As they matured, the boys /decided/ their fend. was am profitable. They made "oe alliance, each mob respecting the other's ter tory. This was a combine of petty racketeers. The most important sources of illicit income—bootlegging, drug peddling, prostitution, gambling and strikebreaking—were in the hands of the four Amberg brothers (Hymie, Oscar, Joey and Louis); and the three Shapiro bri (Irving, Meyer and Willie). During Prohibition, these seven big shots forced an established Brownsville brewery to take them in as silent partners. Their thugs, acting as salesmen, used brass knuckles and blackjacks to persuade speak easy owners that the Amberg-Shapiro beer was the best on the market.
To the speakeasies came the slot machines. In Brooklyn these were owned by a man named Leo Byk, a powerful fellow with influence in the Chamber of Commerce and in politics. Watching nickels and quarters drop into the slot machines, the Reles-Malone boys decided to highjack them. Leo Byk came roaring into Brooklyn. He had a conference with Little Angie Pisano, then boss of all the Brooklyn rackets, and laid the required cash on the line. Little Angie called in the Ambergs and told them to be good, and the Ambergs ordered the boys to lay off the slot machines. The treaties and agreements of gangland are as reliable as Hitler's promises. Byk's arrangements with the Ambergs to protect his slot machines did not last long. Reles and Malone were ordered to start highjacking the machines again.
"When legal liquor came back, flush times ended for the racketeers. Illicit incomes were smaller and more uncertain, competition more deadly. In 1935 the Amberg brothers dared to buck the outfit dominated by Lepke. Their murdered bodies were found in garages and blazing autos. Once more Abe Reles and his partners were arrested: once more they were released, as they have been until last summer.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.