30 Most Infamous Mob Hits

Dutch Schultz

A word to the wise: if even the Organization tells you not to do something, don’t do it. The infamous mobster Dutch Schultz didn’t listen when his request to assassinate New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey was denied. Instead, he tried to go ahead with his plan and paid the price. A hit was put out on Schultz, and, by all accounts, it got messy. Hitmen from Murder, Inc. tried to take out Schultz and his associates at the Palace Chop House on October 23rd, 1935. It was a bullet-riddled affair, with the assassins getting away, while all of Schultz’s gang received grave injuries. They would be taken to a local hospital, but all of them, including Schultz, eventually died from their wounds.

Joe Masseria

You may not be aware of the name Joe Masseria, unless you’re a mob historian, of course. However, most everyone has probably heard of the man responsible for Masseria’s murder: “Lucky” Luciano. Luciano was actually a lieutenant of Masseria’s, while the latter was operating as a boss in the Genovese Crime Family. The hit took place at an Italian restaurant, the Nuova Villa Tammaro, where Masseria was shot repeatedly. Masseria was actually made aware of Luciano’s treachery beforehand, and attempted a counter-hit, but was further betrayed by another associate, Joe Adonis. “Lucky” Luciano’s plan was successful, while some of the gunmen involved included Adonis, as well as other big name mobsters, such as Vito Genovese and “Bugsy” Siegel.


Sam Giancana


Over the years, this Chicago mobster has been linked to CIA efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro during the Kennedy presidency. At the time of his death, “Momo” was sixty-seven years old and known for his gambling and refusal to spread the wealth. In 1974, he even relocated to Cuernavaca, Mexico to avoid legal hassles. But a life of crime caught up to Giancana on June 19, 1975, as he was gunned down while cooking sausage and peppers. Aside from those responsible, nobody knows who killed “Sam the Cigar,” and conspiracy theories persist.


Joe Gallo


Known as “Crazy Joe,” this New York Mafioso was raised in Brooklyn, New York. During the ‘50s, he joined the Profaci crime family, working as a hitman and extortionist. But eventually, Joey started a war with the gang and kidnapped Joe Profaci’s brother-in-law, Joseph Magliocco. That’s not something a crime lord forgets. On April 7, 1972, “Crazy Joe” celebrated his forty-third birthday in Manhattan. Later that night, Gallo was ambushed and shot at Umberto’s Clam House, and later died at Beekman-Downtown Hospital.


Anthony Spilotro


This Chicago gangster was the inspiration for Joe Pesci’s character in the 1995 film “Casino.” And if you’re familiar with the Martin Scorsese classic, then you know that Anthony Spilotro suffers a horrific fate. In 1963, “The Ant” was officially a “Made Man,” and in 1976, he established “The Hole in the Wall Gang.” Spilotro eventually became suspected of skimming allegations at the mob’s Las Vegas operations. He swiftly disappeared in 1986 and was later found buried with his brother Michael. Police suspected Spilotro may have been involved in almost two dozen murders.


Jack McGurn


Born Vincenzo Gibaldi, this man ultimately settled in Chicago and began boxing as a teenager. By 1923, however, Jack McGurn joined Al Capone’s crime organization and became known as the “Machine Gun.” He’s known for killing singer Joe E. Lewis and allegedly helping plan the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Exactly one day and seven years after the massacre, McGurn was gunned down in Chicago, and the killers left a telling clue: a Valentine with a poem. Jack McGurn, a Sicialian immigrant, was thirty-three years old, and his half-brother Anthony De Mory was also murdered two weeks later.


Angelo Bruno


Known as “The Gentle Don,” this iconic gangster was actually known to avoid violence. For twenty years, Bruno headed the Philadelphia mafia, but he began making enemies within the organization because of his greed. On March 21, 1980, his own underboss, Antonio Caponigro, allegedly had “The Docile Don” killed outside his home on a south Philadelphia street. This did not go over well with the Commission, the Mafia’s ruling body, which had not given their okay for the hit. As a result, Bruno’s death was immediately avenged, as Caponigro was murdered for ordering his own boss’ murder.

Paul Castellano


For years, “Big Paulie” was a legend of the New York mafia. By 1975, he succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino Crime Family and once reportedly put a contract out on an undercover FBI agent. In the mid-80s, Castellano was arrested for racketeering, just as an associate named John Gotti put a deadly plan in motion. On the evening of December 16, 1985, Castellano and his underboss Thomas Bilotti were both gunned down outside Manhattan’s Spark Steakhouse, a brazen act that announced a changing of the guard.


Carmine Galante


Born in Harlem to Sicilian immigrants, this man became involved with organized crime before his teenage years. In the ‘40s, Carmine Galante worked as a hitman and later teamed up with Joseph Bonanno, leader of the Bonanno Crime Family. After twelve years in prison from 1962 to 1974, Galante attempted to run the drug trade, which greatly disappointed the Five Families. On July 12, 1979, the sixty-nine-year-old Galante was murdered in Bushwick, Brooklyn at Joe and Mary’s Italian-American restaurant. The Commission had officially ordered the hit, and Galante famously died with a cigar in his mouth.


Albert Anastasia


The American mafia exists because of this Italian immigrant. In 1919, Albert Anastasia first arrived in the United States and was soon sentenced to death for a 1921 murder. But “The Mad Hatter” received a new lease on life when several witnesses disappeared. By 1957, Anastasia was a fifty-five-year-old legend in the criminal underworld. But the crime boss met a violent end when associates of Carlo Gambino, including the aforementioned Joe Gallo, allegedly murdered Anastasia at a midtown Manhattan barber shop. Decades later, it remains one of the most aggressive power moves in mob history.

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel


Along with his friend Albert Anastasia, this Jewish mobster was a founding member of Murder, Inc. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel is also responsible for developing a small desert town called Las Vegas. Born in Brooklyn, Bugsy began a life of crime as a young man, and his organizational skills led him all the way out west. Unfortunately for Siegel, his brash demeanor and lavish lifestyle made him many enemies, and one of them showed up at his Beverly Hills home on June 20, 1947. As Bugsy read the L.A. Times inside, an unknown assassin fired through a window, killing the gangster.

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

Throughout history, individual mob hits have symbolized a transfer of power. In 1929, Al Capone made a major move by taking out several members of an Irish gang led by George “Bugs” Moran. Two supposed police officers arrived at a North Chicago warehouse and, along with two other hitmen, massacred seven gangsters with Thompson submachine guns and shotguns. A contract killer named Frank Gusenberg survived the attack, but he refused to identify the assassins before passing away hours later. It’s the stuff of movies, but it’s also a disturbing real-life mob hit that sheds light on the brutality of Prohibition-era America.




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