Knowra Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. was a press name for a network of contract killers linked to organized crime in the 1930s and 1940s. Its core operated from Brooklyn and carried out killings for the national crime syndicate.
Louis Buchalter : A New York labor racketeer and organized-crime leader who headed the group known as Murder, Inc. As the network’s leader, Buchalter directed killings and became its most prominent defendant.
National Crime Syndicate : A term for a loose alliance of American organized-crime groups that coordinated interests across cities. Murder, Inc. served as an enforcement arm for interests associated with this wider alliance.
Jewish-American organized crime : Organized criminal activity involving Jewish-American gangs and crime figures in the United States. Many members of the network’s early Brooklyn core came from this milieu.
Charles Luciano : An Italian-American crime boss who helped organize a national alliance of American Mafia families. Buchalter’s murder conviction and federal case formed part of the pressure on Luciano’s criminal organization.
Albert Anastasia : An Italian-American mobster who led the Brooklyn waterfront gang and was associated with Murder, Inc. Anastasia’s gang supplied key personnel and leadership to the killing network.
Contract killing : The planned killing of a person for payment or other compensation. The network specialized in carrying out murders ordered by organized-crime figures.
Murder, Inc. trials : A series of New York prosecutions in the late 1930s and early 1940s targeting members of the contract-killing network. The trials revealed the network’s organization and helped establish the public name Murder, Inc.
Mafia Commission : A governing body of American Mafia leaders that mediated disputes and coordinated policies among crime families. The later Commission system illustrates the broader organized-crime structure often connected to Murder, Inc.
Harry Strauss : A New York contract killer who carried out murders for Murder, Inc. Strauss was among the network’s most prolific killers and was executed after his conviction.
Brownsville, Brooklyn : A Brooklyn neighborhood that became a center of Jewish-American gang activity in the early twentieth century. Murder, Inc.’s core circle formed in this neighborhood.
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