Iron Mike, the indestructible Irishman
Mike Malloy was an Irish man who lived in New York. Once employed as an engineer, the Great Depression meant that there were few jobs. Mike was struggling to make ends meet and ended up drinking most nights.
Times were desperate for a lot of people in the 1930’s, but few would go as far as a gang eventually known as The Murder Trust. The men decided to take out some life insurance policies on someone, kill them and claim the money. They just had to find an easy target.
In December 1932, a bartender named Joseph Murphy created 3 policies for his “brother” Nicholas Mellory. Nicholas didn’t exist, but they planned to pass their victim off as the deceased when they went to claim the money. The other members of the gang were Tony Marino – the owner of the bar, Frank Pasqua – an undertaker and Daniel Kreisberg – a fruit seller.
The life insurance money was worth over $30,000 in todays economy. Mike Malloy was the perfect person to play Nicholas Mellory, he just had no idea of his role.
At first they tried to kill him with alcohol poisoning, Mike was broke so when all the drinks were suddenly “on the house” he was ecstatic, but no matter how much he consumed, he was still standing.
The gang tried methanol and some highly poisonous ethanol that wasn’t suitable for human consumption, but it seemed as though Mike Mallory was indestructible.
They came up with a new plan, a sandwich that would surely kill him, carefully prepared with gone off sardines, carpet tacks, glass and shredded tin. Mike asked for a second helping.
They then tried some oysters mixed with denatured alcohol, something that would kill most people, not Mike Malloy.
Next they left Mike out in the freezing cold, soaked him in water and left him to succumb to the elements, Mike was back at the bar the next day.
The next to join the gang was Hershey Green, a cab driver who agreed to run Mike over.
On January 30th 1993 Mike was brought to Fordham hospital after being found on the side of the road. He suffered from a concussion, broken shoulder and a possible fractured skull.
The gang kept their eyes on the headlines for news of the Irishmans death but just a week later Mike was back at the bar, ready for a drink.
There was a botched machine gun attack, the time they just hit him over the head and finally they took a tube from the gas light in a hotel room and placed it in his mouth while he slept off yet another night of free drink.
Mike was finally killed on the 10th attempt. A doctor signed off on his death as pneumonia and listed him as Nicholas Mellory, for a fee.
The gang had spent about half of the money they would receive from the policy just trying to kill Mike and give him free food and drink. He wasn’t offered much in death, his funeral was little more than $20 and the Murder Trust didn’t even have his remains embalmed. A mistake that would come back to haunt them.
When the authorities got wind of what happened Mike Malloy was exhumed and given a full autopsy, revealing he had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The 5 members of the Murder trust were put on trial and convicted, Green was sent to prison and the 4 others were executed in the electric chair the following year. It took ten attempts to kill Iron Mike, but just one to kill the cowards who pretended to be his friends.
