Mobster Left His Life in San Francisco
Why did the Lanza family execute DeJohn? The American Mafia lost a few members in 1947, some well known, some not so well known. Among that year's deceased were Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, a New York-based labor racketeer who worked with Louis " Lepke " Buchalter (executed in 1944); Al Capone and Benjamin " Bugsy " Siegel. (On the other side of the legal fence, Fiorello La Guardia , the Mayor of New York who very publicly targeted New York's Mafia, died in 1947.) Nicholas DeJohn died that year. Ever hear of him? He was a mobster who came up in the Outfit then hauled ass for San Francisco , where he found a role in the local organized crime landscape. He died brutally in 1947; he was strangled to death, in fact. His body fermented in a trunk of a car for two days before it was discovered. The murder was never solved -- but a piece of evidence showed up in a certain pawn shop that puts an interesting twist on DeJohn's story....A hint -- G...