Morris Rudensky (born Macy Motle Friedman; August 16, 1898 – April 21, 1988) was an American

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

-era gangster,

cat burglar Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft ...

and

safe-cracker Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or the key. Physical methods Safes have widely different designs, construction methods, and locking mechanisms. A safe cracker needs to know the specifics of whicheve ...

. He became a well-known writer for an inmate-run magazine called ''The Atlantian'' while incarcerated at

United States Penitentiary, Atlanta The Federal Correctional Institution, Atlanta (FCI Atlanta) is a low-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Atlanta, Georgia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Just ...

. Following his release from prison, he became a spokesman and security consultant for several companies, and wrote a memoir titled ''The Gonif''.

Early life and career

Born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family on

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 ...

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 ...

, Rudensky began his career by stealing

bagel A bagel (; ; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. ...

s. At age 13 he was deemed incorrigible and sent to the Elmira State Reformatory. He escaped to make his way to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

where he cracked safes for the best price. He claimed to work for

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone ( ; ; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American organized crime, gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-foun ...

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or the Organization, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family based in Chicago, I ...

, Bugs Moran's

North Side Mob The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was a primarily Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, also ...

, and

The Purple Gang The Purple Gang, also known as the Sugar House Gang, was a criminal mob of bootleggers and hijackers composed predominantly of Jewish gangsters. They operated in Detroit, Michigan, during the 1920s of the Prohibition era and came to be Detro ...

, a group of Jewish mobsters based in Detroit. He also traveled, cracking safes in Kansas City, St. Louis and San Francisco. He later became known as an

escape artist Escapology is the practice of escaping from physical restraint, restraints or other traps. Escapologists (also classified as escape artists) escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, Cage (enclosure), cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, bu ...

, successfully escaping from the Pontiac State Reformatory, where he was serving ten-years-to-life for the robbery of the Argo State Bank. Rudensky also claimed to be the mastermind behind the theft of $2.1 million in whiskey from a federal warehouse in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, though no contemporaneous coverage confirms this claim. Rudensky continued to operate a well-organized theft ring in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

robbing various payroll deliveries, distilleries, banks, and trains, and did freelance work for

Egan's Rats Egan's Rats was an American organized crime gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1924. Its 35 years of criminal activity included Rum-running, bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery ...

and

. At the age of twenty-one, Rudensky was again in prison, where he was known as "King of the Cons" for frequently getting into fights, and made several escape attempts successfully escaping briefly, after packing himself in a box being taken out of the prison print shop, but was soon caught. He became friends with

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, spy for the Soviet Union, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CP ...

, in prison, who taught him English and encouraged him to write.

Reform

During a prison uprising on August 1, 1929, Rudensky saved the life of inmate

Charlie Ward Charlie Ward Jr. (born October 12, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and current head coach for the Florida A&M Rattlers. Ward was an exceptional college football player as w ...

, the future president of the

Brown & Bigelow Brown & Bigelow is a company based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that sells branded apparel and promotional merchandise. History The company was founded in 1896 by Herbert Huse Bigelow and Hiram Brown. On June 24, 1924, Bigelow was convicted fo ...

advertising firm. After befriending Ward, Rudensky became convinced to stop criminal activities, and after being transferred to

Rudensky began to work on the prison newspaper, ''The Atlantian,'' later becoming its editor. In Atlanta he was the cellmate of Al Capone. Although Rudensky expected to serve as Capone's subordinate and errand-runner, Capone's failing health and Rudensky's position in the prison led to him acting as guardian to Capone in response to hostility from other inmates and corrections officers.Capone: The Man and the Era, Laurence Bergreen, Simon & Schuster, 1994, pp. 512-13 Shortly after the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

, he wrote a popular essay for ''The Atlantian'' titled "Memorandum of Faith.” In the essay, he called on prisoners to support the United States and redouble their commitments to wartime production. He was later awarded a commendation by President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

for his efforts along with Attorney General

Francis Biddle Francis Beverley Biddle (May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer and judge who was the United States Attorney General during World War II. He also served as the primary American judge during Nuremberg trials following World War I ...

. In 1955, Rudensky was released from Illinois State Penitentiary, Menard on parole. He took a job as a copy editor from Brown & Bigelow, and later became chief consultant for the 3M Corporation Security Systems. In 1970, Rudensky published his autobiography '' The Gonif'', which is Yiddish for thief. During the 1970s and 1980s, he lectured for a time visiting schools in the St. Paul and Minneapolis metro areas, including in the renowned

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

educator Dr. Ida Kugler's fifth-grade class at Hancock-Hamline Magnet School, trying to deter students from the life of crime he had followed. In 1975, he made a public appearance as Paul Eakins toured the country with a V-16 Cadillac once owned by Al Capone. In his later years he formed the Red Rudensky Variety Show, a troupe that toured nursing homes, and he was a regular in the St. Paul Clown Club, entertaining in children's hospital wards. Red lived in semi-retirement in the Sholom Home, a nursing home in St. Paul, Minnesota, until his death on April 21, 1988.

References

Notes Bibliography *English, T. J. ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2005. Further reading *Kobler, John. ''Ardent Spirits PB: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition''. Boston: Da Capo Press, 1993. *Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. ''The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone''. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. *Kobler, John. ''Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone''. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2003. *David Grann. ''Killers of the Flower Moon. The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. New York, Doubleday, 2017. '' *

External links

Morris Rudensky at Find a Grave
*Blacklisted Journalis

A Fresh Start
by Red Rudensky - Harpers Magazine - April 1964
The Gonif by Red Rudensky
- Reviews {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudensky, Morris 1898 births 1988 deaths American people convicted of burglary Al Capone associates Jewish American gangsters People from the Lower East Side People from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area American gangsters of the interwar period