PEOPLE

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If you think contract killers and hitmen are the stuff of Hollywood, think again.

2 stories follow . . .

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Murder Inc:

Murder Inc. (Murder Incorporated) was an organised crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the Mob.

The Syndicate was a closely connected criminal organisation that included and was started by the Irish Mob, and included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organisations in New York City and elsewhere.

Murder Inc. is estimated to have killed as many as 1,000 people in less than 10 years but it wasn’t just about killing. The gang would also threaten or maim people, depending on what their bosses wanted. It was an “anything goes” business model, one that made them very, very wealthy.

It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.

Lepke (1897 – 1944) was head of the Mafia hit squad Murder Inc., during the 1930s and one of the premier labor union racketeers in New York City during that era. He and Charles Birger are the only National Crime Syndicate bosses to be executed after being convicted of murder. Lepke was executed using the infamous "Old Sparky" electric chair.

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter flashes a smile as he's dragged, handcuffed, into a police van.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (left) drags Lepke Buchalter (center) to the courthouse, the pair handcuffed together.

Umberto "Albert" Anastasia (1902 – 1957) was one of the founders of the modern American Mafia, and a co-founder and later boss of the Murder Inc. He also controlled New York City's waterfront for most of his criminal career, mainly through the dockworker unions. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, on the orders of Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino; Gambino subsequently became boss of the family.

Anastasia was one of the most ruthless and feared organised crime figures in American history; his reputation earned him the nicknames The Earthquake, The One-Man Army, Mad Hatter and Lord High Executioner.

Anastasia's 1936 mugshot

Albert Anastasia (left) and his attorney Anthony Colendra leaving court.

Murder Inc. was established by notorious gangsters Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and was based in Rosie Gold's candy store in Brooklyn. The group had a number of members, although Harry Strauss was the most prolific killer, committing over 100 murders—and some historians put the number as high as 500.

The killers were paid a regular salary as retainer as well as an average fee of $1,000 to $5,000 per killing. Their families also received monetary benefits.

Nine members of Murder Inc. stand side-by-side in a police lineup.

According to the caption, while this photo was being taken, mobster Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro was snarling at the police, "You can't do nuttin' to us."

New York City. 1933.

Murder Inc killers were brutal. They didn't just shoot their targets — they aimed to leave a message. They hacked up the bodies of their victims with meat cleavers and ice picks. One man was set on fire. Another was strapped to a slot machine and left in public view.

Abe Reles was a high ranking member of Murder Inc who had been arrested 42 times, six of which were for murder. He managed to avoid being convicted for any of his hits, but that changed suddenly in 1940 when he was indicted for murder and looked likely to be convicted. He elected to inform on others. He allegedly had a photographic memory which enabled him to relate the details of some 70 unsolved killings committed by Murder Inc.

Reles' accomplices didn't receive any mercy when it came to their punishments. Many of them were sent straight to the electric chair, all thanks to Reles' testimony. Among those implicated by Reles' cooperation with authorities was Albert Anastasia himself, a blow which brought Murder Inc. to its demise.  After 10 years of tyranny, Murder Inc. was coming to an end.

Reles now had a target on his back. Guards were assigned to watch over him at all hours of the day and night at the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island. It didn't matter. On the morning of Nov. 12, 1941, Reles' dead body was found six stories down, twisted in his bedsheets. Investigators found wire tied to his hotel room's radiator, and The New York Times reported at the time that he'd been trying to escape when he fell. For some reason, the guards were all asleep. The official verdict was accidental death but some thought Reles' death was one last message from Murder Inc. — any canary who wanted to sing had better learn to fly.

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Charles Harrelson

Mugshot taken following arrest.

Charles Voyde Harrelson (1938 – 2007) was an American contract killer and organised crime figure who was convicted of assassinating federal judge John H. Wood Jr., the first federal judge to be assassinated in the 20th century.

Charles Harrelson briefly served in the U.S. Navy in the 1950s but after he was discharged, he turned to a life of crime. He was first charged with robbery in 1959 in Los Angeles, where he worked as an encyclopedia salesman.

According to prison memoirs he later wrote, he claimed to have been involved in dozens of murder-for-hire plots during this time before he left his family in 1968.

That year, Harrelson was arrested three times, including twice for murder. He was acquitted of one murder in 1970. But in 1973, he was convicted of killing a grain dealer named Sam Degelia Jr. for $2,000 and sentenced to 15 years behind bars, though he was released after just five years for good behavior.

Within months of his release, Harrelson was contracted to carry out his biggest hit ever — a sitting federal judge.

In the spring of 1979, Texas drug lord Jimmy Chagra hired Charles Harrelson to kill someone who stood in his way: U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr., who was scheduled to preside over Chagra’s drug trial. Defense attorneys nicknamed Wood “Maximum John” because of the harsh life sentences he handed down to drug dealers.

Judge John H Wood

Chagra paid over $250,000 to Harrelson because he faced a life sentence for narcotics smuggling. Harrelson used a high-powered rifle and scope to kill Wood outside his San Antonio home as the judge went to get into his car. Chagra was originally scheduled to go before the judge that very day in El Paso, Texas.

It was the first time in U.S. history that a sitting federal judge had been assassinated.

The FBI finally caught Charles Harrelson and arrested him in September 1980 for murder after a six-hour standoff during which Harrelson was high on cocaine and made increasingly erratic threats before surrendering.

Charles Harrelson (far right) in court on October 22, 1981, after his conviction for being a felon in possession of a gun. He would be convicted of murdering Judge John H. Wood Jr. a year later, in December 1982.

Chagra, the drug lord, was acquitted of conspiracy charges in connection with the assassination. He supposedly entered the witness protection program after helping the feds on other drug cases.

Charles Harrelson spent the rest of his days behind bars.

At one point during his incarceration, Charles Harrelson made the claim that he assassinated President John F. Kennedy. No one believed him, and he later recanted, however, Lois Gibson, a well-known forensic artist, identified Woody Harrelson’s father as one of the “three tramps,” who were three mysterious men photographed shortly after the JFK assassination. Their involvement in JFK’s death has often been linked to conspiracy theories.

Charles Harrelson died of a heart attack in prison in 2007.

One other thing: Charles Harrelson was the father of actor Woody Harrrelson.

Harrelson had left his family when Woody was aged 7 and had no knowledge of his father. Listening to the radio one day in 1981, Woody heard a news broadcast discussing the murder trial of Charles V. Harrelson. Curiosity got the better of the young man, and he asked his mother if the elder Harrelson was any relation. His mother confirmed that the man on trial for murdering a federal judge was indeed Woody’s father. Woody followed his father’s trial intensely from that point on.

He visited his father regularly in federal prison and spent over $2m trying to get him a new trial to overturn the conviction, unsuccessfully.

In April 2023, actor Matthew McConaughey claimed that he and Woody Harrelson, who have been long-time friends, could potentially be half-brothers, implying that Charles Harrelson could also be his father. According to McConaughey, his mother claimed to have known Woody's father around the time that she bore McConaughey, and the two actors have discussed taking a DNA test to be certain.

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey