Timothy O'Bryan

popular name: Angelo Lonardo

date_of_death: March 31, 2006

age: 95

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Big Ange, the son of Prohibition mob boss Joseph Lonardo, took control of the Cleveland crime family in 1962. He led the family until 1984 when he was convicted of running a drug ring and was sentenced to life in prison. He then became an informant, making him the highest-ranking Mafia snitch up to that time.

popular name: Rudy Marfeo

date_of_death: April 20, 1968

age: 42

cause_of_death: Gunshot wounds from mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: In 1968 local bookmaker Rudolph “Rudy” Marfeo had recently defied New England mob boss Raymond Patriarca by refusing to pay his "tribute money" and publicly disrespecting Ray Patriarca. This was not wise considering Patriarca had Rudy’s brother Willie whacked in a Federal Hill restaurant just two years earlier for doing the exact same thing. Patriarca wanted Marfeo, “straightened out,” as soon as possible and ordered the hit on Rudy. On April 20, 1968 Rudy and his bodyguard Anthony Melei were observed shopping at Pannone’s Market on 282 Pocasset Avenue in Providence. Rudolph Marfeo, the bookie, fell near the front door, a drawn .38 in his hand, his left side blown apart. Anthony Melei, the bodyguard, died next to the ice cream freezer, his face shot away by Double OO buckshot. The shopkeeper and his wife dived behind the deli counter as the killers retreated. What makes these murders so important in the history of the New England Cosa Nostra is that subsequent charges and guilty verdicts against Ray Patriarca and his associates signaled the downward spiral of the Patriarca crime family and to their New England operations.

popular name: Dutch Schultz

date_of_death: October 24, 1935

age: 34

cause_of_death: Mob hit - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Dutch Schultz was a New York based mobster who made his fortune bootlegging rum during Prohibition, followed by gambling, the numbers racket and the restaurant racket afterwards. Schultz was known for his extreme brutality and the accumulation of a frightening body count of those opposed to him including Legs Diamond, Arnold Rothstein and Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. By 1935 he was in open conflict with US attorney Thomas Dewey. Schultz was arrested, then freed (to the utter surprise of everyone) when he bribed the venue of his trial, but as Dewey continued to pursue he started hemorrhaging money and power. Afterwards, Schultz called an emergency meeting of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill Dewey. Worried that there would be immense law enforcement pressure on the Commission if such a popular public official was murdered, the members refused. Schultz was furious, blaming the commission for "feeding him to the law", and vowed to kill Dewey himself. After Schultz stormed off, after six hours of deliberations the Commission ordered Louis Buchalter of Murder Inc. to eliminate "The Dutchman. A few days later, Schultz along with 3 of his henchmen were shot at The Palace Chophouse Restaurant (his headquarters at the time) by two hit men (Charles "The Bug" Workman and Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss) from Murder Inc. All 4 of the shooting victims died within a day of the ambush. He was laid to at Gate of Heaven Cemetery Hawthorne, New York.