Credit: Dangerous Minds / Public Domain

Most of the time, criminals aren’t presented in the media as evil individuals capable of murder and theft. Instead, they are typically presented as charming, dashing rogues who elude the law’s long grasp like they have a telepathic knowledge of what the police will do next, and face the world on their own terms.

It’s a nice little fantasy, but nothing more. The truth is that people who turn to crime are often regular people doing what they feel they have to out of desperation. They have little idea of what they’re doing, as there isn’t a handbook for this lifestyle. Thus, the tales that portray criminals as corrupt, bumbling idiots who would sell their grannies for drinking money are actually somewhat more on the money than any one of us would like to admit.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the story of Michael Malloy and the Murder Trust. A story that would be absolutely hysterical (not to mention completely unbelievable) if it weren’t true.

If you want to talk desperation, there are a few times when people were more desperate than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. While the Bronx in New York City was actually one of the districts that were hit less hard than many other urban areas, due to an almost complete restructuring of its civic infrastructure from the New Deal, that wasn’t to say that thousands of people there didn’t suffer badly as a direct result.

One of those who suffered the worst was poor old Michael Malloy, an Irish immigrant to the United States who had worked as a firefighter and a station engineer. In February 1933, he found himself a jobless, homeless alcoholic at 60 years old. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the acquaintances he did have, who all frequented a speakeasy on Third Avenue, had decided that no one would miss Malloy and concocted a scheme to make a buck on his unfortunate demise.

A demise that they would hasten along at said speakeasy. Or at least they’d try to.

The first thing they did was find a corrupt insurance salesman who was willing to take out a $3,500 life insurance policy on Malloy. A sum of money that translates to over $80,000 in 2026, a literally lifesaving amount at the height of the Depression, even for five people. The group of five acquaintances included the speakeasy’s bartender, Tony Marino. In the guise of taking pity on Malloy, he gave the poor lad an unlimited tab and told him to drown his sorrows for as long as he wanted.

The idea was that Malloy would drink himself to death. He did not. Not even when Marino added antifreeze to his drink. Or Turpentine. Or Horse liniment. Hell, not even rat poison would down Malloy. They resorted to giving him a sandwich of spoiled sardines and thumbtacks, yet even that wouldn’t kill Malloy. Therefore, the gang chose another tactic. They waited until Malloy had passed out on a cold night, carried him to a park, threw him into a mound of snow and dumped a bucket of water on him.

This might have actually worked, but thankfully, the police found him and took him to a homeless shelter, which saved his life. The gang abandoned all sense of subtlety and instead just hit the poor guy with a car. One of the gang worked as a cab driver, and despite being hit at 45 miles per hour and breaking most of the bones in his body, Molloy still survived. He was just built differently, and he was building a reputation for himself to match as The Juggernaut, Iron Mike Malloy.

Eventually, the group finally got Iron Mike by waiting until he passed out, taking him up to one of their apartments, putting a hose to his mouth that was connected to a coal gas jet and turning it on. A fucking horrible way to go, I’m sure you’ll agree. However, a small semblance of hope can be found in the fact that the cops had heard tales of ‘Mike the Durable’ and the group of his “friends” that were trying desperately to kill him.

Thus, when the rumours became that he was finally dead, the cops decided to investigate. Malloy’s body was exhumed and forensically examined. Within weeks, all five members of the gang, known as ‘The Murder Trust’ in the press, were arrested. All of them were found guilty. One for attempted murder, who was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was lucky compared to the other four, who were convicted of first-degree murder.

Not many homeless, jobless, alcoholic victims of murder get the justice they deserve, but Michael Molloy did. Let’s hope that other people who slip through the cracks of society the way he did get that kind of justice in future.