He was known throughout the underworld as “Mad Mick,” but when he gunned down five children in Harlem and killed a poor child, Vincent Cole became forever known as “Mad Dog” Cole.
Vincent Cole was born on July 20, 1908 in Gweedore, a small town in County Donegal, Ireland. When he was a baby, his parents moved to the United States and settled in a cold-water apartment in the Bronx. After five of his siblings died from accidents or illness, his father left the family and was never seen again. Cole’s mother died of pneumonia when he was seven, and Cole and his older brother Peter were taken by upstate New York and placed at Mt. Loretto Orphanage on Staten Island. The Cole brothers were in the orphanage for three years, and both were repeatedly beaten for insubordination. They eventually escaped and insinuated themselves in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, where they became members of the notorious street gang called The Gophers.
Soon the Cole brothers were working as sidekicks for the infamous bootlegger Dutch Schultz. They were paid a hundred dollars a week to do Schultz’s dirty work, which included a few murders when necessary. Finally fed up with Schultz’s well-known cheapness in paying his crew, Cole approached Schultz and demanded that he become a full partner. “I’m not your shoe shiner,” Cole told Schultz. “I’ll show you a thing or two.”
Cole formed a small gang, which included his brother Peter, and his girlfriend and future wife, Lottie Kreisberger, who did little more than keep Cole company. Cole’s first move on Schultz was a brazen daytime robbery of Schultz’s Sheffield Dairy in the Bronx. Schultz was so angry at Cole’s betrayal that he stormed into the 42nd precinct and told a roomful of police officers, “I’ll buy a house in Westchester for anyone who can kill that Mick[Cole].
Cole then set about trying to lure members of Schultz’s gang away from Schultz and Cole’s gang. Through an old school acquaintance named Mary Smith, the Cole brothers arranged a meeting with one of Schultz’s best boys, Vincent Barelli. When Barelli rebuffed his advances, he was shot dead. Mary, horrified by what she had just seen and unaware of her, tried to run away from her, but Cole chased after her and shot her in the head in the middle of the street. A few days later, members of Schultz’s gang machine-gunned Peter Cole while he was driving in Harlem. Peter Cole’s death precipitated a full-scale war between Vincent Cole and Schultz, which resulted in at least 20 murders.
Needing money fast, Cole accepted an assignment from Italian mob boss Salvatore Maranzano to kill Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, at Maranzano’s downtown office. Maranzano paid Cole $25,000 up front, with another $25,000 upon completion of his assignment. Cole was in the lobby of Maranzano’s office building, with a machine gun hidden under his coat, waiting for the elevator, when three men ran down the stairs and crashed into him. Knowing who he was, the men told Cole that they had just killed Maranzano and for Cole to beat him before the police arrived. Cole smiled, turned and walked out of the building, whistling happily, knowing that he had just pocketed twenty-five grand for doing absolutely nothing.
To further inflate his bank account, Cole began kidnapping top aides to gang leaders, such as Owney “The Killer” Madden, an Irishman. Madden paid Cole $35,000 for the return of his partner Big Frenchy DeMange, who co-owned with Madden at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Cole then kidnapped Madden’s leader at the Stork Club, the very popular Sherman Billingsley. Once again Madden paid the ransom and Billingsley soon returned to the Stork Club, happily in good health.
Next on Cole’s hit list was Joey Rao, Schultz’s top-numbered man in Harlem. Rao and a group of his boys were standing outside their Helmar Social Club on East 107th Street, handing out pennies to the neighborhood kids, when Cole and his gang came around the corner in a touring car. Cole let loose several rounds from a machine gun, missing Rao and his men completely, but instead hitting five children. Five-year-old Michael Vengali was shot several times in the stomach and died before he was rushed to hospital.
New York City newspapers carried terrifying headlines about the “baby killer” calling Cole: Vincent “Mad Dog” Cole. And like any “mad dog,” the public and the underworld demanded that Cole be put down. New York City Mayor James Walker has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who provides information leading to Cole’s arrest. Madden and Schultz upped the ante, each offering $25,000 to anyone who could take down the “mad dog” with bullets.
Cole went into hiding in various parts of the Northeast, before finally returning to New York City with Lottie. They were hiding out at the Cornish Arms Hotel on West 23rd Street, when police, following a tip, broke in and arrested Cole. His trial was expected to be a piece of cake for the prosecution, but the brilliant legal tactics of Cole’s lawyer, Samuel Liebowitz, got Cole off the hook.
After the trial, Cole met with the press in front of the Criminal Courts building. He told reporters: “I’ve been charged with all sorts of crimes, but killing a baby was the limit. I’d love nothing more than to get my hands on the man who did this.”
Cole was back on the streets, but he was still a scarred man for the mob. He married Lottie at City Hall, but they were constantly on the run, moving quickly from place to place. On February 1, 1932, four men broke into a home in the North Bronx, shooting. They shot at a table full of people playing cards. Two Cole gang members were killed (Fiorio Basile and Patsy Del Greco) and another was injured. Also killed was Mrs. Emily Torrizello, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and another woman was injured. Two babies in their cribs were left intact. Cole showed up at the house half an hour later, just as the police were arriving.
Cole was running again. He ended up with Lottie at the Cornish Arms Hotel. Cole decided it was a good time to start kidnapping again, but this time with a twist. He called Madden and told him that he wanted $100,000 not to kidnap Madden. “Imagine how the Dagos and the Kikes will feel when they have to shell out a hundred grand to save your sorry ass,” he told Madden. “Pay me now, in advance, and I’ll save you the trouble.”
Madden said he needed some time to think it over. On March 8, 1932, Madden called Cole and told him to call him from the drugstore phone booth across the street from his hotel. At 12:30 p.m., Cole entered the New London Pharmacy on West 23rd Street and headed for the phone booth in the back. While he was speaking to Madden on the phone, a man with a machine gun hidden under his coat walked calmly to the back of the pharmacy and opened fire. Cole’s body was riddled with 15 bullets. Hearing the concussion, Lottie arrived a few minutes later to see the ragged corpse of her husband.
Lottie Cole refused to speak to the police, but yelled at someone nearby that her life savings, at the time, was a measly hundred-dollar bill that she had stuffed inside her bra. This proved that Vincent “Mad Dog” Cole, despite the terrible bite from him, had died broke.
