Death
On December 18, 1931, Diamond's enemies finally caught up with him, shooting him after he had passed out at a hideout at 67 Dove Street in Albany, New York after a night party on the day of his trial in Troy, New York. The killers shot him three times in the back of the head at approximately 5:30 AM.
However, six shots were heard, so there is reason to believe a minimal struggle took place.
There has been much speculation as to who was responsible for the murder, including Dutch Schultz, the Oley Brothers (local thugs), the Albany Police Department, and relatives of Red Cassidy, another Irish gangster at the time. According to William Kennedy's O Albany, Democratic Party Chairman Dan O'Connell, who ran the local political machine, ordered Diamond's execution, which was carried out by the Albany Police. The following are Dan O'Connell's own words recorded during a 1974 interview by Kennedy and appears on pages 203 and 204:
- "In order for the Mafia to move in they had to have protection, and they know they'll never get it in this town. We settled that years ago. Legs Diamond...called up one day and said he wanted to go into the 'insurance' business here. He was going to sell strong-arm 'protection' to the merchants. I sent word to him that he wasn't going to do any business in Albany and we didn't expect to see him in town the next morning. He never started anything here."
- "Prior brought him around here...but brought him around once too often. Fitzpatrick finished Legs."
O'Connell added that William Fitzpatrick (a Police sergeant at the time and later chief) and Diamond were "sitting in the same room and (Fitzpatrick) followed him out. Fitzpatrick told him he'd kill him if he didn't keep going."
Given the power that the O'Connell machine held in Albany and their determination to prevent organized crime other than their own from establishing itself in the city and threatening their monopoly of vice, most people accept this account of the story. In addition it has been confirmed by other former machine officials. Alice Diamond, his long suffering wife, was murdered two years after Legs. Chief Fitzpatrick himself was shot and killed in his own office by an Albany police detective, John McElveney, in 1945. Detective McElveney was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He was released in 1957, when his sentence was commuted by Governor Averill Harriman.
Read more about this topic: Jack Diamond (gangster)
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