Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (July 28, 1909 – June 12, 1941) was an American

contract killer Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He reportedly killed over one hundred men (some historians put the number as high as 500)Carl Sifakis, ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. Checkmark Books, 2005. Page 360. 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. Most of his associates called him "Pep". In the 1930s, he was committing assaults, larcenies, and

drug dealing The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

. 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 Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...

. Strauss and Goldstein were convicted September 19, 1940, and executed by

electrocution Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death. The term "electrocution" was coined ...

using

Sing Sing Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining (village), New York, Ossining, New York, United States. It is abou ...

's Old Sparky on June 12, 1941.

Early life

He was born in July 1909 to a Jewish family in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. His parents were Jacob and Yetta Ostrovsky. The family immigrated to the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

in 1914 and changed their surname to Strauss. Like many other Jewish immigrants, the Strauss family settled on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. 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 The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. 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.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. ''Murder Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate"''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. *Whalen, Robert Weldon. ''Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia's New York''. Fordham University Press, 2016.

External links

Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss
at Find A Grave
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss - Gangster/Assassin
at J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews {{DEFAULTSORT:Strauss, Harry 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

Early life

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links