Harry "Happy" Maione (October 7, 1908 – February 19, 1942) was a New York mobster who served as a

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be ...

for

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...

(the enforcement arm of the

National Crime Syndicate The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to the multi-ethnic, loosely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian-American Mafia ...

) during the 1930s. Maione was called "Happy" because his face displayed an eternal scowl.

Early years

As a young man, Maione led the Ocean Hill Hooligans, an Italian street gang in the

Ocean Hill, Brooklyn Ocean Hill is a subsection of Bedford-Stuyvesant in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 16 and was founded in 1890. The ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11233. Ocean Hill's boundaries st ...

section of New York. His protégé in this gang was Frank "The Dasher" Abbandando. Maione had a son, Albert Maione, who eventually became an associate with the

Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...

. Maione's older brother was Louis "The Duke" Maione. In 1931, Maione and Abbandando helped Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein eliminate their gangster rivals, the

Shapiro Brothers Meyer (1908–1931), Irving (1904–1931) and William Shapiro (1911–1934), collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg. Well established in ...

(Meyer, Irving, and William). Previously that year, the Shapiros had unsuccessfully tried to murder Reles and Goldstein. Meyer Shapiro then abducted Reles' girlfriend and raped her. Reles and Goldstein wanted revenge and the two wanted to take over the Shapiro operations. On July 11, 1931, Irving Shapiro was gunned down near his apartment. On September 17, 1931, Meyer was found shot to death in the basement of a tenement building on Manhattan's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Murder, Inc.

Maione, Abbandando, Reles, and Goldstein then banded together. They were soon joined by Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, Seymour "Blue Jaw" Magoon,

Louis Capone Louis Capone (September 5, 1896 – March 4, 1944) was a New York organized crime figure who became a supervisor for Murder, Inc. Louis Capone was not related to Al Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Capone was convicted of murder in 19 ...

, Charles "The Bug" Workman and Vito "Chicken Head" Gurino. The gang started picking up murder contracts from the

with the help of Syndicate Board Member

Joe Adonis Joseph Anthony Doto (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto, ; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), known as Joe Adonis, was an Italian-American mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families in New Yo ...

. The gang soon became the official murder-for-hire squad of the Syndicate, and was dubbed "Murder, Inc." by the press. Maione acted as the Italian liaison to the Jewish members of Murder, Inc.; Reles was his counterpart on the Jewish side. Murder, Inc. was directed by the brutal Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (another member of the Syndicate board) and the nefarious Albert "The Executioner" Anastasia. Maione reportedly killed at least 12 men himself while working for Murder, Inc.

Eliminating potential witnesses

In the mid-1930s, New York District Attorney

Thomas E. Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...

targeted Buchalter for prosecution. In response, Buchalter started eliminating all potential witnesses.

, rubbed out anyone that Buchalter even suspected of being an informant.

Loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

George "Whitey" Rudnick was one such victim; he was killed by Maione, Abbandando, and Strauss on May 11, 1937. In 1940, Reles became an informant for the

State of New York New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state ...

. He then implicated Maione and Abbandando in the horrific slaying of Rudnick. According to Reles, the men supposedly killed Rudnick and started stuffing him back in their car. Suddenly, the "corpse" started coughing. To finish him off, Strauss stabbed Rudnick 63 times with an ice pick and Maione buried a meat cleaver in his skull. In May 1940, Maione was convicted of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. After a second trial, Maione was convicted again. This time, the conviction was not overturned by an appeals court. On February 19, 1942, Maione, along with Frank Abbandando, was executed in the

electric chair An electric chair is a device used to execute an individual by electrocution. When used, the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes fastened on the head and leg. This execution method, ...

Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...

Prison in

Ossining, New York Ossining may refer to: * Ossining (town), New York, a town in Westchester County, New York state *Ossining (village), New York, a village in the town of Ossining * Ossining High School, a comprehensive public high school in Ossining village * Ossi ...

References

Executions in New York

External links

* *, as of September 18, 1932, ''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Maione, Harry 1908 births 1942 deaths American gangsters of Italian descent Murder, Inc. American people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by New York (state) Executed gangsters 20th-century executions by New York (state) Burials at St. John's Cemetery (Queens) People executed by New York (state) by electric chair 20th-century executions of American people

Early years

Murder, Inc.

Eliminating potential witnesses

See also

References

External links