Silas Jayne

popular name: Frank Palermo

date_of_death: May 12, 1996

age: 91

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Boxing has a dark history of gangsters, crooked fights and mysterious murders. In the world of boxing at the time, Frank “Blinky” Palermo, a member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family, was indeed royalty. Along with his partner, Frankie Carbo, a New York Lucchese crime family member, Palermo managed and controlled many of the professional boxers around the country. Although this Philly hustler was only five feet tall, he was a giant at assault and battery, big at bootlegging, jobbing, racketeering, numbers runner, petty thief, shakedown artist, wiseguy - Blinky was a man of many talents. Palermo's partner was Mafioso Frankie Carbo, a soldier in New York's Lucchese family who had been a gunman with Murder, Inc. During the 1940s, Frankie Carbo became a boxing promoter, working along with Ettore "Eddie" Coco, James "Jimmy Doyle" Plumeri, Frank "Blinky" Palermo, Harry "Champ" Segal, & Felix Bocchicchio. The group was known as "The Combination", together they were highly successful in fixing high-profile boxing matches. Even worse Palermo would cheat his stable of fighters out of their share of the purses of their fights. In 1961, the Feds zeroed in on Carbo and Palermo and were charged, tried and convicted of committing a dozens of crimes. Blinky Palermo was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA.

popular name: John Philip Nichols

date_of_death: March 17, 2001

age: 71

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: John Philip Nichols, 76, was the controversial patriarch of the family and former CIA agent that brought the Cabazon Indians into the gambling era. After Nichols became financial advisor in 1978, the tribe launched business ventures including a poker club and bingo hall and the sale of tax-free cigarettes and discount liquor. Under his leadership, the Cabazons established health insurance plans and opportunities in education and employment. However despite all the promises, no actual money was transfered to the Cabazons. In actuality the tribe continued to go deeper in debt as the years went by and the casino was flush with visitors and gamblers. The morning he was supposed to meet with an attorney to transfer documents showing embezzlement, money laundering and illegal arms dealings, Cabazon Band of Mission Indians tribal Councilmember Fred Alvarez and his friends, Ralph Boger and Patricia Castro, were found dead on July 1, 1981. The case has remained unsolved for decades but it is strongly suspected that John Philip Nichols either hired the triggerman or was the actual gunman who committed the murders. In addition, Nichols pleaded no contest in 1985 to two felony counts of soliciting the murder of two people he believed were dealing drugs. The killings were never carried out and he spent almost two years in prison.

popular name: Paul McGonagle

date_of_death: November 30, 1974

age: 35

cause_of_death: Homicide - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Paulie McGonagle was a Boston mobster and head of the Mullen Gang, a South Boston street gang involved in burglary, auto theft, and armed robbery. During the war against Donald Killeen and his brothers, McGonagle successfully led the Mullens in a string of shootings which finally ended with Killeen's murder in 1972. After a truce was arranged with Whitey Bulger and the remnants of the Killeen organization, McGonagle remained angry about Bulger's accidental murder of his fraternal twin brother, Donald McGonagle. Bulgar killed Paulie and consolidated and took command of the Mullen, Killeen and Winter Hill gangs.