Harry Strauss
Harry Strauss | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 28, 1909 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | June 12, 1941 (aged 31) |
| Cause of death | Execution by electrocution |
| Other names | Pittsburgh Phil |
| Occupation | Hitman |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Allegiance | Murder, Inc. |
| Conviction(s) | First degree murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (July 28, 1909 – June 12, 1941) was an American contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He reportedly killed over one hundred men (some historians put the number as high as 500)[1] using a variety of methods, including shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial, and strangulation. Strauss never carried a weapon in case the local police picked him up on suspicion. He would scout his murder spot for any tool that would do the job.[2]
Most of his associates called him "Pep". In the 1930s, he was committing assaults, larcenies, 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 Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein to the electric chair. After hitman Abe "Kid Twist" Reles turned informant, Strauss was arrested for the murder of Irving "Puggy" Feinstein, and at least five other known murders. Strauss tried to avoid conviction by feigning insanity in the courtroom and on death row. Strauss and Goldstein were convicted September 19, 1940, and executed by electrocution using Sing Sing's Old Sparky on June 12, 1941.[3]
Early life[edit]
He was born in July 1909 to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire. His parents were Jacob and Yetta Ostrovsky. The family immigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and changed their surname to Strauss. Like so many other Jewish immigrants, the Strauss family settled on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City. Harry had one sister, Fannie, and three brothers, Hyman, Alex, and Sam. His father, Jacob Strauss, worked for the city's Department of Street Cleaning. The family later moved to the Bronx. In 1917 or 1918, his father was killed in an industrial accident. His widowed mother later remarried. He dropped out of school at age 15. In his youth Strauss started committing crimes and became deeper involved in the streets as the years passed.
See also[edit]
- Capital punishment in New York (state)
- Capital punishment in the United States
- List of people executed in New York
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
- ^ Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia. Checkmark Books, 2005. Page 360.
- ^ Jay Robert Nash Bloodletters and badmen. M. Evans; distributed in association with Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1973. ISBN 0-871-31113-5.
- ^ "2 in Murder Ring Are Put to Death; Pittsburgh Phil Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein Go to Chair for Brooklyn Slaying" (PDF). The New York Times. June 13, 1941. p. 15.(subscription required)
Bibliography[edit]
- Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81288-6
- Whalen, Robert Weldon. Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia's New York. Fordham University Press, 2016.
External links[edit]
- Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss at Find A Grave
- Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss - Gangster/Assassin at J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews
- 1909 births
- 1941 deaths
- Jewish American gangsters
- American people executed for murder
- Criminals from Brooklyn
- Executed American gangsters
- 20th-century executions by New York (state)
- Murder, Inc.
- People executed by New York (state) by electric chair
- 20th-century executions of American people
- People convicted of murder by New York (state)
- Burials at Beth David Cemetery
- 20th-century American Jews
- Inmates of Sing Sing