1932 New York gang's murder plot failed as victim survived poison, cold and a car

A plan for easy money

In 1932, during the era of Prohibition, a gang of criminals operating in New York devised a scheme to make quick money. They set their sights on a man known locally for his heavy drinking and lack of family ties.

The gang's plan was to take out a life insurance policy on the man and then arrange his death to look like an accident, so they could collect the payout themselves. At first the scheme seemed simple: the victim was alone, dependent on alcohol, and, as the criminals assumed, an easy target.

The victim would not die

The plan, however, did not go as expected. To bring about the man's death, the gang tried several methods — plying him with alcohol, attempting to poison him, exposing him to extreme cold, and even trying to run him over with a vehicle. Despite repeated attempts, the man survived every time, defying both the gang's expectations and what was thought possible for the human body to endure.

The case has become one of the strangest stories to emerge from New York's criminal underworld during Prohibition, illustrating how far some were willing to go for money — and how the intended victim refused to succumb to fate.