Frank Abbandando
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Frank Abbandando (July 11, 1910 – February 19, 1942), nicknamed "The Dasher", was a New York City contract killer who committed many murders as part of the infamous Murder, Inc. gang. His preferred killing method was to stab his victims through the heart with an ice pick. After a trial and conviction for murdering a Brooklyn loan shark, he was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing on February 19, 1942.
Biography edit
Born in Ocean Hill, Abbandando was one of twelve children of Lorenzo Abbondondola and Rosaria Famighetti. On his tombstone, his family name was inscribed as "Abbundando". Abbandando's family immigrated from Arcidosso Grosetto, Tuscany to New York. As a teenager, Abbandando extorted money from shop owners by threatening to torch their shops.
In his twenties, Abbandando joined a street gang in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn. Before long, he was a lieutenant for Harry "Happy" Maoine. Abbandando organized gambling, loan sharking, and extortion rackets for the gang as well as committing murders. Abbandando's nickname, "Dasher," derived from his foot speed; it was said that he once ran around a house to shoot an escaping target from behind. In 1928, Abbandando was convicted of beating a New York City police officer and was sent to reform school in Elmira, New York, where he demonstrated skill at baseball.
In his "free" time, Abbandando was a connoisseur of fine clothes and fancy cars. He was reportedly a sexual predator; he would drive around Brownsville and Ocean Hill, looking for young women to rape. At his later murder trial, the prosecuter said that Abbandando had all but admitted one rape. Abbandando replied, "Well, that one doesn't count really - I married the girl later."
In the early 1930's, the American Mafia began using street gangs to commit their murders. Having recently settled the vicious Castellammarese War and reorganized into a new structure, the families desperately wanted to keep themselves out of public attention. By using contract killers associated with the Jewish Mob, the families were better protected from public and law enforcement scrutiny.
The gang leader that the mafiosi used the most was Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the young Jewish leader of the "Gorilla Boys" gang. As the Cosa Nostra business increased, Buchalter's small informal network of killers turned into a group of 250 criminals who were involved in narcotics smuggling, labor racketeering, and other rackets. Buchalter called his group "The Combination", but the press labeled it "Murder, Inc". Unlike the Five Families, which required Sicilian or Southern Italian ancestry for membership, Murder Inc. included Jews, Italians, and members of other ethnic groups.
At some early point, Abbandando joined Murder Inc. During the 1920's and 30's, Abbandando was reputed to have killed thirty people, mostly in Brooklyn. He usually received about $500 for a murder. In September 1931, Abbandando reportedly helped Buchalter and gang member Abe Reles eliminate Irving and Mayer Shapiro, rivals from the Lower East Side of Manhattan who were trying to take over some of the men's rackets.
In 1937, Abbandando assisted in the murder of George Rudnick, a loan shark in Brooklyn. Reles had ordered Rudnick's murder because he had received information that Rudnick was a police informant. Using an ice pick and a meat cleaver, Abbandando and several other gang members strangled Rudnick, stabbed him 63 times, and crushed his head inside a garage. No one was arrested for the crime. In February 1939, Abbandando and others killed mobster Felice Esposito in a contract killing. The Cosa Nostra wanted Esposito dead because he testified for the prosecution in a mob murder trial 17 years earlier.
At the beginning of the 1940's, Murder Inc. was hit by a series of successful prosecutions that eliminated its leadership and several of its top hitmen. Facing a murder charge, Reles became a government witness and began implicating his fellow gang members. In May 1940, based on information from Reles, Abbandando was indicted for the 1937 Rudnik murder.
At one point during the trial, while Abbandando was on the witness stand, he whispered a threat into the judge's ear. Throughout the trial, Abbandando was surpremely confident that his allies would succeed in fixing the verdict. To his surprise, Abbandando was convicted of murder. The verdict was overturned on appeal and Abbandando went on trial a second time in 1941. On April 3, 1941, Abbandando was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On February 19, 1942, Frank Abbandando was executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.