Whitey Krakow

Whitey Krakow or Krakower (died July 30, 1941) was a New York mobster who, during the 1930s, served as a hitman for Murder, Inc. Fellow Murder, Inc. member Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's wife, Esther Krakower, had the same last name and so Whitey is incorrectly thought of as Bugsy's brother-in-law. Esther and Whitey were not related.

Whitey was suspected in the 1939 gangland slaying of Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg with Frankie Carbo and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Implicated by fellow Murder, Inc. members Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and Allie "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum, he was one of the first members of Murder, Inc. to be killed when he was found shot to death on Manhattan's Delancey Street on July 30, 1941. In the months around his death, Benjamin Tannenbaum, Sidney "Shimmy" Salles, Tony Romanello and most likely James "Dizzy" Ferraco were all murdered before members began turning themselves in to authorities.

Further reading

• Cohen, Rich. Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-83115-5
• Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81288-6

External links

• Bugsy Siegel: A California first at the Wayback Machine (archived January 1, 2008)