Word: waxey
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Died. Irving Wexler, 63, alias Waxey Gordon, onetime (1905) pickpocket who advanced through stickups, slugging, dope-peddling and murder into big-time racketeering; of a heart attack; on Alcatraz. During Prohibition, paunchy, bullet-headed Waxey muscled into a string of New Jersey breweries, cleaned up a profit of $4,555,537 in 1931-32, but paid only $2,615.76 in income tax (for which U.S. District Attorney Tom Dewey put him away for seven years in 1933). In the underworld of Al Capone, Legs Diamond and Dutch Schultz, Waxey luxuriated in a life of $10 silk underwear and shiny Lincolns...
Irving Wexler had only his own two hands to work with when he started his career in Manhattan's lower East Side. He used them to such smooth advantage in picking pockets that he became known as "Waxey" to his friends and the cops, took on the name of "Waxey Gordon" as he advanced through stickups, slugging, dope and murder charges into the big time. With Prohibition, Waxey muscled into a string of big New Jersey breweries, made his adopted name a byword in the world of Al Capone, "Legs" Diamond and Dutch Schultz, and wallowed in a life...
Then, after U.S. District Attorney Tom Dewey put him away for seven years for income-tax evasion, Waxey had to start all over again in 1940. He dabbled in black-market sugar and was settled for a year in Atlanta. He got out, was caught in an office with $40,000 worth of "hot" watches, but released. Waxey dropped out of sight. Last November a New York detective got a mysterious telephone call: "If you want one of the biggest gangsters in the country, who is now in dope, look for your old friend W." The cops looked, found...
...eight months, they tailed him across the country as he made his contacts, waiting patiently for him to carry some of the junk himself. One night last week, Waxey took a cab to a dark corner of Manhattan, furtively grabbed a newspaper-wrapped bundle from a man in another car. The cops and the feds swooped down, caught the terrified Waxey with a pound of heroin (worth $200,000). Waxey's accomplice pleaded: "Please, if you've got a heart don't lock Waxey up. I'll pay you anything. This'll kill him." Waxey...
...underworldlings whose income tax returns are getting a thorough going over. Among the 126 names: Joe Adonis; Ralph ("Bottles") Capone, brother of "Scarface Al"; Anthony ("Little Augie" Pisano) Carfano; Louis ("Little New York") Campagna; Paul ("The Waiter") Ricca; Charles ("Cherry Nose") Gioe; Frank Diamond; Rocco Fischetti; Vito Genovese; Irving ("Waxey Gordon") Wexler and Frank Costello...