When a mugg dies

STANLEY WALKER

KDITOR'S NOTE: This vivid account of the funerary modes for criminals is taken from Mrs. Astor's Horse, which isStanley Walker's third book. It will he published in October, and in it is decried, explained and embalmed the had taste of America's last decade. Mr. Walker was once the youngest city editor in New York, and he is now on the staff of The New Yorker.

There once was a tough picaroon in Chicago named Dion O'Banion. He was a gangster, lie ran a florist shop, advised with the feudal newspaper proprietors of that city on labor and circulation problems, and was connected with various rackets and intrigues. Then he was killed, shot down in his florist shop. His funeral was magnificent, and historically important, for it set the style in gangster funerals. From that time on, particularly up to the end of prohibition, the families, satraps and legionnaires of slain mob chieftains tried to outdo each other in giving splendiferous and costly funerals.

Chicago, as usual in matters concerning underworld customs, was several months ahead of New York. The first really grand funeral of an Eastern racket tycoon was that of Frankie Uale (usually spelled "Yale ), which was held in Brooklyn on July 5, 1927. It was said that Uale had read of the gorgeous obsequies of O'Banion and had expressed the wish that when the time came for him—and he felt that sooner or later he would be murdered—he would be honored with a funeral just as good, or, if possible, better.

Frankie got his wish. He was buried in a silver coffin reputed to have cost $15,000, although undertakers and the friends of slain muggs are notorious liars about figures. There was a five-mile funeral parade through the streets of Brooklyn, where l ale had been, if not the biggest shot, certainly one of the most powerful, His two widows rode in the procession. Thirty-eight automobiles were filled with flowers, tributes from friends, relatives and fellow-racketeers who had been "invited" by the Uale lieutenants to send floral pieces.

Historians of such matters believe that a curious manifestation of the reactions experienced by the family and associates of murdered gangsters made its first appearance at Uale's funeral, and thereafter became the usual thing. It was a floral clock, made of blue and white violets, with gold hands set at 1:10. the exact time at which Uale had been shot down on a Sunday afternoon while driving through a quiet Brooklyn street in his shiny new automobile. The clock style became part of the panoply of underworld funerals. Apparently a gangster's family and friends are inclined to be sentimental about the exact time he was shot down.

The flowers at Uale's funeral, it was estimated, cost $37,000. One small, oblong pillow of deep red roses bore a ribbon on which was inscribed the somewhat ominous message: "We'll See Them, Kid." Other pieces included a twenty-foot cross with a ribbon inscribed, "Sympathy, Friend. A ten-foot lyre was inscribed "Love, Pal." A twelve-foot tower of roses carried the words "Good-bye, Old Timer." There also was a ponderous bleeding heart of pink roses, with the drops outlined in deep red roses and a dagger of lavender and white violets plunged into its center. On the pink ribbon tied to the handle of the dagger appeared the inscription, "From 5 our Wife and Little Girls."

Another floral piece was an eighteen-foot tower of red and white roses inscribed merely with the initials "F. Y." Uale preferred the 'A ale* spelling. A massive piece of roses and carnations was from "The Boys', which means it came from men who had been visited in hangouts and speakeasies and informed, in a polite way, that the chief's friends were thinking of getting some flowers for the funeral. The "boys" knew it was policy to come across with $150 or $200.

As the funeral cortege moved off on the two-mile trip to St. Rosalia's Roman Catholic Church, through streets lined with thousands, bale's divorced wife and his mother rode in the first automobile. A Harlem racketeer known as "The Wolf rode in the second; "Little Angie' and Luceida Uale in the third.

At the church, where Uale was said to have been a generous contributor, a solemn requiem mass was said for the repose of his soul, and then the cortege moved off. traversing three miles to reach the grave in Holy Cross Cemetery. The mourners at the grave were restricted to the family and 112 selected men "mourners". To each of these, a master of ceremonies gave a single bloom, saying, "Toss it in, buddy, when 1 give the signal." He gave the signal and the faithful 112 tossed their flowers on top of the coffin.

The coffin, which was described as being of 14-gauge German silver, lined with copper, was said to have been paid for with fifteen $1,000 bills. Those who saw bale's body in the coffin say that it was clad in a tuxedo suit and that he clutched a gold rosary in one hand. With an ultimate bit of swank, he held a pair of grey suede gloves in the other hand. The "boys were pleased. Frankie had outdone 0 Banion.

The next gangster funeral of real impressiveness was that of Joseph Catania, known as "Joe the Baker", a Bronx racketeer, bootlegger, bookmaker and active figure in the wine-grape and policy industries. He was buried on February 7, 1931, four days after he had been shot and killed as he was coming out of a candy and tobacco store in Belmont Avenue, the Bronx.

Again it was said that his funeral outdid O Banion's. His coffin, it was said, cost $15,000, and was of solid bronze with silver drop sides. His flowers slightly exceeded those of the bale funeral in number, filling forty automobiles, beating the bale mark by two cars. O'Banion had only twenty-six automobiles.

A monolith of red roses with ribbon streamers was the contribution of the widow of Joe the Baker. There was a vacant chair five and a half feet high and five feet across made of red roses, with the legs in Japanese lilies and the arms outlined in white and red carnations. There were also a broken column of Faster lilies and roses nine feet high, and a six-foot square pillow of Japanese lilies and roses. When the coffin was closed, it was covered with a blanket of white carnations with a cross of red roses in the center, and embroidery of orchids and sweet peas at the corners. Five funeral directors were kept busy, together with strong-arm men to keep the crowds moving. Everybody wanted to linger and see if they could find the bullet holes, which had been concealed with great cleverness.

Ten men were needed to carry the coffin to the hearse. At the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Bronx, a solemn requiem mass was said for Joe the Baker. His body was placed in a temporary grave; later it was removed to a $20,000 mausoleum which he had ordered built a short time before his death. Joe was a nephew of the extremely able Giro Terranova, the "Artichoke King", who was once accused of making a contract to pay $20,000 for the murders of Uale and Frank Marlow, another racketeer, and then of arranging the robbery of a dinner party in an attempt to recover the contract.

Giuseppe Masseria, New York agent of A1 Capone and a power in the Sicilian Union, was known as "Joe the Boss '. He was shot and killed in a Coney Island speakeasy as he was playing cards with some friends on April 15, 1931. He ran a racing book, was part owner of a Third Avenue crap game, and with "Little Angie" Pisano was said to own twenty-one race horses. He also dabbled in the policy game. He had been an enemy of the "Artichoke King" for ten years, lie was shot while his armored automobile, in which he always rode, was waiting outside the speakeasy.

(Continued on page 60)

(Confirmed from page 24)

The coffin of Joe the Boss, said to he of solid bronze, silver lined, cost $15,000, according to A. Provenzano, the undertaker. The police, suspicious, said the cost was nearer $3,000. Joe's funeral was held April 20, 1931. f or some reason the family wanted the public to believe that he was being buried without a mass. The cortege left the apartment where he lived in West Eighty-first Street and headed in the direction of the lower East Side, from which section Joe originally had come. On the way down, however, it stopped at tin; Church of Mary, Help of Christians, in East Twelfth Street, and a funeral mass was said.

Joe's funeral was marred by the absence of many of his gangster friends, who probably expected trouble. However, sixteen automobiles of flowers were in the procession, including huge wreaths, ten-foot clocks of lilies and roses with the hands pointing to 3:20, the hour of the murder. There were twenty-four automobiles for mourners, but six of them were empty. Joe was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Another gangster who achieved a certain high tone in death was Daniel J. Iamascia, Bronx beer runner and right-hand man of the famous Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer). Danny was shot and killed in June, 1931, by a detective as he was leaving Schultz's hideaway apartment at 1212 Fifth Avenue. Danny lay in a silver coffin which was supposed to have cost $15,000. The coffin glinted magnificently in the sunlight as it was carried out by eight pallbearers, who placed it in a white hearse under an enormous wreath sent by Dutch Schultz and Ciro Terranova. In the cortege were seventy-five hired automobiles, fifty private automobiles and thirty-five cars filled with flowers. Schultz and Terranova were not present, though tin* "Artichoke King" sent the largest floral piece there—a gate, fifteen feet high, made of lilies, roses and carnations. Daniel Scocozza, the undertaker, said it symbolized the gates of heaven.

Danny's mother contributed the inevitable clock, the hands made of rose stems and pointing to 6:10, the hour at which the detective's bullet mowed down her son. Schultz sent a large bouquet shaped like a diamond and also a cross of red roses with a white stuffed pigeon attached to the middle of the cross and the inscription, "Sympathy". Other inscriptions of flowers included "Dear I'al", "From His Loving Wife", "From the Boys", "From a Respectful Pal", "From Your Best Pal", and "Why Did It Have To Be You, Danny?".

Experts are inclined to doubt that all the coffins used in such funerals were really as costly as the family, friends and undertakers contended. They say that a gangster wouldn't want a solid bronze coffin because it isn't flashy enough. He wants one that glitters with a silver tone that is sprayed on like paint, or a silver plate. These cost from $400 to $3,000.

One explanation of the ornate funerals is that the dead man and his friends often were of Italian descent, with the natural love of that race for display. Another reason is that most of them were rather powerful leaders who, although they made many enemies, also had many friends who remained loyal to death. The lone wolf, the selfish man, the man without an organization behind him. or the ordinary killer, rarely received more than a small quiet funeral. That was true of Arnold Rothstein, who was hated by most of the underworld; "Legs" Diamond, whose cruelty and meanness had made him both feared and hated, and Larry Fay, who, though a pleasant enough fellow, was for the most part a lone entrepreneur. After his death the was killed by a drunken night club doorman) his wife, a former show girl from whom he was separated, had a funeral notice inserted in the papers. One line read: "Please omit flowers". The day of mortuary ostentation was over.