“I’m here on a framed-up case. And Governor Dewey knows it. I want to thank Judge Lehman . . . He knows me because I am a Jew. Give my love to my family . . . and everything.”

— Emanuel (Mendy) Weiss, convicted of murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed March 4, 1944

Small-time criminal Weiss became entangled in one of the largest and most powerful gangs in American history when he joined two other Murder, Inc. henchmen in the killing of potential witness and informant Joseph Rosen.

“I am anxious to have it clearly understood that I did not offer to talk and give information in exchange for any promise of commutation of my death sentence.”

— Louis Buchalter (alias Louis Lepke) , convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, electric chair, New York.
Executed March 4, 1944

The New York press referred to Buchalter as “the former overlord of the crime syndicate Murder, Inc.” The reputed gangster’s last words worked to preserve his reputation. Buchalter was linked to more than twenty homicides, and his influence was said to have permeated all of Manhattan’s major manufacturing unions. By the 1930s, Buchalter was executive director over hundreds of union workers and more than 250 professional bounty hunters. Eventually, the operation began to fray, as factions opposing Buchalter congealed within the gang, and law enforcement officials put a fifty-thousand-dollar prize on his head. His paranoia grew until he finally broke down and turned himself into federal authorities.

Originally given thirty years to life for conspiracy, drug trafficking, and obstruction of commerce, Buchalter was eventually sentenced to death when an investigation linked Murder, Inc. to the slaying of Joseph Rosen, who had worked for an affiliate trucking business.

“To all my loved ones, I hope they find peace. To all of you here today, I forgive you and I hope I can be forgiven in my next life.”

— Walter LaGrand, convicted of murder, gas chamber, Arizona.
Executed March 3, 1999

German citizen LaGrand protested his death sentence by choosing the gas chamber over lethal injection with the hope that his punishment would end up being ruled cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court overruled that logic, but not without protest from the German government and other countries worldwide. The World Court held a thirty-minute hearing in which a Sri Lankan judge urged the U.S. government to prevent the execution, but Arizona governor Jane Hull proceeded with it. LaGrand’s brother Karl had been executed for his role in the crime a week prior.