America’s Most Infamous Criminal Gangs

Sicilian immigrant Salvatore Sabella founded this branch of the Mafia in 1911, but it became better known in later years as the Bruno and then the Scarfo crime family. Angelo Bruno, the son of a grocer, took over in 1959 after rising through the mob’s ranks. Considered a competent and loyal soldier who set up gambling rackets for the mob, Bruno was known as the “Gentle Don” for preferring to use bribes instead of violence to settle disputes. His aversion to the narcotics trade and a dispute over control of Atlantic City’s casino operations led to his assassination in 1980. Eventually Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, whose violent behavior and zeal for the drug trade made him the opposite of Bruno, took over the family’s reins. He was eventually arrested and tried on numerous charges, and died in federal prison.

The Eastman gang was led by Jewish mobster Edward “Monk” Eastman, who achieved infamy in the 1890s. His was one of New York’s most feared criminal organizations, numbering as many as 1,200 members and associates, and terrorizing Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The gang intimidated voters and ran brothels, protection rackets, drug rings, and even murder-for-hire operations. Monk Eastman personally administered beatdowns. After he was jailed for a mugging in 1904, his gang disintegrated. Eastman fought in World War I with distinction, but that did not eradicate his past, which caught up with him in 1920 when he was shot to death by a corrupt federal agent.

The Bugs and Meyer Mob was led by Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky. The two met on Manhattan’s Lower East Side as teens. Siegel was considered the muscle and Lansky the brains of the group. They allied themselves with Charles “Lucky” Luciano and other Italian mobsters. Siegel was allegedly one of the assassins of mob boss Joe Masseria in 1931, paving the way for Luciano to assume control of the New York underworld. Lansky and Luciano created the National Crime Syndicate in the early 1930s.

The Purple Gang were Jewish mobsters who came from the city’s lower east side. They were led by the four Burnstein brothers: Raymond, Joseph, Isadore, and Abraham. The origin of their name is murky. It might have come from a shopkeeper victimized by the hoods when they were delinquents, who called them “rotten, purple like the color of bad meat.” Al Capone used the gang to transport whiskey across the Canadian border, but he chose not to encroach on their territory. The Purple Gang controlled gambling, liquor, and the drug trade in Detroit and vicinity during its heyday in the 1920s. Internal disputes, betrayals, and assassinations led to its dissolution in the 1930s.

Murder Inc. was the name the press gave to the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate. The group was led by Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and later by Albert Anastasia. Its services were forged via contracts and available to any syndicate member anywhere in the country. Most victims of Murder, Inc. were other mobsters or those about to talk to law enforcement and were killed for “business reasons.” Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was one of the group’s enforcers.