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 Bonnie and Clyde
Clyde Champion Barrow and his companion, Bonnie Parker, were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934, after one of the most colorful and spectacular manhunts the Nation had seen up to that time.
Barrow was suspected of numerous killings and was wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of kidnapping...Read
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Al 'Scarface' Capone
Chicago gangster and murderer. He grew up in the slums of Brooklyn and received the nickname "Scarface" as the result of a knife wound (3 scars
on the left side of his face) inflicted by Frank Galluccio, a tough hood, in a quarrel about a girl at a Brooklyn bar in 1917... Read
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 Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen was Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel's shadow. Ben was tall, handsome, suave and welcome in the elite Hollywood circles. He mixed with the glitterati, courted royalty and bedded starlets while his shadow -- Mickey -- was picking their pockets, robbing their safes and breaking their bones. Read
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 John Dillinger
During the 1930s Depression, many Americans, nearly helpless against forces they didn't understand, made heroes of outlaws who took what they wanted
at gunpoint. Of all the lurid desperadoes, one man, John Herbert Dillinger, came to evoke this Gangster Era, and stirred mass emotion to a degree
rarely seen in this country. Read More |
 Charles "Pretty
Boy" Floyd
Early Life: Charles Arthur Floyd, soon to be called "Chock" Floyd, was born on February 3, 1904 in Georgia, one of seven children, but
moved to a small farming community in Oklahoma, which he was to call home. His parents had a small farm, they were dirt-poor. His father spent most
of his time trying to stay one step ahead of foreclosure. Droughts, plagues and dust storms brought farm production down to a crawl. In an attempt
to help keep themselves fed the family became involved in the bootlegging business....Read More |
 John Gotti
Few organized crime figures have completely captured the attention of the public as John Gotti has over the past 20 years. We have had our celebrity
mobsters in the past. Underworld figures like Al "Scarface" Capone and Jack "Legs" Diamond captured the public's fascination during the 1920s. In
the 1930s it was a different brand of criminal that became popular. Bank robbers like John Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and "Baby Face" Nelson were
the rage of what was known as the Mid-West Crime Wave.. Read More |
 Sam Giancana
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, a scourge to the familia of Little Italy were the Black Handers. Sicilian themselves, their
modus operandi was simple but deadly: Residents would receive a knock on the door in the dead of night; when they answered, they would find naught
but a letter left on the threshold demanding so-much money to be paid to an anonymous entity who would return on such and such a day. Read
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 Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky, born in 1902 in Poland to Jewish parents, grew up on the Lower East Side of New York. He was a virtuous and law abiding teen until
one day, as he was walking home from his apprenticeship as a toolmaker, he heard a woman screaming in a deserted building. Read
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 Charlie"Lucky" Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, November 27, 1897. He immigrated with his family in 1907. At the
age of 18 he was arrested for delivering dope and sent to Hampton Farms, a state facility for youths. After being released, Luciano decided to change
his first name to Charlie because he felt that Salvatore (Sal) was a girl's name. Read More
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 George 'Bugs' Moran
Bugs Moran was born to Irish and Polish immigrant parents in 1893 and grew up in the North Side of Chicago. He grew up streetwise and ran with
numerous gangs committing more than 20 known burglaries and being imprisoned three times before he was 21 years old. Read
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 "Baby Face"
Nelson
"Baby Face" Nelson was born Lester M. Gillis on December 6, 1908, in Chicago, Illinois. He roamed the Chicago streets with a gang of juvenile
hoodlums during his early teens. By the age of 14, he was an accomplished car thief and had been dubbed "Baby Face" by members of his gang due to
his juvenile appearance. Read More
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 Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti
Another alumnus from the illustrious members of the "Five Points Gang", Nitti was born in Italy. In 1888, he arrived in America's New York city
as an impoverished youngster. Read More
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 Dion O'Banion
The man who took on Capone and Torrio in the bootlegging war Read More
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 Albert Rothstein
Known by many names - A. R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, and The Brain - Arnold Rothstein seemed more myth than man.
Read More
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 Bugsy Seigel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was a gangster straight out of a Hollywood central casting. He was just under six foot tall with thick black hair and
piercing blue eyes. He was athletic, good looking, a charmer with the ladies and above all fearless. Siegel moved from the slums of Brooklyn and
then on to Hollywood and finally set himself up in Las Vegas by building the first major casino The Flamingo. Read
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 Frankie Yale
Although Frankie Yale was a New York mobster he was close with Johnny Torrio and Al Capone, both of Chicago. Yale was John Torrio's partner
in the Five Points Gang in Brooklyn and had killed a dozen men before his twenty- first birthday. When Torrio left for Chicago, Yale took over all
the gang's rackets in NY. Read More
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The St Valentines Day Massacre
Probably the most publicized and talked about Mob event ever is the St.
Valentines Day Massacre. Several movies have been made about it and numerous
books have been published. Read
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A-Z Glossary of Gangster Terms - Click to View
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