Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss was a key partner and perhaps the most prolific killer of Murder Inc. The Brooklyn-bred thug became so popular that when an out-of-town mob needed an outsider for a contract, they almost always requested Phil. He packed his briefcase with a shirt, a change of socks, underwear, a gun, a knife, a length of rope, and an ice pick, hopped a train or plane to his destination, pulled the job, and caught the next connection back to New York. Often Phil did not even know the name of the person he had killed, and generally, he didn’t care to find out.
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