Jones's car was stolen. Then he received a phone call, allegedly from police in Joliet, that the vehicle had been found and could be picked up at a certain garage. Jones, knowing how the College Kidnappers worked, took the precaution of driving past the garage dressed as a woman. He spotted two assassins known to him in a car outside the garage.
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Now Jones was trapped between the College Kidnappers and the Capone gang, who had no further use for him since Klutas had rejected the bribe. In desperation, Jones turned to the police. He revealed the addresses of various gang hideouts, and Klutas was machinegunned to death from a police ambush at one of the locations. No doubt when word of Klutas's death reached the then-imprisoned Al Capone, he was thrilled by the triumph of law and order.
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Gangster Vincent "the Mad Mick" Coll made a career out of kidnapping for ransom New York mobster kingpins attached to the Legs Diamond and Owney Madden gangs. In June 1931, Madden had to pay $35,000 to get back his right-hand man, Big Frenchy Demange, whom Coll had snatched off a street corner.
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Charged in 1932 with killing a five-year-old boy in a street shootout with other gangsters, Coll figured he needed the best legal brains in the business. Once more he kidnapped a Madden man and collected $30,000. The funds went to ace criminal lawyer Sam Leibowitz, who got Coll off on the murder rap. Coll's kidnapping days ended later that same year when he was cut down in a public phone booth as he was engaged in a long telephone conversation with Madden, threatening to snatch him and kill him.
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The notorious Gallo brothers of Brooklyn masterminded the most audacious mob kidnapping in recent years. In early 1960, they snatched four or perhaps five members of the Joe Profaci family. The victims included Joseph "the Fat Man" Magliocco, Profaci's brother-in-law and underboss; Frank Profaci, the boss's brother; and two powerful aides, Salvatore "Sally the Sheik" Mussachia and John Scimone, Profaci's trusted bodyguard and chauffeur. Some were snatched from their homes, others on the street or from a social club. Joe Profaci was himself a target, but he was tipped off in time, boarded a plane to Florida, and checked himself into a hospital. The Gallos, angry that Profaci was not cutting them in for enough of the family crime income, warned they would kill their hostages unless their demands for more equitable treatment were met.
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Surprisingly, Profaci seemed to agree. He said if the hostages were released, a sitdown would be held on the Gallo complaints and the situation would be rectified. The kidnappers were inclined to accept the offer, especially Larry Gallo and Joe Jelly, the gang's top assassin. Only Joe Gallo objected violently. "You kill one," he said, "you tell them you want one hundred G's in cash as a good faith token, then we sit down and talk."
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The argument ended with Larry slapping his hotheaded brother and insisting the hostages go free. They were released except for Scimone, who was held an extra week. In captivity, Scimone expressed sympathy for the Gallos' position and asked how he could help them. Before Scimone was freed, he was badly beaten to make it appear that he had gotten the extratough treatment because he had refused to renounce his boss.
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The kidnapping did not have a happy ending for the Gallos. Profaci stalled on their demands, and, after an armed truce of about six months, the old don went to war on the upstarts. Using some Gallo defectors, he had Joe Jelly taken for a fishing expedition in which he ended up as fishfood. Larry Gallo was almost strangled to death in a famous ambush in a Brooklyn bar where he had been lured by Scimone, Profaci's bodyguard, who had expressed a willingness to aid the Gallo cause. In Old Man Profaci's book, kidnappers got no deals, just Mafia vengeance.
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Carlo Gambino, the most powerful Mafia leader of the 1960s and 1970s likewise gave kidnappers no quarter, especially in a 1972 case in which three freelance kidnappers grabbed the don's nephew, Manny Gambino, and demanded a $350,000 ransom. After part of the money had been paid, the kidnappers went ahead and killed Manny and buried his body in a New Jersey swamp.
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The FBI learned of the kidnapping and arrested two suspects, much to Gambino's annoyance. He preferred taking revenge personally. A third suspect, James McBratney, evaded arrest and Gambino put out a contract on him. He was caught in a Staten Island, New York, bar and executed by a three-man hit squad, headed by mafioso John Gotti, who was later convicted of the killing and drew a seven-year sentence. When Gotti got out, Gambino advanced him far up the crime family ladder to the trusted position of capo.
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Kidnapper exterminators are much esteemed in the mob.
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King's Man: Hafioso with direct access to the godfather
A truly powerful mafioso is one called a "king's man" with the authority to go directly to the boss or godfather of a crime family without having to deal with any buffers. Shortly after the death of Neil Dellacroce, John Gotti's sponsor within the mob, godfather Paul Castellano cut Gotti down to size. From then on Gotti was not to have direct access to Castellano but would have to go through Tommy Bilotti, a mob guy regarded by
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