles and other gangsters with those of the police, prosecutors, and even Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, whose campaign promises included dismantling Murder, Inc. and prosecuting Reles and company. Reles was responsible for the shockingly cruel deaths of upward of 50 people, described in vivid detail by Cannell. Though well researched, the book suffers at times from an overuse of adjectives, perhaps mimicking the pulp true crime fashionable in the era of Murder, Inc. While it is Italian American gangsters who are most remembered today, Cannell reminds readers of an era when many other first-generation immigrants of different ethnic backgrounds found success in the underworld. His narrative serves as a who's who of prewar Jewish assassins, although the work leans more toward titillation than social anthropology. Cannell also examines the mystery of Reles's death, which would have long-term consequences for the district attorney who convinced Reles to turn state's witness. VERDICT Will resonate with fans of the true crime genre, and mob and crime history.--Bart Everts, Rutgers Univ.-Camden Lib., NJ

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August 15, 2020
A stool pigeon par excellence takes a dive from a high window and a mystery unfolds. In 1941, writes Cannell, a gangster named Abe Reles was brought to a Brooklyn hotel and sequestered with a few other criminals in protective custody, preparing to testify in the trial of a mob boss named Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. "The police took up a saying: the canary sang, but could not fly," writes the author. Somehow, though, the canary did fly: Reles supposedly fell from a window while trying to escape, but anyone with a lick of conspiratorial inclination knew that the story was more complicated. Cannell follows Reles back to his youth as a Jewish street tough in Brooklyn who crossed paths with the fearsome Shapiro brothers, all three of whom he eventually murdered, infamously shooting Meyer Shapiro, who "worked all the rackets," in the face. To gain permission to move against the Shapiros, Reles had to go to Albert Anastasia, a top-rank Mafioso. He rapidly became one of the most feared hit men for the pre-World War II mob, the era of bootlegging and illicit gambling. In one notorious case, a union organizer trying to remove the mob from the longshoremen's association went missing, courtesy of Reles, who "took other measures to protect Anastasia's hold on the docks." Alas for him, Reles learned that some of his underlings were feeding the police information and followed suit, providing enough information to send Buchalter to the chair--and Anastasia was next. Cannell stuffs his eventful narrative full of murder and mayhem, featuring a cast of hard-boiled and corrupt cops, extremely nasty gangsters, sleazy politicos, and Reles, a true psychopath. "Who killed Kid Twist?" asks Cannell, using Reles' nom de crime. It took years and another mob killer to secure the definitive answer, confirmed by none other than Lucky Luciano. Fans of Mario Puzo-style true crime will revel in Reles' deviant behavior and his comeuppance.

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Starred review from August 31, 2020
Cannell (Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling) provides the definitive account of hit man Abe Reles (1906–1941), who served as the “assassin-in-chief” for the Italian-Jewish mob collaboration known as Murder, Inc.. Reles started his life of crime as a teenager in New York City, as an enforcer for a local racketeer, before his violent nature escalated to homicide. Brooklyn district attorney William O’Dwyer cut a deal with him in 1940 in exchange for testimony against the leaders of Murder, Inc. That bargain provided the prosecutor with a valuable witness who revealed “another America hidden in shadow with its own banks and penal system, its own tax code and law enforcement.” But before Reles could testify, he fell to his death from a Brooklyn hotel window while in protective custody. O’Dwyer supported the theory that Reles fell accidentally during an escape attempt, and though that position was widely derided, no conclusive proof was ever found as to who pushed Reles out the window. Cannell dials in the the right level of detail in this grim story of violence, corruption, and the dogged efforts of law enforcement to break organized crime’s hold on New York City. Readers interested in a non-sensationalized treatment of a major chapter in American crime will be riveted. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary.