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

Key Information

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

[edit]

Abraham Reles, the son of Jewish immigrants from Galicia,[1] was born in the Brownsville neighborhood 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.[citation needed]

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.[2] Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough.[2] 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.[3]

Prohibition and Murder, Inc.

[edit]

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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

In 1934, Reles and Harry Strauss were charged with first degree murder and second degree assault for attacking two black garage men. After one man, Charles Battles, berated Reles for causing a disturbance, he and Strauss had attacked him. Later that morning, the two allegedly returned and stabbed another man, Alvin Snyder, to death. The police said that Snyder was mistaken for Battles. The murder charge against Strauss was dropped due to insufficient evidence, albeit Reles was convicted of a lesser charge of second degree murder for stabbing Battles. The judge criticized the jury for the verdict, describing Reles as an extremely dangerous man who was "more vicious than Dillinger, but lacks the courage."[4] Reles was sentenced to three years in prison for assault, but acquitted of the murder.[5]

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.[6]

Revenge against Shapiro Brothers

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

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.[7][8][9]

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,[7] and newspapers dubbed him "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly".[10]

The following day, five police officers who had been guarding him were demoted.[11]

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.[7]

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.[10][12][13]

However, in 1951 a grand jury concluded Reles died accidentally during an attempted escape.[14]

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

See also

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Notes

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References

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Further reading

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Abe Reles

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Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles (c. 1906 – November 12, 1941) was an American mobster who operated as a contract killer for Murder, Inc., the specialized enforcement group of the National Crime Syndicate responsible for carrying out assassinations on behalf of organized crime leaders. In 1940, facing imminent prosecution for multiple murders, Reles surrendered to authorities and turned state's evidence, confessing to direct involvement in at least 11 killings and providing graphic testimony that implicated dozens of accomplices, resulting in the conviction and execution of key figures such as Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, head of the syndicate's labor rackets. His cooperation dismantled much of Murder, Inc.'s operations, but Reles himself met a suspicious end while under heavy police guard at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island; he fell to his death from a sixth-floor window using knotted bedsheets as a makeshift rope, an event ruled an attempted escape but long viewed with skepticism due to inadequate safeguards and the timing just prior to his scheduled testimony against Albert Anastasia.

Early Life and Formative Years

Family Background and Childhood

Abraham Reles was born on May 10, 1906, in the Brownsville section of , New York, to Sol Reles and his wife, Jewish immigrants from Galicia in the . His father worked intermittently in the garment industry, reflecting the precarious employment common among Eastern European Jewish arrivals in early 20th-century New York. The Reles family, like many in their community, contended with acute poverty in a neighborhood dominated by overcrowded tenements and immigrant laborers. Reles's formal education ended after the eighth grade, as family hardships necessitated his withdrawal from school to contribute to household survival. Brownsville at the time was a hub for Jewish workers and pushcart vendors, with limited such as unpaved streets and scant sewers exacerbating living conditions for thousands of Eastern European immigrants. This environment, devoid of modern social safety nets, fostered reliance on informal economic activities amid the cultural insularity of small synagogues and ethnic networks. The socio-economic pressures of Brownsville's Jewish community—marked by sweatshops, market peddling, and high population density—profoundly influenced early childhoods like Reles's, embedding exposure to urban survival imperatives in a pre-welfare era.

Initial Delinquency and Street Gangs

Abe Reles, born on May 10, 1906, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant parents, exhibited early signs of delinquency during his adolescence. He left school after completing the eighth grade and was sent to a reform school at age 13 for truancy and minor thefts, an intervention that failed to deter his criminal inclinations. In 1921, at approximately age 15, Reles faced his first documented juvenile incarceration after being caught stealing approximately $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, resulting in a four-month sentence at Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Reles formed early associations with childhood friends Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, both fellow Brownsville youths from similar immigrant backgrounds, leading to the creation of loose street gangs. These groups engaged in harassing local pushcart vendors and peddlers through intimidation and petty shakedowns, establishing a pattern of opportunistic predation in the neighborhood's immigrant-heavy economy. By his mid-teens, around age 15, Reles progressed to more structured low-level rackets, frequenting pool halls and candy stores—such as the infamous Midnight Rose in Brownsville—as hubs for gambling operations, extortion of store owners for protection kickbacks, and small-scale bookmaking. These activities yielded arrests in the 1920s for vagrancy and assault, with Reles accumulating at least four prison terms by 1927, reflecting escalating involvement in violent enforcement of street-level debts and turf claims.

Rise Through Prohibition-Era Rackets

Bootlegging and Early Associations

During the onset of in January 1920, Abraham Reles, then aged 14 and residing in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood, transitioned from petty —such as harassing pushcart vendors and shaking down store owners—to exploiting the lucrative illegal liquor trade. Brooklyn's dense immigrant communities created high demand for smuggled alcohol, with economic incentives driving young operators like Reles to distribute bootleg liquor through local networks, often sourced from operations across state lines. This era's profits, estimated in the billions nationally, motivated Reles's entry into distribution rackets, where he focused on enforcement rather than personal consumption, aligning with the high-risk, high-reward dynamics of urban hubs. Reles initially aligned with the Shapiro brothers—Meyer, Irving, and William—who controlled significant portions of Brooklyn's Prohibition-era rackets, including bootlegging, gambling, and extortion. Under their umbrella, Reles and associate engaged in protection schemes for liquor shipments and hijackings of rival alcohol cargoes, using violence to deter competitors and secure territories in Brownsville and East New York. These activities tied directly to the Shapiros' dominance in operations, where disputes over "rum-running rights" frequently escalated into lethal confrontations. Reles's bootlegging involvement yielded multiple arrests throughout the 1920s for associated violence, contributing to his record of over 36 charges since 1920 by 1939, including and tied to gang enforcements. He served four short prison terms by 1927, periods of incarceration that, rather than deterring him, solidified alliances and honed his resolve amid the competitive . These early stints exposed him to hardened criminals, fostering the aggressive tactics essential for surviving Prohibition's turf wars.

Alignment with Local Syndicates

In the mid-1920s, following initial forays into Prohibition-era bootlegging, Abe Reles aligned with structured Jewish-dominated crews in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood, where ethnic mob rivalries pitted Jewish operators against Italian and Irish factions over , , and rackets. This pragmatic shift from freelance operations to hierarchical gangs provided Reles access to protected territories and shared enforcement resources, fostering alliances that prioritized mutual defense against inter-ethnic incursions rather than outright dominance. By embedding within these networks, Reles avoided the vulnerabilities of solo ventures, instead contributing to collective control of local vice economies through demonstrated capacity for intimidation and retaliation. Reles's rising status within these Brooklyn syndicates stemmed from his willingness to employ extreme violence, which positioned him as a dependable asset amid the formation of broader frameworks in the early . Interactions with emerging syndicate leaders emphasized utility over loyalty, as Reles's crews handled disputes that transcended local boundaries, solidifying his role as an enforcer whose ruthlessness deterred challenges from rival ethnic groups. This alignment navigated tensions between Jewish and Italian elements, where temporary pacts ensured operational stability without merging identities. Reles's criminal trajectory underscored the inefficacy of contemporaneous judicial measures, with four prison terms served by 1927 for assaults and related offenses, escalating to six terms by 1940 despite 42 total arrests, including six for homicide. Short sentences and frequent releases—such as a three-year term in 1934 for fatally stabbing a car washer—failed to deter recidivism, enabling Reles to resume syndicate activities and exploit gaps in enforcement against repeat violent offenders.

Role in Murder, Inc.

Integration into the Enforcement Arm

Abe Reles entered the enforcement apparatus of the , formalized as Murder, Inc., in the early 1930s, aligning with the Brownsville-based operations that handled contract killings for families across New York. Under Louis "Lepke" Buchalter's direction, who orchestrated the group to eliminate threats to syndicate rackets, Reles served as a primary triggerman, carrying out executions to enforce compliance in , loansharking, and labor schemes. This integration leveraged Reles's street-level experience for syndicate-wide assignments, with Buchalter compensating hitmen modestly—often $35 per week—to minimize costs while maximizing operational control. Murder, Inc. functioned as a centralized killing unit, coordinating hits through intermediaries like and , who relayed orders from Manhattan bosses to a pool of Brooklyn enforcers. Prosecutors later attributed more than 100 homicides nationwide to the group, though Reles's direct involvement included at least 11 confirmed murders, executed via methods such as shootings and strangulations designed for discretion and deterrence. Reles's effectiveness stemmed from prioritizing rapid, low-visibility eliminations that preserved racket profitability by quelling internal dissent and silencing potential informants without drawing excessive scrutiny. The enterprise's logic prioritized economic utility over random violence, treating murders as commissioned services to sustain revenue streams from illegal enterprises, in contrast to disorganized gang feuds. As described by lead prosecutor Burton Turkus, operated as a "capitalist, profit-maximizing enterprise" with defined hierarchies for assigning and fulfilling contracts, ensuring killings served the syndicate's financial imperatives rather than personal or ideological animosities. This structure enabled scalable enforcement, where triggermen like Reles were deployed judiciously to uphold discipline across disparate operations.

Execution Methods and Attributed Killings

Abe Reles and fellow Murder, Inc. operatives favored execution techniques that prioritized victim incapacitation with minimal audible disturbance or traceable ballistics, such as driving an ice pick through the ear canal into the brain stem to induce rapid death without gunfire. Garrotes employing wire or rope for strangulation offered another low-profile option, allowing disposal in vehicles or remote sites like vacant lots and marshes to evade immediate detection. Shootings, when used, typically occurred in isolated areas post-abduction, with bodies weighted or buried to delay discovery. In a four-hour confession to a on May 16, 1940, Reles verified his direct role in six syndicate-ordered killings, recounting specifics of strangulations and point-blank shootings executed alongside partners like Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss. Later testimony and investigations attributed at least eleven murders to Reles personally, including collaborative hits where he assisted in restraint or delivery to execution sites. These cases involved debtors, rival operators, and informants targeted under contracts, with Reles often handling logistics to ensure operational security. Pre-1940, Murder, Inc.'s operations—linked to 400 to 1,000 contract killings from 1929 to 1941—yielded effectively zero convictions for core members, sustained by omertà's on cooperation and pervasive of police and prosecutors that neutralized evidence and witnesses. Reles's detailed accounts reversed this for implicated associates, corroborating prosecutions in multiple trials that resulted in death sentences for figures like Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and , though Reles avoided indictment for his own verified participations.

Feud and Vendettas

Conflict with the Shapiro Brothers

In the late 1920s, during the height of Prohibition, Abe Reles and his associate Harry Goldstein initially aligned with the Shapiro brothers—Meyer, Irving, and William—who controlled bootlegging, gambling, and prostitution rackets in Brooklyn's Brownsville and East New York neighborhoods. Reles worked under their umbrella, handling enforcement and distribution, but as his crew's influence grew through independent operations, tensions arose over territorial control and revenue shares in the post-Prohibition liquor trade persisting into the early 1930s. By 1930, the Shapiros perceived Reles's rising autonomy as a direct challenge to their dominance, leading them to attempt to muscle him out through intimidation tactics rather than negotiation. orchestrated an ambush on Reles and Goldstein during a confrontation, wounding both but failing to eliminate them, which escalated the rift into open hostility. In retaliation, Shapiro kidnapped Reles's 18-year-old girlfriend, subjecting her to beating and as a means to break Reles's resolve and assert monopoly over local rackets, transforming the dispute from business competition into a deeply personal vendetta. This feud exemplified the ruthless intra-ethnic dynamics among Jewish organized crime figures in Brooklyn, where alliances dissolved into predatory elimination of perceived weaknesses to consolidate power and profits. The Shapiros' repeated threats and failed assaults underscored their aggressive expansionism, but Reles exercised calculated restraint, avoiding immediate reprisals and instead leveraging connections within the emerging to methodically erode their position over subsequent years.

Systematic Elimination Campaigns

The feud with the escalated into a deliberate campaign of targeted assassinations beginning in 1931, following Meyer Shapiro's abduction and on Reles's girlfriend in 1930, which Reles cited as the catalyst for retribution. Reles, alongside Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein, orchestrated the killings to dismantle the Shapiros' influence over Brooklyn and operations, employing methods of , ambush, and disposal to ensure finality. This approach contrasted with the Shapiros' more direct confrontations, allowing Reles's group to evade immediate retaliation while methodically eradicating key figures. Irving Shapiro, a primary enforcer for the family, was the first targeted, gunned down on July 11, 1931, near his apartment building in after being lured outside. Reles later confessed to participating in the shooting, which involved beating and multiple gunshots to the body, disposing of the corpse in a street-side location to send a territorial message. Two months later, on September 17, 1931, Meyer Shapiro was ambushed and shot in the face inside a tenement basement after Reles and Goldstein enticed him there under pretense of negotiation; his body was discovered the following day with a single bullet wound to the head. The campaign concluded with William "Willie" Shapiro, the last surviving brother, who evaded capture until July 1934. Lured to a supposed meeting by Reles and Goldstein on orders from higher syndicate figures, Willie was abducted, severely beaten, bound, mutilated, and stuffed into a laundry bag before being buried alive in a shallow sand pit in Canarsie, Brooklyn; his body was recovered on July 18, 1934, with sand in his lungs confirming he was conscious during interment. Reles's testimony detailed the torture as punitive, aimed at extracting information on hidden assets before elimination. These acts, spanning three years, involved close collaboration between Reles, Goldstein, and emerging Murder, Inc. networks, resulting in the near-complete destruction of the Shapiro organization and minimal surviving affiliates. By 1934, the Shapiros' eradication had neutralized rival claims to Brownsville and East New York rackets, enabling Reles's faction to monopolize policy gambling, loansharking, and labor shakedowns without sustained opposition. Reles's emphasis on intelligence-gathering, for luring victims, and rapid body disposal—often in alleys, rivers, or pits—demonstrated tactical superiority, preserving his operational freedom while rivals fragmented. This consolidation underscored the vendetta's role in transitioning local gangs toward structured enforcement.

Transition to Informant

1940 Arrest and Interrogation

Abe Reles was arrested on January 19, 1940, by New York police on a charge, a common pretext used to detain suspected hoodlums for further investigation. This detention quickly escalated under William O'Dwyer's intensifying crackdown on , leading to Reles's on February 2, 1940, for the 1933 of Alex Alpert, alongside Martin Goldstein and Anthony Maffetore. By 1940, Reles had accumulated 42 prior arrests since 1933, including five charges, yet had served only six prison terms, reflecting the leniency often extended to minor offenders in pre-Depression-era policing. O'Dwyer's administration, however, marked a departure amid economic pressures and public demand for disruption, confronting Reles with potential execution on up to six counts. Reles initially denied involvement during interrogation, upholding despite mounting evidence from O'Dwyer's team. As prosecutors detailed corroborative proofs and the inevitability of conviction, Reles weighed the syndicate's likely death sentence for betrayal against the survival guarantee of immunity, opting for over loyalty in a prioritizing empirical odds of longevity. Reles's testimony as a government informant detailed the inner workings of Murder, Inc., confessing his direct participation in at least 11 murders while providing evidence implicating associates in approximately 85 gangland killings overall. His revelations specifically targeted high-level figures like Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, whom he linked to ordering contract hits, and enforcers such as Frank Abbandando, Harry Strauss, and Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss, exposing a hierarchical system where murders were commissioned, tracked, and executed for syndicate profit and control. These disclosures fueled three major trials in 1940–1941, yielding convictions for first-degree murder against nine defendants, including death sentences for Buchalter, Weiss, , and Abbandando, who were subsequently executed at Prison between 1942 and 1944. Reles's evidence, corroborated by other turncoats like , verified specific hits through timelines, methods, and motives, directly contributing to the dismantling of the enforcement arm's impunity by prioritizing prosecutable facts over unsubstantiated claims. The scope of his cooperation underscored the fragility of mob loyalty, as Reles's defection revealed as a pragmatic response to existential threats rather than a deviation from any inherent "," enabling authorities to secure outcomes that eroded the network's operational security. Held under guard at the Half Moon Hotel during this period, Reles delivered consistent, detail-oriented accounts that withstood cross-examination, facilitating the linkage of disparate killings into a cohesive of organized .

Death Under Custody

Incident at the Half Moon Hotel

Abe Reles was housed on the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel in , , under continuous police guard while preparing testimony against . On the morning of November 12, 1941, detectives checked Reles's room at 6:45 a.m. and again at 7:10 a.m., observing him in bed and appearing asleep each time. Sometime thereafter, Reles fashioned a makeshift from knotted bedsheets tied to a radiator valve and climbed out his window, lowering himself toward a fifth-floor ledge; the rope failed under his weight, causing him to plummet to the ground below the hotel. Reles's body was discovered shortly after the fall, prompting an immediate police response to secure the scene and examine the room, where the partially extended remained attached. The examination revealed no indications of a struggle in or on Reles's body, aligning with evidence of self-initiated pre-fall activity in tying and deploying the sheets. Five detectives were assigned to round-the-clock protection on the floor, yet the undetected preparation and exit occurred despite these measures. An autopsy confirmed death from massive trauma sustained in the fall, including fractured dislocation of the fourth and fifth , ruptured liver and , hemoperitoneum, and spinal breakage consistent with landing in a sitting posture, resulting in instantaneous fatality.

Competing Explanations and Investigations

The official investigation into Reles's death, conducted by a Kings County in 1951, determined that he perished on November 12, 1941, while attempting to escape custody from a sixth-floor at the Half Moon Hotel in , using a makeshift fashioned from knotted bedsheets tied to a radiator via a wire ; the apparatus proved insufficient to bear his weight, leading to the fall. This ruling attributed the incident to Reles's apprehension over potential reprisals from former associates should he falter in his ongoing testimony, despite his secured immunity deal. Alternative theories maintain that Reles was murdered, possibly on orders from —whom Reles had implicated in multiple killings and was slated to testify against further—effected through guards susceptible to bribery, given reports of substantial sums offered to compromise his protection detail of five detectives. Proponents highlight evidentiary inconsistencies undermining the escape narrative, including the absence of any recorded prior or depressive episodes in Reles's documented behavior under , and the logistical implausibility of a deliberate descent from such height by a man of his compact physique and the suite's heavily monitored setup. Critiques of the official account emphasize systemic vulnerabilities in custody protocols, as Reles's guards reportedly permitted unsupervised access to materials like sheets and failed to maintain continuous vigilance despite the high-profile threat level. Prosecutor Burton B. Turkus, who relied on Reles's cooperation for convictions, voiced doubts over the safeguards' efficacy, pointing to lapses that enabled the incident without invoking extraneous justifications for oversight failures. These perspectives underscore unresolved gaps, such as the unchallenged procurement of escape tools and the delayed response to the fall, which fueled persistent scrutiny absent conclusive forensic rebuttal.

Broader Impact and Assessments

Disruption of Organized Crime Networks

Reles's testimony prior to his death in November 1941 supplied prosecutors with detailed accounts of over 85 murders attributed to , enabling the conviction of key figures including Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss and Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein, who were executed at Sing Sing Prison on June 12, 1941, for the 1939 killing of Irving Feinstein. This evidence breached the syndicate's intimidation tactics, which had previously shielded operations by eliminating witnesses and corrupting through routine payoffs to detectives and officers. The resulting prosecutions under District Attorney dismantled the group's Brooklyn-based execution squad, with additional convictions of enforcers like and Frank Abbadando leading to their electrocutions in 1942. The most significant outcome was the 1941 conviction of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, Murder, Inc.'s operational head, for orchestrating the 1936 contract killing of Joseph Rosen; Buchalter, along with lieutenants Mendy Weiss and Louis Capone, received death sentences upheld on appeal and carried out on March 4, 1944. These executions severed the National Crime Syndicate's centralized enforcement mechanism, which had handled an estimated 400 to 800 hits across jurisdictions, forcing remaining leaders to decentralize violent operations and reducing coordinated contract killings after 1941 as evidentiary barriers crumbled. Reles's disclosures also illuminated symbiotic ties with corrupt officials, including specific instances of police protection for hits, contributing to internal NYPD reforms and heightened scrutiny that eroded the syndicate's impunity without reliance on broader ideological campaigns. By filling prosecutorial gaps with firsthand perpetrator identifications—Reles himself confessed to 11 personal killings while implicating dozens more—the testimony precipitated Murder, Inc.'s effective dissolution by mid-decade, as surviving members faced fragmented loyalty and increased federal attention. This informant-driven cascade, rather than isolated heroic efforts, demonstrated how targeted evidentiary breakthroughs could disrupt entrenched criminal hierarchies, yielding a measurable contraction in syndicate-sanctioned violence through the 1940s.

Evaluations of Reles's Character and Actions

Abe Reles exhibited a character defined by extreme violence and self-interest, rising through organized crime ranks via unrelenting brutality that included personal participation in at least 11 murders and knowledge of dozens more as a core operative of Murder, Inc. His efficiency in enforcing syndicate dominance relied on terror tactics, such as torture and indiscriminate targeting, which contemporaries noted as hallmarks of his operational style rather than impulsive rage. This pattern, evident from his Prohibition-era bootlegging involvement onward, prioritized personal gain and survival over any semblance of loyalty or restraint, rendering him a prototypical instrument of criminal coercion. Reles's abrupt turn to informant in 1940, motivated by impending prosecution for , demonstrated a pragmatic calculus of that overrode omertà's on cooperation. His detailed testimony furnished prosecutors with firsthand accounts enabling convictions of associates like Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss and Allie "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, culminating in executions that dismantled key enforcement elements of the . By revealing operational mechanics of contract killings—linked to over 85 gangland s—this defection empirically weakened networked violence, as the removal of perpetrators responsible for systematic eliminations reduced the syndicate's capacity for unchecked predation. Assessments of Reles's actions resist moral equivalency between his predations and the broader utility of his betrayal, which disrupted cycles of sustaining worse offenders. While his treachery betrayed criminal oaths, it yielded causal benefits by prioritizing evidentiary disruption over abstract codes, leading to legal for actors whose operations inflicted disproportionate harm on rivals, debtors, and innocents alike. Narratives romanticizing Reles as an "anti-hero" overlook this asymmetry, conflating perpetrator agency with victim outcomes; his cooperation, though self-serving, empirically advanced public order by eroding the syndicate's foundational deterrence through silence.

References

  1. https://themobmuseum.org/blog/abe-kid-twist-reles-no-2-on-list-of-top-5-most-notorious-mob-hitmen/
  2. https://themobmuseum.org/blog/eighty-two-years-ago-this-month-murder-inc-s-abe-reles-took-a-mysterious-fall/
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/1941/11/13/archives/abe-reles-killed-trying-to-escape-sheet-rope-fails-after-he-lowers.html
  4. https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-11-12/ty-article/.premium/this-day-killer-canary-defenestrated/0000017f-f7b9-d47e-a37f-ffbdad1a0000
  5. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abe-Reles
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/nyregion/stool-pigeons-and-shlom-jobs-revisiting-the-days-of-murder-inc.html
  7. https://static.bklynlibrary.org/prod/public/documents/brooklyn-collection/connections/Brownsville%2520PP.pdf
  8. https://brownsvillejcc.com/history/
  9. https://www.utterlyinteresting.com/post/abe-reles-the-notorious-hitman-of-murder-inc-and-his-mysterious-death
  10. https://nationalcrimesyndicate.com/abe-reles-biography/
  11. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/05/19/archives/kid-twist-talks-triggerpuller.html
  12. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/06/04/archives/57-murders-laid-to-brooklyn-ring-odwyer-asserts-crimes-are-solved.html
  13. https://www.nytimes.com/1939/03/17/archives/union-aide-is-shot-3-gangsters-held-traced-license-brings-arrest-of.html
  14. https://www.history.com/articles/famous-gangster-informants-in-u-s-history
  15. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/03/24/archives/reles-described-as-vicious-thug-worse-than-dillinger-but-he-lacked.html
  16. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/lepke-buchalter/
  17. https://themobmuseum.org/blog/the-fall-of-murder-inc/
  18. https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/murder-inc-and-the-moral-life-gangster-and-gangbusters-in-la-guardias-new-york/
  19. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/05/16/archives/reles-confesses-to-six-murders-crime-ring-informer-gives-4hour.html
  20. https://paw.princeton.edu/article/organized-crime-brought-life-michael-cannell-82
  21. https://www.facebook.com/themobmuseum/posts/abraham-kid-twist-reles-testimony-helped-bring-down-some-of-the-most-vicious-mob/696493712586095/
  22. https://www.nydailynews.com/2020/11/14/the-rise-and-fall-of-murder-inc-on-the-bloody-streets-of-brooklyn/
  23. https://www.facebook.com/ConnedFortune/posts/in-the-early-morning-of-november-12-1941-with-police-guarding-his-hotel-door-new/1139112341185345/
  24. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/09/17/archives/reles-confesses-5-more-killings-increases-number-to-eleven-as-he.html
  25. https://www.nytimes.com/1931/09/18/archives/racket-chief-slain-after-18-attempts-body-of-meyer-shapiro-found-in.html
  26. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/04/07/archives/murder-director-named-by-odwyer-restaurant-man-depicted-as-gangs.html
  27. https://www.j-grit.com/criminals-murder-inc-martin-buggsy-goldstein.php
  28. https://www.nytimes.com/1940/02/03/archives/reles-two-of-gang-indicted-in-killing-as-odwyer-acts-prosecutor.html
  29. https://www.paperlessarchives.com/buchalter.html
  30. https://www.facebook.com/ConnedFortune/posts/on-february-2-1940-abe-kid-twist-reles-a-member-of-murder-inc-is-arrested-distri/1202657474830831/
  31. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2012/08/01/brooklyn-hero-burton
  32. https://themobmuseum.org/blog/dead-men-walking-murder-inc-trio-electrocuted-at-sing-sing-prison-eighty-years-ago/
  33. https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/11/11/abe-kid-twist-reles-falls-to-his-death-before-testifying-against-mob-bosses-in-1941/
  34. https://www.nytimes.com/1951/12/19/archives/reles-inquiry-ended-kings-grand-jury-to-hand-up-presentment-friday.html
  35. https://dc.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/683
  36. https://www.nytimes.com/1951/11/20/archives/reles-widow-testifies-kings-grand-jury-to-recall-her-today-for-more.html
  37. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1525612_code1212987.pdf?abstractid=1525612&mirid=1
  38. https://downloads.paperlessarchives.com/p/rqbpgo/
  39. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mayor-william-odwyer-new-york-city-mob-180973078/
  40. https://dorisarchive.blob.core.windows.net/finding-aids/FindingAidsPDFs/REC0030_MurderInc_FA_final.pdf
  41. https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/a-brotherhood-betrayed-the-man-behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-murder-inc
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