Morris L. Kessler (January 6, 1912 – September 30, 1935) was an American

mobster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level ...

and member of Joseph Amberg's gang in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

during the early 1930s. As Amberg's personal

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

and

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects an very important person, important person or group of people, such as high-ranking public offic ...

, Kessler was a close associate in his organization until he was killed alongside his boss at a Brownsville auto garage by members of

Murder, Inc. Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish ...

in 1935. The gangland slayings of Kessler and Amberg were among the first major

contract killing 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 ...

s committed by Murder, Inc. and was one of the most publicized of the era.

Biography

Morris L. Kessler was born in New York City on January 6, 1912. Although he had no known criminal record during his life, he had become a member of Brooklyn mobsters

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

and Louis "Pretty" Amberg criminal organization in Brownsville by the early 1930s. Kessler became Joe Amberg's personal

and

. On the afternoon of September 30, 1935, at 12:45 pm, Kessler and Amberg stopped at the Blake-Christopher auto garage at Blake and Christopher Avenues prior to collecting "

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

" from neighborhood

barber shops A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...

and

restaurants A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in app ...

. As they prepared to leave in their

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

, however, three unidentified gunmen believed to be members of Murder, Inc. entered the garage. Armed with pistols, they forced the two men against the wall at gunpoint. According to the owner Henry Kutnetz and mechanics Nat Horowitz and August Mattern, all of whom witnessed the incident, the gunmen taunted the two men before gunning them down. They shot Amberg first and then Kessler;Block, Alan A. ''East Side, West Side: Organizing Crime in New York, 1930–1950''. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1983. (pg. 225) police later found Kessler had been shot once in the forehead and three times in the back. The two men were buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial ...

, two days later. Louis Amberg had been killed only three weeks before, the Ambergs being involved in a gang war with rivals Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, though authorities believed the murders of Kessler and Amberg were linked to the then-recent deaths of small-time racketeers Abe Meer and Irving Amron. Although the

getaway car A crime scene getaway is the act of departing from the location where one has committed a crime. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of a c ...

used in the murder was later found by authorities, the crime remained unsolved.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kessler, Morris 1912 births 1935 deaths Murdered Jewish American gangsters Murdered American gangsters Jewish American gangsters People murdered in New York City Deaths by firearm in Brooklyn People murdered by Murder, Inc. People murdered in 1935 20th-century American Jews Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City)