Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret.
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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.
I love all the different narrators. I love Audible.
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I am absolutely obsessed with a sweet treat after dinner.
And my favorite sweet treat right now is my mochi.
It's Mine, not yours. Just kidding. You can have some too.
This is a cool, creamy scoop of ice cream. wrapped in a soft, chewy dough.
It's like a sweet little ice cream dumpling or ravioli.
I'm obsessed. It's pillowy. It's satisfying.
I feel indulged. I just love it so much.
I really am obsessed with the strawberry flavor right now.
My mochi is only around 70 calories per piece, which like, hello, that's amazing.
My mochi is gluten free and each box has six perfectly portioned mochi snacks.
Do I eat two a night? Yeah. Yeah, I do because they're that good.
And guess what? My mochi is the number one mochi ice cream in the US of A.
The strawberry flavor is bursting with fresh picked fruit flavor that tastes incredibly refreshing.
I love, love, love them after dinner this August.
Look for the purple box of My Mochi ice cream at your local grocery store. and feel joyfully chill with the coolest treat around, my mochi.
Hello there, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena.
And this is Mobbid. We're gonna do like an ASMR version of Morbid.
Are we? No, we're not. I'm also gonna put my headphones on.
I was trying to do this. I was trying to do this like really weird and not have my headphones on, but it's not working.
It's fine. Yeah, I tried last night actually when we recorded to not have my headphones on and I did it for the whole episode.
But then today I was like, I don't want that. yeah it's too weird we can't switch it up no I'm in the habit of it we're trying to be crazy we're trying to throw caution to the wind and it just doesn't work that way No, I don't like it.
So yeah, nothing happened between now and the last time we recorded.
No, because it's literally been less than 24 hours.
So you know what? Here we are. Hello. This is one that I found kind of accidentally, this case.
I love that. I was looking for like a spooky place or I was looking because I was just like in the mood to do something weird.
Yeah. So I was like, you know, I'm going to do some weird phenomenon.
I'm going to do a cryptid. I'm going to do...
Something like that. So I was looking, looking, looking.
I found a couple that I can't wait to do.
Okay, exciting. But then I happened to just like, this was just, I can't even remember exactly where I found it.
But when I saw it, I was like. It called you.
Hello. It was like, come to me, Ginger. I was like, hello, darkness, my old friend.
I wanted to sing my old friend part. To hang with you again.
So today we are. That is what they say. Come to chill.
I've come to hang to the extreme with you again.
Today we are going to be talking about Michael Malloy.
Oh, I know Michael Malloy. I know this story.
You don't know Michael Malloy. Okay. I can tell you.
All right. Who is he? Is he the guy that like he died in a bar or something or like like got in some like crazy bar fight and he just like wouldn't die?
Yes. Yeah. You do know him. I do know him.
Wow. I'm so impressed. Oh my God. And that's why we drinked in an episode on him.
Did they really? Yeah, like way back in the day.
Oh, I didn't even know that. That's crazy.
Well, he's also called Mike the Durable.
Or Iron Mike. I love that. I did find a really good book about this case, and it is called Hold, Please.
Oh, why is it called that? It's called Hold, Please.
So it's called... on the house on the house and it's by simon reed and it's really good really in depth because this case, at first I was like, oh, I'm not finding like a whole lot about him, a whole lot about the guys who did it.
And I was like, oh, maybe this isn't like a full episode.
A TBT to a mini episode. And then I found Simon Reed's book and I was like, whoa.
You were like jackpot. There is only a fraction of the information that I got from it, so I will of course link it like we always do.
But I highly suggest that you guys go get this book because it is fantastic. fascinating and he writes it really well too because he'll put in like his own little narrations of things it's just really good i like when people do that so it's not just like blah blah blah blah yeah it's not just like and then this happened and then this happened and the things he found out I'm like how the hell did you find that out Because this was like crazy long ago.
It was from the 30s. So it's like, that's a...
It's a long time. That's a good amount of time ago.
You know what I'm saying? Great depression and all that stuff.
So Michael Malloy. Mike was an Irishman.
He was living in New York City during the 20s and 30s.
He was formerly a firefighter, which is interesting because of how he ended up.
No one knows fully what his birthday is.
Love that. I love how mysterious that is of him.
Yeah, like it's just like, people know that he was like around a certain age.
A lot of sources claimed he was 60 years old.
That's what a lot of people thought. but on insurance papers he was marked as 47 years old.
And when you find out what his life is, He probably looked 60, but he probably definitely was in his 40s, I would think.
Damn. Yeah, he lived like not goals. He lived hard.
He definitely did. He was originally from Donegal, Ireland.
Don't y'all? I don't think I said it right.
I'm sorry, my ancestors. But he drank...
A lot. All the time. Like, the club was going up on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even an He created another day for the club is what he did.
As soon as you said that, I was like, I don't know what that means.
But I think it means you drank a lot. And if that's the case, then yes, that is what Michael Malloy did.
He drank a lot in the club, all that good stuff.
And, you know, he was just kind of drifting away.
I know we just joked about him drinking, but he was a full-blown alcoholic.
Yeah, which is not funny. Where he was in there literally 12 hours at a time, just drinking from sunup to sundown.
That's very sad. And then he would kind of just like I said before, he was a firefighter at one point, but when he lost that job, he just kind of drifted.
And he would do odd jobs here and there.
He would like sweep the streets and you know, just kind of do anything that he could make a couple dollars here and there. but every single scent he made just went to drinking.
Every single one. If it was like he lost the job, the firefighting job because of drinking, or if it was like he saw some shit while on the job and like left and like turned to drinking together. through it.
It seems to me like he is a lifelong alcoholic.
Really? because the way he goes hard at it you this is one of those like you've been doing it for a long time yeah Long, long time.
And in that respect, if he was 60 years old, I don't even think I would be that shocked.
But to be honest, because I just don't, I've never heard of anybody drinking like this.
It's truly outrageous. So the other players in this that we are going to talk about are Anthony Tony Marino.
Frances Pasqua and Daniel Kreisberg. Let's just say Pasqua forever.
Pasqua. Pasqua. I don't even know if that's how you say it, but he's a giant dick, so it really doesn't matter.
And also, I just like saying Pasquale. And those are the three main players, but there's going to be a lot of other names.
So I'll try to keep everybody with it. And I'll bear with you.
Exactly. So first, let's talk about Tony Marino because he's the main guy here.
Let's talk about him. He was 27 years old and he owned a speakeasy because again, this is like prohibition times and all that.
I love speakeasies. His speakeasy was at 3775 3rd Avenue in the Bronx.
It was in rough shape. Okay. This was definitely like a thrown together kind of space. speakeasy situation this was not one of those like great gatsby speakeasies where like you know, everything's fancy.
Yeah, knock three times and turn this fancy key.
And then you come in and like, hey, come on in and drink.
It was like body slams the door open and like maybe we might have some alcohol left.
Like come in peeing all over the place and you're welcome here.
Let's get it. I think they actually had a bathroom in the place that was only separated by like a curtain.
From the rest of the room. And then, like, the room itself was this tiny little dirty... nasty place.
It was just really gross. I feel like I want to go there.
I don't want to go there after reading so much about this I'm like I don't want anything to with this place like that place has seen some shit some shit um He also, Tony Marino, he was not an appealing character at all.
No. He's... kind of the worst he's terrible in every way like i i really have nothing good to say about him And on top of everything, he also, he was like riddled with venereal diseases.
He had like syphilis, which is not in and of itself a bad thing, but what he does next with them is a bad thing.
Because when you have a venereal disease, you should tell your partners.
Correct. You're future partners. And if you don't, you're a dick.
Absolutely. That's just that. That's not okay.
And so he had syphilis. He had a ton of other ones.
And he described himself as always having a case of a clap or blue balls oh my god yeah and there was no in between either he was blue balling it or the clap which it's like Whoa.
What? That's a whole vibe. You're going ham right there.
He's really going for it. He was married, but he wasn't happily married.
I guess not. Because again, he was a giant asshole and that's hard to be married to.
He never told his wife, Eleanor, about his whole South situation.
And he can pass it to her. Which he likely did.
I'm not sure if he did. I'm not going to call her out like that.
But like... He likely... Something happened because she did find out only when she was pregnant and going to the doctors.
The doctor was... So I'm assuming something happened there that she found out that way.
Yeah, that's terrible. also abusive and miserable to her so tony's like a real gem fuck you tony She said, fuck you, Tony.
And she said, quote, he once put the stove into the hall and proceeded to smash the furniture with an axe. and then ran into the street with the axe in his hand.
On numerous occasions, he became so violent that it was with difficulty that we were able to restrain him.
On several occasions he threatened to turn the gas on in our room and kill the baby and myself jesus so marino is a real gem of a guy yeah fucked up dude yeah such a peach uh but hey there is childhood head trauma so okay so that explains So there's that.
I was looking for it while I was reading this.
I was like, You better tell me this kid hit his head sometime.
I need some form of explanation. Because you're truly the worst.
Um, he claims, he says that when he was 12 years old, he fell down floor floor. four flights of stairs at his home, which I have a couple of questions about one.
How? Two, you had four flights of stairs in your home.
Maybe an apartment building. But you fell down them all.
All of them. There's no landing between the flights of like you just straight down four flights.
That's a lot. I don't know. I mean, maybe.
It makes sense, I guess. Maybe he was exaggerating a little bit.
I think he was exaggerating a little, but something did happen because he ended up with a concussion and he had a little scar to show for it.
Okay. His family and people who knew him at the time did say that his manner and personality did change after this accident.
Oh, that's like a little bit sad. A little bit, yeah.
And they said he stopped caring about things like school...
He didn't want to listen to rules. He didn't, he was acting out terribly.
He actually made his younger siblings steal things for him. from stores and if they didn't do it, he would just beat the shit out of them.
All right. He got in a ton of fights, was super violent, just a giant asshole.
He got tossed from school in sixth grade.
Wow, commitment to the cause. Halfway there, living on a prayer and he didn't get out. living on something.
He was partying a ton and drinking a lot.
He would play a game also where he would offer someone less fortunate than he some money.
And then when they would go to take it, he would either push them down or step on their hands.
Why? Which is bold for a guy who we find out later has to murder someone for some pocket change.
So that's a real bold move for you to be being that asshole.
My empathetic self can't handle that. Yeah, it's a real dick move.
So he had initially not been able to hold a job down like through his teens and early 20s.
Why? Yeah, I don't know. Like, cause he sounds so like with it and so responsible and like a really nice guy.
Like he'd have a really good resume. You would think his coworkers would, he would just be a dream to work with.
Yeah. Weirdly enough, he wasn't. He was just floating around from job to job.
And then somehow, and I'm not really sure how...
He managed to open up a crappy little speakeasy in Harlem with a partner.
Oh. Don't know how it happened. Don't know how he got someone to hang around him that long or how any of this happened.
Well, misery loves company. Well, and also his partner apparently didn't really know him that well before opening it.
So I think this was one of those, like, maybe they were sitting in a bar and they were like, Put a speakeasy together.
Hey, you like to drink? Me too. This will be fun.
Because he ended up, his partner ended up leaving the partnership.
And just quit. Yikes. And he said that he was, quote, disgusted with him.
Oh, I wonder what happened. Yeah. So then that place immediately went under because, of course, Marino is not capable of handling shit himself.
No. And again, not really sure. But then he opened another speakeasy, the one that we are going to be talking about.
This speakeasy that we're talking about was unnamed and it was in the Bronx.
All right. And it becomes the scene for all of this.
Uh-oh. His wife actually, Eleanor, did leave him at one point in 1931.
And she was urging him to, one, get treatment for his temper.
Yeah. She was like, I'm not dealing with this shit anymore.
And she was also like, you should probably get treated for syphilis because it can affect your mental health.
Can it kill you? It can't and it can and it can make you like violent and stuff.
So she was like, you should probably get it checked out.
Yeah. Because he like wouldn't go to a doctor to get it fixed. it's like that with like a tbi like like together yeah it's like there's just a lot so the doctor he did go to a doctor and the doctor said he had tons of stuff going on down there He was like, this guy hasn't been to a doctor in a long time.
And he was like, he's also in need of like, psychological treatment because he's got severe anger issues and he needs to get them checked out.
Yeah. But Marina was like, no. I'm fine.
Yeah, he was like, I'm fine, Eleanor. I'm living.
Get out of here. So his wife moved out.
She was like, I'm not going to deal with this.
And they were still married. And she was like, I do want to work things out with you if you get things under control.
Sounds like a very understanding woman. Yeah, she was just trying to keep the family together.
But in the meantime... he met a patron who came into his bar all the time named Maybel Carlson.
What a bomb name. Right. She was blonde.
She was pretty. She was a hairdresser. Bitch.
Was it Ash who walked into this bar? No.
No. No, it was not. The answer is no. No.
I was going to let that be a joke for a second, but the answer is no.
The answer is no. Absolutely not. No, especially not.
She had also fallen on some kind of hard financial times.
She was a heavy drinker herself not me so she was in that speakeasy quite you're like no not me i don't know her And so she was in this speakeasy quite a bit.
She was actually from... a very wealthy New York City family.
She had married like a really wealthy guy.
She had moved to D.C., but then she ended up divorcing that guy and she had come back to New York.
And obviously New York, especially at this time, was not very inviting if you were falling on financial hard times.
No? So yeah, so... He sees her, he takes a liking to her, and he decides to invite her to stay in his home.
No, thank you. Now, again, he's married and his wife has moved out because she wants to work things out with him, but wants to give him space too.
Right. And he has now brought another woman to live into the house.
Not good. Yeah. So his wife at the time was like, um, excuse me?
Like that's not okay. You can't live with another woman while we're trying to work on our marriage.
Like that's not okay. Correct. But she said he would just explode at her and basically try to attack her.
Yeah. It sounds like she just wasn't going to get anywhere with him.
Yeah. So she basically was like, fuck off.
And she just moved out for good with her, with their one year old son.
So March 17th, 1932, police were called to Marino's home, where Maybell was still staying.
They found Maybelle dead in bed. Marino said he got home the night before and he just thought she was sleeping.
Yeah, they usually are. Just sleeping very soundly.
And the medical examiner said she had bronchial pneumonia.
It was terminal. It was also acute and chronic.
So they said that she had a really bad case of pneumonia that she had probably had for a few days.
Okay. That was what she died of. But he also noted that there were several bruises that were covered with quote, and this is what it said in the report, flesh powder.
Oh my goodness. That's a really funny way to say that.
I know, flesh powder. not think of that when I do my makeup.
I was going to say, I feel like every time I'm going to be like, hold on, Jen, one second.
I just have to put on my flesh powder. I don't have any flesh powder on today.
I don't know if you noticed. And it's weird.
Yeah. It's weird not to have flesh powder on.
I don't feel myself without my flesh powder.
I need it. She was clearly though, unfortunately, she was clearly being abused.
Yeah, obviously. She had a black eye. She had several bruises on her body in several different stages of healing.
Oh, Mabel. And weirdly, Marino was the beneficiary on her $2,000 life insurance payout.
And they had like they didn't stay together a very long time.
No, no. And technically it's like, they were just kind of like having a thing.
He was just trying to give her a place to stay while also clearly having intentions.
Yeah, turns out later, the truth did come out about this later.
She did have pneumonia and was very ill for a couple of days.
But that wasn't it. But it was discovered that Marino had literally force-fed alcohol down her throat. because she was too weak to even hold a cup.
Oh my goodness. until she was completely incapacitated, then he put her in bed, moved the bed under an open window, That's not good for pneumonia.
Oh, you know what else is not good for pneumonia? pouring ice water over the entire bed and the mattress.
What? how does your brain even think to be that able and then wrapping her in a freezing wet cold sheet Oh my God, this poor woman.
Until she died. And that's how she died.
What the? Fuck, so this is who Marino is.
There was also at this same, so that's Tony Marino, that's a little overview him okie dokie at his bar he had you know he had a lot of patrons that came in all the time and a lot of them were like severe alcoholics and we're there like all day and night one of these guys was joseph red murphy He ended up becoming a bartender at the speakeasy, but he was just there to drink.
And would also pour a cup every now and then.
And I think he was getting paid like a dollar a day.
A dollar a day. Literally. And again, he just spent his days drinking whiskey while he was doing his bartending job.
He was also apparently, you know, like he was filthy, never took a shower.
Not the bartender I want. He slept on a mangy sofa in the speakeasy a lot of times.
It would just wake up and like stumble over and pour a drink and down it.
That's sad. He also had a kind of tough life as a child.
Like he had gone from foster home to foster home.
He was very violent in his youth. He had just stumbled into Marino's bar to get a drink and he gave him like a quote unquote job.
Yeah. Now the next person we'll talk about is Frank Pasqua.
Pasqua. Frank Pasqua was 24 years old. He was happily married with a four-year-old son.
And he owned Pascua's burial service. He was like an undertaker.
Mm-hmm. He was actually high. He had actually hired Michael Malloy, who we're going to talk about soon.
I thought you were going to say he was actually high when he went into the bar or something. like that and i was like he's actually high and this is gonna this next thing will kind of show you how everything's like how they all come together.
Yeah. Because we know now that Joseph Murphy... and Tony Marino work together.
Sure. Frank Pasqua actually had hired Michael Malloy every now and then to to just do some odd jobs and like polish coffins and shit when he was like hard up for drinking money.
And he would also let him sleep in the mortuary sometimes.
He sounds very nice until the end. He's the worst.
So don't worry. He actually uses this like for bad.
Oh, no. I know. Because I thought that too.
I was like, well, that was nice of him. And then later I was like, oh, you fucker.
Using it to his advantage. So they became acquaintances, obviously, Mike Molloy and Frank Pasquale.
And together they would go down to Marino's speakeasy and they would drink.
So all of them began to know each other.
Now, Malloy was said to drink literally everything.
He would drink whatever was in front of him, and he would literally down...
In five seconds, and he would just go all day.
Wow. And he also loved the sardine sandwiches that Marino's Bar served. gross which sounds terrible actually like total side note we got a new cat food for the cats and there's like whole ass sardines in it.
And we had to stop getting that because I couldn't handle it.
And actually the cats wouldn't eat them.
They would eat around them. I could not do it.
I don't blame them. They have taste. They have taste.
They have refinement. Aw, Lux and Frankie.
My babies. So Pesqua was a shady fuck. Yeah.
And he was working with insurance companies a lot through the burial service.
And he was doing a lot of shady dealings with payouts because he was getting people to be insured for certain things.
He was charging for certain things that he didn't.
There was a lot of shady shit going on. Marino and him would talk about this a lot, but they would both talk about it in Italian.
According to On the House by Simon Reid, he's the one who said that they would talk about it in Italian a lot so people couldn't hear.
They were like being really shady. Yeah.
So who knows what other dealings they were trying to get got.
Is it fucked up that like I kind of love that?
No, it's cool. It's definitely cool. But then when you hear...
Like this all sounds at first, you're like, oh, my God, this is like so slick and terrible, but like real slick.
No, but what they do is terrible. Also, the most bumbling shit you have...
It gets to a point where you're like, this can't be real.
Well, and like you said, for pocket change. for nothing and it's like obviously nothing is worse doing murdering murdering someone but it's like it came to a point where they were splitting it among like eight of them and it's like It's just not.
It's like here's one cent for you. There's so many people involved in this. that you're like how did all of you just be so okay with just trying to murder someone for money yeah That's a lot.
It was a time in New York. It was a different time.
Yeah, him and Marino would talk a lot about these insurance scams and all that, and he was actually the one who helped Marino get the policy out on Maybel.
Okay. He was the one who was able to scam that and get him to policy.
Probably forged a signature, I bet. Yeah, there was all these things where they used different names.
He just knew what he was doing. Yeah. But all of this wasn't helping Marino's business. because even the money he was getting from these insurance schemes and all that, He wasn't putting them back into the business.
Which is stupid. And it was failing. And the depression is closing in all around them.
He's about to lose this. Yeah. So now Marino is hard up.
He needs cash. He's like, what am I going to do?
And he's discussing this with Frank Pasqua and another regular, 29-year-old Daniel Kreisberg.
Okay, now Kreisberg had three kids and a wife.
He worked as a grocer and by all accounts he was like a good husband and Wow.
He genuinely loved his family. In fact, up until the very end, he said, I only did this for my family.
I was just desperate to give them a good life.
And I did stupid shit and I went down bad paths.
Yeah. Which is like, okay, but like. Murder?
Yeah. It's like, I want to give you that noble patch, but I can't.
But like nobility and like morality go hand in hand and like you're lacking the moral part.
Yeah, that's really sweet that you love your children and your wife and you want to provide for them.
You can't do that with murder. Like murder takes away the cuteness of that.
Murder. Of that thought. Yeah, it's no good.
But yeah, but by all accounts, he was not abusive.
He was not like a violent person. At least there's that.
At least there's that. A little refresh for us.
But that's what got him talking to these creep asses and like getting into this whole thing.
All right. So the three of them sat there and they were like, hey...
We can do this with insurance. Insurance pays out a lot of money.
What can we do? So they're looking around the bar and they're like, Why don't we just kill Malloy and take out an insurance policy on him?
That's really mean. Right? And then they were like, we'll just split it evenly among ourselves.
No one will notice because we'll just get him super drunk and he'll drink himself to death, which no one will be shocked about.
And he was like, nah. And then they picked him because one, he was a drunk and two, he was homeless most of the time and he had no real connections.
He had... He was from Ireland. He had no friends and family here to speak of.
They thought this is a piece of fucking cake.
Right, like quote unquote perfect crime.
Yeah, and they were like, this dude has been drinking every second of every day for his entire life.
As far as they knew, they were like, he's probably going to be weak Like he's probably falling apart as it is.
Honey, he's Irish. Oh, how wrong they were.
He is a biological phenomenon. Wait until you hear what his body endured.
It's outrageous. I remember I was like driving to work one day when I listened to the original episode and I was like, everybody at work holo like let me tell you a story can I tell you about Michael Malloy y'all ever heard of this guy no everyone was like You're a hairdresser, you know that, right?
So July 29th, 1932. Pasqua went to the speakeasy and literally just walked up to Malloy because they were like, we're going to do this.
We're going to take out the insurance on him.
We're going to kill him. So he just walks up to Molloy and he's like, hey, let's get you some insurance.
You work for me. For what, though? And he's like, you work for me.
Like, you know, shit can happen. Let's do this.
Let's make this official. I'm such a great guy.
And Molloy was like, cool, let's do that.
Let's get some money. Because he's like, all right.
It's cool. These are his only friends. He's probably just drunk.
He doesn't give a shit. He's like, sure, get me insurance.
We give a shit. Can I sit here and drink more?
Can we please put that on a shirt? Sure, get me insurance.
Who gives a shit? Get me insurance. These days everybody's like, yeah, get me some motherfucking insurance.
Get me insurance. Who gives a shit? So he took him and literally told the insurance guy, he was like, Okay, he works for me.
He needs some insurance. Like, what if shit happens?
Right. And the insurance guy was like...
Uh, okay. Like, how do you know him? And he was like, and Maloy was like, Maloy said, well, he's like one of my only friends.
Thank you. My heart. And then he's like, he did me really like solid by letting me sleep in the mortuary and he's given me some odd jobs.
And he was like, you know, like, he's a really good guy.
So he was like, who do you want to be the beneficiary of your life insurance?
And he was like, well, this guy. I'm not meant for this.
Frank Pasqua. I'm not meant for this. That's who I want to be the beneficiary.
And they were like, even the insurance guy was like, you sure?
No, no, no. Because to me it seems like you don't really know him.
Like, are you very positive? And he's like, I literally don't care.
He's like, do you have any whiskey back there?
He's literally like, can I go back to the speakeasy, please?
Oh, Malloy. Yeah. So he's the beneficiary.
He put him down for it. And again, Pascua is using the, like, he works for me, so I need the insurance.
But the insurance guys are like, I don't know.
It's weird. It seems creepy. And in fact, this one guy, one of the underwriter guys, was named Charles Minervini. and he said he was immediately dubious about what was happening he was like Oh, bitch, I love that word.
Okay. Yeah, dubious always feels really good.
You did buy a vowel. I did. But he was like, I didn't trust Pasqua.
He was like, he gave me a vibe. I thought he was too slick.
Yeah. I just didn't trust him. Well the whole situation is just shady as fuck.
And he even wrote on the back of the policy, he wrote, The applicant is to be employed by the beneficiary, an undertaker who is to pay premiums.
This beneficiary desires this policy he claims for his protection.
So he's already writing on there like mm-hmm.
Yeah. He's side-eyeing through his writing.
He should have written at the end mm. Mm-hmm.
M-H-M-M-M-M-M-M. Exactly. Now, August 24th rolls around.
He's rejected. The insurance is rejected.
Oh, no. Do you know why? Because it was shady as fuck.
They didn't want to be involved. They were like, no, this doesn't make sense.
You don't need insurance on him. He doesn't really even work for you.
Let's be real. So he goes, let's be real, Pascua.
So Pasquale goes back to the speakeasy and he's like, well, shit.
And he's telling Marino and Criesberry, like, They rejected it.
I don't know what to do. He's like, I thought this was going to be easy.
Like I've done this a million times. I don't know why it didn't work.
Yikes. Now, another patron overhears this, and his name was Joseph Fermento. he was friends with an insurance agent.
So he's listening to this and he's like, He doesn't hear the whole thing.
He just hears like, oh, he got rejected.
And he's like, oh, I think I can help them out.
Trying to be helpful. Yeah. So he's friends with a guy, there's so many Josephs.
He's friends with a guy named Joseph Pareika.
And Parekka was an insurance agent with another company.
And he was always looking for clients. So he was like, hey...
Maybe I can help you. Right. Now he goes, so they try this whole thing over again with this new insurance agent.
It goes to the next guy and it's rejected again.
Come on. For the same thing. Because even this new other insurance agency is like, ah.
It's like, why do you continue to try? Because they want this money.
They've decided they are killing Michael Malloy and they are getting an insurance payout.
Run, Michael. Run to Ireland. Run. So now they brought bartender Joseph Murphy into the fold. because Pascua was like, I can't keep trying to get insurance under our names because red flags are going to start flying up.
So he's like, we also can't keep using Michael Malloy's name.
We're going to have to give him another identity.
This is how stupid they are because first rejection should have been like, you know what, this is too much.
Real bad idea. This is too much. trouble that it's worth like sign from the universe we should just move on second rejection Come on.
Yeah. Move on. Yeah. And then if you're sitting there saying we got to change his name and bring someone else into it.
Guys. No. Get on guys. Just try a different job.
It's not worth it. Right. Let it go. Like, what are you doing here?
But no, he was like, let's bring the bartender into it.
So he brings Joseph Murphy into it and he's like, you have to try to get insurance for him. we'll give him a different name.
And he's like, so we're gonna say that, you know, Pascua is going to call the insurance agent that he just got rejected by.
That guy, Joseph, what is his name? Joseph.
Just Joseph. And he's gonna call him and say, like, I know you guys rejected my insurance, but my friend is trying to get insurance for his friend.
So he's going to be calling you and I just wanted to like recommend you.
Because I had such a good experience. I'm literally thinking of calling Blue Cross Blue Shield and being like, hi, so my name is Ash, but my friend Elena, her friend, like Debra needs some insurance.
So like, can you guys help me out? Like the other person on the line would be like, Can your fucking friend just call and get their insurance?
Who are you? Like what? Pascua was kind of like a worker.
He was a charmer. So he was like, you know what?
I think this guy likes me. I mean, his name's fucking Pascal.
I think he feels bad that I got rejected.
So I'm going to kind of like put this out this.
So he was like, you know what? I'm sending him to you.
He's going to try to get... insurance through you.
Okay. Like I want you to get the business.
Yeah like I'm such a great I'm such a nice guy.
So this Joseph guy had like weird blind faith in Pasquale.
Oh. I don't know why he felt like this very genuine connection with him, but he was like, I will follow you into the dark.
I guess so. I guess it was just like Pasquale being Pasquale.
It was Pasquale's way. Pasquale just Pasquales.
I will die if that is not how you say his name, and we have said it so many times.
Like, how else would you say it? There's no way.
Squaw? Pasque. There's honestly no other way I see to say it.
Pasque. And it's just so good. Yeah, I love it.
Pasque. Pasque. So he actually, this guy, Joseph went against the insurance businesses, rules and policies, by agreeing to drop off the paperwork to be picked up later signed.
No. Now, you're supposed to see the person sign it.
Correct. So you can make sure that this is all like...
This is the person signing it. And he's like, no.
So it's like... And this is supposed to avoid... insurance fraud.
That whole thing. Nope. He was like, I'll just drop it off at school.
Yikes. Yeah, so they put the policy under the name Nicholas Mellory.
So that was who Michael Malloy was now going to become, Nicholas Mallory.
And they were using Joseph as like the guy trying to get it.
This is so involved. They even went as far to get Nicholas Mallory, this fake guy, they got him an employment at a flower shop without him being a real person.
How? By using, because he used, Pasquale used his contacts because again, he's the undertaker.
Everyone knows him. The insurance people know him because he works with them regularly.
The flower shop is right across the street.
And they use, he uses them all the time.
He gives them tons of business. So he's like, can you hire my friend Nick who's never coming to work?
And they're like, absolutely. that's how that went down they just these are his contacts they're gonna they're gonna vouch for him So they did.
As this is going through, They ended up having to bring in two other guys to this whole scheme.
And these guys were named Anthony Toughguy Bastone.
Shut the fuck up. I'm going to start calling you Elena Toughguy or Carter.
Elena tough guy tough guy yeah he was a scary guy He actually provided liquor to a lot of these speakeasies, which was very illegal.
So he was brazen. Like some gangster mob shit.
Bitch, I love that. I know you will. Oh, yeah. literally i fucking love that shit he was a scary dude and according to actually pasquale called him quote A very bad character.
A gunman. Pasquale. Pasquale. Don't call the kettle black.
And the other guy they brought into the fold was Joseph Manglione.
Oh, the only Joseph in the industry. Another Joseph.
So Maglione was a tough guy, a criminal type.
So like we're really getting into the deep here.
Yeah. For not a lot of money. It's like everybody needs to calm down.
The policy they were going to get was going to be $1600.
It's obviously inflated now. But they were going to have to split it all around.
I'm going to look up what it was worth back then.
Yeah, it was going to be less than $300 each back then.
Oh, you already did it, bitch. But I mean from back then.
I was half listening because I was Googling.
You already did it, bitch. But they were able to get through all the shadiness.
They were also able to get something called double indemnity.
And what this is is it's a provision for payment of double the face amount of an insurance policy under certain conditions.
That's a motherfucking loophole. And one of these conditions is death as a result of an accident.
So they were able to get the policy from 1,600 to 3,576. so now we're getting up there now big money I don't know what it is now I'm working on it I hope that you'll be able to google it I hope you'll be able to go get out of the atmosphere and tell me.
So I said six $1600 in 1930 now and it said $1600 in 1930 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $25,586.01 today.
Damn. All right. Good money. So what about three thousand five hundred and seventy six?
Hold on one second. Because that's a significant amount.
What was the number? 3,000. Not enough to murder someone.
576. 3,576, yeah. 3,576. Sorry. That would be worth.
It didn't pop up. It started. Whatever. It's a lot.
It's a lot, guys. Sorry. It's a good amount.
Yeah. The money. It's a good amount now.
I mean, it's more than $25,000 today, so that's a solid amount of money.
But again, we say. Not enough to murder someone.
No money is enough to murder somebody. Now, these guys...
I want to tell you right now so that when all of this shenanigans occur, you can remember what they were referred to in the press later.
Collectively, they were referred to as the murder trust.
Yeah. Doesn't that sound slick and like...
Ooh, the murder trust. It almost sounds like the brain trust, which is... the farthest from what they were.
Do you know what it just reminds me of? And this is exactly who we are as people.
So you thought the brain trust. and then immediately my head just went to the bling ring.
My God. That's honestly, that's about as.
Makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. The bling ring.
Watch that movie if you haven't. It's horrible, but so great.
Well, they all agreed because of this indemnity clause.
Sure. They were like, you know what? It has to be accidental. obviously we want that insurance payout.
So they were like, you know what, like we said, Drinking himself to death is really the only way.
They were like, this is going to be easy. it's going to, nobody's going to question it.
Is that technically classified an accident then?
Yeah, an accidental death. So they would get that double payout.
I feel like for Michael Molloy, that would just be natural causes.
Well, it wouldn't be looked at as intentional or anything because...
He does it so often. Yeah. You know those photos sitting in your phone, the ones that make you smile every time you scroll past them?
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So they were like, let's do this. So Bastogne, who is the tough guy, you know, Anthony Bastogne.
Mob guy. He was actually like, why don't we just straight up murder him by slicing his throat?
He's like, that's usually how I do it. He literally was like, this is a lot of shit for burning someone for money, can we just kill him? no because we won't get the extra money from the accident tough guy well that's the thing it's like the rest of the brain trust or i mean murder trust you mean bling ring was literally like Hey, when we slit people's throats, it doesn't like scream accident to a lot of people.
So no. I picture tough guy like slamming down a whiskey and just being like.
100%. What if he was shaving? He was yelling.
Yeah, screaming. He yells. everything anthony tough guy bastone hey you can hear him down the street i know it yeah Even when he's just telling you something like, I got to go to the grocery store, he's screaming it at your face.
He's so, and he's red, he's angry. It's like a wonder that he never got caught prohibitioning.
It's true. It's a wonder. But he did it.
It really is. But he did it. Well, I guess he must have.
You know, tough guy. Yeah, that's fine. But yeah, tough guy was pissed about it.
He's like, I don't want to do this subtly.
And they were like, well, we have to. So there was these other two tough guys that were hanging out at the bar.
Okay. Edward Smith and John McNally. And they were like... hey, we can help out with whatever you're trying to do.
And they were like, okay, but we, and they were like, that would be great.
We think we know what we want to do, but if we need like extra help we'll grab you and they were like cool we want a piece of the pie though Yeah, and now we know what you're doing.
Sure, you can have like a small piece of pie.
And they were like, nope, we want half the policy.
And they were like, we'll talk to you guys later.
So I don't know. They actually just left them on read.
Yeah, exactly. That's precisely what they did.
They're like so fun to talk to. Red Thursday at 9 p.m.
So they set out, they're like, all right, let's get him to drink himself to death.
They huddled. They did a chant. Hoorah! They high-fived.
Hoorah! All right, let's do this. They would, though.
They're gross. They 100% did. They're so gross.
And I bet they did it on a Saturday because they're for the boys. it was i bet it was oh i love it i love making you laugh so hard that was a good one But Marino decided, he was like, okay, here's how we're going to do it.
He's like, Malloy is going to come in and, you know, usually he gets a tab.
But lately he's been not giving him his tab because he's been running so low on funds himself for the bar that he's been Basically what Malloy was doing was he'd like run out, do some sweeps, sweep. street sweeping and he'd run back in with like a little bit of money drink whatever he could and that's what he would do So he was like, I know if I say to him, you know, you've been such a loyal customer to me and a good friend.
I'm going to give you unlimited tab. He was like, Molloy's going to fucking die.
He's going to be so excited. Literally, the goal is that he will die.
He literally will. And so he comes in and he's like, hey.
Hey, Malloy. Mikey boy. So I've decided that you are just going to be able to drink for free whenever you want.
Molloy did not question this. Why would you?
He did not raise an eyebrow. I'm not gonna lie to you, I wouldn't question that. fucking psyched yeah so he was like let's get it let's begin infinite my ties and it was infinite Because he just started knocking them back all day.
Nothing. But the thing was... Nothing was happening.
He was getting drunk a little bit, but like...
This dude, that was his natural state. They were like, they literally were like, we were shocked.
Like we thought something was wrong. Because they were like, why is he not getting very inebriated?
Everything was right for him. It was. And then they were like, was he just so happy that his... adrenaline was like overriding any effects because he was so psyched.
Maybe. He was just happily getting toasty at the bar.
He was just like, yep, this is great. I don't have to stop.
He ended up drinking a bottle of gin the first night to the face.
And then he just like went to chill at the end, came back in the morning.
Started again in the morning and drank all day until closing.
Did not leave the bar. Isn't that what he usually mostly did anyway?
He does, but he would kind of have to like stop to like... maybe make some money or whatever he doesn't have to stop right he's just sitting on and he can have any liquor he wants right Now it's not like, oh, I can afford this one.
Top shelf, bitch. I can have whatever I want.
So he drank all day the second day until closing.
I love, though, that this is backfiring on the meanie guy.
It backfires. Tony. Forever and always.
It's just like backfiring forever. I love it.
That's what it is. So the third day he comes back in, he starts all over again.
Now he's drinking whiskey. He's drinking gin.
He's drinking vodka. He's just mixing everything.
Party. Party. He left. That just makes me think of that Katya clip where she's like, party.
I think she was making fun of Adore Delano in that clip.
I love it. short though i just love that clip um so he left and was totally fine like barely stumbling out the door after just Just piling liquor into his body.
Oh my gosh. And they're all trying to figure out this shit because they're like, this is going to take forever.
He's not dying. when we're gonna lose all our fucking alcohol he's not drinking himself to death like what is happening So they kept thinking he would die overnight because they were like, maybe, which I'm like, you guys are just sitting around being like, maybe he's just like puking all over himself and asking. aspirating right now like you're just sitting there being like horrible sure hope he's dying of a terrible overdose alone in a gutter like What kind of shitty people are you?
So every time they would think he's just, you know, he must be dying in his sleep.
Nope. He was just coming right back again the next day.
Michael Malloy had a liver made of steel, bitch.
Three more days he did the exact same thing.
Wow. A binge. I mean, he was just hard going at it.
That's cray cray. So then they upped the ante. they start giving him different things, not just alcohol that you drink.
They gave him turpentine. What is that again?
That's like paint thinner. Oh, shit. They gave him some rat poison in it.
They just kept mixing them all together and down the hatch they happily went.
Maybe that's the actual cure to COVID-19 is just drink.
Apparently. All the time. Because then Marina was like, this isn't working either because they were just kind of mixing them into the alcohol.
And he was like, no, we have to literally just change out his shots with like straight up something else.
A pour, like pour him a whole. They started giving him just straight up wood alcohol, which is like in paint thinner, in antifreeze.
Wow. Yeah. So they started taking his shots and they give him a regular shot of like whiskey.
Then the next shot would be a straight shot of like turpentine.
I wonder if he like burned off all of his taste buds or something with the alcohol.
10 milliliters of this stuff should blind you.
Wow. Two to eight ounces should kill an adult.
They gave him a few regular shots of alcohol, then they just straight up switched to wood alcohol, just every single shot.
He didn't even flinch. He asked for more.
He kept asking for them. They kept giving... They gave him several shots of this shit.
What? He was drunk, but just left. Came back the next day totally fine.
So they did the same thing. Shots of whiskey and then shots of wood alcohol.
They did this for several fucking days. He drank straight wood alcohol for days.
And I can't even eat a fucking piece of cheese. without dying.
I'm pissed actually right now. One night they said they watched him drink a quart and a half of wood alcohol in one sitting.
In one sitting. And they were like, at the very least, you should be blind.
What is happening right now? At least he should be fucking like on the floor seizing.
He didn't even have alcohol poisoning. Like no, no symptoms of it.
Wow. He was drunk, but he was like, he would just get up and come back in.
He just was alcoholic. So finally one night he did pass out on the floor, like just crumpled into a ball.
That's the other thing. I'm like, he didn't even pass out any of the other nights there.
So he was appearing to like die. And they were like, like the breathing was getting labored and they were, they all just stood over him and watched.
Like with a timer. Because at this point it had been days and days and they were like, what the fuck?
So they were like, they were just waiting.
They watched. And then all of a sudden he began to snore.
I love that. He was fucking sleeping. He's dozing, bitch.
He's just dozing on the floor. In dreamland, what the fuck is up?
Like, Sandman has come. Enter Sandman. I love it.
Now they decide to, like... We got to do something else.
But again, because, you know, Anthony tough guy over there is being like, wait, I'm the tough guy. and they're like no we have to maintain the subtlety dude we want that insurance payout And he's like, I don't even care.
So now Pasquale was like, ah. let's give him like a bad stomachache.
That'll be fun. Which I'm like, whoa, you took this into let's just like kill him, into let's give him a stomachache too, that sucks.
So that, cause they're trying to like fuck them in the gut now.
So they were like, let's do, let's do. Raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol.
You had me until the wood alcohol. And Pasqua said he saw a man who died after eating oysters and whiskey.
So the brain power we're dealing with is like, whoo.
After eating oysters and whiskey, he said that he died?
Yep. And what he thought, what he theorized, Pasquale, He said he believed that the alcohol would act kind of like...
Kind of like formaldehyde does, and it would preserve the raw oysters in his stomach, and they would just sit there and give him lots of issues.
But what I wonder, and what I wonder, I'm like, fellas, did any of you stop and maybe say, hey, Pascua?
Why do you just want to give him food poisoning?
What are we getting out of that except having to clean up vomit?
I don't understand what the end game there is.
Well, and then he's vomiting up all the stuff that you're giving him.
So that's very counterproductive. He's vomiting out the alcohol.
So Pasquotamy, I'm like, I think you're just like a little bit of like a... a sadist here like you just want to see some bad shit happen but they were like apparently no one asked that damn pasquale So Pasquale was like really into this and they did it.
Okay. He was totally fine. Didn't even have a stomachache.
And he got some fucking oysters out of it.
Let's get it. Downed a tray of oysters soaked in wood alcohol and he was like...
And he kept walking out every night being like, I feel the best I've ever felt.
Like he was like, I'm living. I mean, yeah.
Like Michael Lalloy. To be aphrodisiac up in there.
He's living his best life right now. So they were like, all right, what's the next thing?
What? So Murphy was like, well, you know, he loves those sardine sandwiches that we sell.
And they're like, all right, how can we fuck with those?
So they were like, let's just give him a rotten one. like a rotting sardine sandwich.
And they were like, well, that won't do it alone.
So they were like, no, no, of course. Let's like put poison in it.
And let's also put carpet tacks in it. That'll just tear up his stomach.
In his, like, everything. So they also added bits of broken glass and pieces of tin can to the sandwich.
That's horrible. Handed it to him. Motherfucker ate it and said, this is great.
He's like, did you guys add pickles to this?
I'm getting a crunch. You are killing it.
Like walked out totally fine. He's like, what did I do?
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Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts Spotify or the Wondery app Dude ate shards of glass, tin cans, and carpet tacks and rat poison.
Michael Malloy is infinite. Is that the fault in our stars where it's like, What do they say?
They say like together we are infinite or something.
I never saw that. The stars are infinite.
I don't know. Michael Malloy is infinite.
That's all I know. He's like the childlike empress.
Michael Malloy is pie. He is. He just goes on.
It's truly outrageous. Reading this, I was like, this can't be real.
And it's real. It's real. This is real.
Some real shit. So on the next, they were like, all right, what next?
We can't kill him with drinking straight up turpentine, like, time.
We can't... Give him antifreeze. I hate that I just thought of this, but why didn't one of them just like run him over with the car by accident or like find somebody to run him over with a car?
You should have been in the murder trust.
I know, right? That's fucked up. Keep that in mind.
Because you might be a little onto something here.
It's been a long time since I heard this case.
I think you're in the murder trust. No. So they were like, what's next?
Not the car. They haven't got there yet.
Don't worry. They do. Okay. Maybe my mind knew that I knew that.
I don't know. I think you're in the murder trust with us.
I'm going to go with that. It's me. I like that better.
So then again, it's starting to get cold out.
So on the next really cold night, they were like, let's let him drink till he passes out.
So they did that. Then they dragged him in the snow to a park and then poured five gallons of ice cold water onto him.
That made me cold just thinking about it.
And then they just left. And we're like, well, he'll definitely die out there.
Which I would think that too. Yes. They arrive at the speakeasy the next morning and who's laying on the fucking floor of the speakeasy asleep?
Fuck this bitch. Like Michael Malloy. Like that dude, I hate that this shit happened to him because he should be alive today.
He would be. He would have lived to be 500 years old.
Yes, he would have been a phenomenon. I mean, he is.
He's laying on the floor of the speakeasy when they come in and he's like, shh, you guys.
He's like, guess what happened? You would never guess.
I woke up. It was so cold, but it's warm in here, so I'm good.
I don't even know how I got there. And they're like, My dude, what?
So now they're like, all right, we got to figure out something.
So then one of them was like, a car. Yeah.
What if a car hits him? What if he stumbles out there, a car hits him?
That's believable. That seems like the easiest one before the sardines and the wood paint and the oysters and the stomach aches.
I think there's some sadists among us here and I think they just wanted to see some shit happen.
I think there was some like wannabe scientists who went the evil route and were like, let's just experiment.
I want to see what's going on. So they got another guy, Harry Green, and he drove a cab.
Okay. For a cab company. So they offered him like 150 bucks and he was like, sure, I'll run a guy over with my taxi.
Wow. Why not? Which I'm like, wow, what a ring of friends.
So I want that on a sheet. Like, A taxi driver.
Sure, I'll run a guy over with my taxi. For $150.
That's fine. That's worth it. So January 30th, 1933, they said they were going to do it.
They're like, let's do this. We have a plan.
They had a real plan. They crammed all seven of these idiots into a taxi with Michael Malloy after they had already gotten him super drunk.
And they basically brought him to a place, all of them together, Then Maglione and I think Bastogne at that point, pulled him out of the car, stood in the middle of the road holding him up.
And then just had Green drive the taxi at them and they jumped out of the way.
Also, did we think no one was going to see us do that?
That's... Well, what happened the first time was they actually had to move because one of them, I think it was Maglione, like yelled stop.
And made him stop because he was like, someone just turned on their light at a residence.
Oh my gosh. So they had to bring him somewhere else.
They tried again. Green missed him with the car.
How do you miss a pedestrian with a car?
Twice. Usually intentionally you miss them.
He misses him twice. And then the third one, he finally did hit Michael Malloy.
Why? 45 miles an hour. I need to know about his taxi driving skills.
Yeah. So they said he hit the windshield hard.
He rolled into a gutter nearby. So they were like...
That's it. He rolled into the gutter and they were like, he's gone.
Yeah. Let's leave him there. Everything will be cool.
Aw. So the next morning they're like... Waiting for the headlines.
You know? Body discovered. No. No? Nothing.
Nothing's coming up. Michael Malloy. Didn't hear a damn thing.
No. So they were like, what the fuck? So they went back to the spot He's nowhere to be found.
And they were like, what the fuck? So they were like, okay, you know what?
Maybe he crawled. away somewhere to try to like get help or he crawled away to like be alone or something like that.
We're just gonna leave it. Somebody will find him.
He's definitely dead. But they're starting to panic because now a day or two is going by and nothing's happening.
So now they're like, well... We need to find someone that resembles him and we need to put his identification card into their pocket and commit even further fraud and an traditional murder. yep so it's now this whole thing of like let's get a few like thousand dollars for murdering someone easily is now turning into into multiple murders, fraud.
Like a full-blown second job. like faking death.
It's, it's a lot, it's like HH Holmes, but like the generic version, like, Like Mr. Pibb.
The off-brand version. That very, very off-brand version that you're like, I don't even know if that's edible. yeah no that's what this is Ew, Mr. Pibb.
So February 6th, they go out looking for a fake Mike Malloy because they haven't heard anything still.
Right. they finally find a guy and they agree they're going to take this guy out because Because they were shocked at how much this guy resembled him, apparently.
Just this random guy? This random guy. 31-year-old Joseph Patrick Murray.
And he had moved from Ireland as well. When you said Murray, I was like, what do we have against the Irishman out there?
What do we have? Yeah. What is this about?
Tell me a little bit about that. Well, he said on this day that Joseph, so Murray said that he was looking for work And he had stopped into the speakeasy to grab a drink.
They approached him. And they were like, hey, are you looking for work?
I heard you talking to someone. And he was like, yeah.
So they were like, oh, we can offer you some work doing these odd jobs around here.
And they were like, cool, that's awesome.
They were like, first, let's celebrate this new...
This new employment of yours. Let's drink.
So they had him drink until he was passed out.
Then they put the card, the identification card in his pocket and loaded him into Green's taxi.
Oh, Then they tried to do the whole thing, like the whole fucking hitting him with the car thing that they did with Malloy.
Yeah. but it was light out and there was too many people out.
So when they started to do it, they were like, we should probably put them back in and wait for a little while.
Yeah. The most bumbling idiots I've ever seen in my entire... This is the most unslickest crime I have ever seen committed.
So they just bring him back to Marino's speakeasy and like dump him on the floor for a little while. wait for it to get dark and for people to go inside and then they're like okay let's do this again Oh man.
I need to know like what their wives were thinking about like where they were.
They did the same thing with Murray and they hit him at 30 miles an hour.
The thing that really got them though was they didn't look around well enough.
Because a shop owner named Valen Jenkins witnessed the entire thing.
And must have just been like, what the fuck am I witnessing?
What the fuck is going on? Like they're holding him up in the middle of the street running out of the way and then jumping in the car i've never seen a squealing off like this So he called 911, who showed up right away.
He also got their license plate number. Iconic.
So he was brought to the hospital as, and again, in his pocket is an ID card for Nicholas Mallory.
Right. He was there for 55 days with internal injuries, five broken ribs and a concussion.
He survived. I'm so glad. yeah so pasqua is still not letting this go pasqua is not letting all this he's like nope He contacts a doctor who he usually has sign off on his death certificates for his business, the doctor that lives across the street from him.
His name is Dr. Frank A. Menzala. And he was like, listen, doc.
He offers him some money and he says, when we call you to a death scene soon.
Can you just pronounce the guy dead? And can you pronounce him dead of pneumonia and sign the certificate?
Like, no questions asked. And this guy's like...
Sure. Which is all right. Like, where do you find a doctor like that?
So the plan was this. Marino was going to find a room that they could rent. like some kind of like tenement house or something.
The only thing that this had to have was a gas line in the room.
Which I guess they used for like lamps and stuff.
Yeah. Because at first I was like, why would you have a castle?
The 30s were a different time. But I didn't even think about that.
I was like, oh. Isn't that terrifying? It really is.
So they were thinking what they were going to do was get this guy, bring him up to the room.
They were going to gas him to death. Because that's harder to detect.
I just can't. Yeah. So then they were going to get the doctor up there.
The doctor was going to look at him and go, oh, no, pneumonia.
Sign it off, and then boom, they get the life insurance policy.
Oh, yeah. They're still for that. They're like, we're getting this one way or another.
So five days later. Michael Malloy walks into Marino's speakeasy.
He had been at Fordham Hospital with broken bones. motherfucker survived.
Yeah, he did. He was found by a police officer and brought to the hospital.
They said, quote, he was covered with blood.
His head was all cut. His clothes, face, shirt, and everything he had on was all covered in blood.
I asked him for his name and he told me his name was Michael Malloy.
That's what the police officer said. He also didn't remember anything that happened.
He didn't? So wild. So he was not suspicious of his friends At all.
I really hate that. I hate it. Because he didn't even connect them to it.
He remembered nothing of that night. So he was like, guys...
Guess what? You'll never believe it. Someone hit me with a car.
Meanwhile, they had tried three separate times.
What? They're like, yeah, we did. So now they're back on their bullshit to kill Malloy.
Because now he's back. So they're like, cool, we don't have to worry about a lookalike anymore.
Let's just go with the original plan. But let's gas Malloy now.
Oh, I hate that. This dude who has survived how many attempts on his life by these bumbling assholes and this brain trust.
Right. And now they're just going to gas him to get that fucking payout?
He deserved to live. He did. I mean, everybody does.
So February 22nd, he's in the speakeasy and they challenge him to a drink off, a couple of the guys.
If I was Michael Malloy, I'd be like, boys.
Oh, he would... Yeah? That's what my suspicion would raise.
I'd be like, do... Do you know me? Have you been... Hello.
I ate a sardine sandwich with tax in it, so let's be real.
But Molloy was just psyched to be hanging out and drinking.
Bonding. Yeah. He thought these were his bros.
Exactly. And so one of them is just drinking whiskey and they're giving him the wood alcohol. again yeah they're trying to get him fucked so he finally does start getting like really drunk and He ended up drinking two quarts of wood alcohol.
Wow. And then he did pass out. And they said he was actually frothing at the mouth. really intense.
So they dragged him to the room that they had rented.
They were and it was Joseph Murphy who was like bringing him in.
And when the landlady was like, uh, what's this about?
He was like, oh, this is my brother and he's like really drunk, but he's also really sick.
So I just need to get him up there so he can rest.
And she's like, cool. So they got him in there.
They had a rubber hose. They secured the rubber hose to the gas line. stuck the other end into his mouth while he was passed out, wrapped a towel around his face to block all his airways. and then just turned on the gas.
That's so horrific. Yeah. And at one point they actually stopped because Kreisberg was like, I don't know if I can do this.
It was Kreisberg and Murphy who were in the room.
And Kreisberg was the one turning the knob.
He's the one with three kids and the one that's like... It's a little late for that, though.
Supposedly a good... Father and husband?
He's not. And he's, you can tell that this guy is just a giant wimp.
Oh, yeah. And he's just a wimp and he's clearly...
I mean, how do you get there? How do you get there?
You can't get there and then go... Oh, no, I don't want to do this.
Like, honey, you're your hands on the knob.
You've stuck a fucking hose in his mouth and now you don't want to do it at all.
You're here. Right. It's like you don't get to pretend that you have a conscience suddenly.
All of a sudden. But Murphy was like, dude, if you don't turn that back on, we're all gonna get it.
Because these guys were like getting pissed at this.
This was obviously frustrating all of them.
They all have like mob ties and like criminal world ties, underworld ties. especially tony and they've all made it pretty clear if this doesn't go off like a hitch and one of you fucks up it's gonna be you Right.
So Murphy was like, I don't want to get got.
Like, just turn it on. We're already here.
I got kids. And so he turned it back on and Michael Malloy finally died.
Oh, so sad. So they pretended he was still drunk and sick and they called doctor.
You know, Dr. Manzella. You know, doctor.
You know, doctor. So... He comes in. They tell the landlord.
Oh, landlord. The landlord. The landlord.
Landlord. That's what I would want to be if I was a land person.
Hell yeah. I just really want to be a land person.
I want to be a land person. But yeah, so they tell the landlady like, you know, my brother's sick, so I'm having a doctor come check him out.
So the doctor comes, he's pronounced dead, and he gives Pascua the info for the insurance, and he wrote the cause of death. as pneumonia.
So he did everything they had to. Fuck that guy.
So now everything is going smoothly finally.
For now. It's happening. He was promptly buried because they got to get him in the ground.
Right. They got him in the ground. Because also, who's the undertaker?
Who are you going to call? Frank Posquois.
That's who you're going to call. That's who you should never call.
So Pasqua, now that he's got that all taken care of, he goes to the insurance company to collect.
Oh, of course. The insurance agent said, cool, cool, cool.
When can I see the body? Oh, no. And he was like, huh?
And then he's like, well, it's already buried.
And they said immediately, ding, ding, ding, red flags went up.
They were like, no, we're supposed to see the body, bro.
Like, you're an undertaker. You know that.
Right. So an investigation immediately started.
Motherfucker. The insurance people were like, no, police, hello, like something's weird.
They eventually, I really recommend you read this book because they go into great detail of how this all happened. they eventually connected them all through the insurance fraud and just the sloppiness of this whole thing.
And they all started turning on each other and they were all like, some of them were confessing.
Some of them were saying they didn't have anything to do with it, but they listen to somebody else do this.
Murphy cracked first. Of course Murphy did.
He gave it all. He just gave it all. He was like, I got kids.
And then Criesberry, or excuse me, Criesberry.
That is not his name. That sounds like a cereal.
That's the newest Wild Thornberry. Uh, Kreisberg cracked immediately and he was like, I have kids and I didn't I didn't want to get killed and they kept telling me I would get killed if I didn't do it.
Like he's played that whole thing. Marino stayed silent.
And he was like, no, I didn't do it. I don't know anything about this.
I don't know him. I don't know them. I don't know anything.
But then he was faced with everybody else confessing and they were like, yeah, like we know you're like the head. one of this so like maybe so he did start like letting things out but it was mainly making him look like he didn't have a lot to do with it but he was just kind of like he just fell into it yeah Pasqua was stonewalling.
He was like, nope, I don't know anything about this.
But then he fucked up. Oh, what did he do?
I forget. Because remember, he was supposed to...
Not, you know, this whole Michael Malloy and Nicholas Mallory thing.
They're not supposed to know that this is Mike Malloy.
Right, it's supposed to be Nicholas Mallory.
It's supposed to be Nicholas Mallory. So they started talking about the doctor and how he knew the doctor and how the doctor knew Nicholas Mallory.
And he says, you know, he was like, how did you know that this doctor was on this case?
Like, I know you know the doctor, but like...
You're not supposed to know that he was on this case.
And he was like, Pascual says, I know it for a fact.
And he said, how did you know it? And he said, because Malloy told me.
And he was like, you mean Mike? Like, what do you... And he did that, like, he was like, you mean Mike?
Like, to try to get him to be like, yeah.
And he said, yes. Oh, and then he goes, you called him Mike.
And he was like, oh no, you know what I, Mallory, like We used to call him Malloy sometimes because I heard it wrong the first time.
Like, no, I'm talking about Nick, not Mike.
And he's like, nope, you're talking about Mike Malloy because you just fucked up.
Right. Now I know that it's you. Right. Like he totally fucked himself over.
I love that. That's like Scott Peterson when he was like, oh yeah. my wife was and everybody was like excuse me that we don't know We don't know that, so why is that past tense?
So immediately, shit went down. Everybody started confessing.
They all got caught. I love it. One of the newspaper articles at the time said the headline was insurance murder. trust seen in arrest of five for man's death.
And it says, barring the most unbelievable details of an alleged murder trusts, cold-blooded killing of at least one man and a gruesome plot to defraud insurance companies.
District Attorney Samuel Foley today announced the arrest of a Bronx undertaker. and four others for homicide and a former Republican alderman from Harlem as an accessory.
That's the doctor. What an idiot. Yeah. The success of that investigation was attested by the appearance of the accused men in the lineup at Pointe police headquarters this morning and the fact that two others are now being detained as material witnesses.
Because now they're getting all the other people that they involved in this.
Of course. They were all found guilty. All five of them.
And they were all sentenced to the electric chair.
Wow. And on June 7, 1934, they were all put to death.
Gemini season bit. Now, one other headline I'll just leave you on because this was huge.
Oh, of course. It was for the New York Times, May 13th, 1933, and it was entitled Insurance murder charged to five.
Tale of horror is told. And it says five men were charged with murder and two others were detained as material witnesses yesterday after an inquiry into charges that a derelict man had been murdered to collect, and it says $1,788. for which the defendant had insured him.
A story of horror was unfolded by the police, and the DA Samuel J. Foley of the Bronx.
It concerned a man who proved so hardy of life that another man with a false identification card almost was done to death as a substitute.
The authorities were admittedly skeptical two weeks ago when they were informed of the plot. but their first search for proof not only uncovered the murder of Michael Malloy, a former stationary fireman, but led them on to clues that indicated a woman may have also been a victim.
Talking about me, though. Right. Talking about me.
So that... Thank you. Is the story of Michael Malloy.
The motherfucking indestructible. A.K.A.
Mike the Durable. Which I love. I love that.
Or Iron Mike. I love Mike the Durable. What did they say?
So what of life? So hearty. So hearty. So hardy.
He's so hardy. I love that. I'm feeling so hardy.
He truly is. Ed Hardy thought that he was Hardy.
No way. Mike Molloy was the Hardy. Mike Molloy is the Hardiest.
The OG Hardy. That story just blew. And that's like an overview.
Oh, yeah. Read this book. Go look it up because it is.
Like all the intricacies of these insurance scams are like crazy.
I love it. It's so crazy. I wish that Mike didn't die though.
I wish that the ending was like, and they tried again and somehow the gas didn't even do it.
I know. I would have. I loved that. I know.
Because I feel like, man, he earned it. He must be vibing wherever he is.
I bet he is. I bet he got reincarnated as like something diesel.
I bet he did. Like, I don't know, like an oak tree.
But I want better for him. I do too. Not that I have anything against oak trees.
No. If any oak trees are listening, I'm like, we're not.
We love you. That was really funny. We would never talk shit about oak trees.
I'm screaming. Ever. I couldn't catch myself for a second.
Oh, I love it. Oak trees. All right. We hope you guys keep listening.
We really do. After that whole oak tree bit.
The oak trees specifically, I hope you keep listening.
We hope you, oak trees. Keep it weird. And oaky.
But not so weird that you do this. Yeah, no, not so weird that you do any of that.
Don't kill Mike Malloy. Keep it Mike Malloy weird, though.
Yeah, keep it real weird that way. I mean, maybe don't for your personal health.
Yeah, I was going to say. Bye. Bye. Thank you.
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