Vannie Higgins

Charles "Vannie" Higgins (1897 – June 19, 1932) was a New York mobster and one of the most prominent bootleggers during the Prohibition era. Known as "Brooklyn's Last Irish Boss", Higgins was notorious for his ability to escape conviction for the crimes for which he was charged.

In his letters to Jack Conroy, Frank Mead mentions that Higgins was a second cousin: "A relative of mine (2nd. cousin), by name Vannie Higgins, was machine-gunned to death in Brooklyn when the syndicate got going good."

Alleged involvement in the death of Starr Faithfull

In recent years another mysterious death has been ascribed to Higgins. The British criminal historian, Jonathan Goodman did a thorough study of the death of Starr Faithfull, whose body was found on the beach at Long Beach, Nassau County, New York, on 8 June 1931. Although Faithfull's cause of death was determined to be drowning, it was unclear whether the death was a homicide, suicide, or accident. 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.