Early Life
Diamond was born July 10, 1897, to Sara and John Moran, who immigrated from Ireland in the fall of 1891 to 951 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia. In 1899, Jack's younger brother Eddie Moran was born. Jack and Eddie both struggled through grade school, while Sara suffered from severe arthritis and other health issues. On December 24, 1913, Sara died from complications due to a bacterial infection and high fever. John Moran, Sr. moved to Brooklyn shortly afterwards. Diamond soon joined a New York street gang called the Hudson Dusters. Diamond's first arrest was for burglary occurred when he broke into a jewelry store on February 4, 1914, with numerous arrests following through the remainder of his life. Diamond served in the U.S. Army during World War I, but deserted in 1918 or 1919, then was convicted and jailed for desertion.
After his release, Diamond was hired by "Little Augie" (Jacob Orgen) to murder an enemy, with Diamond then becoming Augie's personal bodyguard. Diamond was shot twice when Louis Buchalter, seeking to move in on Orgen's garment district labor rackets, shot and killed the latter.
Read more about this topic: Jack Diamond (gangster)
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“It is easy to see that, even in the freedom of early youth, an American girl never quite loses control of herself; she enjoys all permitted pleasures without losing her head about any of them, and her reason never lets the reins go, though it may often seem to let them flap.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“This spending of the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)