Emanuel Weiss
Emanuel “Mendy” Weiss (June 11, 1906 – March 4, 1944) was a New York gangster and a key member of Louis Buchalter’s Murder, Inc. He started as an enforcer for labor-racketeering in the 1920s and later helped run payrolls and finances for the outfit when Buchalter’s partner fled.
Weiss participated in several infamous killings. On October 23, 1935, he and Charles “the Bug” Workman entered the Palace Chophouse in Newark and murdered Dutch Schultz. Weiss told the bartenders and waiters to lie on the floor while Schultz and three associates were shot. They escaped in a getaway car, but Workman was left behind to finish the job in the restaurant, which led to a dispute the next day.
In 1936, Weiss helped carry out the murder of Joseph Rosen in Brownsville, Brooklyn, ordered by Buchalter to stop Rosen from exposing the mob’s rackets. The case remained unsolved for years until informant Abe “Kid Twist” Reles testified in 1940, tying Weiss to the crime and helping solve other murders.
Weiss fled to Kansas City under the alias James W. Bell but was arrested in 1941 by federal narcotics agents and brought back to New York to face charges in Rosen’s murder. He was tried late in 1941 along with Buchalter and Louis Capone and, based on Reles’s testimony and other information, received a death sentence.
On March 4, 1944, Weiss, Capone, and Buchalter were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing for the Rosen murder. His last words claimed the case was framed, and he praised Judge Lehman before his death. He was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens. Weiss was portrayed by Joseph Bernard in the 1960 film Murder, Inc.
The FBI later claimed Weiss and Philip Cohen were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking, but Weiss was never sentenced on those charges. He was married to Blanche Weiss.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:35 (CET).