Harry Strauss
{{Short description|American contract killer (1909–1941)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}{{Infobox criminal
| name = Harry Strauss
| image_name = Harry Strauss.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|7|28}}
| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|06|12|1909|7|28}}
| death_place = Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York, U.S.
| resting place = Beth David Cemetery
| conviction = First degree murder
| conviction_penalty = Death
| conviction_status = Executed
| occupation = Hitman
| death_cause = Execution by electrocution
| allegiance = Murder, Inc.
| other_names = Pittsburgh Phil
}}
Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss (July 28, 1909 – June 12, 1941) was an American contract killer for Murder, Inc. in the 1930s. He reportedly killed over one hundred men (some historians put the number as high as 500)Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia. Checkmark Books, 2005. Page 360. using a variety of methods, including shooting, stabbing with ice picks, drowning, live burial, and strangulation. Strauss never carried a weapon in case the local police picked him up on suspicion. He would scout his murder spot for any tool that would do the job.Jay Robert Nash Bloodletters and badmen. M. Evans; distributed in association with Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1973. {{ISBN|0-871-31113-5}}.
Most of his associates called him "Pep". In the 1930s, he was committing assaults, larcenies, and drug dealing. He was arrested 18 times but was never convicted until he was found guilty of the homicide that sent him and fellow Murder, Inc. hitman Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein to the electric chair. After hitman Abe "Kid Twist" Reles turned informant, Strauss was arrested for the murder of Irving "Puggy" Feinstein, and at least five other known murders. Strauss tried to avoid conviction by feigning insanity in the courtroom and on death row. Strauss and Goldstein were convicted September 19, 1940, and executed by electrocution using Sing Sing's Old Sparky on June 12, 1941.{{cite news |title=2 in Murder Ring Are Put to Death; Pittsburgh Phil Strauss and Buggsy Goldstein Go to Chair for Brooklyn Slaying |date=June 13, 1941 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=15 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/06/13/87623586.pdf}}{{subscription required}}
Early life
He was born in July 1909 to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire. His parents were Jacob and Yetta Ostrovsky. The family immigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and changed their surname to Strauss. Like many other Jewish immigrants, the Strauss family settled on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City. Harry had one sister, Fannie, and three brothers, Hyman, Alex, and Sam. His father, Jacob Strauss, worked for the city's Department of Street Cleaning. The family later moved to the Bronx. In 1917 or 1918, his father was killed in an industrial accident. His widowed mother later remarried. He dropped out of school at age 15. In his youth Strauss started committing crimes and became deeper involved in the streets as the years passed.
See also
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-306-81288-6}}
- Whalen, Robert Weldon. Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia's New York. Fordham University Press, 2016.
External links
- [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Strauss&GSfn=Harry+&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=12223& Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss] at Find A Grave
- [http://www.j-grit.com/criminals-murder-inc-harry-pittsburgh-phil-strauss.php Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss - Gangster/Assassin] at J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews
{{Murder, Incorporated}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Strauss, Harry}}
Category:Jewish American gangsters
Category:American people executed for murder
Category:Criminals from Brooklyn
Category:Executed American gangsters
Category:20th-century executions by New York (state)
Category:People executed by New York (state) by electric chair
Category:20th-century executions of American people
Category:People convicted of murder by New York (state)
Category:Burials at Beth David Cemetery