June 12: Executed at Sing-Sing

Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss and Martin “Buggsy” Goldstein, hit-men with Murder, Inc., were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York on this date in 1941. Strauss was a head assassin for the Brooklyn-based crime group, which ran its own rackets and also served as killing squad for gangsters Lepke Buchalter and Albert Anastasia. Strauss was known as a skilled and sadistic killer with at least 100 victims, possibly many more, in his thirty-two years of life. During his trial and on death row, he feigned insanity (and may not have been faking), but it failed to deter his execution. Goldstein, called “Buggsy” because he was considered crazy even by his criminal associates, was a gambling and labor racketeer as well as a murderer with at least ten victims to his name. Both he and Stauss were “fingered” by Abe “Kid Twist” Reles (pictured above), another psychopathic murderer who turned government witness.

“At his sentencing, when asked if he had anything to say, Goldstein declared, ‘Judge, I would like to pee up your leg.’ ” —JGrit, the Internet Index of Tough Jews