Quortek

Bruno Hauptmann

Before being convicted for the kidnap and killing of the Lindbergh baby, Bruno Hauptmann burgled houses. He drifted into burglary after the First World War, being convicted of breaking and entering in 1919 and being arrested for possession of stolen goods in 1922 (he escaped before trial).

In 1935 he was convicted of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. Although there is controversy around the guilty verdict.

Not the kind of guy you want to meet in your darkened kitchen at 3am in the Morning whilst wearing your boxer shorts.

Louis Buchalter

Founder of the murder-for-hire organization popularly known as Murder Inc. and also a national syndicate crime boss, Louis Buchalter was partial to a bit of breaking and entering.

As a youth he was already into shoplifting and burglary and, by the age of 22 in 1919, had served two prison terms. His first arrest was on a burglary charge on September 2, 1915.

After a rise in the underworld and co-founding the National Crime Syndicate, Louise”Lepke” was responsible for the section of the organisation who offered murder for hire, formerly known as Murder Inc.

After a determined battle by the authorities he was finally electrocuted in Sing Sing, 1943 on murder charges

Sam Giancana

Nicknamed, Momo, Sam Giancana was the syndicate boss of Chicago.

Giancana served five years for burglary and another four years for operating an illegal still. He began working for Al Capone and by 1966 had been arrested around 70 times.

A police report called him, “a snarling, sarcastic ill tempered, sadistic psychopath”. He was for a while the most powerful crime boss west of the Mississippi. He was actually involved in various CIA plots to assassinate Fidel Castro and it earned him the nickname “mooner” as in being a little nutty. Giancana adapted the term to “Momo”, which he found more acceptable.

Dutch Schultz

Born in the Bronx, Schultz took his alias from an old-time Bronx gangster and advanced from burglaries to racketering, bootlegging, along with ownership of breweries and speakeasies,

He was arrested for burglary at age 17 and emerged from prison in time to join Arnold Rothstein’s bootlegging operation.

His life of crime ended in a hail of bullets after annoying the crime syndicate by wanting to assassinate U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey. The syndicate thought it was bad for business. It was certainly bad for Dutch.

Joe Masseria

At the age of 29 Joe Masseria, who later went on to be the boss of bosses in New York was convicted of burglary.

Emigrating from Sicily at age 16, Masseria hung around with a band of Italian killers and Black Hand extortionists. Getting cozy with the Morello family he proceeded to climb up the bloody ladder to become the boss.

He was assassinated by one of his own people, Lucky Luciano in 1931

Jack Sheppard

Jack Sheppard, not to be confused with Jack Shepard from the TV show Lost, or Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean was a notorious English burglar from the 18th century. He was arrested and escaped from prison no less than 4 times. The fifth time he was hung at Tyeburn, the place of execution in London.

It was believed the Devil himself helped in Jacks escapes, but some reason let him down on the last one.

Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky is reportedly have been worth $300 million and was refused immigrant status from Israel and had to return to the USA for trial.

Lansky had a gang who did burglaries, along with other things such as auto theft, running a crap game, liquor smuggling and other rackets. Along with teenage friend, Bugsy Siegel he proceeded to build his crime empire through murder and violence. It is alleged that he gave the final order to have Bugsy Siegel shot dead after losing money setting up the Flamingo Casino in Vegas.

The Hyman Roth character in The Godfather 2 was based on Lansky. Lansky phoned the actor to tell him he should have played him more sympathetically.

After his death he left the sum of $37,000. The FBI have still not found the $300 million.

When watching a TV show on the Costa Nostra, Lansky is purported to have said, “We are bigger than US Steel.”