Schultz from assassinating Thomas Dewey, were themselves now paranoid and twitchy: the loss of their leader, Lucky Luciano, prompted once powerful Mafiosi to flee New York for ever. The exodus included Meyer Lansky, who set off for Havana to create casinos for the Cuban dictator General Batista. Frank Costello went to New Orleans to set up new businesses. And “Bugsy” Siegel headed West, first to Hollywood, then Las Vegas where he built the Flamingo Casino and Hotel.
Although, on Welfare Island, the last remains of the penitentiary had been demolished in 1936 and the ground cleared to make way for eventual property development, by the time Hines was convicted, the chief players in the island’s final, darkest episode were either dead, behind bars, or had moved on. Commissioner Marcus MacCormick went on the transform and modernise the US penal system, concentrating in particular on the education and rehabilitation of young offenders. His chief aide, David Marcus, who was appointed Commissioner of Corrections, MacCormick’s former post, by Mayor La Guardia in 1940, served as a colonel in the Second World War. He went to Israel in 1948 as a field commander where he was appointed a Lieutenant General by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, becoming Israel’s first Jewish general. A few hours before the Israeli-Arab cease-fire began, 42 year-old Marcus was killed by an Israeli sentry who mistook him for the enemy.
Thomas Dewey pursued his political ambitions and became the 47th Governor of New York State in 1943, remaining in office until 1954. Although he won the Republican nomination for President in 1944, and again in 1948, he lost both elections. Fiorello La Guardia - New York’s beloved “Little Flower” - served three terms as Mayor of New York and is widely credited with having created the modern city of New York, leaving its citizens reinvigorated, proud and optimistic about their metropolis.
One man however remained untouched by any ambition to reform. With his former protectors either dead or behind bars, Joey Rao returned to his old ways and remained in the news. Although Rao’s first reversal of fortune began on January 24th 1934, with the raid on Welfare Island, another setback occurred on 5th January 1935, when, after a brief trial, he was tried for savagely beating up a policeman outside a Harlem dance hall in 1932. Although Rao had been sent to Welfare Island on charges of extortion while the trial for the policeman’s assault was pending, the authorities insisted he faced trial for the prior crime. So, just before Rao’s release date from Welfare Island in February 1935, he was found guilty of the assault and sent to Sing Sing for two years. Several years later, together with his old partner in crime, “Trigger” Mike Coppola, he was arrested and held in custody for over a year under suspicion of beating to death of a Republican district captain on election day 1946. Eventually Rao was released, and continued dabbling in drugs and gambling rackets until his sudden death from a stroke in May 1962 aged 61.
*
Today, almost eighty years after the scandal of Welfare Island, most people’s first response on arriving in Roosevelt Island – as it was renamed in 1976 – is disbelief. Can the cool breeze, the scent of brine and flowers, the fields, parklands and peaceful waterfront all exist a mere five minutes from the clamour and concrete of Manhattan?
T his leafy haven, known as New York’s best kept secret, has become one of the city’s most desirable residential locations, offering a near rural existence for its 10,000 locals who include actors and artists, writers, politicians working at the United Nations and medical staff from the hospitals on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. At weekends, old and young men fish on the river bank; a jazz quartet plays by the water’s edge; families and neighbours gossip over evening drinks; others picnic on the grassy slopes.
Before long, passing visitors
Although, on Welfare Island, the last remains of the penitentiary had been demolished in 1936 and the ground cleared to make way for eventual property development, by the time Hines was convicted, the chief players in the island’s final, darkest episode were either dead, behind bars, or had moved on. Commissioner Marcus MacCormick went on the transform and modernise the US penal system, concentrating in particular on the education and rehabilitation of young offenders. His chief aide, David Marcus, who was appointed Commissioner of Corrections, MacCormick’s former post, by Mayor La Guardia in 1940, served as a colonel in the Second World War. He went to Israel in 1948 as a field commander where he was appointed a Lieutenant General by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, becoming Israel’s first Jewish general. A few hours before the Israeli-Arab cease-fire began, 42 year-old Marcus was killed by an Israeli sentry who mistook him for the enemy.
Thomas Dewey pursued his political ambitions and became the 47th Governor of New York State in 1943, remaining in office until 1954. Although he won the Republican nomination for President in 1944, and again in 1948, he lost both elections. Fiorello La Guardia - New York’s beloved “Little Flower” - served three terms as Mayor of New York and is widely credited with having created the modern city of New York, leaving its citizens reinvigorated, proud and optimistic about their metropolis.
One man however remained untouched by any ambition to reform. With his former protectors either dead or behind bars, Joey Rao returned to his old ways and remained in the news. Although Rao’s first reversal of fortune began on January 24th 1934, with the raid on Welfare Island, another setback occurred on 5th January 1935, when, after a brief trial, he was tried for savagely beating up a policeman outside a Harlem dance hall in 1932. Although Rao had been sent to Welfare Island on charges of extortion while the trial for the policeman’s assault was pending, the authorities insisted he faced trial for the prior crime. So, just before Rao’s release date from Welfare Island in February 1935, he was found guilty of the assault and sent to Sing Sing for two years. Several years later, together with his old partner in crime, “Trigger” Mike Coppola, he was arrested and held in custody for over a year under suspicion of beating to death of a Republican district captain on election day 1946. Eventually Rao was released, and continued dabbling in drugs and gambling rackets until his sudden death from a stroke in May 1962 aged 61.
*
Today, almost eighty years after the scandal of Welfare Island, most people’s first response on arriving in Roosevelt Island – as it was renamed in 1976 – is disbelief. Can the cool breeze, the scent of brine and flowers, the fields, parklands and peaceful waterfront all exist a mere five minutes from the clamour and concrete of Manhattan?
T his leafy haven, known as New York’s best kept secret, has become one of the city’s most desirable residential locations, offering a near rural existence for its 10,000 locals who include actors and artists, writers, politicians working at the United Nations and medical staff from the hospitals on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. At weekends, old and young men fish on the river bank; a jazz quartet plays by the water’s edge; families and neighbours gossip over evening drinks; others picnic on the grassy slopes.
Before long, passing visitors
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