Michael Coppola

AKA:
Trigger Mike
Birth Name:
Michael Coppola
Birth Date:
July 2, 1900
Birth Place:
Salerno, Italy
Death Date:
October 1, 1966
Place of Death:
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Age:
66
Cause of Death:
Kidney disease
Cemetery Name:
Ferncliff Cemetery
Claim to Fame:
Crime and their Victims
Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola was a New York City mobster who became a caporegime of the 116th Street Crew, with the Genovese crime family. He entered the ranks of the New York mafiosi with a reputation as a morally depraved, sadistic and violent gunman during Prohibition. Coppola headed many Genovese family criminal operations from the late 1930s until the early 1960s. He is suspected of murdering his first wife, Doris Lehman, in 1943 because she overheard Coppola's plans to assassinate New York Republican Party political activist Joseph Scottoriggio. Doris Lehman was reportedly murdered by her Coppola a day after giving birth to prevent her from testifying against him (her scheduled testimony was postponed due to her pregnancy). Ann Coppola, Trigger Mike's second wife, filed for divorce, supposedly due to Coppola supplying drugs to her daughter, and later agreed to testify against Coppola in an income tax investigation. As a result, Coppola ordered several gunmen to kidnap and assault her. Found severely beaten on an isolated beach, Ann Coppola continued with the investigation. She later fled to Europe and overdosed on sleeping pills after sending a letter to the IRS detailing the criminal activities of the Luciano crime family.

Did Trigger Mike kill his first wife Doris?

Yes. One day after giving birth to his first child as he feared she was going to testify against him in a murder-for-hire scheme.

After the death of his first wife and three weeks after the wedding to his second wife Ann, Coppola, in a screaming rage with his wife, calling her “a flat-nosed, frog-eyed bastard,” Coppola pulled out a revolver and wildly fired a shot at her, fortunately missing his target by a mile. She slept that night in the maid’s room and was packing a bag to leave, the next day, when Coppola smacked her repeatedly in the face, knocking her to the kitchen floor. It was just the first of many beatings

Three months into the marriage, Ann found herself pregnant. One afternoon, lying on the kitchen table, an underworld doctor known only as “Doctor D,” a house surgeon for one of the swanky beach-side hotels in Miami performed an abortion on her, at Coppola’s insistence. Trigger Mike even assisted in the operation, smiling with glee as the doctor cut away the fetus. Three more times, over the following year, Ann subjected herself to the pain and humiliation of these unsavory operations. She came to believe that her husband wanted sex with her, only so that he could indulge himself in these sickening sequels. The doctor walked away each time with a tax-free fee of $1000 for his services.

Late in 1956, Ann was searching through her husband’s possessions, and came across some papers. Although she never disclosed the full nature of them, she later told a federal agent that they confirmed her husband had arranged the murder of his first wife.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Ferncliff Cemetery

280 Secor Road

Hartsdale, New York, 10530

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York
Map of Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York

Grave Location:

Ferncliff Mausoleum, Unit 5, Alcove X, Room 2, Crypt 1

Grave Location Description

After entering the entrance between St. Andrew and St. Peter, go left at the intersection, and turn right at the following intersection to head to northeast to the Ferncliff Mausoleum. Park your car in the parking lot and enter the main entrance of the building. As you enter the building go right, left and the right again until you are in the back corner of the original part of the mausoleum. Take the stairs down into the basement and Michael ‘Trigger Mike’ Coppola’s grave is located in Unit 5 on the right along a wall of private crypts with an outside view.

Grave Location GPS

41.0281381193, -73.8351556363

Photos:

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