THUG OF THE DAY: Erzsébet  "BLOOD QUEEN" Báthory  

Ladies, the next time you hear someone whining about the cruel animal testing your favorite cosmetic company performs just so you can hold on to your youthful visage, throw this one in their face.

The nefarious "Blood Countess" of Hungary was willing to go the extra evil mile to preserve her beauty.  Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614) bathed in the blood of her victims in an effort to turn the clock back on aging.

The Blood Countess was rumored to have tortured and killed over 650 young women along with four of her friends who all happened to be fans of the occult.

While the body count and the blood baths may have been inflated to bolster her evil image, the countess was found guilty of only 80 murders.  But since she didn't show up for the trial, she was never convicted.

Bloody Liz may have escaped the fate of her collaborators, who were all put to death immediately, but Hungary's Finest caught up with her at home eventually.  Her aristocratic status saved her from immediate death, but it didn't save her from being imprisoned for the rest of her life in a room in her own castle.

King Matthias sent the royal masons to brick her up, leaving a couple of small slits to pass food through.  The bitch lived for four years after that.

In the height of her gruesome activities, the countess mutilated the hands, faces and genitalia of her victims.  She tortured them with fire, blades, and needles.  Sometimes she would bite the flesh off from their faces and arms or perform bizarre surgeries on them while they were alive.

She appeared to turn it over to the Lord in her final days, and was reportedly heard singing religious hymns and praying to God before her death.

But after she died a paper was found that she had written a prayer to the devil on, imploring the prince of darkness to send 99 cats to kill King Matthias and the people who had brought her to justice.  Crazy kid.

In Hopes That St. Nicholas...

Yes, boys and girls, it's that most wonderful time of the year....ho,ho,ho, and mistletoe...pine trees and dancing lights, candy canes and warm cookies.  And don't forget old Santa Claus.  That jolly old elf comes down the chimney to bring presents and happiness and double fisted vigilante justice to good little kiddies all over the world.

My present to you is my latest story at David Barber's The Flash Fiction Offensive.  READ IT OR ELSE!!!  And have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.  http://theflashfictionoffensive.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-grit-in-hopes-that-st.html

THUG OF THE DAY:                              JIMMY "THE GENT" BURKE

                  
You probably think of a slicked back Robert DeNiro in a sharkskin suit in the film, "Goodfellas" when you hear him mentioned.  But
The real Jimmy Burke (called Jimmy Conway in the movie) was not given his nickname because of the way he dressed, but for his habit of tipping the truck drivers whose cargo he hijacked.

He did take their driver's licenses so that they knew that he knew where they lived, but they got $50 to forget his face.

Jimmy was an associate of the Lucchese crime family and the alleged mastermind behind the infamous Lufthansa heist in 1978.  Jimmy and his crew stole approximately $6 million in currency and jewels from a cargo building at JFK International Airport.

It is likely that Jimmy was responsible for the murders of nine people following the heist to tie up loose ends and avoid being implicated in the crime and to keep more of the loot for himself.  Over the course of his career, Burke was rumored to be involved in over 50 murders, though he was only ever convicted of one.

Famous Mob turncoat, Henry Hill testified against his old friend and said that Burke had "whacked out" a drug dealer and con man by the name of Richard Eaton.

Sentenced to life in prison in 1985, Jimmy The Gent served over ten years at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, NY.  He died in 1996 while being treated for lung cancer at Roswell Medical Center in Buffalo, NY.

THUG OF THE DAY: VIRGINIA HILL, MOB MOLL

THUG OF THE DAY:  VIRGINIA HILL

 No need to check your eyes dear reader, the thug of the day is a beautiful female.  I searched far and wide for a bad girl worthy of the thug label, and I believe the late Miss Hill fits the criteria.

Virginia Hill (1916-1966) a.k.a. The Flamingo, was a classic gangster moll who was associated with Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Bugsy Siegel; who she met when she left Chicago to chase her dream of being a Hollywood movie star.

She never made it to the silver screen, but she did make it to the wedding alter and got hitched to Bugsy in a quickie Mexican ceremony.

Virginia was extremely jealous and had a quick temper; two things that didn't mix well with Bugsy's philandering ways.  At one time she nearly dislocated actress Wendy Barrie's jaw when she found out Bugsy was messing around with her.

After Bugsy was murdered in a mob hit in the former home of Rudolph Valentino, Virginia stayed active in the underworld as a mob courier.

She was a star witness in the Kefauver Commission hearings.  When asked why she was so trusted by the mob, Virginia shocked the courtroom by replying, "that it was because of her unmatched talent for performing oral sex."

In 1961 she was out of money and in fear of both the Mob and the IRS, so she swallowed a handful of sleeping pills and laid down in a deep snowbank and took her final sleep. 



                           

THUG OF THE DAY: ROY DeMEO

THUG OF THE DAY: ROY DeMEO

One of the most prolific killers in the history of the Gambino crime family had to have been Roy DeMeo (1942-1983).  The FBI suspected Roy and his crew of at least 70 murders, but according to other several associates Roy DeMeo was responsible for hundreds of murders in his life time.

If you were invited to go for drinks at the Gemini Lounge where the DeMeo crew hung out, it may have been for your last cocktail.

Victims of the crew would be lured through a side door into an apartment in the back of the lounge that was dubbed "the Horror Hotel."

By the time the unfortunate guest realized they were standing on a sheet of plastic, it was too late.  Roy would come up behind them dressed only in his underpants and shoot them in the back of the head with a silenced pistol.  Then he would quickly wrap a towel around the victim's head like a turban to soak up the blood.

Immediately one of Roy's crew would come forth and stab the victim in the heart to stop it from pumping blood.  Then the body would be carried into the bathroom to bleed out in the tub.

Sometimes while they were waiting for the body to bleed out, the crew would order out for a pizza because dismembering a human like a pig in a butcher shop obviously works up a hearty appetite.

The bodies were cut up into manageable pieces that were wrapped up and disposed of in random garbage dumpsters around Brooklyn.

This factory like method of ridding the world of the Mafia's enemies was most preferred by DeMeo's bosses until they realized that their boy Roy was going off his nut and killing for the pure pleasure.

When it became clear to his superiors that Roy was an unpredictable psychopath whose reputation and blood soaked activities were drawing a lot of attention, it was decided that he had to go.

While it is unclear which of his "friends" actually did the deed (Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski claimed to have killed DeMeo himself while associates have attributed the killing to Roy's boss Anthony Gaggi), DeMeo was found dead in the trunk of his own car with multiple bullet wounds in his head and one in his hand.

According to DeMeo's son, Albert, Roy knew that his number was up and had left his wallet and jewelry at home before he went missing.

THUG OF THE DAY: WILLIAM "BILL THE BUTCHER" POOLE

The above picture is, of course, of actor Daniel Day-Lewis in a loosely fact based portrayal of the real Bill The Butcher.  I could not find a picture of the actual William Poole (1821-1855),  Bowery Boy, butcher, bare-knuckle boxer, and brutal leader of the "Know-nothing" political movement.

So far, Bill the Butcher would win the toughest THUG OF THE DAY title.  After being shot in the leg, the heart and the abdomen at close range, Bill screamed at his assailant, ex-cop Lewis Baker, that he would tear his heart from his living flesh.  Then he went on to live for fourteen days after the shooting, much to the astonishment of his physicians, dying with the famous parting words:  "Good-bye boys; I die a true American."

The "true American" Nativist and his gang was known for starting violent riots and stealing ballot boxes to further their political agenda against Irish -Catholic immigrants known as the Tammanyites. 

At more than 6 feet tall and over 200 pounds, The Butcher was an intimidating boxer and street thug.  According to a New York Times report of October 23, 1851:

A Brutal Outrage in Broadway. We learn that at an early hour yesterday morning, two noted pugilists entered Florence's Hotel, corner of Broadway and Howard street, and without any provocation seized the bar-keeper and beat his face to a jelly. It appears that Thomas Hyer, William Poole, and several others entered the above hotel, and while one of the party held Charles Owens (the bar-keeper) by the hair of his head, another of the gang beat him in the face to such an extent that his left eye was completely ruined and the flesh of his cheek mangled in the most shocking manner. After thus accomplishing the heartless act, all of them made an effort to find Mr. John Florence, the proprietor of the hotel, with a view of serving him in the same manner, but not succeeding in their latter design, they found the hat of Mr. Florence and wantonly cut it into strips, and trampled it under their feet. The desperadoes then left the house, and in the meantime Mr. Owens was placed under medical attendance, and in the course of a short time he proceeded to the Jefferson Market Police, in company with Mr. Florence, where they made their affidavits respecting the inhuman outrage, upon which Justice Blakeley issued his warrants for Hyer, Poole, and such of the others who were concerned in the affair, and the same were placed in the hands of officer Baldwin for service. Since the above was written we have been reliably informed that the affray originated from the fact of the barkeeper having refused them drinks, after they had been furnished with them twice in succession.

In other words, you didn't want to deny the Butcher his third pint of stout!

THUG OF THE DAY:  RICHARD "THE ICEMAN" KUKLINSKI

If you were a target of Richard Kuklinski and he happened to take you out with a bullet or a squirt of cyanide to the face or even a bomb attached to a remote controlled toy car, you were one of the lucky ones.  You were just another casualty in an activity that he came to think of as sport.

He said:

"By now you know what I liked most was the hunt, the challenge of what the thing was. The killing for me was secondary. I got no rise as such out of it… for the most part. But the figuring it out, the challenge -- the stalking and doing it right, successfully -- that excited me a lot. The greater the odds against me, the more juice I got out of it."

Some of Richard's unlucky victims were done away with in a more painful fashion by way of icepick, arrow, or chainsaw.  If he really had it in for you, or if he was ordered to make you suffer by one of the psychotic mob bosses he worked for, the Iceman would feed you to the rats.

Yes, Kuklinski would actually drag some of his victims out into the woods and tie them to a tree near a cave that he knew rats lived in.  Then he would sit back with a video camera and wait for the creatures to come out and devour the victims alive.

He was a remorseless serial killer who turned his sick hobby into a profitable business by going to work for the Gambino family and the other Five Families of the New York mafia as a freelance hitman.

Kuklinski, aka The Polack, aka Big Guy, aka The Iceman, was 6'5" tall and weighed around 300 pounds.  He was tagged with the nickname, "Iceman," because he would sometimes store his victims in a freezer chest for long periods of time and then thaw them out long afterward and dispose of the body to confuse the forensic police as to the time of death.

Richard did most of his killing in NYC and lived a dual life as a husband and father in Dumont, NJ until his arrest and incarceration in 1986.  He claimed to have killed over 250 men from as far back as 1948, committing his first murder when he was just 14 years old.

As a non-Italian outsider, the Iceman was able to kill for all five of the New York mafia families; but he did most of his work for the Gambino family under capo Roy Demeo, a demented psycho thug in his own right.

Kuklinski died in prison at the age of 70, just weeks before he was to testify against former Gambino family underboss, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano in the collaborated murder of NYPD detective Peter Calabro.

Kuklinski believed that he was being poisoned and his death was investigated, but coroners concluded that he died of natural causes.