Silas Jayne

popular name: Raymond Patriarca

date_of_death: July 11, 1984

age: 76

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Raymond Patriarca was an American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island, who became the long-time boss of the Patriarca crime family, whose control extended throughout New England for more than three decades. Even at an early age, Patriarca was charged with hijacking, armed robbery, assault, safecracking, and auto theft. He was indicted as an accessory to murder before Prohibition's end in 1933. During the 1940s, Patriarca continued to rise in power. In 1950, mobster Philip Buccola fled the country to avoid prosecution for tax evasion, and Patriarca took control of his criminal operations. Throughout the notoriety of the last half of his life, Mr. Patriarca insisted he was a legitimate businessman who operated the National Cigarette Service, a vending machine business, in the Federal Hill section of Providence. But law-enforcement officials contended that Mr. Patriarca controlled a web of illicit activities that spread across New England, including loan sharking, numbers lotteries, trafficking in marijuana and cocaine and, for a time, jukebox vending rackets and the smuggling of immigrants. Make no mistake, Patriarca 30-year reign was brutal and violent with the mob boss arrested more than 30 times on charges ranging from bootlegging to conspiracy to murder, and served several prison sentences. The last was a six-year term at the Federal penitentiary in Atlanta stemming from his 1968 conviction for conspiracy in the slayings of Rudy Marfeo and Anthony Melei at Pannone’s Market in Providence, Rhode Island on April 20, 1968.

popular name: Antonio Lombardo

date_of_death: September 7, 1928

age: 37

cause_of_death: Murdered - mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Antonio "Tony the Scourge" Lombardo was a prominent Italian-American mobster in Chicago during the Prohibition era. Born in Sicily in 1891, he immigrated to the United States and quickly rose through the ranks of organized crime. Lombardo became a close associate of Al Capone and served as a key political advisor and intermediary between the Chicago Outfit and the Italian-American community. He was appointed head of the Unione Siciliana, a powerful Sicilian-American fraternal organization that Capone sought to control for political influence. Known for his diplomatic skills and efforts to broker peace among rival gangs, Lombardo's leadership drew both respect and resentment. His assassination in 1928 was orchestrated by an alliance of the Joe Aiello Gang and the North Side Gang, with George "Bugs" Moran reportedly ordering the hit. His death further destabilized the already volatile power dynamics within the city's criminal underworld which resulted in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre as revenge. The grave of mobster Antonio Lombardo (along with dozens of other mob associates) can be found at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Cicero, Illinois (just outside Chicago).

popular name: Ludlow Skinner

date_of_death: February 21, 1903

age: 32

cause_of_death: Murdered - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Ludlow Skinner was a quiet, soft-spoken young man who was the son of one of the most respected ministers in the southern region. The murder of Ludlow Skinner begins with Mrs. Gertrude Tucker, Skinner's sister-in-law and one of the most beautiful women in all of North Carolina at the time. Seems while doing work for Mrs. Tucker, her attorney Ernest Haywood had a thing for the beautiful widow and they began a secret affair (which in 1903, was a very big deal). And while there was ample evidence to their marriage, Haywood refused to acknowledge the legality of their marriage or the bastard son born out of wedlock. On February 21, 1903, Saturday afternoon, the young lawyer Haywood met Ludlow Skinner, his mistress's brother-in-law, on the steps of the Fayetteville Street Post Office. After a brief argument Haywood pulled out a pistol and shot at Skinner one time and missed. He then chased Skinner briefly and shot him dead in the street with 100 witness. The murder and subsequent trial achieved nationwide attention and rocked the foundations of turn-of-the-century Raleigh society. As a lawyer and founding member of the Raleigh Bar Association, he was found innocent by a jury of his peers after only 15 minutes of deliberation.