Jacob Shapiro

Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro (May 5, 1899 – June 9, 1947) (also known as Charles Shapiro, Morris Friedman, Samuel Dishouse, and Samuel Disnahusen ) was a New York mobster who, with his partner Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, dominated labor racketeering in the garment industry in New York for two decades and led the Murder, Inc. organization.

Early years Jacob Shapiro was born either "around 1895" or 1897 or 1899 in either Minsk or Odesa. He emigrated to the United States with his family in 1907 or thereabouts. L&G organized two trade associations, one limited to seventeen rabbit skin dressing companies, and a second that covered dressers of furs other than rabbit skins.

The two associations sought to eliminate any competition from non-member groups by threats, followed by acid or bomb attacks if not complied with. The associations then informed the companies who dealt in furs that they were to obtain their product exclusively from those fur dressers named by the association at the prices set by the association. The associations also sought to eliminate any unions that threatened its monopoly, murdering a union organizer who had rejected one of the associations' demands.

A November 1937 FBI wanted poster for Shapiro and Buchalter. The government indicted Shapiro, Buchalter and 156 others for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1933. Shapiro and Buchalter were convicted in 1936 and sentenced to two years in prison and fined $10,000 apiece. Rather than serve their sentence, both went into hiding. Shapiro turned himself in a year later, complaining that being hunted wherever he went was like being in jail. On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz was shot in a tavern in Newark, New Jersey, dying the following day.

After Schultz's death, Shapiro and Buchalter became subject to even more attention from both federal and state prosecutors. When Shapiro and Buchalter were convicted of federal Sherman Act violations in 1936 both went into hiding for more than a year. When Shapiro finally surfaced he faced prosecution by Dewey's office for his labor racketeering activities in the garment industry. Shapiro pled guilty to a charge of extortion in 1943. A year later, when he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, Shapiro burst into tears.

When Buchalter was on trial in New York for murder in 1941 Shapiro allegedly smuggled him a note that read, "I told you so." Shapiro died in prison in 1947, convinced that he and others would have remained free had Dewey been killed.