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This was how, Pretty Levine said, he earned his dollar:
Sage had been a youthful member of a gang whom the higher-ups had decided to liquidate. Levine, with a man named Irving (Big Gangi) Cohen and others, drove the unsuspecting Sage through Sullivan County until, on a deserted stretch of road, Big Gangi yanked out an ice pick, began plunging it into Sage's body. A second gangster went to Big Gangi's assistance, but missed his aim, stabbed Big Gangi who, thinking he was being double-crossed too, yelled in terror, leaped from the moving car, and fled into the woods of the Catskills. (Big Gangi made his way to Hollywood, foolishly advertised his presence there by getting a job in the movie Golden Boy.)
Based on the sickening revelations of Levine and Maffetore, murder indictments were handed up last week in Sullivan County against five men, including Big Gangi Cohen, who was promptly arrested in California. Lesser crimes were added to the gang's midden-heap record: loan-sharking, extortion for "protection" of prostitutes, bookmakers, merchants, laundries, even women's afternoon small-stakes card games all over Brooklyn. Nothing, apparently, was too picayune if it could turn a dishonest dollar.
Arrests last week came thick & fast: at week's end, a score of men & women were in custody. Alleged Triggermen Frank (The Dasher) Abbandano and Maxie (The Jerk) Golob were identified as the murderers, five years back, of one John (Spider) Murtha. One man not yet in custody, said O'Dwyer, was the boss of the whole murderous business.
Hauled into jail along with punks and young hoodlums were: motherly Mrs. Lena Frosch, who owned a summer home at White Lake in Sullivan County, and was said to be head of a family bail-bond business; her husband Israel, her son-in-law Abraham Cohen; two alleged "vice presidents" of the organization, Martin (Buggsy) Goldstein, and runty, swaggering Abe (Kid Twist) Reles, notorious Brooklyn thug who once boasted: "I'll take on any cop with pistols or anything else." Rated a rat by the police, Reles sent word to O'Dwyer at week's end that he would join Squealers Levine and Maffetore, was ready to squawk for a promise of clemency. Ready to listen was O'Dwyer. As Reles chattered his secrets, O'Dwyer's men raked the underworld, closed in for the kill.