Life insurance fraud is often a very common motive for murder. It usually never quite goes the way people think it will. And in this, rather unusual and quite extraordinary case, it went terribly, horribly wrong.
Michael Malloy, nicknamed Iron Mike, was born in County Donegal, Ireland in 1873 before, at some point, immigrating to New York City. Not much else is known about Mike – he had no friends or family that anyone really knew of, and though he’d been a firefighter at some point, he had difficulty holding down a job. He was often seen sweeping up alleyways or collecting garbage for a handful of change, or a bottle of alcohol.
Though quite unknown, Iron Mike was well known for his love of the bottle. He could drink any man under the table, and come back the next day for more. And he had a particular haunt – a speakeasy – that he frequented quite often.
Tony Marino owned a speakeasy, and it wasn’t doing as well as other prohibition hotspots were known to do. And so, one evening in July of 1932, while Mike Malloy was drinking himself stupid, he had an idea. He approached two of his friends, Francis Pasqua and Daniel Kriesberg, and told them what he was thinking.
He said he had a way to save the bar, and make them all a little extra cash. They would take fraudulent life insurance policies out on Mike Malloy, watch him drink himself to death, and then claim the insurance once they made sure it looked like an accident. Marino had done this before, he knew what to do.
He explained how he’d befriended an alcoholic woman named Mable Carson. He treated her well, and offered her food and drink – for free. Then, he had her sign some life insurance paperwork while she was sloshed, and waited for it to go through. One evening, he took the extremely inebriated woman to bed, stripped her, drenched her in cold water, and then opened the window next to the bed, letting in the frigid winter air. Her death had been ruled natural causes – pneumonia – and he’d raked in the insurance. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Tony Marino had done it once, and he’d do it again. What could go wrong?
Pasqua offered to go out and buy the life insurance. He managed to secure three policies, with the help of a corrupt colleague by the name of Nicholas Mellory, through dubious means, from two companies: two policies with Prudential Life Insurance Company, and one through Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. All three policies offered double indemnity – meaning, they would get double the insurance if the death was ruled as accidental.
Getting Mike to sign off on the policies was simple. Marino simply told Mike that as long as he did as Marino asked, he could have a limitless bartab. This suited Mike just fine!
With the aid of one of his bartender, Joseph Murphy, Marino would be able to control when and how Mike died by drinking himself to death. The “Murder Trust”, as they were called, was nearly complete. It wasn’t enough to have four men on the take. Marino also included a couple of his other regulars – “Tough Tony” Bastone, and Joseph Maglione.
Marino had his plot in place, and in December of 1932, the Trust began putting its plan into action.
For the most part, they figured Mike would do all the hard work. With a limitless tab, they figured he’d just drink himself to death. That didn’t quite go as planned, as he’d wake up, go to the bar, and in his ‘muddled brogue’, request: “Another mornin’s morning, if ya don’t mind”. The Trust had to step up their game.
While Mike still had his limitless tab, Marino spiced up his drinks. First, he spiked Mike’s drinks with antifreeze. That didn’t work. Next, he spiked Mike’s drinks with turpentine. That didn’t work. Next, he spiked Mike’s drinks with horse liniment. That didn’t work. Finally, he spiked Mike’s drinks with rat poison. Again, that didn’t work. The Trust needed a new plan.
Plying Mike with whiskey, Marino waited until Mike was good and sloshed. Then, he replaced the shots of whiskey with shots of 100% pure wood alcohol. Wood alcohol is strong enough that even just the smallest of doses can cause blindness. Such a large dose should be lethal.
At first, Marino thought it had worked. Mike flopped to the floor, unconscious. Then, he started snoring. A few hours later, he woke up and begged for more.
If poisoning his drinks wouldn’t work, the Trust figured they’d start in on Mike’s food, as well.
First, they started with oysters that ‘had been marinating in denatured alcohol for a couple of days’. Mike only scarfed those down with the shots of wood alcohol. Next, they attempted sandwiches which were laced with rotten sardines, poison, and carpet tacks. Mike simply ate one, belched, then asked for another.
Iron Mike Malloy was proving extremely difficult to fell. The Trust had to change tactics.
On a particularly cold evening, Marino, once again, got Mike sloshed. After he’d passed out, he and the rest of the Trust dragged Mike outside to Crotona Park, dumped him on a bench, stripped him, and then drenched him with water. It was expected that Mike would freeze to death. Marino was quite surprised to find him at his bar the following day, asking for a drink, and complaining of a slight chill.
The Trust were getting desperate. It was getting too expensive to keep Mike alive. The costs of the liquor he was drinking, as well as the premiums on the policies under his name were costing a pretty penny. It was time that Mike died.
In short order, the Trust hired a cab driver named Hershey Green. He was instructed to run Mike down.
One night, a very inebriated Mike was placed in the middle of the street. Green got behind the wheel of his cab, and took off toward where Mike was standing. Mike managed to jump out of the way, just in time, twice. On the third attempt, the taxi hit him, and then proceeded to back over him. They left Mike for dead in a ditch.
A week later, there was no sign of Mike, nor any notice of his death. Murphy posed as his brother and began calling hospitals and morgues. But no one of Mike’s description had come through.
A few days later, despite a fractured skull and broken shoulder, Mike sauntered right back into Marino’s speakeasy and asked for a drink.
By now, the Trust had had enough.
On February 21st, 1933, the Trust finally murdered Iron Mike Malloy. Once he’d drunk his fill, they brought him to a room. They attached a rubber hose to one end to a gas light, and put the other end in Mike’s mouth. They effectively poisoned him with carbon monoxide.
A doctor of questionable morals and ethics, who was known to Pasqua, forced the death certificate to state it had been death caused by lobar pneumonia.
What they didn’t know was that carbon monoxide forms bonds with proteins in the blood, that it induces a chemical suffocation, and it is extremely detectible.
With the murder business conducted, the Trust quickly had Mike Malloy buried, and set out to collect on the life insurance policies. They thought they’d gotten away with the perfect murder.
However, the story of Mike the Durable was a well known secret. The tales of attempts on his life had started circulating around other bars, card games, and even made it to the ears of local police officers. They found this story quite fascinating indeed.
The Trust only managed to receive a fraction of the payout from Metropolitan Life Insurance, and their entire plot began to fall apart on them when they attempted to collect from Prudential Life Insurance.
Prudential wanted to see the body – just to make sure that what was being said matched actual fact. When the agents at Prudential were informed of the quick burial, they alerted the authorities.
In May of 1933, police had Mike Malloy’s body exhumed. It didn’t surprise them that the autopsy contradicted the death certificate.
The downfall of the Murder Trust was rather speedy after that. “Tough Tony” Bastone had shot and killed Joseph Maglione in an unrelated event, and was apprehended and charged for his murder.
(EDIT – It was brought to my attention that the above paragraph is incorrect. It was actually Joseph Maglione who shot and killed “Tough Tony Bastone”. Huge thank you to Joey Nigro-Nilsen for emailing me and correcting me!)
Hershey Green was displeased with his cut of the take, and spoke openly and freely with police. He told them everything he knew.
In due course, Frank Pasqua, Tony Marino, Daniel Kriesberg, and Joseph Murphy were arrested. First, they tried to plead insanity. That didn’t work. Next, they tried to each blame each other. That didn’t work. Lastly, they tried to pin the murder on Bastone. Again, that didn’t work.
The Murder Trust were found guilty, and sentenced to death. Hershey Green was spared, but given a life sentence.
Between June and July of 1934, Pasqua, Marino, Kriesberg, and Murphy all faced the electric chair at Sing Sing prison.
Very rarely does a plot to murder for life insurance go well. And for the Murder Trust, it really, really did not go well.
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Sources:
Noir Factory podcast – Case #27 – “Durable” Mike Malloy
The Man Who Wouldn’t Die – Karen Abbott – Smithsonian Magazine
The Curious Case of Michael Malloy – Daniel Rennie – All That’s Interesting
The Legend of Mike “The Durable” Malloy – Deborah Blum – Gizmodo