Louis Buhalter was a famous gangster in the first half of the twentieth century in New York, and also led the Killing Corporation for some time. He was the only mafia leader in the United States who could be sentenced to death. He began his journey in the criminal world after the departure of his mother, to whom a boy from a Jewish family was strongly attached. Perhaps at that time he saw only such a solution for himself.
Gangster nickname
Louis Buhalter was from a Jewish family living in the United States. From childhood, his mother called him affectionately in Yiddish Leibkele, which in the Slavic manner meant Levushka. Since then, he began to be called Lepke, as an abridged version of the diminutive form of his name Louis.
early years
Lepke was born on 02/06/1897 in Manhattan. Louis Buchalter, whose early years were closely associated with his mother, was forced to part with her. This happened after the death of his father, when to improve her own health, the woman had to move to Arizona. She entrusted her son to the eldest daughter. But immediately after the departure of the mother, the streets of New York became the boy’s home.
Sister did not pay any attention to Luis's life. He needed to think about his own food and clothing. As a means of livelihood, the boy chose the path of crime. He was engaged in petty thefts with penetration into other people's homes.
Lepke was first arrested when he was sixteen years old. The policemen were then surprised that the teenager had shoes of the wrong size, stolen from different owners. And both were from the left leg.
As an attempt to influence the young man, he was placed in a Catholic shelter. But this did not help, because from there he was soon kicked out with the note “incorrigible”.
At twenty-two years old, Lepke managed to serve his second term in the Sing Sing prison, which was very strict and located about fifty kilometers from New York.
Working with Jacob Shapiro
In 1919, Louis began to work in tandem with Jacob Shapiro, who was his childhood friend. They engaged in violence and gradually gained power over the unions of the clothing factories located on the Lower East Side.
Luich, a partner, began to receive weekly tribute from the owners of the sewing factories. This they achieved with the help of controlled unions, which at any moment could declare a strike. Gradually, they switched to protection racket.
The Killing Corporation
In the thirties of the twentieth century, gangsters organized an independent union. To solve their problems, its representatives created the Killing Corporation. In its creation, there were such mafiosi as Charlie Luciano, John Torio, Meir Lansky, Luis Buchalter. Photos of these people began to appear more often among those wanted by the police. And this is not surprising, since the organization was engaged in killings.
Over time, control of the organization passed to Lepka and Albert Anastazie. Since that time, all police countries began to search for Luis. Contract killings were carried out throughout the United States, and with each successful transaction, the head of the Killing Corporation received thirty-three percent of the commission.
Arrest and execution
Louis Buchalter realized that he was wanted. He decides to hide for a while, but the mafia leaders advise the gangster to surrender voluntarily and partially admit his guilt. For example, in the drug case. The sculptor agrees and surrenders to the authorities. For this he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
But this did not end there, since Abe Reles got to the police. He was a member of the Killing Corporation and made a deal. The arrested person handed over to the prosecutor Lepka, having told in detail about the murders committed by his group.
For Louis, that was the end. In 1941, he was charged with the murders he committed and sentenced to death by electric chair. The sentence was executed three years later. The execution took place on 03.03.01944. By that time, the leader of the mafia was forty-seven years old.
But Louis Buchalter was not the only one who suffered from betrayal. Nine more representatives of the Killing Corporation were arrested, six of whom were also executed.
The traitor Reles soon fell out of the window of a hotel room under strange circumstances. Most likely, it was the revenge of the mafia. Although the official version recognized suicide.
The image in the movie
Since 2015, the United States began to release a documentary game television series, telling about the most famous gangsters of America in the first half of the twentieth century. Louis Buchalter was born at the end of the nineteenth century, so all his criminal activities fell just at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is not surprising that he, too, is the hero of this series. The head of the mafia world of New York at that time was Charlie Luciano.
The first part of the project is called The Birth of the Mafia: New York. The authors were able to reflect the atmosphere of that time, using magnificent scenery and costumes, as well as conducting shooting in kind. The characters are distinguished by their charisma. For viewers, reconstruction of real events is presented, which are complemented by interviews with writers, actors, and former mayors of New York.
The head of the Killing Corporation faction was, as you know, Luis Buchalter. On the screen, the image of the gangster was embodied by Ivan Boymel.
In 2016, the next part of the project entitled “The Birth of the Mafia: Chicago” was released. It reveals the activities of another gangster group led by Al Capone.