1. Frank “the Dasher” Abbandando (1910–1942)
Abbandando was a hit man for the New York mob’s Murder, Inc. and may have killed as many as 50 people. The name comes from a particular hit in which he walked up to his victim and pulled the trigger only to have the gun misfire. With his armed victim in pursuit, Frank ran so fast around the block that he came up behind his quarry and coolly shot him in the back. "The Dasher" indeed. Still, even Abbandando couldn’t outrun a stool pigeon inside Murder, Inc. In the end, he was convicted of only a single murder and sent, quickly, to the electric chair.
2. Albert “Lord High Executioner” Anastasia (1903–1957)
Also called “the Mad Hatter” for his love of fedoras, this dapper killer was not a man to be messed with. In the early 1920s, Anastasia was sentenced to death for killing a fellow longshoreman but granted a retrial. The conviction was reversed when four of the witnesses “disappeared.” After helping to kill crime boss Joe Masseria, Anastasia was made head of Murder, Inc. by new boss Lucky Luciano, and was dubbed the mob’s “Lord High Executioner” by the press. While the name stuck, his position didn’t and Anastasia eventually fell out with the other bosses. On October 25, 1957, Anastasia was shot six times while getting a haircut. As one New York paper put it the next day: “He Died in the Chair After All.”
3. Lester “Baby Face Nelson” Gillis (1908–1934)
Gillis wanted to be called “Big George,” but at 5 feet 4 inches, he was stuck with “Baby Face.” Starting as a pickpocket, Lester graduated to enforcer for Al Capone then bank robber and killer. He was known to shoot people for no reason mid-heist. By 1934, Baby Face was the FBI’s Public Enemy No. 1. and on November 27 of that year, he went out with a bang. In a final gun battle with two FBI agents, Nelson killed both G-Men, but ended up with 17 holes himself. Amazingly, Nelson walked back to his getaway car and escaped. Of course, the 17 shots ended up doing the trick. Lester’s body was found in a ditch the next day.
4. Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll (1908–1932)
His first nickname, “the Mick,” was a nod to his Irish roots. His second nickname proved more fitting still. This criminal was a top mob enforcer for New York bootlegger Dutch Schultz. And among his many talents, the versatile Coll specialized in kidnapping and extortion. In fact, he had no qualms about torturing his victims. After falling out with Schultz, Coll touched off a gang war in which at least 20 people were killed, including a five-year-old boy caught in the crossfire. Coll was charged with the shooting, and though he was acquitted, his days on the street were numbered. Mob bosses put a price on Coll’s head, and on February 8, 1932, he was shot more than a dozen times while placing a call in a telephone booth.
5. Tony “the Ant” Spilotro (1938–1986)
For the 15 years after he first hit Las Vegas in 1971 to the day he died, the mob’s chief Vegas enforcer, Tony Spilotro, never spent a day in jail even though he was implicated in at least 24 murders. In one case, he was even said to have squeezed a victim’s head in a vise until his eyes popped out. This scene was recreated bu the movie Casino. Tony hated his "Ant" nickname, which was a reference to his 5'5" stature. In the end, it was the limelight that proved to be his undoing. Tony’s bosses in Chicago figured he was getting a little too much press, so they came up with a quick remedy: Tony and his brother were beaten up, then buried alive in an Indiana cornfield.
6. Aladena “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno (1914–1993)
“When the boss tells you to do something,” Fratianno told a reporter in 1987, “you do it. You don’t do it, they kill you.” And that was why he took part in 11 murders. Fratianno, who got his nickname after speedily fleeing a crime scene as a kid, eventually became a government witness in 1977 (after 32 years in the mob). Supposedly ratting on his colleagues because they had a contract on his life. Fratianno spent 10 years in the Federal Witness Protection Program before being kicked out because he was costing taxpayers too much. Still, he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 79.
From MentalFloss
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