If everything on this page is true — indeed, if it is 75 percent true — then I'm amazed Leonard Scarnici's name escaped my attention until I was deep into my retirement years.

That he finally registered was largely due to articles I read while researching all the wacky and wild events from the year 1933.

Even then, the first few articles that eventually led me to Scarnici did not mention his name. Interestingly, the bank robbery that would prove his undoing was thought, by some, to be the work of a much more famous outlaw who reportedly had been spotted in the East, far from his usual stomping grounds.

Notice the discrepancy in the amount stolen from the bank. Another report fixed the amount at $2,200.

Anyway, this bank robbery was not the work of "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and it's doubtful knowledgeable local police ever thought that it might be, though apprehending Floyd would have been a career highlight for any lawman.

It is highly unlikely, but possibly the tip that led some to believe Floyd was in the area was provided by Scarnici or one of his Albany associates to deflect suspicion from the actual bank robbers.

Jump ahead about six weeks. There was no way the public could have made the connection at the time, but it was another crime, this one in Albany, that would lead police to Leonard Scarnici. That crime, the kidnapping of John J. O'Connell Jr., occurred on July 7, but was kept secret for four days by the family, who had been warned not to contact the police.

These were uncertain times for mobsters
Some background may be needed, because anyone who stays with this story may wonder why so many experienced gangsters, most of them operating out of New York City, would have gotten involved in three crimes that read as though they were attempted by the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

Prohibition's days were numbered. Bootleggers had to find new ways of making money. Some gangsters had taken to kidnapping other gangsters, which some saw as the 1930s version of victimless crime. However, the 1932 kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. changed things.

The federal government, through its bureau of investigation, headed by J. Edgar Hoover, declared war on kidnappers. So while bank robberies, particularly those during which policemen, customers and employees were injured or killed, were a very serious concern, there's no doubt kidnappings received more attention in 1933, which would be bad news for Leonard Scarnici, who was involved in the planning of the O'Connell kidnapping and had participated in a previous Albany kidnapping attempt.

While Scarnici and some of his pals robbed banks and other places of business, his main job, it seems, was as a gunman for Dutch Schultz, whose real name was Arthur Simon Flegenheimer. Scarnici had been killing people for more than two years before he got involved with some Albany gangsters who had a grudge against the O'Connell political machine, a Democratic organization run by two brothers, Edward J. and Daniel P. O'Connell. A third brother, John J. O'Connell Sr., nicknamed "Solly," was a former boxing manager who, by the 1930s, was mostly into sports promotion. Why his son was the heir apparent to both the family's Hedrick Brewery and the political machine, I don't know.

The Albany gangster who planned the O'Connell kidnapping was John Oley. He recruited several New York City-based gangsters, most of whom had been associated with mobster Waxey Gordon. There was a gangster war going on in New York City, and thanks to the federal government's new tactic — prosecuting mob bosses for income tax evasion — it would be a war that could not be won. Gordon — real name: Irving Wexler — would be found guilty and sent to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta before the end of the year. Schultz would beat the rap in 1935, but be murdered soon thereafter.

In the meantime, even professional killers have to eat, and that's why Scarnici and others were interested in what Oley was proposing. Oley apparently soured on Scarnici after his failure to grab another Albany sports promoter, Morris ‘Mush’ Trackiner, in February. Three months later Oley encouraged Scarnici to rob the bank in Rensselaer, and the Albany gangster got a cut of the action, though he didn't participate. At that point, Scarnici was squeezed out of the O'Connell job.

However, someone — perhaps Oley, perhaps one of his Albany associates — tipped off police that it was not "Baby Face" Nelson who robbed the Rensselaer bank, but a Dutch Schultz gunman named Leonard Scarnici. If that tip did come from Oley or anyone else involved in the O'Connell kidnapping — and that's a very big if — then that would have been a very bad mistake.

Beginning of the end for Scarnici
On September 19, New York City police, state police and agents of what soon would be known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, teamed up to arrest seven persons — five men and two wives. These arrests, it was announced, were made in connection with the O'Connell kidnapping.

Less than 24 hours later, authorities abruptly changed their minds. At least, so it appeared. I suspect those in charge of investigating both crimes — the bank robbery in Rensselaer and the kidnapping in nearby Albany — knew from the outset that only one of the seven persons arrested could have had anything to do with the latter. And that was Leonard Scarnici. I also suspect they soon believed almost everything Scarnici would tell them. He admitted involvement in the robbery, but denied having participated in the kidnapping, though he had been in on the planning.

The other six, including Scarnici's wife, were actually held in connection with the bank robbery. And only two of them — Anthony Reino and Charles Shore — would actually be charged with the crime. Mrs. Scarnici and Mrs. Reino would be charged with harboring fugitives and illegal possession of firearms, with the first charge soon dropped.

The other two men arrested were Fred Plentl and Phil Zeigler. Plentl would face a firearms charge, and Zeigler would be released, not because he hadn't done anything, but because police had no evidence to hold him, though he was a suspect in several crimes.

Finally, the spotlight found Leonard Scarnici, around whom a legend would suddenly grow, though today he has settled back into relative obscurity.

Once Scarnici was arrested, there was a flood of accusations, mostly about murders the man allegedly had committed long before a Rensselaer police detective was gunned down.

The assassination of "Mad Dog" Coll
Reading these stories today, I can't help but wonder what took police so long to stop Scarnici. After all, it is widely accepted today that he and another hitman, Anthony Fabrizzo, were responsible for one of New York City's most infamous murders — 1932's assassination of gangster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll.

Some online sources list other men responsible for Coll's death, but this is my story, and I'm sticking to it. Anyway ...

It took two tries, but Scarnici and Fabrizzo finally succeeded, with Fabrizzo standing lookout on the street while Scarnici went into a drug store and put 17 machine gun bullets into Coll while he stood in a phone booth talking to Owney Madden, the Irish mob boss who had hired the two killers. It is said that Scarnici and Fabrizzo did this to collect $50,000 that Madden was offering. However, the two gunmen could have been doing it on orders from Dutch Schultz, who also hated Coll.

Their first attempt to kill Coll resulted in the deaths of three people in a Bronx apartment. Three others were wounded when Scarnici and Fabrizzo burst in and sprayed the apartment with machine gun fire. They expected to find Coll there, but their target didn't arrive until an hour or so after they had departed.

Again, I am uncertain this is a true story, though many people insist it is. Neither am I certain Anthony was the Fabrizzo who was Scarnici's partner on the job. Anthony's brother, Andrew, also was a mob killer, and he was rubbed out a few weeks after Coll was killed. A third Fabrizzo brother, also a hitman, was killed in 1929.

As for Anthony, he also was known by his full name, Francis Anthony Fabrizzo, and he was perhaps the first mobster who set out to write a book about his experiences. He was writing "How Gangland Works" in 1933, after Coll was killed. In November, the would-be author was gunned down. It's not known whether his murder was ordered because of his book, or because of the Coll murder.

Scarnici, meanwhile, remained anonymous, at least to the press. Today you'll find web pages that describe him as an infamous mob killer, but I could find no mention of Scarnici in a 1930s newspaper edition until he was arrested in September, 1933, supposedly in connection with a kidnapping.

Within 48 hours of that arrest, however, the kidnapping was no longer part of the case being built against Leonard Scarnici.

He began as a beer delivery man
Leonardo Gandolfo Guiseppe Scarnici was born in New York City, but raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, starting his life of crime as a delivery man for New England rum runners. Soon he was in charge of a fleet of seven cars, and while awaiting trial in 1933, admitted to a jailer in Troy that he had done "a pretty good business" in Providence, Rhode Island. Later he moved to New York City and became a gunman for Dutch Schultz.

After he was arrested in September, 1933, it was reported he and his gang had been responsible for bank robberies that netted them more than $250,000. Where this figure came from, who knows? When Scarnici and the six others were taken to Troy to be arraigned at Rensselaer County Court, the gang, between them, had $13.17. Mrs. Scarnici carried the most — a five-dollar bill.

Police then concentrated on Scarnici, Anthony Reino and Charles Shore (aka Herzog), who went on trial for Detective Stevens' murder in December. Reino and Shore were acquitted, and thus could not be retried. There was a hung jury on the Scarnici verdict, the vote being eight to four in favor of conviction.

James F. Brearton, the trial judge, delivered what the Associated Press called "one of the bitterest criticisms of a jury ever heard in a New York State courtroom."

Said Judge Brearton, "It is the failure of juries to do their duty in cases of this kind that is fast undermining the confidence of the public in the jury system. Your failure to do your duty in this case is disgraceful."

Scarnici was retried, this time in Schoharie, about 30 miles west of Rensselaer. The hitman was convicted and sentenced to die.

While Reino and Shore could not be retried for Detective Stevens' murder, they did not go free.

[NOTE: *Anna Lesnow, office manager of the Lesnow Brothers shirt factory, was the person confronted by robbers on June 30, 1932, handing over $2,500 that she was carrying. Nine years later, on July 7, 1941, she and her nephew, plant manager Harry Lesnow, and stenographer Theresa Gans were killed in a plane crash. Harry Lesnow had commuted to work by plane for several years until his luck ran out. The women were his passengers.]

Who double-crossed Scarnici?
There also was the matter of Scarnici's message to the people in Albany who double-crossed him. Was he talking to the district attorney's office or to the Albany members of the O'Connell kidnapping gang?

This is what District Attorney John T. Delaney had to say, according to an article in the Albany Times-Union the day after Scarnici was electrocuted:

Love is strange
And then there's the matter of Scarnici's interesting personal life. Between Scarnici's two murder trials came this fascinating tidbit:

Despite what Eleanor Scarnici told police, she willingly remained with the man accused of killing her first husband. At some point — she didn't say when —she and Scarnici were married in a civil ceremony, then later by a priest. If that part about the priest is true, their second wedding could have occurred while Scarnici was on death row.

The priest's blessing was necessary, she said, because she and Scarnici were Catholic; apparently the kinds of Catholics who are selective about the commandments they choose to obey.

There she is, Miss Gun Moll
Various reporters passed judgment on Eleanor Scarnici in other categories. As far as the press is concerned — even more then than now — any female under the age of 40 who's in the news automatically is entered in a beauty contest.

For example, Dorothy Kilgallen of International News Service was not impressed with Eleanor Scarnici.

"Her mouth is small and stubborn ... She has too much hair."

Emma Reino, the other woman arrested as part of Scarnici's gang "is not as pretty" (as Eleanor Scarnici). "And she is darker, plumper."

Both were poorly dressed, commented another reporter.

However, an anonymous Associated Press reporter, writing about the raids that rounded up the Scarnici mob, said one of the women was "a spectacular blonde." Unless she was not booked, this "spectacular blonde" would have to be Eleanor Scarnici. Process of elimination. Her hair was a shade lighter than the brunette Emma Reino.

Scarnici was very taken with the woman he married, which lends support to the theory he killed her first husband so he could have her to himself.

Scarnici's last words to his wife before his execution were overheard and reported the next day in the Albany Times-Union.

“Whatever you do, keep straight and don’t get mixed up with any wrong guys," he said. "Maybe I’m a fine one to be telling you this, but I mean it.”

What about Scarnici's pals?
When Scarnici was executed, the two men acquitted of the Rensselaer murder remained behind bars. Charles Shore (aka Herzog), was sent to Clinton Prison in Dannemora for participating in the robbery of a Brooklyn bank in 1932. Released in 1952, he was immediately taken into custody for a Brooklyn robbery, to which he had previously confessed. What happened to him after that, I do not know.

According to John Thomas Ciappetta, an author whose pen name is John Thomas, his uncle, Anthony Reino was paroled from prison in 1954, but violated parole three years later, and wasn't released from prison until about 1960.

"He did re-marry after his 20-year stint to a very attractive woman who had a daughter. Uncle Tony and Aunt Kathy had two children of their own."

Ciappetta posted a message online in response to a book, "Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940," by Patrick Downey. Antony Reino and other associates of Leonard Scarnici are mentioned in the book. Ciappetta pointed out that a photo used in the book misidentified his uncle.

That photo appeared in newspapers across the country after Scarnici and friends were arrested in 1932. Newspapers served by International News Service misidentified everyone in the photo except Scarnici, who was standing in the middle between Fred Plentl and Philip Zeigler on his right, and Charles Shore (Herzog) and Anthony Reino on his left. The INS photo caption said the names ran from left to right, but they actually ran them in reverse order. Likewise, the caption mixed up the identification of the two women, Mrs. Scarnici and Mrs. Reino. Apparently Downey repeated the mistake in his book.

Standing left to right: Fred Plentl, Philip Zeigler, Leonard Scarnici, Charles Shore, Anthony Reino.
Seated: Emma Reino, left; Eleanor Scarnici.

If I've got this right — and I offer no guarantee — then perhaps even Dorothy Kilgallen got the women mixed up, considering that Mrs. Reino is the one who seems to have too much hair.

Finally, an award of sorts to the unknown reporter who took this approach in writing about the verdict in the second murder trial of Leonard Scarnici.

Here's the thing. Two things, actually.

It would be proven that Tuohy was innocent, and that he had been framed by associates of the so-called victim of the Factor kidnapping. Tuohy was a bad guy, yes, but in this particular case, justice, such as it was, favored a bunch of guys who were just as bad, or worse. Tuohy finally was released from prison, after many years, but was murdered soon thereafter.

And while Leonard Scarnici undoubtedly killed some people — perhaps several — he was executed for a murder he didn't commit. He was coming out of the bank vault when other bank robbers fired at the two local policemen who showed up to investigate.

Sixteen months after that guilty verdict, Scarnici put up a brave front when it was time to die. Here's how one newspaper writer described it:

Well, some monks remembered him
After I discovered Scarnici's full name — Leonardo Gandolfo Guiseppe Scarnici — on familysearch.org, I made one last sweep through the great unknown via Google, looking for articles about Leonardo Scarnici instead of Leonard.

Naturally, I found one, and it was from an unexpected source, the National Library of Australia. This means the two-paragraph item below appeared in an Australian newspaper. The date given was January 11, 1937, but the name of the newspaper did not appear. This is probably from a syndicated daily or weekly column of shorts lifted from a bunch of small publications.

It's possible, I suppose. After all, why make up something like this? But on a website packed with old New York State newspapers — fultonhistory.com —I could not find any articles that verified the presence of the Benedictine monks in Westchester County in 1937, though a group led by William Henry Francis may have been there before moving to Woodstock, New York in 1938.

As for "Pretty Boy" Floyd, he did spend time in New York State, hiding for about a year in a Buffalo apartment house. Finally, he headed to Ohio, where police caught up with him in October, 1934, near East Liverpool. He made a run for it and was gunned down by J. Edgar Hoover's agents.