June 19, 1932
No doubt on certain nights during the late 1920s and early 1930s the plane of Charles “Vannie” Higgins could be seen on its way from Canada to the United States. Higgins used to run rum with his plane. He used other methods of transport too, of course, including trucks, taxis and boats, his famous vessel The Cigarette being just one of them. But it was the plane he loved and he would often fly it himself.
Higgins had cut his criminal teeth in “Big Bill” Dwyer’s gang in the 1920s and when he struck out on his own he came into conflict with Dutch Schultz during the bootlegging wars of Manhattan. Everybody seemed to bump shoulders with Schultz. Higgins apparently sided with “Legs” Diamond and Vincent Coll against Schultz and the streets would regularly erupt with their gun battles.
Higgins had numerous run-ins with the law and was arrested any number of times. He was only convicted once, however, and that conviction resulted in a fine rather than jail time. It seems that whenever Higgins went to trial witnesses would go missing, or find that they suddenly had to leave on some spurious excuse. Higgins, of course, also had a number of highly placed friends who always came through in a scrape.
Shortly before Higgins was killed he flew his plane to New York’s Great Meadow Maximum Correctional Facility for a visit with his old pal the warden. Warden Wilson had conscripted the prisoners to clear a landing field for Higgins and the two spent the day reminiscing, no doubt with the lifers milling about just yards away. New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t care for Warden Wilson fraternizing with the likes of Higgins, a known gangster, but the warden let it roll off his back—his friends were his own business, he told the future president.
But Vannie Higgins’s overriding concern was his family, and shortly after his visit with Warden Wilson he was compelled to make the ultimate sacrifice for them. On the night of June 19, 1932, Higgins attended a recital of his seven-year-old daughter’s dance class surrounded by family members, along with some enforcers, of course.
As Higgins and company were leaving the building after the performance, a car pulled up on the darkened street. Several men carrying guns stepped out and began shooting. Acting fast, Higgins pushed his family aside and ran down the street, drawing the fire of the gunmen. After collapsing on the ground, he was taken to the nearest hospital. He held on for about fifteen hours, enduring several blood transfusions, but really his death was a foregone conclusion. Refusing to name his assailants, Higgins died, still swearing he would get his killers.
Though Higgins may have known who killed him, his murderers were never actually identified—but when Brooklyn D.A. William O’Dwyer began proceedings against Murder Incorporated in 1940, Higgins was named as just one of the many targets of that organization. Higgins may have lived a gangster, but in the end, it could be argued, he died a hero.