Final Years
In 1931, Higgins led his men into the Manhattan's Blossom Heath Inn on West 57th Street, where he visited the owner, Frank McManus (McManus was the brother of George "Hump" McManus, a suspect in the 1928 murder of Arnold Rothstein). When Higgins refused to leave, arguing with the owner over a shipment of beer and liquor, a fight broke out in which Higgins suffered serious knife wounds. Although taken to Polyclinic Hospital, Higgins refused to identify his attacker while recuperating.
Later that year, Higgins and Bailey were suspected in the death of Robert "Whitey" Benson, a member of Higgins' organization who was suspected of secretly working for rival Dutch Schultz and informing him on information regarding Higgins' organization, including details on liquor shipments. Although arrested for the murder, the two were once again acquitted due to lack of evidence.
On the night of June 18, 1932, after attending his daughter's tap dance recital at the Knights of Columbus clubhouse in Prospect Park, Higgins was gunned down in the street while trying to protect his 7-year-old daughter. He was taken to the Methodist Episcopal Hospital by a local patrolman and, despite police attempts to question him; Higgins refused to answer any questions regarding the shooting and died the following afternoon.
In recent years another mysterious death has been ascribed to Higgins. The British criminal historian, Jonathan Goodman did a thorough study of the death at Long Beach, Nassau County, New York, on 8 June, 1931, of Starr Faithfull. Starr Faithfull's body was found at the beach at the city of Long Beach, presumably drowned. But was she drowned accidentally, or was it suicide, or was she murdered? As the weeks passed and the story was stripped by the newspapers, it turned out Starr's life was a tangle due to sexual mistreatment as a teenager by her mother's cousin, Mayor Andrew Peters of Boston. Peters (best recalled as the Mayor during the 1919 Boston Police Strike) kept the sexual relationship going for years, and paid the mother and stepfather of Starr money for their silence. Starr was also interested in other men, including a steamship physician, Dr. George Jameson Carr. But Carr appeared to be breaking the relationship off. So there was a strong possibility that Starr committed suicide.
Goodman discovered that Higgins had learned that Starr had an irregular sexual relationship with Peters, and her family had been extorting money from this Mayor. Goodman concluded that Higgins had Starr kidnapped and driven to Island Park, Long Island, where he tried to force her to divulge details of her affair with Peters. He was unsatisfied with her answers, and beat her. Thinking he had beaten her to death, he ordered the body dumped. However, Faithfull was still alive when she was thrown into the ocean, because her cause of death was drowning.
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