Execution of Lepke Buchalter

Date: March 4, 1944 • Location: Rome, Italy

Murder, Inc. leader Lepke Buchalter was executed, becoming the only American mob boss to receive the death penalty after being convicted of murder.

Murder, Inc., also known as the Combination, was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate – a closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organizations in New York City and elsewhere. Murder, Inc. was composed of both Jewish-American and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class Jewish and Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.