When Jack Drucker, one of the last of the Murder Inc. killers, learned of the district attorney’s office was rounding up his pals in droves, that was his cue to disappear permanently. Drucker sometimes hid in plain sight, but he also faked his own death by spreading rumors throughout the underworld he’d been whacked. At one point his rumors were so believable that a lake was dragged looking for his body. He successfully evaded law enforcement and the underworld for nearly three years before officers stumbled upon a stolen vehicle he nabbed the day before.

This story was adapted from Murder Inc.: Mysteries of the Mob’s Most Deadly Hit Squad by Christian Cipollini.