Harry Strauss
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Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (July 28, 1909 - June 12, 1941) was a prolific contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He killed over 30 men using guns, ice picks, drowning, live burial and strangling rope although he never carried weapons unless he was about to make a hit. In one case he reportedly considered using a fire axe that happened to be on the wall of a theatre as a murder weapon.
Harry Strauss was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, not as his moniker would suggest, Pittsburgh. Most associates knew him as Pep. In the 1930s he resorted to assaults, larceny, and drug dealing. He was arrested 18 times but was never convicted until he was found guilty of the homicide that sent him and fellow Murder Inc. hitman Buggsy Goldstein to the electric chair. After hitman Abe Reles turned informant, Strauss was arrested for a murder of Puggy Feinstein and five other murders. He tried to avoid conviction by feigning insanity in the courtroom and even on death row. He was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing on June 12, 1941.
[edit] References
- Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81288-6
