October 16, 1927
Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen and his gang were labour sluggers—hoods hired out as muscle both to the unions and to the corporations during labour disputes. Pictures of Orgen show him with a prominent scar on his left cheek, just below the eye. The mark looks like one of those duelling scars that military officers from a previous generation used to sport. The difference was that Orgen had been awarded his wound in a street fight.
The Little Augie Gang shared the labour rackets in New York with Johnny Spanish and, of course, Nathan “Kid Twist” Kaplan. Kaplan eliminated Spanish in 1919, the same year that Orgen went to prison, and Orgen in his turn dealt with Kaplan in 1923, subsequently assuming control of New York’s union rackets.
The Little Augies contained a number of up-and-comers in the underworld, including such criminal luminaries as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro and Jack “Legs” Diamond. Diamond was to become quite a celebrity in the 1920s, but Buchalter and Shapiro would prove more formidable. Buchalter, a shrewd tactician, would later expand his resumé when he assumed leadership of the National Crime Syndicate’s murder wing—Murder Incorporated.
By the mid 1920s, however, the labour rackets were beginning to change. Orgen had his hand in other things of course, bootlegging included, but found that membership in the unions had begun to drop. What’s more, the fear of Bolshevism was leading to increased scrutiny of all labour movements. This extra attention was beginning to shine a spotlight on the gangs, and that was something no one wanted.
Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein—mob ruler, gambler and brilliant strategist—urged the Orgen gang to use a tactic of infiltration instead. Working inside the unions, he advised, would allow for more subtle control of labour, give Orgen access to union coffers and still allow for a hefty pay-off from the corporations. The gambit would also have greater benefits in the long run than simple labour-bashing, which could only ever be effective for a while.
The plan appealed to Buchalter and Shapiro, both protégés of Rothstein, but Orgen liked to do things the old-fashioned way by knocking heads together. Clearly the gang could have no future with Orgen in charge and in any case, the wily Buchalter had plans of his own.
On October 16, 1927, Orgen was walking down Norfolk Street, accompanied by Jack Diamond as bodyguard. As the two neared Delancey a car pulled up beside them, a window opened, and Buchwalter and Shapiro filled Orgen with lead. Diamond was also hit but managed to survive, fuelling his later reputation as the man who could not be killed.
Buchwalter and Shapiro now had control of Orgen’s operations. Many years later, however, Buchwalter’s own number would come up when he went to the electric chair in 1944.